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Man beheaded by al-qaeda and video published on internet — Page 4

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The voting system ion Brazil, which I consider to be one of the best around, if not the best:

1- Everyone older than 18 and younger than 65 MUST vote, unless they can justify why they are not voting (under arrest, hospitalized, outside the country). Those who fail to vote or to justify why they didn't vote for more than 2 times get some of their rights canceled (can't get passports, can't get mail delivered, and some other stuff). People who is 16, 17, or older than 65 can vote if they want to.

2- The voting is made in a computer-thingy, the size of a phone, with a liquid-crystal b&w screen and a big keyboard with numbers and braille on it. The political parties are searated by 2 digit-numbers. When you vote for president, governor, mayor or senator, you only need to press the 2 numbers, and the green one to confirm the vote. Congressmen are elected by pressing the party's 2 numbers, and other 2 or 3 numbers representing the congressman. The picure of the person you are voting for appears onscreen. There is a white button that represents "none of the above", and if you vote for a non-existing number, it also counts as none of the above.

3- After the election is over (it's always on a sunday from 9 to 5) the votes are transmited thru a network to our capital (on a special secure encryption), where computers recieve the vote. By the end of the day, we know who the winners are.

4- One person = one vote, and the majority of votes elects the person. That's the way it should be.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Better than stupid "the liberals always win because they mooch to ontarians because so long as you get them the rest of the country doesn't matter" Canada.

Seriously, I feel like our electoral system is a game of monopoly and Ontario is Park Place and Boardwalk with a hotel on it.
gtfo
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It doesn't help that the opposition parties have more skeletons in their collective closets than a cemetery.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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Conservatives, what do you think about the voting method I have described above?
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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It's an excellent voting system. If you live in a free country, you should take advantage of the things that make you free. If you don't take part in the great gift that you have, you shouldn't get any of the benefits either. That style of thinking just promots the get and give nothing in return attitude so rampant in NA.
gtfo
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That is a very good voting system. I've never been enamored with compulsory voting systems, but this could work.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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I like it, too. Being a regular voter myself, I would love to see some sort of system that takes away from people who don't vote. They live with the benefits so why not take part in the system that allows for such benefits. And I would love to eliminate the Electoral College. It is such a joke.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
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Originally posted by: motti_soL
dont worry chaltab, they didnt even use the votes to get bush's presidency the last time... youre not missing out on anything.


The Majority of the states went to Bush, and the electoral college voted for Bush.

And what do you care. If the alleged popular vote had won Al Gorewould be president.

Think about that for just a minute.

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And I am not against a major overhaul in our voting system. After the Al Gore recount fiasco last time--the very fact that it took weeks after the election to decide the president--It's pretty obvious that the current voting system doesn't work. I still think that forcing people to vote is iffy. It doesn't sound right.

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It's not really "forcing" them to vote, per se, so much as it is rewarding them for doing so by punishing those who don't.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
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kapgar.com
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Yeah, but what if you had spent all of Monday/ Tuesday/Wednesday inside your house with the TVs and radios off and just forgot...and were supposed to be in London within the next two weeks for important business and couldn't go because you forgot to vote.

That would suck.

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Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
Yeah, but what if you had spent all of Monday/ Tuesday/Wednesday inside your house with the TVs and radios off and just forgot...and were supposed to be in London within the next two weeks for important business and couldn't go because you forgot to vote.

That would suck.

It's not as though you don't know four years in advance that's when election day is happening. It's set quite a while in advance. You'd have to be comatose to miss it out of sheer ignorance. And it's not as though you can't place an absentee vote up to a couple of weeks in advance. There are all kinds of opportunities to vote. The fact that NAers miss out on voting is just sheer stupidity. Why would you not want to vote? Look at this last election and how close it was in so many states. Obviously, every vote does count.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
Yeah, but what if you had spent all of Monday/ Tuesday/Wednesday inside your house with the TVs and radios off and just forgot...and were supposed to be in London within the next two weeks for important business and couldn't go because you forgot to vote.

That would suck.


Over here, the days are set in advance, you can't possibly NOT know when the election is going to happen. If you happen to work on a sunday, they MUST let you not work on the morning or the afternoon. If you are going outside the country all you must do is justify and say you were outside the country, all you have to do is pick up a form over the post office, fill it up (30 seconds) and it's done. Of course it makes it very easy not to vote, but people here actually care, and agrees with the obligatory voting system.

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Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
The Majority of the states went to Bush, and the electoral college voted for Bush.

And what do you care. If the alleged popular vote had won Al Gorewould be president.

Think about that for just a minute.


LOL, oh God you gotta be kidding me, so you'd rather put Bush on the job, even tough the majority didn't want him? Hmmnn.. I wonder how Saddan Hussein got HIS job as Iraq dictator...

I'm not so familiar with north american history, but wasn't the electoral college system created so that poor people, being the majority, wouldn't be able to decide who the president was, just in case thet decided to vote for someone the powerful people didn't want they to vote for?
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Read into the map however you want, but you cannot dispute that a majority of the country wanted Bush, not Gore.
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I should have read that website that had that image.
Polling and Election Paradox

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The US Constitution prescribes a way to elect the President of the US:

The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. [...]

The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, ... and transmit sealed to the ... President of the Senate [who] shall, ... open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed... (Article 1, Section 1 and Ammendment 12, italics are mine)

Basically, what this says is that the voters do not decide who will be President, this body of electors, chosen from each state, decides who the next President will be. We merely vote on the electors themselves. This system was designed so that elections would be run by the states themselves, and not by the federal government.
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What a mess!

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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Ah screw this, what do I care anyway, if you want to roll a dice so you know which puppet will be your next dictator, go ahead.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Spitting Image would've had way too easy a time creating a puppet of Dubya.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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The square miles and growth stats of that map are garbage. They mean nothing as Bush has a lot of rural appeal. But look at the amount that Gore won in concentrated urban areas. And look at the stat that counts... the population that voted for each. Much closer, isn't it?
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Originally posted by: Bossk
The square miles and growth stats of that map are garbage. They mean nothing as Bush has a lot of rural appeal. But look at the amount that Gore won in concentrated urban areas. And look at the stat that counts... the population that voted for each. Much closer, isn't it?


Ah, Bossk. Yes it is much closer.. But it is not the majority, is it?


Good work, Starkiller.

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I agree it is not the majority. Bush didn't have it either. A "majority" is defined as 50% of the vote +1. Given the third party candidate last election and the margin of error, both of the major party candidates had under 50%. No majority of the popular vote, is it? He had "more"... that is all. It was enough. But you cannot use the word majority here.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Originally posted by: Bossk
It's not really "forcing" them to vote, per se, so much as it is rewarding them for doing so by punishing those who don't.


people should not be forced to vote or be punished for not voteing. if you started punishing them it would be like forceing democracy. what they should do it create laws stating that you cannot make publish political comment if you havent voted. that goes towards the idea that you can only have an opinion about the government if you vote.
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Yeah, but they're only punished if they don't vote in 2 consecutive elections. Personally, I think anyone who doens't vote is not only lazy but has no right to complain when they don't agree with government policy.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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If they fail to vote in 2 consecutive elections AND fail to justify why they are not doing it. All you gotta do is pick up a form at the post office and fill it up, I doubt they even check it. But the thing is, most of us rather vote. When the whole Bush/Gore election madness went public on the news, people here in Brazil was not familiar with US election system, so most of us were shocked that people didn't have to vote (or even worse, didn't want to), that the majotiry of votes didn't elect a president, and that the whole voting system is outdated and confusing, using punch cards and manual handling of the votes, thus leading to mistakes and fraud...
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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ricarleite,

The following is a Saturday Night Live sketch from the show on November 16, 1996.

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A Message From the President of the United States

President Bill Clinton.....Darrell Hammond

President Bill Clinton: America.. I come before you tonight to thank you for re-electing me. I know half of you didn't vote. But of the half of you that did.. almost half voted for me. And I appreciate that overwhelming show of support. 49% of the less than 50% of you who voted said Yes to Bill Clinton! [ chuckles ] That kind of ground swell tells me I'm on the right track! Less than half of the less than half of the people who voted.. stood up and demanded.. four.. more.. years. That means 1 ot of every 4 of you are.. helping me build that bridge into the next century. And I than every fourth one of you for your unanimous support!

But, actually, when you think about it.. it's not really every 1 out of 4 Americans. because there's, you know, another 30% of you out there who aren't old enough to vote! [ laughs ] But, still.. I am thri-illed by the hu-u-uge support I was given by the half of the half of the remaining 70% of you! Because that is still a whopping 17% of you who enthusiastically supported Bill Clinton! And that is.. [ getting emotional ] ..just really beautiful.. [ chuckles ]

And sure, to be honest, Arkansas shouldn't really count, because that's my home state, and you have to subttract me and Hillary.. I mean, because, obviously, we voted for me.. And, of course, you should take out anyone who depends on my administration for a job. But, still.. that makes 12% of the population who actively wanted me to be re-elected! Truly, that is a mandate from the people!

Then again.. you really can't count women, because who are they gonna vote for? Bob Dole? [ laughs ] Yeah! That's just silly! Anyway, that cuts the number in half, making it 6%. And then after taking into account people who are incarcerated, the number drops to 4% - an overwhelming 4% of you standing proud and saying "Bill Clinton, we want you back!"

Then.. subtracting voter error, voter fraud, mechanical error, people who are abroad, people who are hospitalized or unconcious while the polls were open, and our brave men and women in space.. that makes the total number of people who honestly and actively wanted me to be President of the United States.. onw guy - Steve Bilson.

[ show image of the loserly Steve Bilson ]

Steve, I-I appreciate your support.. and I'm gonna send you this White House ashtray as a token of my gratitude! [ laughs as he holds up the ashtray ] I mean, it doesn't say "White House" on it, but trust me.. it's from the White House! So, once again, America - I mean, Steve - thank you. And God bless you all!

[ dissolve to Presidential Seal ]

Announcer: This has been a message from the President of the United States.
That should accurately illustrate the American system.