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Republican

5 (6%)

Democrat

8 (9.5%)

Libertarian

11 (13.1%)

Undecided/Independent

38 (45.2%)

Other (Anarchist, Communist, Green, ect.)

22 (26.2%)

Total Members Voted: 84

[Pistolero]

I hope I'm not the only one who wants ombudsmen to, from now on, carry around high caliber pistols as well as chainswords.

Only if we change the name. From wikipedia: 'Ombudsman is etymologically rooted in the Old Norse word umbođsmađr, essentially meaning "representative".' Give us the Old Norse for 'Emperors mailed fist' and it's a deal.

Again from wikipedia, a better explanation of what the office entails than my own failed attempts:

'In general, an ombudsman is a state official appointed to provide a check on government activity in the interests of the citizen, and to oversee the investigation of complaints of improper government activity against the citizen. If the ombudsman finds a complaint to be substantiated, the problem may get rectified, or an ombudsman report is published making recommendations for change. Further redress depends on the laws of the country concerned, but this normally involves financial compensation.'

[Dsarker]

You know, this page is the first that turned up when I searched for Emperor's mailed fist....

[Dsarker]

Anyway, as it's European, the word for emperor is likely to be derived from letters that sound like Caesar.

[Duuvian]

You're upset because there's no poop in your lake anymore and it's going to cost you over a dollar a day for the next 3 years?

Sure it could have done better if there had been any kind of oversight to stop one apparently corrupt official and one obviously incompetent official, but for some reason you think less oversight is a plus? You're unhappy because your father had to fight tooth and nail but you want to be your own watchdog? You're drawing some interesting conclusions from this whole thing.

For example, here, we have an ombudsman, and this would never have been a problem in the first place, because the ombudsmans office has fairly wide ranging powers to prevent corruption. If someone decided to risk engaging in some kind of corruption, your father would simply call the relevant ombudsmans office and they would use their very satisfactory budget to investigate and prosecute. That's a state funded office. My taxes pay for that budget, and I'm happy about it, because I don't have to worry about some smalltown criminal buying 400 trailer park votes. You on the other hand, with your smaller government, seem surprised to discover that it is corrupt. See: Horn of Africa.

Well, you seem to have targeted me as a libertarian crazy. I think our current government needs reform. I think the way things are handled around my area could use some kind of oversight, as you said an ombudsman. Perhaps I should switch to a different avatar, as it seems a tri-corne hat is becoming symbolic of Tea party fools. I suppose I'll go back to my classic Bro avatar by AH (search google homestuck).

I will counter troll with evidence of my previous postages.

The following was regarding the fiasco of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I was giving hints on how to contain the problem.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally, oversight is fine. Mandatory hookup is not. I live on a hill a good distance from any lakes that could be contaminated. If we want (to continue using) a functional (existing) septic tank, then we should be able to use it, especially after my father took water samples of the lakes in question and proved the sewer guy wrong scientifically.

EDIT2: Also there was no poop in the lake if I wasn't clear enough before. Hypothetical poop being what it is. It's either in the water or not but it probably is anyways so lets go swimming since fish poop too.

[ChairmanPoo]

Okay. Here's a question. Would you like to have an inquisitor-like position, for (say) the sheer purpose of finding and purging corruption from the government? What are the flaws with the system (besides the obvious that they could be corrupt themselves), and is there any way of fixing this?

Spoiler: HELL YEAH! I WOULD! (click to show/hide)

[Montague]

The US government isn't all that corrupt, at least not on the federal level. It is however, highly inept, inflexible and wasteful but all for generally benign reasons.

Local governments, like cities, counties however, are often corrupt. An inquisitor would basically be like some office or task force of the FBI used to dig up dirt on mayors and county officials. It could be argued that such a taskforce would be violating their little fiefdom's legal rights and might end up costing or wasting more taxpayer money to fund inquisitions then it would save by preventing the odd municipal contract kick-back for installing bus stop benches or whatever.

I think one major fallacy people have about the perception of governments is the idea that the government is competent and misinterpret mistakes as malign intent.

[Azkul]

The US government isn't all that corrupt

Yes it is

[kaijyuu]

Define "corruption." Getting blatant bribes, maybe not so much on the federal level. Being dogs to corporations and private interests anyway, they sure as hell are.

[Strife26]

The US government isn't all that corrupt

Yes it is

No. No it isn't. It's inefficient and wasteful. There's a major difference between politicians trying to get points with their constituents or departments caring about their budgets over the good of the country and governments that literally only operate on threats and bribes.

[Azkul]

Define "corruption." Getting blatant bribes, maybe not so much on the federal level. Being dogs to corporations and private interests anyway, they sure as hell are.

[Bauglir]

Honestly, in my experience, about the only thing governments are inefficient at is governing. Once they make up their mind to get shit done, research tends to get funded, roads tend to get built, food tends to get inspected, moons tend to get walked on, etc. But may the gods help you if you so much as think about tweaking tax rules, restructuring a bureaucracy, passing a new law, etc. And of course this means it's very slow to get to the second sentence of this paragraph, but eh.

Might not be an accurate picture, though. I've never actually worked in a government position of any kind, so there may be far more behind-the-scenes complexity that I'm not seeing, but I suspect it would exist in any of the alternatives.

[Montague]

Nah, I work for the government. It gets things done by putting sheer amounts of funding and bureaucratic inertia behind them. It is incredibly wasteful of time and funding. For example, 1/3rd of contract funding over the past 10 years for Iraq and Afghanistan was wasted. Although adherents to the "competent government fallacy" could argue it was secretly spent building an earth-quake machine or something.

I think on the basic level it is just wasteful because the money isn't theirs and they don't care how much things cost or where the money goes after it leaves their hands.

[Strife26]

Nah, I work for the government. It gets things done by putting sheer amounts of funding and bureaucratic inertia behind them. It is incredibly wasteful of time and funding. For example, 1/3rd of contract funding over the past 10 years for Iraq and Afghanistan was wasted. Although adherents to the "competent government fallacy" could argue it was secretly spent building an earth-quake machine or something.

I think on the basic level it is just wasteful because the money isn't theirs and they don't care how much things cost or where the money goes after it leaves their hands.

Pretty much what Montague said. US agencies are told to do annoyingly difficult things a lot of the time, and when you've got cash, every problem looks like a nail, you know?

[Bauglir]

I stand corrected! I maintain it's not an inherent flaw in government, but I admit I have nothing but opinion for that so I can't really back that up. >____>

[Strife26]

I'd rate it as an inherent tendency in big government, but it's certainly something that one could try to alleviate.