[geeks] I just saw...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Jonathan C. Patschke" <jp at celestrion.net>
>Date: 2006/11/08 Wed AM 11:33:35 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] I just saw...

>On Wed, 8 Nov 2006, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
>> "Vote for me, and I'll buy you a beer at McGinty's Pub after the
>> election - just bring your reciept showing who you voted for."
>
>This is worse than "Vote for me, and I'll pass laws that take money away
>from the evil rich/poor/etc. and give it to you!"?  The people are
>substantially less corrupt than the government they've managed to elect;
>they're just lazy.

Well, the first one is against the law - you are not allowed to sell your votes, or recieve direct compensation for your vote in any manner (my wording), the second is the way our government works, so yes, the first is worse.

Imagine the fellow that wants to take over the US government, all it would take is, say, a few dollars per vote in the right districts to collect enough electoral votes to become president... 
While I'll admit that providing sub-standard education to the masses, force-feeding them lies vilifying your opponent [0], and then granting them free-reign to choose their leaders is sub-optimal - it's a lousy form of government, but it's better than anything else that's been tried.

In a Georgia County Commissioner race, one party literally said in their last-minute ads: "Think it was bad with attack dogs and fire hoses (referring to the civil rights fights/demonstrations in the mid-sixties), wait till <the other party> gets control of the County Commission!" Now, I think we could all agree this is a massive exageration, and one more piece of information completely wipes ANY chance of this being a reasonable advertisement - <the other party> ALREADY controlled the county commission!

Ugh.

I can't wait to see what "The Lieberman-effect" will be in the senate - he could be poised to become the most powerful man in the US Senate (depending on how the last few remaining elections go)...

LIonel