mohit | Shared With: Everyone - Dec 22 2007 | pbs, constitution, video, government, sanford levinson
Quoted: Why venerate a document he asks that puts in the White House candidates who did not in fact get a majority of the popular vote? A document that gives Wyoming the same number of senate votes as California, with seventy times the population. A document that enables the president to overrule both houses of congress simply on political grounds. That allows Supreme Court justices to serve as long as they want and then time their departure to influence their own choice as to who succeeds them. A document that makes it possible to build "a bridge to nowhere."
mohit | Shared With: Everyone - Dec 22 2007 | books, toread, constitution, government
Watching this guy on PBS. He is making sense. The problem, in my opinion, is the reform he suggests is likely a Pandora's box.
Quoted: Levinson's brief text (180 pages, excluding the helpful appendicies), goes beyond the popular depiction to point up those provisions among the six Articles and twenty-seven Amendments whose democratic pedigree are in serious doubt. The Electoral College is probably the best known and most egregious of these. Others, perhaps less glaring, but no less questionable, include distribution of the Senate, life tenure for Supreme Court justices, excessive presidential power, and a half-dozen other dubious provisions. You may agree with some, disagree with others, but all merit second thoughts in light of decades of practical experience.

mohit | Shared With: Everyone - Jul 26 2006 | constitution, bill of rights, news
Quoted: The heads of the nation's two major spy agencies on Wednesday told Congress that it's impractical to seek warrants before tracking the global phone and Internet activities of groups like al-Qaida and terrorist sympathizers. Yep, that pesky Constitution: Impractical. Oh, by the way: are you a "sympathizer"? You sure?
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