It\'s happening in Florida again.

zenmaster

New member
I just thought this might be of interest to some of you. Make sure you all go out and vote.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6346293/
 

frenchkid

New member
Well hope they won\'t be any of those ballot \'problems\' and all this time around. By the way just wondering do you think the electoral system should be change to popular vote in the US ??? Alaways wondered why it wasn\'t so since it would make a lot more sense ( well to me at least :p)
 

Legacy Account

Active member
And it\'s supposed to be a democracy and \'Land of the Free\'? What a load of bollocks. If the \'coup\' that was your last presidential election had happened here and got found out, the culprits would\'ve been hung drawn and quartered - A fate that is still too good for GWB......:mad:
 

Evil Dave

New member
Originally posted by frenchkid
Well hope they won\'t be any of those ballot \'problems\' and all this time around. By the way just wondering do you think the electoral system should be change to popular vote in the US ??? Alaways wondered why it wasn\'t so since it would make a lot more sense ( well to me at least :p)

No, because of the huge amount of people who are too lazy to research the candidates in any other form but from what they see on TV.
Simply put a popular vote would merely allow the country to be led by the media.
 

Jas

New member
US elections??? Freedom???

\'Land Of The Free\' is the biggest joke I have ever heard in my life. Yeah you\'re free if you have lots of money and are not Muslim Fundamentalist (although Christian Fundamentalists are welcomed, hell they even become Presidents!). For a country built by slaves it seems ironic to call it that. There are many parts that are \'third world\' by most standards. For the supposedly most powerful, richest nation in the world, you\'d think they\'d look after the less fortunate members of their society. I fear though with \'Evil Tony\' at our helm here in the UK we are on a similar path to the US! (God help us!)
 

frenchkid

New member
Originally posted by Evil Dave
Originally posted by frenchkid
Well hope they won\'t be any of those ballot \'problems\' and all this time around. By the way just wondering do you think the electoral system should be change to popular vote in the US ??? Alaways wondered why it wasn\'t so since it would make a lot more sense ( well to me at least :p)


No, because of the huge amount of people who are too lazy to research the candidates in any other form but from what they see on TV.
Simply put a popular vote would merely allow the country to be led by the media.

Well the current system of representative dosn\'t change that, people still vote for a president based on what they see on TV so from that point of view elections are basically runned by the use of media from each candidat. no ???
 

frenchkid

New member
Wow :eek: Now why would he do that ? Guess not beeing to popular abroad isn\'t a good thing for him :p But that\'s a bit unfair for all the americans that live outside the states.
 

Evil Dave

New member
Originally posted by Jas
For the supposedly most powerful, richest nation in the world, you\'d think they\'d look after the less fortunate members of their society.

Ah, thats what freedom is about, you have the freedom to live by the choices you make, a lot of the \"less fortunate members of our society\" are there because of the choices they made.
I have no pity for someone who dropped out of school because they didn\'t like it, then wants to live off the government tit.

While I do believe in helping those that genuinely need it, I find most of the \"less fortunate\" are merely bilking the system.

As to the popular vote Frenchkid, this would mean that states such as California with their huge population, would simply wipe out many smaller state\'s populations votes.
With the electoral college this allows even the smallest states to have a voice.
You have to remember the USA is exactly what it stands for the United States of America.
 

frenchkid

New member
Originally posted by Evil Dave


While I do believe in helping those that genuinely need it, I find most of the \"less fortunate\" are merely bilking the system.

As to the popular vote Frenchkid, this would mean that states such as California with their huge population, would simply wipe out many smaller state\'s populations votes.
With the electoral college this allows even the smallest states to have a voice.
You have to remember the USA is exactly what it stands for the United States of America.

But isn\'t it in a certain way still the same with the electoral college ??? Some state don\'t get any attention because they are small states and over get an inordinate amount of attention during pre election week because of the system ( iowa for exemple beeing the fisrt caucus and new hampshire beeing first primarie). And for exemple none of the candidates are addressing issues in the state of new york since it\'s almost sure to go democrate. I find that a bit sad for all the people in NY. And having a president who dosn\'t have the majorite just dosn\'t sound right to me :rolleyes:
 

Herb the bitter

New member
Originally posted by frenchkid

But isn\'t it in a certain way still the same with the electoral college ??? Some state don\'t get any attention because they are small states and over get an inordinate amount of attention during pre election week because of the system ( iowa for exemple beeing the fisrt caucus and new hampshire beeing first primarie). And for exemple none of the candidates are addressing issues in the state of new york since it\'s almost sure to go democrate. I find that a bit sad for all the people in NY. And having a president who dosn\'t have the majorite just dosn\'t sound right to me :rolleyes:

The presidential candidates tend to focus on national rather than local issues. So for the most part they would give the same speech in New York, or for example, Wisconsin. They just hope that by giving it in Wisconsin people will think they care because they came to visit.

As evil dave said, having electoral college spreads power around, so you get more diverse interests represented. In 57(?) elections the winner hasn\'t won the popular vote twice, so it\'s pretty rare.
 

Legacy Account

Active member
Originally posted by Evil Dave

Ah, thats what freedom is about, you have the freedom to live by the choices you make, a lot of the \"less fortunate members of our society\" are there because of the choices they made.
I have no pity for someone who dropped out of school because they didn\'t like it, then wants to live off the government tit.

So the fact that there is MASSIVE unemployment in certain areas, poor schools (usually in the same areas!), poxy housing and general depravation has no effect on your life chances? This sort of thing is a problem in most western societies and glib responses like this just give politicians a chance to ignore it!

As for dropping out of school and the nihilistic attitude you aluded to - are you surprised if the only future you can forsee is so bleak??
 

Herb the bitter

New member
Originally posted by Spacemunkie

So the fact that there is MASSIVE unemployment in certain areas, poor schools (usually in the same areas!), poxy housing and general depravation has no effect on your life chances? This sort of thing is a problem in most western societies and glib responses like this just give politicians a chance to ignore it!

I think these things are part of every society. Has any society found a way to resolve them?

(Not to say we shouldn\'t try)
 

Evil Dave

New member
Originally posted by Spacemunkie
Originally posted by Evil Dave

Ah, thats what freedom is about, you have the freedom to live by the choices you make, a lot of the \"less fortunate members of our society\" are there because of the choices they made.
I have no pity for someone who dropped out of school because they didn\'t like it, then wants to live off the government tit.

So the fact that there is MASSIVE unemployment in certain areas, poor schools (usually in the same areas!), poxy housing and general depravation has no effect on your life chances? This sort of thing is a problem in most western societies and glib responses like this just give politicians a chance to ignore it!

As for dropping out of school and the nihilistic attitude you aluded to - are you surprised if the only future you can forsee is so bleak??

Let me tell you something,
I grew up poor, so poor to get meat on the table we had to hunt, all my clothes were hand me downs from my cousins.
My family got no help at all from the government, because of racial quota\'s were filled.

I worked to get through school, I put myself through college,working full time, I have worked for everything I own.

The only thing in life that is free is the choices you make. Not all of those choices are easy, but to achieve the good things in life rarely is.

Giving the poor money will not solve the problem. They just become dependant on it.
Rarely do any of them use it to better themselves.

Case in point: Anna Nicole Smith
Born poor white trash, who happened to get into the big money because she looked good.
Did she use any of that money to further her education?
Did she use it to learn a skill?
Nope, the only difference now is that she is rich, white trash.

There are things in life money cannot buy, love, happiness, honour and class just being a few.
 

No Such Agency

New member
Ah, thats what freedom is about, you have the freedom to live by the choices you make, a lot of the \"less fortunate members of our society\" are there because of the choices they made.

I have no pity for someone who dropped out of school because they didn\'t like it, then wants to live off the government tit.
If you think people\'s chances in life are purely determined by the choices they make... At the risk of being inflammatory, put down \"Atlas Shrugged\" and visit some real poor people. Some people are poor because they\'re plain lazy, but so many poor people work their butts off, day in and out, just to scrape by and not be even poorer. And if they went to a lousy inner-city school to begin with, with zero college prospects, you can\'t say \"they should have bettered themselves\". They started out at the bottom of a deep hole, with no ladder, and we can\'t look down at them from ground level and say \"climb the #$&# out, you lazy bum!\"

Anyway, I won\'t start this argument here, I have it way too often with the 13 year old \"libertarians\" at Fark.com...

On-topic, it\'s disturbing to see another round of electoral shenanigans in FL.
“This isn’t a blame game,” Snipes told The Miami Herald. “What we’re concentrating on is getting the ballots to the voter.”
I can\'t be the only one who read this as \"Crap, we got caught and it\'s a week until the election, no way we can delay them until it\'s too late\". I would trust one of Jeb\'s appointees about as much as one of Robert Mugabe\'s electoral officers.
 

supervike

Super Moderator
hmm...

Politics are probably not the best thing to discuss on these forums. People can be pretty tolerant of Religion, but politics seem to really inflame people.

We have an Electoral College in the states because we live in a Representative Republic. It is not \'mob rule\'.

The one thing that I believe is disillusioning Americans (and possibly other folks from around the world) is the incredibly venom filled partisan politics, and how that spills into everything that is said or done. The media has to always spin the story, or leave out facts to justify their agenda. Politicians and the special interest groups (on both sides) work in conjuction with each other to make everything a convoluted mess.

I just think if everyone could stand back, and stop seeing the candidates through the prism of partisianship, we would all be better served.

I don\'t think George Bush stole any election, or is an evil man who wants my family to live in poverty and all the jobs to move overseas, while killing innocent Iraqis.

I also don\'t think John Kerry wants to let the United Nations to govern America, raise my taxes until I am bankrupt, and
allow terrorists to move next door to me.

Somewhere, behind the spin, the hate filled stump speeches, the ommisions of facts, the agendas lies the truth. And I think it is somewhere in the middle.

I am proud to be an American, and I don\'t think I should have to apologize or be embarrassed for saying so. This is the land of the Free, which is not a joke at all.
 

frenchkid

New member
Most definetly a land of the free can\'t argue that. As for helping out poor people, well it is true in one way that not all of them are going to use it be better off, and that some are going to grow dependent from it but I really don\'t think that stoping helping them is going to do anything either. I believe that smartly helping them and not just throwing money at them would be a good place to start. Then again I am lucky anoth that I probably belong to the 10% of the richesst personne on the planet and I have never been really exposed to povrety appart from 1-2h visiting rural zones in mexico. And no offense evile dave but you had the chance to be able to go to high school that could get you accepted in a college. Not all people even get that chance, like NSA said their are some people who try all they can to make a better living but can\'t.
@supervike: I definetly agree that people should stop having those ridiculous views of both candidats, scary people can somtimes be so blind to realisme.
@Duende: I also think it should be changed but there\'s not a chance in the world it would happen as it would need to be voted by the 50 states and there is at least on state out there that dosn\'t to lose the importance the electoral college gives him.
 
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