|
Post by Monkey on Oct 2, 2008 22:31:27 GMT -5
Politics, elections, government, and all that jazz. Am I the only one excited about the up coming elections? It's the best part about being eighteen! I wasn't sure whether to put this in General Chat or Discuss and Debate, but since it had the potential for discussion, I figured I'd put it here. Aside from the presidential election (which we all know is wicked awesome), we also have some neat proposals on the ballot here in Michigan. Legalization of medical marijuana and embryonic stem cell research. Fun stuff right there, I need to get around to reading the full text of those proposals. So what's going on in your state? Or Jo, Anne, your countries have governments too, right? What's up with them? I want news, people! And if you feel like sharing your thoughts, feelings, opinions, then go ahead. We're all smart enough here and I trust we can all maintain the love and respect we've built over the years. But be forewarned, I will refer to a certain VP candidate as "the moose-eater." I don't mean anything negative about anyone who supports her, I'm just crossing my fingers in hopes of spontaneous combustion.
|
|
|
Post by Anne on Oct 3, 2008 11:45:03 GMT -5
We just changed state governments from Labour to a Liberal-Nationals Co-alition and as usual Labour has blown all of our surplus on stupid and quite frankly, hideous building projects such as a new sports stadium, a new performing arts theatre (the last one went bankrupt and is still sitting there). Many wont go through, not that I mind, because whomever Labour paid to design these things had the artistic flare of a blind turky.
Beyond that I'm glad that we'll be feeding more of our resources into Regional Western Australia. They get ignored far too much and I'd rather that the dirt country roads that kill dozens a year be properly tarred then have all our money squandered on the aforementioned hideous projects. 83 (Meanwhile while they're building new sports centres while the old are still in good order and killing our foreshore, Labour let our health care system fall to the position of worst in the state, and all of this is only coming out now that they're gone.)
Annnd I'd be interested to see a little of Obama's running mate. They haven't mentioned him at all on our news (which is good because usually onl your miss-haps end up here) so it would be good to get a look at him :3
|
|
Uber Loodle
Mural
Llama Whisperer Llama Whisperer
I put the FUN in dysfunctional.
Posts: 827
|
Post by Uber Loodle on Oct 3, 2008 17:40:14 GMT -5
I haven't been following the political race closely, as I decided not long before VPs were chosen, that I didn't like either candidate, so I don't know a lot of the issues. But I do that that Massachusetts is looking to legalize some amounts of marijuana (...no), lower the drinking age to 18 (...oh goodness no), legalize gambling (yay) and...some other things. I would assume that legalizing embryonic stem cell research is on the ballot here too, as I do believe that and the marijuana issue are national issues.
So on the presidential race, as I said, I don't like either candidate. Or Monkey's "moose-eater" and I haven't heard much of Biden. I'm not even sure I know what he looks like.
|
|
|
Post by Monkey on Oct 3, 2008 21:12:11 GMT -5
One of my favorite sites of all time is www.ontheissues.org/default.htm. Yay for knowing what politicians stand for! I love Obama. I'm not going to say I worship him, or that I will agree with every little thing that comes out of his mouth, but we do agree on the issues I care about, so I'm quite happy with his nomination and I'm over the moon about getting to vote for him. *loser* *forgot what else she had to say*
|
|
|
Post by Anne on Oct 4, 2008 2:59:52 GMT -5
It's good that your first voting election year has a candidate that you feel truly passionate about. If it was just another guy it wouldn't be nearly as special. If he wins and does good, you'll probably be an old lady telling your grandkids about voting for Obama your first election year xD
Hopefully I'll be 18 come the time that we vote on the daylight savings referendum xD I really don't want that shit anymore. It's lame.
|
|
Uber Loodle
Mural
Llama Whisperer Llama Whisperer
I put the FUN in dysfunctional.
Posts: 827
|
Post by Uber Loodle on Oct 4, 2008 10:28:46 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Ice on Oct 4, 2008 19:05:02 GMT -5
I'm on the Palin = fail boat here. I'm a bit conservative on the moral/ethical issues front, but certainly more liberal when it comes to economic issues, but I'd have to read up to know exactly where I stand. I can't vote, so I haven't really been paying attention, but I've been trying to get into the whole "informed denizen" thing... Recommendations for independent media groups?
Also, I'm really annoyed with the immense bailouts being dished out. D: And the electoral college system doesn't work anymore, either.
/random conglomeration of opinions
As for state issues, NY has a big financial deficit, so the state programs are taking giant budget cuts. While I'm all for getting rid of NY's "provide for the poor" line in the constitution (which is what led to our horrid healthcare situation), the cuts include SUNY institutions, and I'm attending one of them, so big D:
|
|
Uber Loodle
Mural
Llama Whisperer Llama Whisperer
I put the FUN in dysfunctional.
Posts: 827
|
Post by Uber Loodle on Oct 5, 2008 14:19:03 GMT -5
Palin does indeed equal fail. I do believe I'm against everything she stands for.
I'm...a librative. Or...conserable. Or...I can't think of any other fun word combos. I suppose I'm a bit more on the democratic side though. My general opinion is letting everything be legal and if you don't like it, don't do it...except for some things. I'm a wishy washy individual.
Electoral college = epic fail.
*uses Google information as if it were her own* If SUNY is the state colleges in New York, how can they be allowed to just...cut them? Or is there some other bit of information I'm missing?
|
|
|
Post by Monkey on Oct 5, 2008 14:56:18 GMT -5
My new favorite term for the moose-eater: Caribou Barbie!
Also, I think we can agree that the usefulness of the electoral college has long since run its course.
Lauren, state colleges are funded by partly by the state and partly by tuition, so the state government can cut funding to them just like they can cut funding the public schools below university level. I'm a strong believer in education being the foremost important thing in any country, so I don't like any cuts in funding, but states and local governments are getting desperate.
|
|
Uber Loodle
Mural
Llama Whisperer Llama Whisperer
I put the FUN in dysfunctional.
Posts: 827
|
Post by Uber Loodle on Oct 5, 2008 17:30:40 GMT -5
Ah. That makes sense. Like, at my school. Funding got cut by more than 6 million dollars. I don't think that was being desperate, I just think the local "politicians" needed some smokes. But that's a whole other story.
Caribou Barbie. I'm going to have to share that with my Republican friends. XD
|
|
|
Post by Ice on Oct 6, 2008 17:46:20 GMT -5
My new favorite term for the moose-eater: Caribou Barbie! ROFL! That's a good one. XDD Thankfully my school is a big research institution so we do get money from patents and the like, but even so, there are a lot of students in attendance. They've been advertising some statewide petition regarding the cuts, I'll have to look into it.
|
|
|
Post by Anne on Oct 6, 2008 22:03:06 GMT -5
Monkey was explaining your system to me and wow - no wonder you're all so hell bent on just those two parties o.0 We have two large parties, Liberal and Labour, but the independent people matter a lot.
Our system is preferential, all the parties swap preferences with one another come election time and when they don't have enough votes to win a seat they give their votes to the party who has their first preference. So the Nationals might not have enough votes, but in giving theirs to the Liberal party (with whom they may usually share the most policies with) they may help the Liberals with that seat. If Liberal or Labour don't have enough votes to have a majority government (Once Labour was in government but Liberal had more seats with the help of supporters so they blocked a heap of important bills and a new election had to be called xD) then they will form a co-alition with the smaller parties and some independants to create one.
The only draw back is not many people understand this and will simply vote Greens if they don't want to vote Liberal or Labout, not knowing that they pretty much are voting for Labour because the Greens always vote with labour and aren't only about Saving the Planet xD In fact they're pretty crap at that...
|
|
Sorie
Trumpet
Whiney Porcotter[A:0]
no one sympathizes
Posts: 786
|
Post by Sorie on Oct 7, 2008 21:44:56 GMT -5
Apathetic. :/
|
|
|
Post by Ice on Oct 9, 2008 19:49:08 GMT -5
XD The US's political parties are actually only on one side of the spectrum of the normal parties in other countries. Our system is also extremely bloated and screwed up, yay!
|
|
|
Post by Anne on Oct 15, 2008 10:07:25 GMT -5
|
|