h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I voted on moral issues too!
Dang Nabbit!
I voted against Bush and it was the moral thing for me to do.

Just think with a newly appointed Supreme Court justice or two he could possibly change the constitution and serve longer! 3 term Presidents may come yet.

There is still Jeb Bush.
He was the brother to run originally.
Remember the Kennedys?
I am sure he will be back.
There were other motives behind making sure Ohio was in question not Florida this time IMOMost of the time Florida was mentioned it was to praise the President Bush and Govenor Bush on the Hurricane relief.

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Interesting! I hadn't thought of that... I am hearing right now on the BBC WS, a programme wondering about Bush intends to do about the 'Axis of Evil'...

How soon will we see some decent anti war demos in America? I'm a Brit and hate feeling suddenly so anti American and depressed by what Americans have just done. I know I'm being irrational cos 49% didn't vote for Dubya. I just want to see something heartening coming out of the States on my telly apart from an unrelenting stream of simplistic depressing stupid crap..............

Decent anti-war demos? The news probably didn't show much of it over there, but every time there was a Republican gathering, all the anti-war folks got together and had a demonstration. They wouldn't let them gather in Central Park in New Yawk because they were afraid it would damage the grass (!) - but they went ahead and had a demonstration anyway... I think it was about 50,000 of them.

What worries me most is that Bush will pack the Supreme Court with as many conservative pro-life religio-freaks as he can stuff in there. Aside from the Patriot Act being a real problem, the tax deficit and the global warming, the Supreme court will us for many years to come.

thats one of the problems
you Democrats are too reasonable
there won't be any of that non-partisan appointments to the Supreme Court nonsense with Dubya in charge
if Hillary or another Democrat is elected in 2008 they'll be stuck with a Republican Supreme Court

He he. 2008 is going to be a be a blast. I was talking to our American barman, and we agreed that the amendment to the constitution that will come is not 3 term presidencies, but allowing foreign born nationals to run.

2008 - The Dominatrix vs The Terminator

"I am Der Prasident ov Der United Shtates. I rule!"
Yeah, that'll be a blast!
(Like the back-stabbing baskets letting off fireworks out my window here. )

Yep - I am sure it will be brought up Blues Shark!

For all of the vitriol poured on Ahnolt, you'd need to be deaf and blind not to recognise that in terms of a Republican candidicy, he represents the most potentially 'unifying' voice that America has had in years.

His speech on Wednesday morning was masterful, going out of his way to thank the campaigners for BOTH parties for their hard work in ensduring that people got out to vote.

In an era were Tricky Dicky and Ronnie Ray-gun are beginning to look like saints, Das terminator may not be such a bad a bet...

Yes, Blues Shark, it's amazing but true, that the Governator may actually be the best of a bad lot!

Stuff the healing. Get angry. If I was living in America I'd want my people to scratch the wound til it bleeds red and raw before any kind of healing could take place. From my perspective the idea of the 'United' states looks like a sick joke. I'm someone that up until now supported Blair because I thought that 'culturally' we had more in common with the US than say France and Germany. Well I've changed my mind and I hope so will millions of other Brits unless we see the democrats getting more vocal.....

Yeah, the democrats need to get their act together. Or else the USA might get a one party system. Wouldn't that be the ultimate of ironies! Having beaten communism for world domination only to become the thing they feared. I even heard one American politician say, in defence of the two party system, that there are multiple groups within the two mayor parties that ensure a range of choice beyond R Vs. D. That sounds way too much like the communists defence to me.

"If I was living in America I'd want my people to scratch the wound til it bleeds red and raw before any kind of healing could take place." That would only backfire, I'm afraid. This was the approach taken four years ago with the now infamous election results between Bush and Gore. I think that tended to hurt rather than help the Democratic party.

"From my perspective the idea of the 'United' states looks like a sick joke." Expecting the USA to be united with regards to a single political voice is like expecting the same of the EU. I think this is a problem of large governments - it is an inevitable consequence when one tries to unify vast populations across large territories into a single political unit. Obviously this is done to project greater political and military power to achieve a given way of life for the large nation state, but it backfires in that there is rarely if ever a true majority-approved expression of that power. The largest faction rules in these situations, or, in the case of a true dictatorship, the most powerful elite. We've seen both throughout history.

Having said all that, here in the USA there is certainly a drift towards a unification of this "moral majority" voice. That drift is something that deeply concerns and worries me in light of the memories of how national socialism, totalitarian communism, and fascism came about: first, get (most) everyone behind you on a moral basis, then go do things in the name of the masses whether they know, approve, or even understand what you're doing. We're not there yet, but I don't like the direction this country is headed in.

Heigh ho, people really are a problem.

- JD

but thats almost back to square one considering the mass eodus from
europe that wanted to break away from interference from
chuch state , ""we the people"" meaning nothing more than the presidents interputation of "the people" , at any given point in time.

Lets have some proper riots and demonstations about the situation in the middle east or do Americans simply not care? We had a million on the streets of London a few moths ago. C'mon yanks show your teeth!

*Pauses to consider.*

I think the problem could be that people are afraid that if they started the Anti-War stuff, they would Jinx Iraq into being like Vietnam. Mind you it's already almost there, but Humans (as a whole) will often enough ignore a problem and hope it goes away rather than do something about it.

The Double Secret Secret Plan is working! Soon the US will be bankrupt and we can all buy it up! Oil prices are soaring so we'll all have to embrace alternate energy sources! The US military is battering itself into tatters until it's ineffective! We finally have the answer to the age old question- "What will be the final merger?"- Halliburton and the US Government!

Whoopi!~

First, I'd like to point out that rioting is absolutely insane and counterproductive (to an earlier post) and that "proper demonstrations," while good at drawing public attention to an issue if it's lacking attention, do almost as little as rioting for solving problems. IMO, socially such things really only serve a purpose in an extreme case that I'm certain does not apply in the USA at this time. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

While I won't argue the very human tendency to try to ignore a problem until it goes away, I don't think that's really what's going on. To solve a complex problem, first understand it. The problem is not that there is no attention paid to those 49% of us that didn't come down on the side of the other 51%, or that we are being oppressed by that 51% (yet). The problem is that a very significant portion of the populace still votes and believes in their politicians out of ignorance and misplaced trust - not all, but far too many. I think if people were simply less inclined to simply accept what the President tells them on some sort of faith, he'll find that he can no longer pretend that such complex issues are really quite simple. Then, maybe, he'd be forced to actually share what his strategies are beyond the usual, "We're going to hunt terrorists down and kill them, praise Jesus!" We're not a nation of natural skeptics, as a whole, and I sincerely wish that would change.

Frankly, the most dangerous thing about a person like President Bush in power is not that he may or may not be an idiot, but that his real policies remain obscured by a veil of Texas charm and religious rhetoric until it is usually too late to figure them out for what they really are. This is why so many people (politicians included) initially approved of his agenda for invading Iraq, to name the most obvious example. If this continues, there's no telling how many baffling decisions he'll make nor what sort of problems they'll turn into after it's already done.

- JD

Amen brother.

<< If this continues, there's no telling how many baffling decisions he'll make nor what sort of problems they'll turn into after it's already done.>>

Exactly!