Posts by Idiot Savant
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335,000 out of 300 million. In America, they call it "democracy".
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The traditional candidate selection process in New Zealand, then?
Yeah, but at least that happens amongst party officials. It has no place in a popular election.
Democrat results are here, BTW.
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To me if implemented well this system has a lot more to offer than secret ballot voting.
Like what, the potential for intimidation, bullying, and thuglike behaviour?
There's nothing in there that couldn't be captured by a simple preferential system - which would also have the advantage of encouraging a much higher turnout and participation.
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You could make an argument, but if you're running an election and want to state government to pay for polling clerks and voter education etc. you probably can't complain too much.
I'd figured it was something like that. But at the same time, it really does seem like it should be a private party (so to speak). And given the respective National Committees' rules, the intrusion by states does pose some potential for pure mischief making...
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Would be nice if McCain makes a credible showing (despite pretty much joining Guiliani in passing on Iowa and New Hampshire) because he's about the only person in the GOP field who isn't barking mad.
I wouldn't go that far - he's been crawling into bed with the religious right, just like the rest of them - but he is at least the only Republican candidate who is publicly against torture. The rest seem to regard it as some sort of macho competition to see who can position themselves as the most sadistic, brutal thug (something which sadly seems to play well with Republicans).
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Oh, and while I'm at it: why are the states determining primary dates? Isn't it the private business of the local party, and no business of the state government?
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It's all very nineteenth century, isn't it? And the practice of staggered primaries, while it does build interest, also seems to grant a few dipshit podunk states a vastly disproportionate say on who the eventual nominee is.
(I was going to say it also allows donors greater influence - donations tend to dry up for those not doing well, and flow to the leading candidates as everyone backs the presumed winner. OTOH, staggered primaries also leads to lower access costs - the cost of contesting a few early races is much lower than having to campaign nationally).
Basically, I approve of the idea of a primary election among party members to decide the candidate, but this seems to be a rather archaic and unfair way of doing it.
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Whilst I agree that simply providing funding to a political party in exchange for an honour is unseemly this is not what is at issue in the UK. In fact, that aspect of party funding was investigated and a decision taken not to prosecute.
The fact that the UK's ever-flexible attorney-general (whose public credibility was at rock-bottom over Iraq, before he decided not to prosecute over this or BAE's corruption) decided to ignore a crime does not mean it is not an issue.
The lying, the deceit, and the violation of electoral finance legislation simply adds whole extra levels of wrongness on top of Blair's corruption.
As for Glenn, I agree - at least his donations were made transparently and publicly. Which is more than you can say for most of those donating to the National Party.
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I/S, dude, never read the book of anything before seeing the movie.
Unfortunately, as a literate person, I often find that Hollywood has taken the choice out of my hands after the fact.
Though I suppose I could not read anything, ever, just in case some Hollywood studio decides they can milk it for a few bucks.
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Something I learned today: The Golden Compass blows goats. Having carefully re-read the book as preparation for the movie (which also allowed me to admire its greatness again), I was appalled to find that most of it is glossed over in about twenty minutes (gotta rush to get to the Big Fight after all), and the emotionally jarring scenes (the discovery of Tony Makarios / Billy Costa and Lyra's intercision) were done so badly that they fell completely flat. That, and they chopped the big ending, in a way which means that when it happens at the beginning of the next movie, you'll be left compleely in the dark about why it happened.
Meh. Stay home. Don't give these people money, even if they threaten to cut your daemon away.