I'm All Worked Up!!!

[rwcrooks]

I apologigize to everyone for the Spice Girls reference in my last post. I don't know what got into me.

[Mike Sofka]

RC,

That's quite the interesting system. I think with some refinement, it could become rather popular. I know the current process now, after talking to many many people, including myself, we don't feel like our votes count. We feel like our votes are "taken into consideration", but ultimately it is left up to the powers that be. If I knew more about the Electoral College, I'd probably throw a reference to that in this post

But for now, I will just stew over who to vote for in November. I'm thinking about writing myself in! If that's the case, I'll start my campaign right here on the Beethoven Bulletin Boards! Hopefully you will all vote for me. I haven't been corrupted by the political system yet so maybe that's what we need, a naive candidate that doesn't know much! That's me folks...that's me. Oh oh...I'm Mike Sofka, and I approve this message! Bah...that line is really starting to get old! Of course they approve the message!!! They made the friggin' commercial...if they didn't approve the message, they wouldn't have appeared in the commercial...am I right people...or am I right!

[Mike Sofka]

RichC,

It's quite alright, we all lose our minds from time to time. Whether it be a Spice Girls reference or a New Kids on the Block reference...we all just lose it at times.

[RC]

RichC
Shows how much I know about Spice Girls, I totally missed it and still don't see it. :confused:

[Mike Sofka]

"...if you wanna be my lova...you gotta get with my friends...make it last foreva...friendship never ends..."

Oh my gosh...I can't believe that I remember that song...and especially the words to it...If You Wanna Be My Lover....yikes...I need therapy.

[rwcrooks]

Mike,

That's the reference. Actually, I think may be preferable NOT to recognize Spice Girls references.

As for write-ins, whenever I feel that none of the candidates merit my vote I always write-in Leon Trotsky. I never see the write-ins listed in the papers, but they must be recorded for posterity somewhere.

[Mike Sofka]

Trotsky is a good choice...Maybe I will write in Stalin! We will single-handedly bring back the old school Commie leaders! Not that I necessarily want that...but any type of change might be good at this point!

[rwcrooks]

Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really
really really wanna zigazig ha.

With lyrics like this who needs Leonard Cohen, the Gershwins, Cole Porter or Elvis Costello?

[Mike Sofka]

Okay now see...that's just scary.......Scary Spice!!!! Wah!

[RC]

RichC,

you get high marks for humor today, Trotsky and Spice Girls all in the same thread.

You're on a roll.

[barfle]

And I would probably bust a few strings on your double base, YRH.

Originally posted by RC:
If there were no child labor laws...

As I noted, children should be protected. They don't have the maturity, experience, knowledge, or assertiveness to know how and when to protect themselves. I don't believe you have an arguing point, because we agree about this.

And as far as the Spice Girls are concerned, no lyrics will ever beat:

Batman
Batman
Batman Batman Batman
Batman Batman Batman
dadadadadadadadada
Batman!

Although I'm quite partial to:

I get around
From town to town
I'm a real cool head
Makin' real good bread
I get around

[RC]

barfle: I don't believe you have an arguing point, because we agree about this.

Yes, I know, thats why I said it was lame.

We actually seldom disagree except to degrees of our agreement. :confused:

I hope that made sense, I stared at it for a couple of minutes and still can't think of a better way to say it.

[OperaTenor]

Originally posted by RC:
It did sound a bit confusing but try explaining the electoral college to someone unfamiliar!

Electoral college.....DON'T GET ME STARTED!!!!!

[dai bread]

Originally posted by RC:
Hey!! How about you vote by placing candidates on a ballot in order of first to last choice instead of only choice.

The candidate with the most first choice places wins.

If your choices don't even place, you get to vote again from the top three that DID place!

I heard this on NPR the other day and I couldn't find the story. Apparently they're trying it in California at county level (I think) and I believe I heard them say they do it this way in New Zealand - is that right dai bread?

I thought it sounded a heck of a lot better than the electoral college and what has become a two party system.

One big bonus is that it discourages negative campaigning and ends up focusing on issues.

Not quite. For our general elections for choosing the Government, we have MMP- Mixed Member Proportional representation.

The party chiefs draw up a list of people they'd like to see in Parliament.

Wethepeople vote for constituency candidates comprising about half the number of MPs in Parliament, and who may or may not be the same people who are on the parties' lists. We also vote for the Party we would like to see in power, i.e we have 2 votes.

The ballot results in the contesting parties being ranked in order of preference. Candidates are then selected from the parties' lists to make up the full number of MPs who sit in Parliament. This means that the proportionality of the electoral result is reflected in the make-up of Parliament. Under First Past the Post, it was possible for a party to get a substantial vote and have no representation at all. One of our minor parties got 20% of the vote once, but because they didn't win any seats they got no representation.

I don't like this system. It's proportional alright, but it puts total power in the hands of party chiefs, who not only select the candidates we get to vote for, but also those on the list, and their ranking on the list.

I prefer STV, Single Transferrable Vote, which is closer to the system you've described above. Candidates are ranked in order of preference by the voter on the ballot paper. We have that for some (but only some) of our Local Authority elections. The Australians and the Irish use it. I'm not sure of the extent to which the Irish use it, but I do know the Australian use is only partial; in the state of Victoria I think.

IMO STV clips the party bosses' wings a bit.

[haggis]

OT,
Sorry, I'll get you started. What's wrong with the electoral college?

Just Curious

[OperaTenor]

I posted my biggest beef on Jk vs. GB thread....

[RC]

dai,

Thanks for the insight. I don't think I like your system either.

When I mentioned this to my spouse, (an Aussie), he said that they did indeed use something similar. I'll have to dig a little deeper. My sister-in-law is in Melbourne, maybe I can get her to send me an e-mail.

I'm curious to see how this works out for California.