the state of the union
Dec. 7th, 2001 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pluralbeen thinking quite a bit
about the state of things
these days
ashcroft and bush
seem to be making
little paper boats of the
constitution and
sailing them down the
river
to me the constitution
is not the end all and be all
answer to all legal questions
it is a line in the sand
a line that no government
claiming to be of and for the people
can cross
the constitution is the line between tyranny and just governance
this nation
is in my opinion
the greatest country on earth
[not that we do not have an abundance of problems]
and i have been to quite a few
for comparison
two things in my opinion
make us great
the determination of our people
and our constitution
there is no other nation on earth
which guarantees the rights
to its citizens which are guaranteed to us
in the constitution
the problem with our political system
is simple
it is too expensive to gain office
corporations bankroll candidates
who will support their aims
pay lobbies to bride our politicians
The first step in cleansing our
political process is to remove the ability
of anyone who doesn't have a vote
to contribute to a political campaign
the rights in the constitution
are guaranteed to the people
corporations are property
not entities which have rights
under the constitution
this will cause another problem
without corporate funds
how will anyone afford the
cost of a campaign
pricey television spots
the airwaves that television stations
use are owned by the people
you, me, that schmuck sitting behind you on the bus
currently we require TV stations to present
a certain amount of "Public Service Broadcasting"
[just say no to drugs etc]
as part of their lease of the bandwidth
I would require that all commercial TV stations
[those that sell advertising and operate for a profit]
be require to provide a certain amount of ad time
for political ads for candidates
each time slot would be worth a certain point value
for example 100 points for prime time and
maybe 20 points for some slot between infomercials at AM
the next questions are:
how much time?
who qualifies for it?
and how is it distributed?
to answer the first
I would take the national average
of political ads sold under the
current statue which requires stations
to sell political advertising at a lower billing rate
[this would be only advertising by candidates not PACs]
this would be further broken down into time slots
[i.e. prime time, late night, day time]
and each station would have to provide
that many slots to the candidate pool for free
this would be distributed
in the following manner
each candidate would receive
a certain number of points
[basically an equal distribution of]
[the point value of all slots available]
they could then spend those points
to buy a few very desirable slots
or a lot of less desirable slots
there would a restriction
that the candidate must appear
in their ads and that the ads do not
constitute advertisements unrelated to the campaign
to prevent abuse of the system
of course
neither of these things
can ever happen
there is far too much
wealth and power opposed
to such a concept
but i am still curious
to your opinion?
how do you think this would affect our political system?
am i off my rocker or right on the mark?
how would you improve either idea?
Tell me
about the state of things
these days
ashcroft and bush
seem to be making
little paper boats of the
constitution and
sailing them down the
river
to me the constitution
is not the end all and be all
answer to all legal questions
it is a line in the sand
a line that no government
claiming to be of and for the people
can cross
the constitution is the line between tyranny and just governance
this nation
is in my opinion
the greatest country on earth
[not that we do not have an abundance of problems]
and i have been to quite a few
for comparison
two things in my opinion
make us great
the determination of our people
and our constitution
there is no other nation on earth
which guarantees the rights
to its citizens which are guaranteed to us
in the constitution
the problem with our political system
is simple
it is too expensive to gain office
corporations bankroll candidates
who will support their aims
pay lobbies to bride our politicians
The first step in cleansing our
political process is to remove the ability
of anyone who doesn't have a vote
to contribute to a political campaign
the rights in the constitution
are guaranteed to the people
corporations are property
not entities which have rights
under the constitution
this will cause another problem
without corporate funds
how will anyone afford the
cost of a campaign
pricey television spots
the airwaves that television stations
use are owned by the people
you, me, that schmuck sitting behind you on the bus
currently we require TV stations to present
a certain amount of "Public Service Broadcasting"
[just say no to drugs etc]
as part of their lease of the bandwidth
I would require that all commercial TV stations
[those that sell advertising and operate for a profit]
be require to provide a certain amount of ad time
for political ads for candidates
each time slot would be worth a certain point value
for example 100 points for prime time and
maybe 20 points for some slot between infomercials at AM
the next questions are:
how much time?
who qualifies for it?
and how is it distributed?
to answer the first
I would take the national average
of political ads sold under the
current statue which requires stations
to sell political advertising at a lower billing rate
[this would be only advertising by candidates not PACs]
this would be further broken down into time slots
[i.e. prime time, late night, day time]
and each station would have to provide
that many slots to the candidate pool for free
this would be distributed
in the following manner
each candidate would receive
a certain number of points
[basically an equal distribution of]
[the point value of all slots available]
they could then spend those points
to buy a few very desirable slots
or a lot of less desirable slots
there would a restriction
that the candidate must appear
in their ads and that the ads do not
constitute advertisements unrelated to the campaign
to prevent abuse of the system
of course
neither of these things
can ever happen
there is far too much
wealth and power opposed
to such a concept
but i am still curious
to your opinion?
how do you think this would affect our political system?
am i off my rocker or right on the mark?
how would you improve either idea?
Tell me
