In article . com,
"Gus" wrote:

Hawke wrote:
That sounds like a good idea but there is a problem. Even though the
Congress has an approval rating of 29% ,when polled, 57% of people say they
are happy with their own representative. So between the horrible way
districts have been gerrymandered, and the fact that the majority of people
are satisfied with their own representatives, it's not likely there's ever
going to be a big blow out of incumbents.

What needs to happen is for about 50% or more of the people in congress to
be sent home. That would send a message to the rest that their normal
corrupt business practices wouldn't be tolerated any more and the new 50%
wouldn't know how to cheat the public for a few years. But our problem is
us. The American people simply won't vote the people in Congress out of
power. As long as they keep sending the same people back to do the same
thing year after year nothing is going to change. Funny isn't it, Americans
complain to high heavens about the government and about the corrupt people
in Washington but when they get the chance to put someone else in office
they refuse to do it. So maybe the problem isn't the folks in office but
it's the people voting for them. What's that line of Einstein's about doing
the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Americans must
just be insane.


I think you're on to something. How about term limits?

Not being a constitutional lawyer or even playing one on TV, I wonder
how that might turn out if it got to the Supreme Court. Term limits
seems like it might be a restriction on citizens' right of voting for
whomever they damn well please.

Not that I necessarily think it's a bad idea. It took an amendment to
limit the presidency to two terms -- and there are some folks who just
think that means two terms at a time. I can't imagine anyone _wanting_
the job for more than two terms, but that's just me.

Of course, it took an amendment to institute Prohibition too. That
doesn't seem to apply anymore whenever the federal government wants to
prohibit something. Dey jis' goes an' does it an' ya can tell it t' da
judge.

John Husvar wrote in
:

In article ,
"Hawke" wrote:


it's the people voting for them. What's that line of Einstein's about
doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
Americans must just be insane.


You might be onto something there.

I don't know if that one is Einstein's or not, but I remember him
saying something about the relative abundances of hydrogen and
stupidity.

"The two most abundant elements in the Universe are Hydrogen and
Stupidity."
-Harlan Ellison

In article ,
Ken Moffett wrote:

John Husvar wrote in
:

In article ,
"Hawke" wrote:


it's the people voting for them. What's that line of Einstein's about
doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
Americans must just be insane.


You might be onto something there.

I don't know if that one is Einstein's or not, but I remember him
saying something about the relative abundances of hydrogen and
stupidity.

"The two most abundant elements in the Universe are Hydrogen and
Stupidity."
-Harlan Ellison

I'll be darned! I could have sworn I saw that attributed to Einstein
once or a dozen times.

Well, the respective intelligence quotients are similar anyway.

John Husvar wrote in news:jhusvar-
:

In article ,
Ken Moffett wrote:

John Husvar wrote in
:

In article ,
"Hawke" wrote:


it's the people voting for them. What's that line of Einstein's
about
doing the same thing over and over and expecting different
results?
Americans must just be insane.


You might be onto something there.

I don't know if that one is Einstein's or not, but I remember him
saying something about the relative abundances of hydrogen and
stupidity.

"The two most abundant elements in the Universe are Hydrogen and
Stupidity."
-Harlan Ellison

I'll be darned! I could have sworn I saw that attributed to Einstein
once or a dozen times.

Well, the respective intelligence quotients are similar anyway.


Somewhere I saw a site that was dedicated to quotes that were mis-
attributed to various people: Einstein, Mark Twain, Yogi Barra....
There were many that I had taken for fact.