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Fill in the blank laws for lazy legislators

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posted on Feb, 16 2010 @ 10:26 AM
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Just when you were starting to worry your congressmen wouldn't have time for another round of solitaire, a solution has been found!

Fill-in-the-blank laws are becoming the rage at statehouses across the USA. Why bother writing up something original when you can cut and past a new generic law created by your favorite corporation or issue-advocacy group.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9ad0e459991f.jpg[/atsimg]



'Model' Laws Let States Fill in the Blanks

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - For state legislators across the country, sponsoring bills can be as easy as filling in the blanks.

Groups from both ends of the political spectrum offer lawmakers "model" legislation requiring a minimal amount of tailoring from state to state. The nonpartisan Council of State Governments even issues an annual volume of "Suggested State Legislation" that this year includes templates for 54 bills.

Want to ban schools from collecting students' facial-recognition data without a parent's permission? See page 35. Make it harder for spyware to secretly collect information from computers? Page 50. Make it a crime to travel within or between states to engage in child sex? Flip to page 78, plug in the local information and put it to a vote.

While such templates have been around for years, lawmakers and lobbyists say technology has fanned the model bills from state to state faster than ever. Instead of scanning or even retyping sample bills, lawmakers can simply work with electronic versions of the legislation.

Even groups that create the templates caution against using them as-is, warning they may offer too many benefits to an industry or advocacy group that might have had a hand in crafting the model legislation.

Read More: Newsmax.com


Just when you thought your local politicians couldn't get any lazier.




[edit on 16-2-2010 by FortAnthem]



posted on Feb, 16 2010 @ 10:43 AM
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It is better than the Mad Libs that they seem to have been using. Like this gem from Oxford, OH

It’s illegal for a woman to strip off her clothing while standing in front of a man’s picture.



posted on Feb, 16 2010 @ 11:19 AM
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But, but, but.... they are the ELITES that are better than us... how could they?

Seriously though, this "Legislature for Dummies" approach is the inevitable trend for career politicians who are more 'notional' celebrity than patriot. But then, what should we have expected from the folks who brought us the Republican-Democratic shadow-puppet theater, and the Judicial Branch of corporate activism?

Don't worry, the media will tell us that it's all "as it should be," and we will be guided into the next wave of 'redefinitions' of the American dream.



posted on Feb, 17 2010 @ 04:38 PM
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What also bugs me about these "cut & paste" laws is they could make it very easy for a legislature to pump out a massive amount of generic laws.

Just imagine if your state started pumping out new laws like an assembly line.

If a ton of these generic laws were to hit the books all at once, people wouldn't be able to keep up with it all and wouldn't have any way of knowing if what they were doing was against the law or not.

And seeing as how congressmen don't even bother to read half the stuff they vote on anyway this could get real scary real fast.




Hey, we just passed 300 laws in one day! Now we can get down to the really important stuff:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9ad0e459991f.jpg[/atsimg]



[edit on 17-2-2010 by FortAnthem]




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