An essential part of the Washington and Westminster systems of government are conventions. These are standards of behavior and procedure that is respected by all inside the system. While the Westminster system with its long adhoc history of working government has a lot of conventions the younger and more constitutionally explicit Washington system does as well.
A good example of a convention in the Washington system is when GM and Chrysler went broke at the end of the Bush Administration's tenure. America had already elected a new President, but Obama and his Administration would not be sworn in until January. The convention here - which the Bush Administration honored - was that no big policy decisions are made during this lame duck period. The Bush Administration did a little, but did not make policy on what to do with GM and Chrysler. They left that to the incoming Obama Administration.
Conventions exist everywhere but they are inherently fragile. They only last as long as they are respected and adhered to. Once a convention is broken, it never returns. The convention is gone forever.
Prior to the Hagel nomination for Secretary of Defense it was a convention that cabinet position confirmations would not be filibustered. This is no longer true. The modern Republican Party has been breaking convention after convention in the US Congressional system for the last fifteen years or so. Such as keeping votes open until legislation passes and now filibustering cabinet nominations. If anything it seems like Senate Republicans are
making super majorities the new normal:
"We're going to require a 60-vote threshold," Inhofe told The Cable.
Cornyn told The Cable, "There is a 60-vote threshold for every nomination."
Unless the filibuster, anonymous holds and super majorities in cloture are removed everything that flows through the Senate will require 60 votes to even get debated. It will become the norm for everything from Judicial nominations, to Cabinets, etc. Governing will become a problem for the Executive in this environment. Harry Reid messed up when he did reform the filibuster when he had the chance.
The collegial agreement he made with the Republican Senators was not honored. I also have no doubt if the Republicans come into a majority in the Senate they will do away with the filibuster immediately. Just as the House Republicans did away with Democrat's procedure for Pay As You Go as soon as they came into the majority in the House.
It is a shame the Republicans are chewing up conventions and spitting them out. The Washington system survived on the collegial nature of the American political elite. Since the 1990s the collegial nature of the Washington system has been broken and the junking of conventions is part of this tear. The Democrats still seem to be conducting Congressional politics with the belief that the collegial nature still exists. The Republican party does not consider itself so constrained.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
