Miscellaneous > The Lounge
no more spam for scotland's parliament members...
Calum:
sadly the entire world seems to be seeking to emulate the atrocious mistakes of the US.
jtpenrod:
quote:sadly the entire world seems to be seeking to emulate the atrocious mistakes of the US.
--- End quote ---
Indeed! For generation after generation, you constantly hear people bitch about the gov't, the politicians, and what all is wrong with the country. And yet, every time Election Day rolls around, the majority of the whiners never bother to show up at the polls, and those who do keep voting for the same dumb-asses they complained about for the previous 2, 4, 6 years. There are any number of capable candidates running in almost every election. Candidates of integrity, with fresh ideas that might just stand a chance of doing some good, and you hear folks say how wonderful they are. However, they run on Third party tickets, or as independents, so when it comes time to make that committment, these dumb-asses wind up voting for "the lesser of two evils", meaning a Republican or Democrat. That despite the fact that it was a Republican and/or Democrat that fuxxored everything up in the first place! And then it starts all over again: whine, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, bitch for the next 2, 4, 6 years.
We haven't had a new party since 1856; something just ain't right about that.
_______________________________________
Live Free or Die: Linux
"There: now you'll never have to look at those dirty Windows anymore"
--Daffy Duck
Faust:
and the usual excuse you hear of course : "but voting for parties that won't get elected anyway is just wasting your vote!"
or they just don't accept that there _are_ alternative parties. or for some people the word "alternative" is very scary. :rolleyes:
edit : the greens over here are climbing reasonably rapidly. last victorian election they pulled 14% of the vote. not enough in any electorates to get a seat but now they've pulled enough of the vote to get electoral campaign funding. :D
edit : probably helped of course by the fact that the Australian Greens leader Bob Brown rules. A little while ago a dude called Li Ping or something came over to Australia. (The dude that authorised Tianamen square.) Because he's an important Chinese dignitary and we're about to sign a huge oil deal with China Johnny boy was licking his arse. but Bob... well there was footage on the news of Bob Brown confronting this evil Tianamen square dude. Mr Greens senator needed to be held down by three coppers. :D :D :D
[ May 15, 2003: Message edited by: Faust ]
Calum:
quote:Originally posted by jtpenrod:
Indeed! For generation after generation, you constantly hear people bitch about the gov't, the politicians, and what all is wrong with the country. And yet, every time Election Day rolls around, the majority of the whiners never bother to show up at the polls, and those who do keep voting for the same dumb-asses they complained about for the previous 2, 4, 6 years. There are any number of capable candidates running in almost every election. Candidates of integrity, with fresh ideas that might just stand a chance of doing some good, and you hear folks say how wonderful they are. However, they run on Third party tickets, or as independents, so when it comes time to make that committment, these dumb-asses wind up voting for "the lesser of two evils", meaning a Republican or Democrat. That despite the fact that it was a Republican and/or Democrat that fuxxored everything up in the first place! And then it starts all over again: whine, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, bitch for the next 2, 4, 6 years.
We haven't had a new party since 1856; something just ain't right about that.
--- End quote ---
that made me want to stand up and applaud.
well said.
Of course those lazy assed buggers who don't vote actually make up a majority. If they all went and voted, they would be able to not only swing the vote, but to completely outvote either the entire democrat voting faction or the entire republican faction.
Sadly look how it works in practice, example: in Australia they have a law that says you get fined if you don't vote (it's actually about 20 bucks and they can take you to court for up to 100 bucks plus court fees if you refuse, but most australians either don't know it's so little or just don't want the hassle of being fined), so in australia almost everybody does vote. fine, but you know what? that evil selfish racist little bastard still gets voted back in!!! guaranteed the labour leader was a total wishy washy bugger, but people could have voted green, and too many people voted for the pauline hanson racist right wing nutcase party too. I know it's easy to imagine that those who don't vote would all vote the right way if only... but the truth seems to be that if you forced them to vote, they too would vote in the arseholes that sent the country down the shitter for just the same reasons.
I have always mantained that those who did not vote in the last election (for no good reason) should NOT have a right to even express their political opinion in public. That's the one concession i make to my otherwise unshakeable policy of promoting free speech.
quote:edit : the greens over here are climbing reasonably rapidly. last victorian election they pulled 14% of the vote. not enough in any electorates to get a seat but now they've pulled enough of the vote to get electoral campaign funding.
edit : probably helped of course by the fact that the Australian Greens leader Bob Brown rules. A little while ago a dude called Li Ping or something came over to Australia. (The dude that authorised Tianamen square.) Because he's an important Chinese dignitary and we're about to sign a huge oil deal with China Johnny boy was licking his arse. but Bob... well there was footage on the news of Bob Brown confronting this evil Tianamen square dude. Mr Greens senator needed to be held down by three coppers.
--- End quote ---
i just read this, maybe there's hope yet...
[ May 15, 2003: Message edited by: Calum: hopelessly outnumbered ]
Faust:
quote:example: in Australia they have a law that says you get fined if you don't vote (it's actually about 20 bucks and they can take you to court for up to 100 bucks plus court fees if you refuse, but most australians either don't know it's so little or just don't want the hassle of being fined)
--- End quote ---
Actually it's $20 if you don't vote in the national election - but if you dont vote in the smaller electorate specific elections you get fined $200. Erm... weird order I know.
quote:too many people voted for the pauline hanson racist right wing nutcase party too
--- End quote ---
This party is now as dead as the democrats are. Everyone finally realised how stupid they are when they heard their policy decisions. eg:lets make all taxes $2 per year so no one has to do any maths! and then they got dragged to court by the electoral commision for "misappropriation of funds." But we unfortnately still have the national/liberal coalition. :rolleyes:
quote:that evil selfish racist little bastard still gets voted back in!!!
--- End quote ---
I'm sure you've heard of the "truth overboard" scandal?
oh and from Bobs very own press conference-
quote:
But no matter where they came from or how many people they had murdered in
their own countries, Australian standards of free speech should also be
maintained.
"I object to Chinese repression of peaceful protests being imported to this
country and aided and abetted by authorities of this country," the senator
said.
--- End quote ---
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