[Campaigns-l] Re: Campaigns-l Digest, Vol 1, Issue 21

[Chad Lupkes]

Already exists, right here on Wikia.

http://congress.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

It's not being used by anyone at the moment, so feel free.

Chad

On 7/9/06, Andrew Jones <aljones15 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It is a mystery to me that, in all the new 'good government' websites
> > (like wikia) that I come across, I never find any that stress the fact
> that,
> > in order to effect REAL reform, it is necessary to have a legislature
> made
> > up of 'citizen' legislators, rather than the current crop of careerist
> > professional politicians. ( tenurecorrupts.com/#americasfirst )
> >
> > And to eliminate professional politicians, it is necessary to change
> > politics from being a livelihood or career, to merely a civic duty,
> where
> > one will try to change government for the better during a short stay,
> then
> > return to private practice. That's the way it was for the first 150
> years of
> > our history, before the enticements of politics became too good to give
> up.
> > ( tenurecorrupts.com/#followthemoney )
>
> While a more distributed form of government is certianly possible
> thanks for the internet
> One of the reasons I joined this list was to ask if it was possible to
> make any of the following things.
>
> A. the u.s. government allows anyone to draft a bill (even people
> outside of the U.S.). It would be interesting to create a wiki where
> people could edit and comment on proposed bills and endorse them i.e.
> drafts could be like petitions with people signing that they endorse a
> bill and then a copy of the bill is sent to all represenatives that
> have constituents that signed the bill. This would give represenatives
> a good idea of what people in their districts want and would also take
> some of the pressure off staff to read through 600 page bills etc.
> Represenatives do not have to introduce drafts from their
> constituents, but if this would let citizens lobby for bills they want
> while gaining expertise and comments from a wide variety of people.
>
> B. Referendums are quite common in the U.S. and are an excellent way
> to avoid the usual problems of politics and have ranged from stem-cell
> bills in California to bans on gay marriage. A site that let's people
> propose referendums, keep track of referendums in their state or city
> and other things like that would be great. And again, you post a
> referendum, discuss it, and edit it, and then people could download
> and send it in, so you could start collecting signatures. I might add
> that the Florida Gerrymandering ref, is already being done in this
> way. You can download a statement, sign it, and mail it in to have
> your signature counted.
>
> Anyway, wikia seems like a nice attempt to chroncile how the u.s.
> government works and what people want to change.
>
> Kind Regards,
> A
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>



-- 
Chad Lupkes
Democracy for Washington
http://www.democracyforwashington.com
Progressive Democratic Caucuses of Washington
http://pdcw.org

If Democrats have a pre-911 view of the world, Republicans have a pre-July
4th view of the world.  Go back to King George, shall we?  Not while I'm
still breathing.

The purpose of a political party is to turn the views and values of its
members into public policy. - Russel Wallace, Democracy for Wisconsin

Blah, blah, blah!!!  What do we do about it!!

Anyone want a roll-top desk?
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/fur/178052982.html
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