Legislatures here are not as clear-cut, but it works out about the same. Any legislator can file any bill they want to. They then send a press release to the home folks and are lauded for defending the American way and the right to abuse animals without needing to pay for tall fences to block photographers' views. Meanwhile the leadership of the majority party in that body will decide what is really important. Those bills are given priority in committees, are then given a chance to come forward for a vote. The fluff and nonsense bills are quietly ignored. Sometimes it works the other way around: the leadership has a handful of issues that they intend to bring forward and keep in the spotlight; they may assign "authorship" of such bills to legislators who need positive publicity on substantive issues prior to the next election.
stan On Feb 26, 2011, at 7:46 PM, frank theriault wrote: > On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 10:36 AM, Elizabeth Masoner > <[email protected]> wrote: >> Yeah, they really are trying to pass this garbage. >> >> http://photography.about.com/b/2011/02/25/bill-introduced-in-florida-senate >> -would-make-farm-photography-a-felony.htm > > Are "they" trying to do this, or is this just one guy? In Canada we > have government bills and private member bills. Private member bills > are tabled by an individual legislator, the other legislators don't > have to vote along party lines (in other words it's a "free vote") and > if the bill doesn't pass, that's the end of it. No repercussions to > the government (ie: the party in power). Some 90% of private member > bills don't pass because they're usually unimportant pieces of crap > that only concern a few squeaky wheels in the sponsoring member's > constituency. > > Why am I meandering on about all this? > > Because it's my guess that unless things are wildly different in > Florida, this bill will never be passed and will die a quiet death on > the floor of the legislature. OTOH, it ~is~ Florida, home of Anita > Bryant and hanging chads, the place where Gee Dubya won the > presidency, so who knows? > > Seriously, my guess is that we need not get our shorts in a knot over > this. Even if it passes, it's doubtful it will survive it's first > constitutional challenge in the courts. > > I'll sleep easy tonight... > > ;-) > > cheers, > frank > -- > "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
