USA Politics

Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

I never said that not everyone should get a chance.

About youth, I am not sure if you are getting what I meant, so here another attempt. Obama is very popular with younger people. So I hope most of them will really come and vote. If they come and vote, then I don't see that as a problem. I do if they won't vote.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

Forostar said:
I never said that not everyone should get a chance.

Yes, you did.  You said it right here:

Foro said:
Well, I am not eager to count [racists'] votes.

And, actually, I am eager to "defend scum".  If Canada wanted to ban people with criminal convictions from voting, I would absolutely fight that.  I don't care who you are or what you believe.  Democracy requires that everyone feels they have the right to vote, regardless of race, creed, religion, and politics.  We shouldn't be establishing barriers to voting, we should be tearing them down.

I know you're talking about a hope, but I feel quite passionately on this subject.  Everyone should be encouraged to vote.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

You're eager to make the situation more complicated than needed.

I'll make it more simple:

I hope many racists won't vote.

If you guys say: I hope many racists will vote, fine (which is the same as 100% of all people vote, because it contains all the racists in the USA). But I find this kind of passion extremely dangerous and I rather hope some of them are doing something else that day.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

I hope 100% of people will vote.

Dangerous passions should be embraced and explored, not refuted and ignored.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

Forostar said:
About youth, I am not sure if you are getting what I meant, so here another attempt. Obama is very popular with younger people. So I hope most of them will really come and vote. If they come and vote, then I don't see that as a problem. I do if they won't vote.

I think we are saying the same thing.  I was just commenting that in each of the last 3 elections (that I remember), the pundits had thought that this was the one that the youth would get out and vote, and that the democrat running would be better off for it.  However, in each of the last 3 elections, the youth didn't vote.  Or, at least, not in the droves that they were expected in.  So, I would love to see the youth get out and vote, but I just don't have a lot of faith in them.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

If the people get the president the people want, then it's democratic.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

So, I was listening to (I think) Mike Reagan on the radio the other day, and it seems the new thing to talk about is that many think that Obama wasn't born in the US.  So they are saying that he shouldn't be the pres.  My daughters had heard something about that at school also.  Crazy.

Genghis Khan said:
In our school, only 7s and 8s voted.  Figures the kids would have their own agendas.  Teenage rebellion, eh!

That is cool, its fun to see how these kids are in their thinking.  Like you say, 'teenage rebellion'!  Lots of kids in my son's 9th grade are Obama fans still.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

The Electoral College is, technically, republican, yes.

And Mike Reagan is an idiot.  Obama was born in Hawaii.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

BBBBHHHHAAAAAHAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"I dsjuuust love kiellieng those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun!"

My God this voice doesn't even sound a bit like Sarkozy's!

AUDIO

Palin takes prank call from fake French president

TORONTO (AP) — Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call Saturday from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and telling her she would make a good president someday.

"Maybe in eight years," replies a laughing Palin.

The Republican vice presidential nominee discusses politics, the perils of hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy's "beautiful wife," in a recording of the six-minute call released Saturday and set to air Monday on a Quebec radio station.

Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt confirmed she had received the prank call.

"Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie," she said.

The call was made by a well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state.

Audette, posing as Sarkozy, speaks in an exaggerated French accent and drops ample hints that the conversation is a joke. But Palin seemingly does not pick up on them.

He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor.

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," the fake Sarkozy says.

He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he says he has never done.

"Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done," Palin counters. "We can kill two birds with one stone that way."

The comedian jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney along on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.

"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin.

Playing off the governor's much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," the caller tells her: "You know we have a lot in common also, because ... from my house I can see Belgium."

She replies: "Well, see, we're right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes."

When Audette refers to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada's prime minister, Palin replies: "Well, he's doing fine and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder." Canada's prime minister is Stephen Harper.

Palin praises Sarkozy throughout the call and also mentions his wife Carla Bruni, a model-turned-songwriter.

"You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife," Palin says. "Oh my goodness, you've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours."

The Sarkozy impersonator tells Palin his wife is "so hot in bed" and then informs her that Bruni has written a song for her about Joe the Plumber entitled "Du rouge a levres sur une cochonne" — which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama derided his Republican challenger John McCain's call for change in Washington as "lipstick on a pig," days after Palin made a lipstick joke at the Republican convention. The McCain-Palin campaign then released an ad implying Obama was calling Palin a pig with that remark.

The caller asks Palin if Joe the Plumber is her husband and adds: "We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It's called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit."

He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the "documentary" made about her and referred to a pornographic film with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt.

She answers tentatively, "Ohh, good, thank you, yes."

The callers then reveal the prank and identify themselves and their radio station.

"Ohhh, have we been pranked?" Palin asks before handing the phone to an aide who ends the call.

Obama's campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs, commenting on the prank, said: "I'm glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama."
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

Brilliant.  I laughed almost as hard as during that parody VP debate. :D
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

How free, how fair? Dutch observe the US elections

How free and fair? That's what 14 Dutch students are hoping to find out about the United States' general elections on 4 November.

The students are acting as observers in the state of Ohio to check on the free and fair nature of the presidential and congressional votes. But what are these students actually doing and are they welcome in the US?

Four years ago
The University of Amsterdam Machiavelli club, formed by political scientists, has organised the week-long observers' mission. Jan Paternotte is one of those taking part:

"So far, we've talked a lot to people doing research into what went wrong four years ago. During that election, the Republicans did whatever they could to ensure as few people as possible went out to vote.

The rule is: if far fewer people vote, fewer young people and African-Americans will cast ballots and they are the ones who mostly vote Democrat."


Why have you chosen Ohio?

"Four years ago, Bush won in this state by just 100,000 votes. This could have something to do with the fact that the average black voter had to wait in line for two and a half hours, while the overall average waiting time was just 25 minutes. Also, about 60,000 of the electorate who had been in prison, were suddenly not allowed to vote.

If you put those things together, it would just about have made up the difference. There are also rumours of real fraud having taken place, because exit polls gave John Kerry [the Democratic candidate in 2004] as the winner by a wide margin, but the actual result gave Bush the victory."

What do Americans think about the presence of observers?

"They, of course, think it's a bit odd, because they are the oldest democracy in the world and are very proud of the fact. They certainly don't view themselves as a country like Ukraine. Incidentally, exactly the same things go wrong in Ukraine. That's why there are no United Nations observers, but that's why we're here"

Have you been welcomed everywhere?

"Yes we have, because we can say we're just regular students who want to see how it all works. Otherwise, we just rely on our status as observers, which will get us into polling stations and enable us to talk to people. We also often get in because the Americans - certainly in Ohio - have no reason to be negative or to try and conceal things"
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

Well, the politicization of elections is pretty freaking scary, I will admit.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

"Four years ago, Bush won in this state by just 100,000 votes. This could have something to do with the fact that the average black voter had to wait in line for two and a half hours, while the overall average waiting time was just 25 minutes. Also, about 60,000 of the electorate who had been in prison, were suddenly not allowed to vote.

Never knew about it. This kind of stuff should not happen again.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

Mhm, part of it is.  Many states in the USA disenfranchise convicts, though. So hard to tell what Ohio's laws are, and I'm really lazy today.
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

LC is correct.  Convicted felons are generally not allowed to participate in national elections.  This is what happens when ignorant foreigners with an agenda presume to observe and critique elections.  There was nothing "sudden" about this.  What is troubling, however, is that someone -- I won't presume whom, suffice it to say that Republicans rarely get the support of convicts -- apparently attempted to orchestrate voter fraud by getting 60,000 illegal voters to the polls. 
 
Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison

Actually, about 30 of the states do allow convicted felons to vote, provided those felons have served their prison time etc. and have stayed clean since. I don't know what the law in Ohio is.

And it can be "sudden". Here in Colorado, the (Republican) secretary of state removed about 60 thousand names from the voter rolls about a month ago. Warning no one, and after the deadline to register.

Every time that many names are purged from the rolls anywhere, there will be mistakes. And those wrongly purged need a chance to appeal their removal. In Ohio in 2004 (and FL in 2000 and CO in 2008), no such chance was given, or even a warning. That's "sudden".

Finally: fuck the Dutch.

I'm not saying out elections shouldn't be internationally observed - but by the UN, not a bunch of asshole Dutch troublemakers. They're not here to observe, they're here to stir the shit. Fuck them.
 
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