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

Hmm... I'm not sure what you mean. Of course, all candidates are welcome to speak out in public forums, and as much as possible in the media. The networks covered both of the major debates, but many of the town-hall meetings only got cable news coverage. The last time an independent got television time, it was Ross Perot, and it was because he had such strong support from the public. The problem with this system is that the networks decide whether they're going to cover the political rallies, and this leads to low ratings - nobody really wants to watch politics when they could be watching entertainment.

Anybody can be a candidate, of course, but they've got to have money to do it. This can come from political backers for the candidate, and doesn't have to be from the candidate's own pockets. If one of the major parties chooses a candidate, they get access to the coffers of the party. There are some schools of thought that say that if you can't raise the money to become a candidate, then you shouldn't be running for office, because you won't have the public support.

I would like to see campaign budgets capped, and I don't want to see the two major parties subsidized by the Federal government. This and the electoral college are my two pet peeves!

I agree, however, with the idea that unless you're a registered Democrat or Republican, you can't vote in the primaries. If either party wanted to throw off the vote toward a candidate that wouldn't be a viable contender against the candidate from the other party... well, this would be the way to do it - send a bunch of people over to vote for the wrong guy.

The education system is just in a sorry situation right now. Especially the public education system in Texas, which has been steadily undermined by the No Child Left Behind act and the removal of the 'Robin Hood' system of financing, which was supposed to balance out the wealthy schools with the poorer districts.

When Bush was elected for another four years, me and my hubby talked half-seriously about moving to Canada. Then a sense of outrage filled me - why should I let the Republicans have America? Heck, it's my country too, and I want it back! So I decided to stick around and become more politically active in the community. I'm not going to go and run for office, but I can certainly make a difference in other ways. Hubby thinks this is becoming a police state, but I'm still optimistic that things can change.

Lentilla, you might be interested in this discussion http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F1941310?thread=590369&show=20&skip=0&lpcr=0

<< when I went to vote in the primaries>>

It's only this last election (Kerry vs Bush) that I have really understood the whole primary system. To an outsider, it's pretty weird!

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It looks even weirder to an insider.

Gee. This thread is almost still alive.

Well, just to stick the feeding tube back in for a minute --


Here's the type of thing that gets broadcast around the world that makes that world uncomfortable for Americans abroad:

'Somebody has got to tell them. The Brits won't; the French won't because they're the worst offenders; and that vast collection of fat kleptocrats — so-called diplomats — from Third World countries won't either.

That latter group includes a huge number of so-called nations — really little more than spots on the map — that would get invaded, taken over, subsumed, eliminated from memory except no one wants to get stuck with their problems of poverty and disease and corruption. So by benefit of their sorry state, they get to maintain their independence and membership in the U.N. and their right to bitch out the U.S.

It's a motley crew that is largely meaningless in terms of how the world is run, or how things turn out. But they want respect, they want to be a voice in the big decisions of the era and they want people like George W. Bush and John Bolton to notice them.

They would be better appreciated and more noticed if they made less noise. Bolton needs to tell them that, even if they don't want to hear it.'

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152564,00.html

Consider the source... Ultra con pundit on conservative news network.

I do consider the source and I know Gibson is an idiot hate-monger. I'm just not sure that everyone would consider the source. It's a sad image to be broadcasting.

While we still have freedom speech and freedom of the press... Idiots like that will still be free to say such drivel.

The ironic thing is the conservatives are quickly eroding such freedoms as we speak.

They are pushing hard to ratify and strengthen the "patriot" act which will continue to make it "legal" to hold "suspects" without charges, to perform what are now illegal searches of citizens' homes, to delve into medical and library records at will, etc etc etc ad paranoium.

A very scary poll recently showed a large percentage of todays high school students think that the government SHOULD control the press!


This culture of paranoia that the Bush administration has created is having its desired effect.

And, an image is being projected around the world, and I'm afraid Fox News' self-trumpeted popularity ends up tarring the ordinary American with the same image. I Fox is the most popular news network in the U.S., what must American viewers be like?

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It would seem that Bolton was selected just for that purpose.

"Consider the source... Ultra con pundit on conservative news network."

the problem is that ultracons (if you speak french this is humorous in a special way) are everywhere in US media. hate radio is n° 1 seller and why? because so many americans feel just that way. remember freedom fries?

i just spent the election months in the states, and a "blue" state at that. it seems americans largely define themselves in sociopolitical terms not by what they believe, but by what they hate. they hate bush, or gavin newsom, or red staters... gays, mexicans, the french, environmentalists, the red sox... you name it someone hates it.

Well... I hate Generalisismo Busho, but I have reasons. I didn't like him when he was my state governor... Luckily, the governor is the weakest governor in the union because of limits placed on the office after the civil war. But unfortunately it is also one of the most prestegious and therefore an obvious stepping stone to the white house... I didn't like his father (spook that he was with his covert operations in every part of the world) and I didn't like him. Now that he has his "mandate" of 1% majority I'm truly scared!


By the way... check out my next governor! http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

He's a fella I can proudly stand behind... if he wins, he'll be the first independent governor since this state's first one, Sam Houston.

Yeah, I like Kinky. He's a close personal friend of Laura Bush, btw... It's easy to like Laura. The only redeeming quality of Dubya is that he's married to her.

And talk about a mismanaged governorship. You'd think he would understand about our current border problems, having been governor, but evidently he was too busy running herd after Jenna to pay attention to what was going on in the state.

if you had seen the speech she made at the republican convention i wonder how much you would like laura bush. it was revolting: overweening holierthanthou jingoistic bornagain pseudopatriotic whoremongering at its very worst.

but here's a crisp one: a colleague and i took a couple of american customers to dinner last week. it's true that americans always have problems with some things, like the stronger cheeses, but these two were particularly boorish, and condescending about it too.

the good part is that one drank milk and the other one drank rum and diet cokes, leaving the whole bottle of gevrey-chambertin (a '96!!) for us. god bless america!

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Charming people indeed, they sound..

riotact, that is a classic ugly american story.

Why ressurect this thread SWL? You cann bookmark without posting hence the "subscribe to this conversation" link at the bottom of the page.

Its so marvellously complex - how we develop these personal prefferences and likes, dislikes etc. I personally have a deep and abiding and quite vehement dislike of American English. And I'm neither American nor Brittish. Its all the doing of Microsoft you see. Whever I do - I cannot get the damn program to stick to UK English in the spellcheck - something about the installation or settings I'm sure but Network Admin friends have looked at it and they cant change it either - I even tried deleting the whole damn American English disctionary and it wont go away!! So every singel document I create i have to change the language settings and keep changing them every time I save anything.

I may be biased but I think the fact that this site is hosted by the BBC - decidedly NOT an American spot - their desire to uphold the purity of language - is really within their rights.

But here's a question that occurred to me this morning in the shower - where did that American accent come from anyway? It was a whole group of different people who settled in America I know, but only the Brittish and Irish spoke English - so where does the drawl come from?

And then leading from that - he's probably the crux of the Brittish resentment of the Americans messing up the english language - so in Northern Africa people speak French as well as local languages. Not African-French - French-French. In South America, people speak Spannish, not South-American Spannish - Spannish. In South Africa we speak English too - and sure some of the local influences affect the dialect and the pronounciation - but we havn't gone and created our own dictionary of "South African English" - we just speak English.

But nay - the AMERICANS - they dont just speak English, they speak their own language have their own dictionaries etc and try to fundmentally alter the language.

I just dont get it - if you dont like English, then speak french, or make up a whole new language if you like - but there's such a fundamental arrogance in adopting a language and then trashing it.

I guess we al have our issues - personally, I'd like to see English-english protected from degradation and erosion - I'd also like to see Zulu remain a pure language and not warped. Perhaps one day the Americans will have skewed English so much that it will be completely unrecognisable from English-english and then there will be no need for the Brittish to be protective of English and the Americans will speak their own language - but that's a long way off - so for now - the deate rages.



Kosh