Sick Of The Democratic Party

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 07:07 AM

101 is the new 99.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 08:45 AM

That's because the world is going backwards...as this thread demonstrates.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: leftydee
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 11:58 AM

How about a lottery for everyone of legal for the presidency, congress, state and local goernments. It couldn't be all that much worse and we may get some fresh thinking. Imagine if just one poor man had a little power.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 12:54 PM

What we seriously need is a system that does not depend on money to allow decent candidates to run without being beholding to interest groups! And we need a MUCH shorter process to avoid this 2, going on 3, years of maneuvering!

I'm not sure that having 'all' primaries on the same day is necessary, but some sort of rotating the early ones would sure be nice.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 01:59 PM

Have all the primaries on June 1. Close all offices and businesses except for the most necessary ones; no "Election Day Sales."

Campaigning is limited to sixty-three (63) days before the election, and must stop completely three (3) days before the election. Multi-partisan discussion of issues is NOT campaiging.

The general elecction is held on the same day as now. All of the rules above apply.

The Federal Government provides each candidate with an amount of money. That's it, all you can spend, even if you want to use your own money.

Candidates will at all times be hooked up to a polygraph, and if a lie is told they will be zapped with 3,500 volts and 25 amps of electricity. (Well, maybe not, but I can dream.)

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 03:09 PM

LOL! Rapaire, I'll vote for your plan...that'll make two of us!

All your points fit nicely on one page.....submit it for approval, and after ummmm....'editing', it will fill 17 loose leaf binders and resemble the tax code!

   I can't imagine even honest politicans in this country abiding a system that doesn't allow them loopholes and dispensations....when William Proxmire died, so did the only known reasonable politician.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 08:25 PM

We also need a weel of pollong so that folks who have to work can still vote... The current system tends to disenfranchise to poorer of out citizens who are working 6 days a week for minimum wage to survive...

(But, Bobert, these folks can vote early or vote by ansentee vote..)

Oh, right... How friggin' ethnocentric of you to bring that up... You need a few days on the bus at 4:45 in the mornin'...

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 08:40 PM

Nope, Bobert, we need the nation to truly OBSERVE Election Day(s) as a holiday -- a day off WITH PAY so you can go vote. Those who must work (cops and firefighters, for instance) will be allowed any day off with pay for the week before and after th election.

If you are eligible to vote and don't, your taxes are doubled that year and you don't get ANY deductions. And it stays that way until you DO vote.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Amos
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 08:49 PM

I started my first job when I came to San Diego commuting on a city bus. Took me about 45 minutes just to get to work until I could afford a wee antique car. That was 22 years ago, IIRC. Mebbe 23, but anyway, I have also been so flat even the bus was out of reach. I am glad to say these conditions have changed, gradually but steadily, over the years. I have a paid for, if somewhat old, car. Yay. And a permanent address so the cops can't bust me for vag anymore. And a nice family, a steady job, and a house to call my own. So I guess these are the good years, if only I weren't such an anarchist commie pinko bastard... LOL!

I just received my annual pitch from the Libertarian Party. Lemme tell ya, I yam tempted.



A

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: GUEST,AR282
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 09:06 PM

>>>Guest, AR282, voting straight Democratic is the lazy and easy way out. Take the time to figure out where candidates stand.<<<

Too late. You should have told that to the boobs who voted for Bush and put a republican landslide in Congress who promptly allowed their command-in-chief to use their legislative authority to make war on an unoffending nation via an illegal, trumped-up invasion. Inexcusable. Unacceptable. Intolerable.

No, my voting a straight dem ticket is actually very deliberate on my part. I want the republicans out. Period. Get out. I sampled their product and it sucked and I won't buy it anymore. They had their time in Congress and look what they did. Out, out, out one and all!! OUT!!

There would be a few pubs I'd be willing to vote for but none are from my state so it doesn't matter. Get out!

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 09:40 PM

What this country needs is voting on Saturday and Sunday. By the time the working man gets home from work on voting day he is too tired to go out again. Now don't scoff, I've seen it meself when working for a candidate for the US Senate.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Deda
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 10:51 PM

"Nescis, mi fili, quantilla sapientia regitur mundus."

Actually, this isn't a command, "Know, my son..", it's a statement: "You don't know, my son, by how little wisdom the world is ruled."

What do you all think the democratic party platform should be, realistically? Saying we need federal election reform is all well and good, and quite true -- but it's not really a democratic party issue. Here are the things I want the Dems to stand up for:

(1) Election reform, get rid of diebold machines and other insane, untraceable, unverifiable voting machines and give us back some faith in our election systems. Restore any sense at all that our gov't officials are actually elected by voters.

(2) Fight against corporate welfare & corruption: set strict, enforced limits on lobbying and campaign contributions, which demonstrably lead to such gross corruption as Mr Abramoff & his ilk wallow in.

(3) (this would be #1 but the others are pre-requisites) Do whatever it will take to restore the air and water, to preserve and repair the environment, to heal our biosphere, if it's still remotely possible, so that my grandchildren (and yours) will have any prayer of a life. This has to include a fast, complete divorce between Washington DC and Detroit, serious & immediate support to alternative energy sources, nationally and internationally. Get some well-funded, serious work going IMMEDIATELY on hydrogen, wind, solar, alternative transportation systems, biofuels -- just to start with.

(4) Get us back into the good graces of the rest of the world, admit and acknowledge that we're only one nation among many, not the king-pins of earth, apologize for the gross offences of the neo-cons, and get some cooperative brainstorming going on how to get our troops out of the Middle East, and how to calm and/or contain the whacko nuts in Iran. Pull down our troops around the world wherever safely possible.

(5) End the tax cuts, increase the taxes for the richest, reform the tax code. Work out a way to tax the American corporations who are operating off shore. Plug corporate loopholes. Legalize taxation of church property (not their income: if they give it all to the poor, spend it on soup kitchens or aids patients, then they don't pay taxes on it.)

(6) Organize a national health care system that covers everyone -- single payer. Get over ourselves, for god's sake, we're the only advanced western power that hasn't already put this in place ages ago. It will take some serious crowbar to get the death-grip of the pharmaceutical companies and HMOs and other profit-motivated greedheads off the necks of the American consumer (sorry about mixing my metaphors here), and I don't know if any dems are up to it -- but it's on my wish list anyway.

That's the beginning of my wish list. You guys say you're sick of the dems belly-aching and not providing a program -- here's my wish-list program, at least off the top of my head. What's yours?

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: leftydee
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 11:00 PM

Sign me up Deda. Now, how do we wrestle the party back from the closet Republicans that now control it?

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Peace
Date: 04 Jan 06 - 11:02 PM

Vote well in 2006. That's step one, IMO.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 07:41 AM

Keep in mind that bad leaders are elected by good people who don't vote.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 08:10 AM

Hey, Deda... That's pretty much the Green Party platform ya got there, pal...

Works just fine fir me... Heck, if the Dems would adopt such a platform, I'd come on back and work fir them...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 08:52 AM

So, what else is new and exciting, Deda?

Get out and vote. Get everyone you know to vote. And vote for people who you have actually taken the time to (gasp!) study -- not their stand on a single issue, like abortion or tax cuts, but their WHOLE record. It's the only way.

And yeah, to vote intelligently you're gonna have to actually WORK at it.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: GUEST,The Jazz
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 11:09 AM

Saturday 31 December 2005, 12:22 Makka Time, 9:22 GMT

        Morales calls Bush a 'terrorist'

Evo Morales, Bolivia's socialist president-elect, has won a hero's welcome and a co-operation deal in Havana.
The Cuban government welcomed Morales' election as an important triumph over US influence in the region.
Castro said: "I think that it has moved the world. It's something extraordinary, something historic. The map is changing."
Castro, 79, sent his private plane to bring Morales to Havana, on his first visit abroad since winning Bolivia's 18 December presidential vote.
Morales, who has never hidden his admiration for Cuba's revolution, said he felt "joy, great emotion to be here".
Morales referred to Castro as "el comandante" and said his trip was a gesture of "friendship with the Cuban people".
Morales' visit to Cuba underlines the political loyalties of the leftist leader, who pledged to join Castro's "anti-imperialist struggle" in a message to the Cuban people the day after his election.
Castro said Morales' election was "something extraordinary" that had "rocked the world". Morales will be the first indigenous president in Bolivia, which has a majority of ethnic Aymara and Quechua peoples.
"Our brother Evo possesses all the necessary qualities needed to lead his country."
"Our brother Evo possesses all the necessary qualities needed to lead his country"
Despite US efforts to isolate Cuba, Castro enjoys very close ties to Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's leftist president.
Left-leaning governments have come to power elsewhere in the region, from Argentina and Uruguay to Chile and Brazil.
Castro said "during our discussion we were in touch with Chavez," but he did not offer further details.
A week ago, Chavez, referring to Morales' win, said "(US) threats have already begun. From here on in, we are demanding that the immoral imperialist US government respect the holy sovereignty of Bolivia and the government elected by Bolivia."
As an activist for coca farmers in Bolivia, Morales cultivated friendly ties with Castro for years and has pledged to support Chavez's effort to defeat a US-proposed free trade area.
Evo Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous president
During his campaign, Morales described himself as Washington's "nightmare".
Morales has struck a more moderate tone since his election, promising Bolivia's business leaders that he will create a climate favourable for foreign investment and jobs, and will not "expropriate or confiscate any assets".
Morales won the presidency with nearly 54% of the vote - the most support for any president since democracy was restored to Bolivia two decades ago.
Morales has vowed to nationalise Bolivia's large natural gas industry and end the US-sponsored coca eradication programme that he says has hurt farmers and failed to curb drug trafficking.
Morales has described himself as Washington's nightmare
Castro and Morales signed a co-operation agreement late on Friday that would boost Cuba's medical and educational assistance to Bolivia.
Among the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America, Bolivia none the less has a literacy rate of more than 87%.
On 3 January, Morales will embark on an extensive international tour, including visits to Spain, France, Belgium, South Africa, China and Brazil.
Morales has invited Castro to his inauguration ceremonies on 22 January.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: CarolC
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 02:57 PM

I like your ideas in your 02 Jan 06 - 02:28 PM post, Rapaire.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 03:35 PM

Thanks. I really think that the best thing the country could do would be to get Washington out of DC.

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Jan 06 - 10:22 PM

Been basking in the Florida sun the last four days and see that this thread has grown like Topsy. Yeah, the "Let ye without sin" quote doesn't really apply here, because that would mean that none of us could contribute to this thread. I feel that political crookedness and misuse of power needs to be outed. I just feel that trying to come up with an accurate list of proven transgressions by different politicans of the present and past, and then somehow trying to "prove" which politician was the crookedest clouds the issue, as it doesn't balance the discussion with the good that they did. Many great men in history had a long "Rap Sheet" of offenses. It didn't negate the good that they accomplished.

As a parlor game. wouldn't it be fun if somehow Mudcat could post Rap Sheets for each one of us? Then we could compare our failures and see who has fallen most short of the Glory. If that actually happened, I'd change my Mudcat name to "Who, Me?" faster than you can say "I am not a crook!"

Safe in obscurity...

I remain

Jerry

Subject: RE: Sick Of The Democratic Party
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jan 06 - 11:11 PM

"wouldn't it be fun if somehow Mudcat could post Rap Sheets for each one of us?"

Because there is an informal policy about keeping non-music posts to a single screen, I am afraid that I would not be able to post my own rap sheet.