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Yes, first past the post voting is not as good as proportional. But what is recommended in this article is just the frosting on the cake. Before you can put on the frosting, you have to have the cake. America does not have the cake. THe approach espoused in this article is like a mechanic who, when presented with a car that does not start, decides that a paint job will fix the problem. The problem is that america is NOT a democracy. And where democracy is crippled, money rules. The lack of democracy in america creates a vacuum, filled by Big MOney. We have a choice--democracy or plutocracy. If you do not have democracy, you have plutocracy. the solution must return power to the voters by changing the constitution so as to empower the voters. How do you do that? The same way they do in Europe, canada, oz,etc they use governmental infrastructure to empower voters. They empower by parliamentarian democracy. Look to western europe. There is a reason why they have universal healthcare, progressive taxation, less police brutality, a small war machine, etc etc. You see, THEY have democracy in the form of parliamentarianism. We do not. The founding fathers were ANTI-DEMOCRACY. THe reason they illegally installed the present constitution is because the several states under the articles of confederation were becoming parliamentarian democracies, and then passing laws that were helpful to working people and harmful to the rich people like the founding fathers, e.g. debt relief laws and progressive taxation. The founding fathers hated democracy. James Madison, the father of the American constitution, said that democracy is not right for America. Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the COnstitution, said that there was an "excess of democracy." Read all about how america is not a democracy: How did the FOunding Fathers stop democracy in America? Primarily with strong checks and balances and the Presidential System. Read these articles and this online book to learn more about what I am talking about. These articles are written by Phds in history and political science (or are articles reviewing books by those PHDs). http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/10/31/taxation_revolution_and_some_other_rebellions/ and here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1023/p13s01-bogn.html and here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4026/is_200607/ai_n17187913/pg_1 and here: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:u1pjfiO0X_8J:www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/62.2/holton.html+woody+impera&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=opera and here: http://cyberjournal.org/authors/fresia/

Franklin was not all that great. But the other Founding Fathers were MUCH wrose. Here is an online book that tells the truth about what the Founding Fathers and the Revolution really were. It was written by Jerry Fresia, who has a PhD in Political Science. The url for the book:

Toward An American Revolution, an online book by a former college professor that exposes the Founding Fathers and the Constitution for what they really were: slaveowning monsters who set up a rich man's constitution meant to keep the people divided and create a gridlocked government....

I'll demonize you as an radical left-wing communist, since you obviously support highly centralized power.

You are obviously a rightwinger. And you are obviously ignorant of American history. Well, actually, I suppose that if you are a rightwinger, then you are obviously ignorant of American history (otherwise you would not be a rightwinger!).

Actually, like the vast majority of Americans in colonial days, I support a weak central government. And most Americans in those days were HARDCORE leftists, leftists completely different from the so called liberals we have today. I am that sort of leftist. I support "leveling" (distribution of wealth) just like the majority of colonial Americans did.


This isn't about immigration; it's about arrogance and presumption. Your congresscritter just declared that states are not fit to govern themselves, and that even trivial things like "who is allowed to operate a motor vehicle?" is something that should be micromanaged by the Politburo in Washington DC.


You are so ignorant of history and reality that it is not really worth talking to you. Here, read this book, and then MAYBE I will deign to explain some things to you:

You wanna dispute the facts? Dispute them.

I however refer interested readers to the following books:

Howard Zinn's _A People's History of the USA_ (probably available on p2p)

Jerry Fresia's _Toward An American Revolution_ available online here.

Both authors have PHDs (History and Political Science).

Now put up or shut up.....

One of the things that we keep hearing is that she was fired on on the road to the airport, which is a notoriously dangerous road. In fact, it's often described as the most dangerous road in the world. So this is treated as a fairly common and understandable incident that there would be a shooting like this on that road. And I was on that road myself, and it is a really treacherous place with explosions going off all the time and a lot of checkpoints.

What Giuliana told me that I had not realized before is that she wasn't on that road at all. She was on a completely different road that I actually didn't know existed. It's a secured road that you can only enter through the Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for ambassadors and top military officials. So, when Calipari, the Italian security intelligence officer, released her from captivity, they drove directly to the Green Zone, went through the elaborate checkpoint process which everyone must go through to enter the Green Zone, which involves checking in obviously with U.S. forces, and then they drove onto this secured road.

See

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/03/naom i-klein-sgrenas-car-shot-from.html

and

http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?id='939' &batch='16'&lists='cj'

Stephan

Read about the origins of Corporate propaganda and PR

Take the Red Pill to "Escape the Matrix" of neoliberal propaganda!

A book from Stuart Ewen about the origins of corporate propaganda

This one is a little bit "out there"

More about Escaping the Matrix of neoliberal propaganda

More about propaganda and how our society was molded by money around the idea of corporate and govt propaganda

How they do fight back against the forces of money in Denmark

A short history of the struggle between the rich and the rest of us

Look, I know where you are coming from. I had much the same ideas 10 years ago. I hardly know where to start with my reply to you, as it took me 10 years to unlearn all that crap I ingested.

One viewpoint might be to try and see govt as a machine. There are many types of machines, and in my life I have studied, operated and designed many types of machines,from nuclear power plant, to cars, to analog and digital circuits to software systems. Sometimes machines need to be complicated if we want to be able to accomplish a goal.

Another perspective might be to understand that culture may be evolved and formed through outside forces, and that there are forces in this world which may in general gain if you and I lose.

Here ya go. Read these:

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Actually I think just about every cable company in Canada carries US network stations, no matter what city you are in. For example here in Alberta every city, including Edmonton which couldn't even pull in a ghost of a signal from south of the border, carries a full raft of channels from Spokane, Washigton. In fact the PBS station in Spokane gets the majority of their viewer donated funding from Albertans.

In Vancouver, the only US signal you can get by antenna is KVOS in Bellingham (which is actually kind of a Vancouver station - they originally had their studios in downtown Vancouver and when buying programming they must compete with the native Vancouver stations for market area rights). However the local cable carries 6 or 7 broadcast stations from Seattle/Tacoma.

(Conversely, the only Canadian station you can get on Seattle cable is CBC. They tried to remove it a few years ago but met with vocal protest from a group of loyal local CBC fans.)

So basically, any major city in Canada has all they major US networks available on cable, relayed from the nearest US city, no matter how far from the border they are.

Trickster Coyote
Are you ready for the red pill?