Slashdot Mirror
Democrats Propose Commission To Investigate Spying
metalman writes "Wired has a story on a proposal by House Democrats to 'establish a national commission — similar to the 9/11 Commission... to find out — and publish — what exactly the nation's spies were up to during their five-year warrantless, domestic surveillance program.' The draft bill would also preserve the requirement of court orders and remove 'retroactive immunity for telecom companies.' (We've discussed various government wiretaps, phone companies, and privacy violations before.) But it seems unlikely that such an alternative on phone immunity would pass both the House and Senate, let alone survive a Presidential veto."
A presidential veto can then in return be overridden by a two-thirds majority. The Democrats intend to try and get the ban on waterboarding through a veto, I believe. The problem is that the Americans have a two-party system and the one the president belongs to generally has plenty votes to block the two-thirds thing easily.
The Veto is not automatic nor absolute. A 2/3 vote by Congress can overrule the president. In addition, a ruling by the Judicial System can overrule either. Congress also has a check on the President in that they are the sole people able to issue money for programs, the power of the purse, but they are acting like an abused spouce, afraid to actually cut the purse strings that prop this president up.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
The state appoints the electors to the electoral college as representatives of the state. There is no federal law mandating this; however, every state (and Washington, DC) currently has a law specifying that the electors are selected through a popular vote. Of those, 24 states have laws to punish electors who do not vote as determined by the popular vote (faithless electors). Historically, no faithless elector has ever been prosecuted, and the constitutionality of the laws to punish faithless electors has not yet been challenged in the Supreme Court. So yes, in practice, individual voters elect the electoral college, but constitutionally, they're only guides.
Most people here are complaining about gas prices because not just our cars but our entire economy runs on gasoline. Keep in mind that rail systems here are laughable compared to that of your average Western European country, and nearly every kind of commerce is at some level dependent upon petroleum-powered transit - trucking, shipping, aviation, etc. In aggregate, this means that oil prices have a huge effect on the US economy.