Here we go boys and girls. We now have a fully funded Gestapo of our very own; doesn't it make you proud to be an American:cool: Congress is voting many billions of dollars to fund this fiasco called the department of homeland security, or some such crap, so that these assholes can peep into our bedrooms and spy on us using our cell phones and computers to try and catch us doing something wrong. How much of our freedom are we willing to give away in the name of safety. Congress has already whittled the Constitution and Bill of Rights down to a mere shadow of what the founding fathers intended just to give themselves more power and money and try to keep the poor where they belong, right next to the gutter. Mark my words kids, this homeland security bullshit is going to bite us all in the ass.:mad:

Move to Cambodia.

Jerrek:
Move to Cambodia.
Is that your idea of democracy - leave the country if you're going to criticise, raise questions, keep tabs on politicians...? Surely that's a big part of having a democracy - and making sure it stays that way.
If this is what you're like to people with a different opinion from you, to people who "dare" to put their government under scrutiny, then obviously you don't value democracy, or practice it, quite like you should.

Maybe you should join the Gestapo.

Ok. Then don't move to Cambodia. Do something to change it if you want. (provided its legal) Vote or even run for office.

Ay on those newfangled voting machines likesay.

Democracy is the dogs bollocks.
Dee Cee

Then start a petition getting them blocked from being used in your state. Or offer a soft money contribution to your congressman if he would help. Or be a computer programmer and review the electronic voting machines or indeed make your own progam and offer it instead.

Exactly.

The trouble with being overly confident in this voting business (and in the strength of the democracy you live in) is the tendency to vote them in and leave them to it, and then they get up to all sorts thinking (quite rightly) no one's really watching, and it's all too easy to misinform a disinterested, " I did my bit, I voted and that's enough" electorate.

But "we won't vote for them next time" is the retort. But on what basis if you haven't been keeping tabs? Chances are they do get voted in again.

I'm sure half the electorate wouldn't lend their car keys to someone on a say-so without at least having a good check for dents and misuse, but politicians get all the blind faith they need when they're representatives of an "infallible democracy".

So what to do? Protests marches etc. have their limits. I think keeping informed, educated and worldly-wise, so that they can't sell fabrications and lies so easily, can't say, "They'll never know the difference," is what makes the difference, is what engengers a healthier respect in poilticians for the poeple they represent. And if enough people are doing that, then it's a democracy because politicians will be on their guard against a potential groundswell of dissent.

And of course, an environment where one US citizen isn't having his thoughts "policed" by accusations of anti-Americanism when often they are quite the opposite (a concern for the health of the democracy, for instance) counts in this too.

Then start a petition getting them blocked from being used in your state. Or offer a soft money contribution to your congressman if he would help. Or be a computer programmer and review the electronic voting machines or indeed make your own progam and offer it instead.
I'm an hispanic mother of four from a dirt poor neighbourhood. I don't own a computer and I know it's my fault but I only have an average IQ. I want to go to college but with three jobs and four kids it just ain't easy. I have no time even to visit my husband, the jail is so far away and the bus costs money. Nobody knows me and no-one ever will. I see Mr Bush on TV and his teeth are so clean and white. I thank the Lord for being here in America among millions like me. Yes I think I will vote for Mr Bush I know he will help me he seems so kind.

If your on this board your in the top 25%. We are the elite, gentlemen, Don't ever forget that.
Dee Cee

Originally posted by DeeCee
If your on this board your in the top 25%. We are the elite, gentlemen, Don't ever forget that.

You know, I knew the US had monumental economic, social and political problems and was pretty much running to avoid falling over - but if WE&P represents the elite, I guess I seriously underestimated the magnitude of the problems the US faces...

I like Clockwood's suggestions rather than rely on Katherine Harris or Diebold.





Keeping up appearances
with the best face forward
Elections are all a charade.

With top secret clearances
the winner's a wizard
perception puts truth in the shade.

Voters vote and computers count
but a sub routine decides who wins
with a cut and paste by email.

the insider gloats and grins.



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http://www.votescam.com/frame.html

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00064.htm [

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/technology/24VOTE.html?ex=1059710400&en=d989a69c518293a6&ei=5062&partner=GOOGL