More Politics
The current
petty antics in the Georgia legislature reminded me of a post from my
long-dead old blog. I repost it here so you can laugh and cry at the same time:
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Evolution of a Bill
This is not a joke.
This bill, House Bill 175 from the 2003 Georgia Legislature, started as one to " provide for the crime of smoking in a motor vehicle while a child is restrained in a child passenger restraining system " and progressed to “to provide that a person may consume and possess bottled water in a public transit bus, rapid rail car, or rapid rail station”.
How does that happen? It is really interesting to combine the legislative history with the history in the press:
Press for ‘Bottled Water’ version (I tried several searches)
This one
covers the change
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Notice that the First Reader Summary is
First Reader SummaryA BILL to amend Article 1 of Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions for offenses against public health and morals, so as to provide for the crime of smoking in a motor vehicle while a child is restrained in a child passenger restraining system; and for other purposes.
While the final summary is:
To amend Code Section 16-12-120, relating to certain acts in public transit buses, rapid rail cars, or stations and penalty, so as to provide that a person may consume and possess bottled water in a public transit bus, rapid rail car, or rapid rail station; to provide for exceptions; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
How do they get from one to the other? It is because anything goes while the bill is being amended and voted. Most of the machinations are hidden from view just because not many people follow very closely and because there is so much going on in each session it is not possible to follow much of it closely.
Politics like this is messy. When they turn it into their own petty little testosterone battles it becomes even messier and uglier
Imported from an old blog. Some links might be dead. Let me know if you find dead links.