Ahriman238 wrote:I don't actually object to assisted suicide in principle, while the mind shudders away from the notion of death EVER being the superior option to life, I've seen too much suffering, including in the final stages of terminal disease to believe I can make that call for people I'll never meet.
You wouldn't be making that call if it wasn't open to the populace to vote on. Such issues should not be decided by unqualified people.
Do you have a link to the actual measure so I can read it?
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Montana is looking to go Democrat big time this year.
Rehberg is the Representative, and he is a Republican. He decided to go after Tester, a Democrat in congress. Well Tester is winning the polls. And the vacancy in Rehbergs seat in the house is looking to also be democrat.
The democrat running for Governor is currently winning.
The state votes Romney, but then for Governor and Congress votes Democrat. Go figure.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
Bachmann is leading Graves by just over 900 votes. Its so fucking close yet so frustrating to know she might win by such a thin margin. almost 70% reporting.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
In other news. Puerto Rico has voted in favor of Statehood. Both Romney and Obama promised to help aid Puerto Rico if this was their choice.
There might be a 51st state in the relative near future.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
Alyeska wrote:In other news. Puerto Rico has voted in favor of Statehood. Both Romney and Obama promised to help aid Puerto Rico if this was their choice.
There might be a 51st state in the relative near future.
Doesn't that pretty much fuck the Republicans in the Presidential elections?
Alyeska wrote:In other news. Puerto Rico has voted in favor of Statehood. Both Romney and Obama promised to help aid Puerto Rico if this was their choice.
There might be a 51st state in the relative near future.
Whoa, now that's genuinely interesting. Is this a sure thing at this point? Or are there still hurdles?
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1337 posts as of 16:34 GMT-7 June 2nd, 2003
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Alyeska wrote:In other news. Puerto Rico has voted in favor of Statehood. Both Romney and Obama promised to help aid Puerto Rico if this was their choice.
There might be a 51st state in the relative near future.
Whoa, now that's genuinely interesting. Is this a sure thing at this point? Or are there still hurdles?
Congressional approval.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
Alyeska wrote:In other news. Puerto Rico has voted in favor of Statehood. Both Romney and Obama promised to help aid Puerto Rico if this was their choice.
There might be a 51st state in the relative near future.
Whoa, now that's genuinely interesting. Is this a sure thing at this point? Or are there still hurdles?
Congressional approval.
So that makes four things Obama has to deal with come a day or two, what are you going to do about voting... what are you going to do with Pot now that two states have pretty much made it as legal as alcohol, what are you doing about the security situation now that your still in charge and... are you going to promote new job growth by adopting our 51st state and requiring everyone to buy new tiny American flags.
And getting two new senators... interesting.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Congress is the big hurdle. But playing politics over a territory getting statehood would look very bad in the press. Puerto Rico not paying federal taxes has been a sticking point for a long time. Statehood remedies this.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
He's gonna get a few Supreme appointments soon as well I'm betting.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it. Blank Yellow (NSFW)
So why aren't the Democrats able to take the House from the Republicans? I've seen it stated in certain places *cough* that if Americans wanted Obama to be anything but decoration they wouldn't have kept a Republican controlled house. What's the deal with this?
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
Lots of "gerrymandering", or legislatures re-drawing legislative districts to essentially create congressional seats that favor one party or another. The districts are all up for re-drawing after every Census, and for both the 2000 and 2010 Censuses, the Republicans just happened to be on electoral high points that gave them a lot of control in the state legislatures.
For example, my home state (Utah) got an additional 4th Seat in the House. The Republican-dominated state legislature had already tried to draw the districts back in 2000 to wipe out the lone Utah Democrat in the US Congress (Jim Matheson), and they tried to create four Republican districts again after the 2010 Census. They'd do things like splitting up the more liberal Salt Lake County area into four pieces, then tying each piece on to a larger population of super-conservative voters.
But too fucking bad for them - Matheson won anyways! Sure, he's a really conservative Democrat, but I'll take that over a Republican here any day.
In fact, generally the news has been good for me. Obama won, the Democrats control the US Senate, Matheson won despite the gerrymandering, and the County Mayor is Democratic.
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.” -Jean-Luc Picard
"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them." -Margaret Atwood
AniThyng wrote:So why aren't the Democrats able to take the House from the Republicans? I've seen it stated in certain places *cough* that if Americans wanted Obama to be anything but decoration they wouldn't have kept a Republican controlled house. What's the deal with this?
AniThyng wrote:So why aren't the Democrats able to take the House from the Republicans? I've seen it stated in certain places *cough* that if Americans wanted Obama to be anything but decoration they wouldn't have kept a Republican controlled house. What's the deal with this?
AniThyng wrote:So why aren't the Democrats able to take the House from the Republicans? I've seen it stated in certain places *cough* that if Americans wanted Obama to be anything but decoration they wouldn't have kept a Republican controlled house. What's the deal with this?
A lot of seats up for reelection were strongly red. Despite that the Dems may actually gain a couple of chairs.
It's the House of Representatives. Every seat is up for re-election every two years.
Okay, so more seats than not tend to red. And this is partly due to gerrymandering. And I suppose also because there's probably still less seats in dense urban areas compared to seats in rural areas even if they are roughly scaled to population, so that lessens the relative impact of urban areas compared to the winner takes all style of the presidential election. Right?
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character
AniThyng wrote:Okay, so more seats than not tend to red. And this is partly due to gerrymandering. And I suppose also because there's probably still less seats in dense urban areas compared to seats in rural areas even if they are roughly scaled to population, so that lessens the relative impact of urban areas compared to the winner takes all style of the presidential election. Right?
The granularity is also an issue. The population of the US at last census was 308 million. There are 435 representatives, fixed by the Constitution. This means each Rep should serve approximately 700k people. Wyoming has 458k people, total, but every state must have at least one Representative. So, the people of Wyoming are essentially overrepresented in the House, by almost double. Somewhere else in the country, 250k people aren't being represented at all, or are being underrepresented. This problem repeats for almost every state, as few have populations that divide evenly into 700k segments. Most states are under- or over-represented to some degree, and the "over"s are typically more rural, while "under"s are more typically urban.
