Poll - Democrat or Republican?

[green 6]

I do believe that BuSh is a taste that is uniquely American. Most foreigners don't get the current administration. There are a lot of Americans who reside in Canada and yet retain voting rights in the U.S. It seemed that they were overwhelmingly Democrat when it came to voting in the last election.

This BuSh question seems to be an issue of cultural psychology as much as anything else perhaps. I remember travelling in the USSR at the time of glasnost. All us foreigners loved Gorbachev and yet the Russians hated the guy.

Perhaps it's the other way around vis-a-vis BuSh. Most of the world thinks that the guy is a goof, a dangerously deluded one at that, but he was re-elected by the folks back home. It is difficult for us to understand what is going on in America at times even though your country is closely watched and analysed; you are, afterall, the most powerful nation in the world and probably the most valuable one at this time in history.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

I do believe that BuSh is a taste that is uniquely American. Most foreigners don't get the current administration. There are a lot of Americans who reside in Canada and yet retain voting rights in the U.S. It seemed that they were overwhelmingly Democrat when it came to voting in the last election.

This BuSh question seems to be an issue of cultural psychology as much as anything else perhaps. I remember travelling in the USSR at the time of glasnost. All us foreigners loved Gorbachev and yet the Russians hated the guy.

Perhaps it's the other way around vis-a-vis BuSh. Most of the world thinks that the guy is a goof, a dangerously deluded one at that, but he was re-elected by the folks back home. It is difficult for us to understand what is going on in America at times even though your country is closely watched and analysed; you are, afterall, the most powerful nation in the world and probably the most valuable one at this time in history.

Actually BuSh appeals to the schoolyard in us. His ideas of diplomacy remind me of the schoolyard brawls of my childhood, where children insulted each other's mothers and then fought. Of course there was always one gang leader around who would tell his boys to kick some weakling's butt, and then there was this guy who had a vicious dog that he would threaten everybody with. He never had to fight himself, because his dog was his military.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

BuSh also appeals to people who watch police movies and TV shows, in which the cop always decides correctly who the criminal is without any need for real evidence. The cop then proceeds to violate every civil right and human right of the criminal.

Of course the problem with both the movies and the people who watch them is that neither realizes that the criminals are not always actually criminals. The reasons why our system gives the ALLEGED CRIMINAL so many rights is because of the history of innocent people being railroaded into confessing.

Years ago, the actor Clint Eastwood who was famous as the "break every rule" cop Dirty Harry ran for mayor of the small town were he lived. The conservative voters elected him thinking they were getting the conservative Dirty Harry as their mayer, but wound up with Liberal Clint Eastwood.

Many Americans are still living in that same dreamworld when they praise and defend George W. BuSh.

[green 6]

Actually, I had heard it posited that one of the reasons that baby Bush got the country embroiled in this war was because he still had parent-child rivalry issues with his own father and was hoping to best the old Bush with his direction on Gulf War 2. This explanation, one that seems purely psychoanalytical, does not seem entirely off the wall to me. Reports do say that mini-Bush and George the first never did see eye to eye.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

Actually, I had heard it posited that one of the reasons that baby Bush got the country embroiled in this war was because he still had parent-child rivalry issues with his own father and was hoping to best the old Bush with his direction on Gulf War 2. This explanation, one that seems purely psychoanalytical, does not seem entirely off the wall to me. Reports do say that mini-Bush and George the first never did see eye to eye.

One was a decorated fighter pilot and the other was a ceremonial fighter against piloting.

When I was an aircraft mechanic, many of my fellow mechanics learned their trade in the US military. I am the same age as Baby BuSh and one of my fellow crew-chiefs when in the military was an aircraft mechanic assigned to the squadron of planes that Baby BuSh was supposed to fly. Guess what? He never showed up. The squadron's unofficial nickname? The Champagne Brigade. Aptly named.

[BJean 16]

OMG: Tonight there was a special on TV by B Moyers and it was a piece on recent Republican lobbiests and Tom DeLay, among others. I kept getting interrupted by the phone and neighbors so I missed quite a bit of it. But the parts I was able to see really got me angry. Especially remembering how loudly DeLay denied any wrongdoing while trotting out his "deep Christian faith". I know how politics work, but it still infuriates me that they get away with so much - with so many people being directly hurt in the process.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

OMG: Tonight there was a special on TV by B Moyers and it was a piece on recent Republican lobbiests and Tom DeLay, among others. I kept getting interrupted by the phone and neighbors so I missed quite a bit of it. But the parts I was able to see really got me angry. Especially remembering how loudly DeLay denied any wrongdoing while trotting out his "deep Christian faith". I know how politics work, but it still infuriates me that they get away with so much - with so many people being directly hurt in the process.

I am a Democrat, but lobbying will eventually bring both the system down and the country right behind it.

Lobbying, IMHO is not much different than bribery. The differences are so subtle, that I think the spelling of the words may be the most significant difference between the two.

Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Liberal or Independent, it does not matter, if you want to keep the USA from becoming a kept country, we must take money out of the politicians hands. As long as a politician needs to make millions for his campaign, he will have the choice of honesty or winning and that is a decision by which we all lose. Everyone loses, that is except the lobbyists and the people that feed the money to the lobbyists.

[BJean 16]

TOM: That's exactly what I was trying to say and I was hoping you were able to read between the lines. I am outraged for the people who were harmed directly, workers in Saipan and the American Indians, but we are all hurt and so is the very Fiber of our country.

I am afraid our elections (after these past two, especially) are a joke. And I don't know what do to about it.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

What do you think will happen if on November the 6th, polls in 20 Congressional races show that the Democratic challenger has a 5 to 10 point lead over their incumbent Republican opponent and on election day, November 7th, the voter "out polling" shows that each of the 20 Democrats carried their districts by 10 points, but the official voter tallies show the Republicans winning all of those 20 seats and keeping both houses of congress?

FOX News will do a story about bad polling techniques and how Republicans have a better "get out the vote" machine.

[green 6]

Why not do it the Canadian way? It is low-tech but it works. Up here we have paper ballots and sealed ballot boxes. The ballots are counted at the end of the polling day with several people present - and in order to prevent collusion these individuals must represent different parties. Because the ballots exist in hard copy they can be recounted at any time the count is challenged. Each polling station only takes in a couple of thousand individuals so even if there were corruption, the numbers affected would be too small to make a difference. When each polling station has completed its count it phones this in to the riding. The outcome of the vote in the ridings is critical to final outcome as to who will be elected Prime Minister of Canada. As you can see, tallying the vote for the entire country is done on something like a pyramid scheme. Nevertheless, the voting system is uniform throughout the country and everything exists in hardcopy. You may be interested to know that recounts are asked for and performed.

[BJean 16]

TOM: I'll tell you what I think will happen, if your senario once again takes place in this country. NOTHING!! Absolutely nothing will happen to clean it up and no Democrats will be replacing any Republicans.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

Why not do it the Canadian way? It is low-tech but it works. Up here we have paper ballots and sealed ballot boxes. The ballots are counted at the end of the polling day with several people present - and in order to prevent collusion these individuals must represent different parties. Because the ballots exist in hard copy they can be recounted at any time the count is challenged. Each polling station only takes in a couple of thousand individuals so even if there were corruption, the numbers affected would be too small to make a difference. When each polling station has completed its count it phones this in to the riding. The outcome of the vote in the ridings is critical to final outcome as to who will be elected Prime Minister of Canada. As you can see, tallying the vote for the entire country is done on something like a pyramid scheme. Nevertheless, the voting system is uniform throughout the country and everything exists in hardcopy. You may be interested to know that recounts are asked for and performed.

I will tell you the reason if you promise to keep it a secret.

You live in Canada. The immigrants that many of my countrymen complain about coming here illegally were born in Mexico or Guatemala or Peru, etc.

But here is the first part of the secret. We are all Americans. Some are North Americans, some are Central Americans and some are South Americans. But only those people who live in that space between Canada and Mexico (plus the one's with the grass skirts over towards Japan and the one's with the fur-coats who live near Russia) are called Americans.

We are all Americans, but actually the ones who I just described should be called United Statesians. Or as I often refer to them: “Citizens of the United States”.

Now the second part of the secret. I only live in the USA in a very peripheral way. More important that being a citizen of the United states is I am a resident of the state of Florida. At least 90% of the laws that I must follow are the Laws of Florida. How I vote is controlled by Florida. Even elections for Federal Officials: President, Senators and House Representatives are controlled by the laws of Florida.

If I murder my next door neighbor and rape his wife, I have broken no federal laws, just the laws of Florida. My driver's license, the regulations for gun ownership, for property transfer, for marriage are all governed by the laws of Florida.

Except for which army goes to waste their lives in Iraq, the federal government has very little to do with me (except every April 15th).

Your way is fine with me, but 50 different Governors and 50 different legislatures must decide those issues. In many states where the governor, Senate and (whatever they call their house of representatives or) assembly, are all ruled by the same party, they pass laws not for the benefit of the voters, but for the benefit of keeping the party in control, in control. And no, I did not accidentally repeat myself.

So the big secret is that the USA is really 50 separate countries with one military.

[terrriho 0]

TOM, I would like to point out that there are many examples of Federal intrusion in your life, possibly more than the 10% you posed. I would like to point out a few. For instance, interstate commerce is governed by the Feds and allows you to enjoy King Crab from Alaska and maple Syrup from Maine and how it is packaged for consumption. Your legal marriage in Florida is recognized as legal and binding in all other states, i.e. you don't have to remarry everytime you go to another state. Your valid driver's license allows you to legally drive through all the 50 states. If you have children or grandchildren their education is governed in part by the feds (No Child Left Behind). Your coastline and the waters off your coasts are patrolled by the Coast Guard, a federal entity. If you drive a car, your gasoline is federally taxed. There are national parks in Florida. My guess is you are closing in on the Social Security and Medicare age, a federally administered program. Just to name a few.

Also, I know our major two party political system is corrupted but I find it hard to believe voters would continue to give one political party all the power in their state if those voters weren't getting what the wanted.

Thanks for hearing me out.

Terri

[green 6]

Wow. This is all very interesting. Thanks, folks.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

I didn't limit federal intrusion to 10%. I just said that 90% of the laws that govern me are state laws.

The Coast Guard does not come to my home and tell me what to do and since I do not own a boat nor travel on a boat on the ocean or intercoastal Water ways, I do not get involved with them.

The federal laws on interstate commerce that you cited do not govern me. They are there for my protection, but I am not governed by them.

If I speed on Interstate 95, the Fed's can not give me a ticket, even though it is a Federal road.

As far as the ridiculously named “No child left behind” law, I may be wrong, but all the Federal government can do to enforce it is to withdraw federal funding, but if I am wrong, it may be in the 10%. But, either way, how would I break that law? And if I did, they couldn't stop funding me.

If I kill my wife, it is none of the Federal government's business, unless I drag her across state lines to do it.

As far as marriage and driver's licenses being valid state to state is concerned, those are also state laws.

Each state has a law saying that they will reciprocally recognize the other state's marriages and driver's licenses. If Massachusetts allows same sex marriage, Georgia or Idaho might say that they will not recognize those marriages. I was told as a child (50 years ago) that NY State and Florida had no reciprocal driver's license agreement, so technically a driver from either state could not drive in the other way back then.

As far as voters go: Have you ever heard of gerrymandering?

Also, while polls sometimes have shown that 85% of voters do not like what congress is doing, 60% think that their congressman is doing a good job.