Originally posted by MagiK
DO you mean the same electoral process that allowed George W. to loose the popular vote, loose the electoral vote and still somehow convince the conservative controlled Supreme Court to ignore the U.S. Constitution and declare him Emperor…I mean President?

They caught one! Holy cow I would have never imagined that a sort of "philibuster by absence" would lead to this.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86773,00.html

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

AUSTIN — A state trooper has arrested a missing Texas House Democrat and returned her to the Capitol.

News Eight Austin reports the trooper from the Texas Department of Public Safety captured state Rep. Helen Giddings (search) this morning.

It reported the trooper approached the Dallas Democrat as she was getting into her car at her Austin apartment. She later said she had asked to be allowed to drive to the Capitol in her own car, but the trooper refused and arrested her.

She has been missing from the House since House Democrats began a boycott of House proceedings yesterday. While she wasn't among the 53 Democrats who signed an absence notice, she said she was absent in support of the 53.

Fifty-six House Democrats are now missing as the boycott continues to deny the body a quorum and block any legislative action. The boycott began yesterday, when a Republican-backed congressional redistricting bill was set for debate.

I applaud any politician who fights to keep any law from passing. Like, THORFINN, I think we'd be well-served to pay them to sit home -- like the other bums. :D

Again, it's political genius. Unless the deadline (self-imposed) is removed (which will require a NEW vote), the passage of time will kill the bill. A little like a pocket veto in a weird sense.

THose of you who are angered by congressmen who don't show up for congressional sessions should be forewarned: DO NOT WATCH CSPAN.

DO you mean the same electoral process that allowed George W. to loose the popular vote, loose the electoral vote and still somehow convince the conservative controlled Supreme Court to ignore the U.S. Constitution and declare him Emperor…I mean President? </font>[/QUOTE]<font color="#f683ad">Ok let me eductate you since you seem to be a bit uninformed on the diferences between state and federal elections process...you see for the federal election there is a thing called the "Electoral College" when you go to school they will teach you about this system and how it works. Suffice it to say for now, that it is the way the system was set up and is the way it has been for about 200 years, Bush won and Gore lost period. There is no electoral college system for the Texas State electoral process...got that straight now? Hope I managed to clear up your condfusion about the diferences between State and Federal.</font>

<font color="#f683ad">Wonder what grounds they arrested her on?...from the way I heard it reported, there was nothing the government could do legally if the representatives wanted to run away. I notice the article didn't specify charges :( </font>

<font color="#f683ad">I does make you wonder what the hell they are gettig paid for and why the deserve retirement beefits that rich people drool over. *sigh* I hate politicians </font>

Well, to be fair, even given the validity of the electoral process, it did come down to a narrow-margin vote in Florida, where several thousand ballots were suspect at best and just wrong at worst. The ballots in palm beach (butterfly) were a joke -- evidenced by the fact that a perrenially Democratic, jewish community (and it is not prejudice to state the simple fact that most jews are Democrats) "voted" Republican.

It was simply an instance where the margin of victory was less than the margin of error. And the Supreme Court didn't say FL got it right, but rather that its prolonging of the process and ad-hoc recounts were even more wrong than the first count, and that we had to accept what we had as the best we could muster.

[ 05-13-2003, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

Another article mentioned that Texas House of Rep. rules give the authority to arrest members who are intentionally absent to cause a quorum. It is unclear if this is actually an arrestable law in the same sense as murder or shoplifting. I dont know how house rules are treated with regards to the judicial branch.

[ 05-13-2003, 02:07 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

<font color="#f683ad">How come you didn't bother to bring up the fact that the subsequent after the fact counts all turn up with Bush gaining more votes than Gore upon recounts? Or will you dismiss those stories as ambiguous? All the Supreme court did in this matter was force the Florida Legislature to follow its own laws....when they were wanting to change them mid election. The supreme court did not count the votes.

Edit: TL you know if he asks a smartass question he is gonna get a snippy reply.</font>

[ 05-13-2003, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]