Groundrush Posted June 7, 2006 Posted June 7, 2006 . The American President isn't picked that way. In fact, he's not picked by the people. The missus is American and has tried to explain this to me on numerous occasions but i just don't get it If your President is not chosen by the people then how can you live in a democracy..?
dbminter Posted June 7, 2006 Posted June 7, 2006 It's because we DON'T! America is a representative oligarchy. It sounds better to placate the people with the term Democracy, though. In fact, if you examine the Constitution, etc. closely, it pretty much quite clearly spells out the general populace is too stupid to run itself and cannot be trusted to do so. Thus, the idea of electing people charged to speak for the concensus of the group was established. Which is a good idea, but, as always, lousy in execution, because it's easier to buy 1 person than it is to buy the vote of every voter. Plus, even at the start, it was never really a Democracy, because, not everyone could vote. If you were black, poor, or a woman, you didn't get a say in the goings on where you lived. I mean, good god, it wasn't until 1920 century when a woman could "legally" vote!
lfcrule1972 Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 You actually allow women to have a vote ??? You're more backward than I thought........
Groundrush Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 (edited) In fact, if you examine the Constitution, etc. closely, it pretty much quite clearly spells out the general populace is too stupid to run itself and cannot be trusted to do so. . You actually allow women to have a vote ??? You're more backward than I thought... @db, ok i can go with that.... @lfc, Edited June 8, 2006 by Groundrush
polopony Posted June 9, 2006 Posted June 9, 2006 Plus, even at the start, it was never really a Democracy, because, not everyone could vote. If you were black, poor, or a woman, you didn't get a say in the goings on where you lived. I mean, good god, it wasn't until 1920 century when a woman could "legally" vote! hell I think it was 1924 before AMERICAN Indians got the vote and they were here first,and still in some states they were denied the vote New Mexico denied them that right untill 1962 ,if ever a group of people was fucked over by the government it was them ,sent to reservations where the land was so poor you couldn't grow weeds much less food
dbminter Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 I think it was 1919 when American Indians serving in the armed forces were granted American citizenship across the board, thus, they could vote since they were "legalized" citizens. But, I'm only going from memory, and, history and politics aren't my strongest suits.
polopony Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 I think it was 1919-1920 that women got the vote the Indians were 4 yrs later ,it was all put to rest by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed that put an end to the individual states impliminting qualifications barring people from being able to vote.
photo_angel2004 Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 I cant agree more. I am not against the idea of people coming from other countries to the USA lets face nearly all of us here have roots from other countries. But when a person makes a choice to leave the country they are from they really NEED to learn the spoken language of that country the USA is about the only country this kisses the butts of other languages, which is crap. If I were to move to say Germany ... I would have to learn to speak German, If I were to move to Italy I would have to learn to speak Itlian, and so on and so on. So for those that move to the usa they to sould have to learn to speak english. There is a school a mile away from where I live that is a spanish speaking school ... the school is there for all of those that cant speak a word of english by the time they are school age. The school goes from grade K-6 and in all of the 7 years kids go to this school they are tought in spanish. So now when they are in grade 7 there is NO spanish speaking scool for for grades 7-12 now what! They are now in the 7th grade and still cant speak a word of english. The school my son goes to they do have a Kindergarden that is spanish speaking only how ever the difference is they are beeing tought to speak english and then grades 1 and 2 they are still learning the english language and if they are not fluetn with speaking and reading english by grade 3 they stay in grade 2 until they can. This is a better approach in my opinion.
Pain_Man Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 (edited) There's a line in Revenge of the Sith spoken by Padme, when Palpatine's announcing the creation of the First Galactic Empire "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause." Sorry, George, but ya got that wrong. Liberty dies to the sound of...snores. People don't give a damn. And that's exactly the way the lawyers and government bureaucracies who rule our lives want us: ignorant, lazy and apathetic. To paraphrase, slightly, something Edward Albee once said, In a democracy, we get exactly the kind of government we deserve. After the "Mariel Boat-lift" in 82 (date?) when Castro empited out all his prisons and nut houses and sent them to Florida there was bumper sticker that was quite popular in South Florida: THE LAST AMERICAN TAKE THE FLAG DOWN ON THE WAY OUT OF TOWN __________________ On this very subject, I saw a story, AP I think, about a restaurant owner in Philadelphia who's put up a sign in his place of business that reads: THIS IS AMERICA WHEN ORDERING PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH Some choad-swallowing city commission is busting his balls claiming his sign is "racist." Gee, when did language become a racial characteristic? Race is a bullshit concept anyway. I love the way Liberal nimrods use a concept invented by 19th century racists to further their America- and European-American hating agenda. And it's not just "people of color" who hate "white" people. In fact, I'd be willing to wager that in both the US and UK (sorry, Ken, don't know enough about Austrailia to make a judgment) there are more "white" people who hate "white" people than "people of color." There was a story when the former Perjurer-in-Chief was disgracing the White House about the school Chelsea Clinton was attending. She was required to write an essay on the theme: "Why I feel guilty about being an American." I would have told the teacher to stick that one right up her ass! (In the US, 80% of teacher are "white" female extreme leftists--and we wonder why are kids can't learn to read, write or do 'rithmetic!) Are so many people that blind? Or don't they care about the future of their country? A bit of both I think bill. Edited June 15, 2006 by Pain_Man
polopony Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 do you remember when the Okland School District thought about teaching the teachers ebonics to better communicate with their students ,fucking morons ,Chris Rock said it best ,"theres a language you speak when you want a job and then theres the other language "
lfcrule1972 Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 God the US sounds as bad as here - the latest load of baloney includes, changing nursery rhymes deemed racist.... When little we learn "Baa Baa Black Sheep - have you any wool" Now its "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep - have you any wool" - I kid you fucking not - how can a black sheep be deemed racist ?? What's this a Klu Klux Klan member ?
Groundrush Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 (edited) Now its "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep - have you any wool" - I kid you fucking not - =)) I still have the Ladybird books with which i was taught to read. They contain the origional version so don't tell anyone as I'm sure one day they will be deemed illegal, confiscated and then burned..... Edited June 15, 2006 by Groundrush
polopony Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 a real life "Farenheit 451" they're so uptight and trying to be politically correct and not offend anyone ,then you have the morons that see everything as racist ,all these people need to get lives because much of the things that bother them are created in their own minds PM you mention ignorant ,man they just keep lowering the standards in school to pass kids it doesn't matter if they learn anything ,challenge them more make them step up and do better ,I watched my friends 12 year old son while they went away for a weekend and asked him to see his homework ,OMG erasures ,crossing out words, misspellings ,penmanship you could hardly read he said it was acceptable with the teachers ,I said that might be but not with me, he did it over untill it was perfect he thinks I'm a tyrant When I went to school what he would turn in was scratch sheet stuff for us to be assembled and done right.They dont teach how to think they teach how to push a button it really sucks If you want to hear the nursery rhymes done over listen to Andrew Dice Clay he put a different spin on them
Groundrush Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 a real life "Farenheit 451" Thanks polo', i was racking my brains trying to remember the name of that film.
Kenadjian Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 In fact, I'd be willing to wager that in both the US and UK (sorry, Ken, don't know enough about Austrailia to make a judgment) there are more "white" people who hate "white" people than "people of color." You've got that right, yeah, we're no different down here. I would have told the teacher to stick that one right up her ass! (In the US, 80% of teacher are "white" female extreme leftists--and we wonder why are kids can't learn to read, write or do 'rithmetic!) Does this mean they have left handed tits?
Kenadjian Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 God the US sounds as bad as here - the latest load of baloney includes, changing nursery rhymes deemed racist.... When little we learn "Baa Baa Black Sheep - have you any wool" Now its "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep - have you any wool" - I kid you fucking not - how can a black sheep be deemed racist ?? What's this a Klu Klux Klan member ? Oh fuck LFC, I'm still pissing myself loughing. It's no different than some moron down here that wanted to ban the plumbing language of "male" and "female" in the dicriptions. For fuck sake, give me a break.
polopony Posted June 15, 2006 Posted June 15, 2006 God the US sounds as bad as here - the latest load of baloney includes, changing nursery rhymes deemed racist.... When little we learn "Baa Baa Black Sheep - have you any wool" Now its "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep - have you any wool" - I kid you fucking not - how can a black sheep be deemed racist ?? What's this a Klu Klux Klan member ? Oh fuck LFC, I'm still pissing myself loughing. It's no different than some moron down here that wanted to ban the plumbing language of "male" and "female" in the dicriptions. For fuck sake, give me a break. every time I go to a plumbing supply house and ask for 6 inch nipples I cant help but remember a certain used to be
dbminter Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 It's no different than some moron down here that wanted to ban the plumbing language of "male" and "female" in the dicriptions. For fuck sake, give me a break. Remember when PC got so fucking awful that PC had to infect the PC? Check your BIOS as Master and Slave no longer exist in most cases, replaced by Primary and Secondary.
dbminter Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 =)) I still have the Ladybird books with which i was taught to read. Wow, Ladybird's a name I haven't heard in a while. In fact, I only ever heard of them through their line of Transformers books featuring the Transformers movie characters that I managed to get a few years back.
Pain_Man Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 It's so much worse than you can imagine... It's no longer Easter Vacation, it's Spring Vacation. If that wasn't pussified enough, it's no longer Christmas Vacation. It's "Winter Break." If you oppose gay "marriage" you're a homophobe. If you oppose "Affirmative" Action, you're a racist. If you oppose tax increases, you hate the poor. If you oppose illegal immigration, you hate all immigrants. If you want immigrants to learn English, you're a language bigot. If you don't want your grade schooler given graphic descriptions of homosexual acts, you're a bigot. If you support allowing prayer at graduation or before school sporting events, you're a religious "fanatic seeking to force you're religious beliefs on everyone else." (No religious fanatics were the assholes who flew airliners into the WTCs on 9/11!!!) If you're a conservative (i.e. on the Right politically), you can forget about getting a college degree. (Example: in my home town, at the state college, a conservative student was set up on a phony pot rap by the Administration because she kept protesting Leftist bias among her professors). It's a crime for a the school nurse to give your teenage daughter a Tylenol, but the Nurse can give the lass all the condoms that can fit in her purse. It's illegal to discuss God but legal to give referrals for abortions to high school students. And it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse... I could list so many examples I'd explode LUK's bandwidth bill. The examples are, as the Demon told Jesus, Legion.
Pain_Man Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 65% is a record turn out and the last presidential election was the first one where the turn-out got that high in decades. In "off-year" elections--i.e. elections between Presidental ones--voter turn out is normally below 30%. Are so many people that blind? Or don't they care about the future of their country? A bit of both I think bill. most are in survival mode just trying to get by and feed families pay bills etc and dont have time for the crap that politicians throw their way ,some are of the mind that it doesn't matter who gets elected you're going to get screwed anyway so whats the use .The Govt. counts on that, here in the US only 65% of all eligible voters vote and then some candidate gets elected with say 55% of that vote so its not like its the voice of the majority that gets him/her elected .Then they're called world leaders ,I wondered if any of them has taken a good look at the state of the worlds affairs at all, this kind of leadership we can all do without
Pain_Man Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 Well, no that's not accurate. Since American Idol counts votes and not voters. In reality, probably no more than five or six million people actually voted in the American Idol final. In '04 election, 60,000,000+ went to the polls, a record turn-out. Civic duty doesn't motivate people but hating the other party's guy seemed to do it for some people who would normally have stayed home. Only in Democrat controlled places are people allowed to vote more than once. I remember seeing on our news that more people voted in the final of American Idol (talent show on tv) than voted for your president - thats gotta show that are priorities are fucked up !
Pain_Man Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 Dude. That's a Lib site. By definition, they can't be trusted. LOL. I was way out. It's 50%. http://www.usavotenet.com/turnout.htm
Pain_Man Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 (edited) You see, Ground, I can turn that one right around on you. Parliament has absolute power over everything and everyone in the UK. Tomorrow, Parliament could decided to have everyone over 6'4" tall thrown into prison and and there's nothing and no one to stop them. The House of Lords, which had the only slight check on Parliament--it could delay enactment of a law for two years--has been gutted by Blair & Co. So I can easily ask you, how can you call your government a "democracy" (in reality both systems are representative democracies, very different than true democracy) when Parliament controls all? The Monarch has zero power; the Queen's rubberstamp approval of the government is no loner required. The Royal Veto of Parliamentary legislation hasn't been used since 1707 under Queen Anne. The House of Lords lost all real power in 1914, when the Commons got Edward VII to threaten to create a shitload of "Liberal" peers to swamp the Conservative majority. The House of Lords folded. But in practice, but Parliament and the Electoral College behave democratically. The Electoral College (more on this below) has never elected someone president who didn't win a majority of the states. We don't want a tyranny of the majority in this country. Just as I suspect y'all don't want 1200 unelected aristocrats having real power to pass laws or stop legislation passed by the Commons. I'm not trying to bust your ball here or criticize England. After all, our bill of Rights is based, to a large degree, on the Bill of Rights which Parliament passed after booting out James II and resplacing him with his daughter (Mary II) and her husband, the Dutch Stadtholder William III. Our revolution is the only conservative revolution in history. It was fought to "restore the rights of Englishmen." When George III & Parliament balked, we sent them packing. Of all the ingredients that go to make up the heritage of the United States, it is the English contribution that is decisive. The Founders--the most brilliant collection of men ever assembled in history--knew better than to trust the mob (sometimes miscalled the "people"). We have what's called the Electoral College. It protects us from a Hitler or a Napoleon. It's a check on the wild passions of the moment that can sometimes animate the mob. And it's a healthy check. And we are NOT an oligarchy. We are run by an aristocracy of lawyers, judges and the Federal bureaucracies. If history teaches us anything it is those that control the functioning of government control everything. Politicians are mere window dressing. Freedom disappears by degrees, one regulation, one court decision, one bureaucreatic ukase at a time. Every year the Federal government adds FIFTEEN THOUSAND PAGES of new laws and regulations to the Federal Register--the official "book" into which a law or reg has to be entered into before it can actually take effect. Ours is a system of checks and balances. It is not that system that fails the people; it is the people that fail the system. . The American President isn't picked that way. In fact, he's not picked by the people. The missus is American and has tried to explain this to me on numerous occasions but i just don't get it If your President is not chosen by the people then how can you live in a democracy..? Edited June 16, 2006 by Pain_Man
Kenadjian Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 Fuck pain_man, you should be a poli or a historian. No really, you seem to thrive on this stuff, I don't think I've seen anyone with your passion for this kind of stuff.
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