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[Arachno-capitalist]

Baby is both nutritious and delicious. Eating baby solves both world hunger and overpopulation.
In my ideal universe baby is sold by a megamart chain in every town and is traded on the Chicago Merc as a commodity in the same way as say pork bellies.


I kid. I kid.

[AugustWest]

California example: Voters districts or precincts are redrawn by the state assembly which results in a winner's get the spoils drawing of borders. This has spawned a plethora of convoluted districts often segmenting homogenous areas along party lines. The end result is a bunch of disticts that are modeled to be 'safe' for one major party or the other. It's hard as dickens to have anysort of open competition or to shoehorn any sort of dynamic churn when the precincts are so ideologically stratified. I'd like to see redistricting run on strict contiguos geographical and population method with a third party drawing the lines, which is why I chuck the judiciary at it. Hell, I'd make it a Cali Supremes (sounds like a fast food item) issue.

My thinking is that with honest districting we're likely to have more areas in which, instead of pandering to only the base, canidates will have to tailor a message and agenda that is more issue driven and addresses the real concerns of the community. I'd love to see these people forced to commit to positions and actual agendas and have to convince the swayable middle why their shit is the least smelly, as opposed to the current play amongst ouselves setup. I think redistricting, term limits and campaign finance controls would go a long ways into delivering more ideas and commitments into the political anointment.

I haven't solved the accountability issue yet as that has to be driven by the populace. I try to do my part by being a shit-stirrer and writing editorial replies and direct contact with representatives offices. Every now and then I'll show up at a meeting for open mike time and air out some concerns.

Oooooh.  You're talking about gerrymandering.  I absolutely agree that it has a corrosive effect on the democratic process.

See, when you say "court redistricting" I think "re-drawing the boundaries where particular judges have jurisdiction."  And while that could be important on a microcosmic level, I had trouble understanding how it could have much larger social impact.

[littlefallsmets]

A-CAP, I gotta say I'm glad you're around.

I concur. Ain't no fun bein' Hawkeye or BJ Hunnicut without a Winchester with which to spar.

As long as it's a Winchester and not a Frank Burns, y'know?

Winchester was... pretty much always wrong but he was always an elegant and worthy adversary.

I salute you, Ennewhy, for being a Winchester and not a Burns. Nostrovia.

However, I will say, I wouldn't generally associate being right-wing with having a sense of humour compatable with Achewood, though. It's an over-generalization, of course, but I must admit to it.

[jaydub]

There's a thing that Democrats and others of the more-or-less left don't seem to get, which is that its possible to be a fiscal conservative and a social liberal.  This is pretty much the definition of a small-l libertarian.  The less-is-more approach to government.  The role of government should be as an arbitrator between equals, rather than a cop or a nanny.  Its roles should be minimized to keep its costs moderate.  Unfortunately, part of the human condition seems to be that we yearn for an ultimate Authority, to whom any decision can be deferred.  This is the seed at the core of the UN idea as well.  The alternative is negotiation where both parties seek a common ground, and act with responsibility and good faith in the resulting contract.  Unfortunately, this is Work, which is an unpopular concept.

To be fair, the Republicans aren't much better at rising above the Left/Right false dichotomy.  They listen to a libertarian's take on fiscal policy with nodding heads, then scream the "L" word when you demur on funding "Faith Based Initiatives", school prayer, or Abstinence-Only sex ed.  God forbid you opine that people shouldn't be prevented from entering into a domestic partnership with someone of the same sex.  "We've got to Defend the Institution of Marriage", they'll proclaim (standing firmly next to their 3rd wife).
 

[KeithHernandez]

A-CAP: What about the way Wal Mart treats its workers, essentially making them go to welfare, instead of company health care, and not allowing many workers to work full time.  Plus about 15 other thing I am not going to type.

Whether you have a point or not, please never use Wal Mart as a good example.  You will come off as wrong.

[Doc]

So what is your call on the current election, where we are pretty much in need of both?

Since I don't live over there I don't really feel I have enough knowledge to make a call on that. Weirdly enough if I thought a republican government could be trusted to reign in spending and rebuild your economy I'd back them. I suspect though that they have too much pride to back down on the whole war thing. Unfortunately in politics pride can count for an awful lot.

In the election in my own country I'll be voting the other way. Mainly because our economy is doing rather well and  feel that some redistribution of that money is in order, and because the current government has been in power for over 11 years now, I feel they are getting narrow minded and that sometimes a change for change's sake is not entirely innappropriate. For that matter we actually have a pretty good opposition leader this year too.

[Nabubrush]

A-CAP: What about the way Wal Mart treats its workers, essentially making them go to welfare, instead of company health care, and not allowing many workers to work full time.  Plus about 15 other thing I am not going to type.

Whether you have a point or not, please never use Wal Mart as a good example.  You will come off as wrong.

I worked for Sam's Club for about a year after I got my degree, because I couldn't find a job in my field. They straight-up fuck people every chance they can get.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Wal-Mart is also notorious for squeezing its suppliers for every little penny, demanding lower costs year after year, to the point that they drive companies to manufacture overseas where the labor's cheaper. 

Yeah, those Wal-Mart low prices are great for a lot of people.  But yet, they have their costs.

I keep meaning to read "Nickel & Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, in which she takes jobs at Wal-Mart and other minimum wage gigs.

[slink]

And yes, Wal-Mart finds (underhanded) ways to bring the savings to you, the customer, but it also puts small, local shops out of business in the process. I only tend to focus on that happening when it's grocers and butchers going out of business to supermarkets, as it's where you get the good produce rather than the cheap shit from the big chains, but I object to it happening all round.

Anyway, saving you money isn't going to bring the nation's debt under control... Not until you spend it on things produced in your nation!

[Arachno-capitalist]

I knew while I was typing it that I shouldn't have used Wal-Mart as it can produce a visceral response from many people. I'm not Wal-Mart's cheerleader or anything but when I was living in farmville Viriginia (actual name of town) I really appreciated the wide variety of affordable products. Local businesses go out of business because they are unable to compete. That's the nature of capitalism. I'm not sure what the advantage is to shopping at small local overpriced shops as opposed to one large convenient affordable store. If people truly did value those little local shops then they would still be in business. In reality people express their true beliefs with their actions and the people have chosen lower prices and convenience at wal-mart.
It is easy to pick on the biggest employer in the country and find things they "should" be doing. I ask you what the alternative is for those working there. Again-people show their true beliefs with their actions and people have chosen to work there. Low-skill low-education people need jobs too and wal-mart is helping them with cheap goods and jobs. Would they have healthcare if Wal-mart wasn't there? Would they have better jobs? Or is it possible that in the labor market wal mart is demanding labor that is being supplied willingly because they are the best option available.

[iron_felix]

I love to talk politics, but I'm opting to stay the hell out of this discussion because it a) is on the internet and b) involves libertarianism.  I am saying this as a dude who himself subscribes to basically quasi-libertarian beliefs.  It is a blanket policy.  Don't anyone get offended or anything.

However, as far as speculating about the presidential election (which nobody really seems to have done in this thread since last May)...

My own imagined scenario (at least until the last year's election; it doesn't work now) was Bush getting assassinated, Cheney dying from a heart attack, and Ted Stevens being sworn in as President and deciding to run for another term in 2008, with Mike Gravel winning the Democratic nomination.  Two candidates from Alaska!  It could have happened, people!

Basically what I am saying is that I think this is cool enough that I am posting in a thread I have been trying to avoid just to share it with everybody.

[Nabubrush]

My own imagined scenario (at least until the last year's election; it doesn't work now) was Bush getting assassinated, Cheney dying from a heart attack, and Ted Stevens being sworn in as President and deciding to run for another term in 2008, with Mike Gravel winning the Democratic nomination.  Two candidates from Alaska!  It could have happened, people!

Basically what I am saying is that I think this is cool enough that I am posting in a thread I have been trying to avoid just to share it with everybody.

Holy shit - I didn't even know this was happening.

It is easy to pick on the biggest employer in the country and find things they "should" be doing. I ask you what the alternative is for those working there.

Man that sounds similar to "my country right or wrong". Hope you don't mind if I keep asking for things to get better instead of saying that they could be worse.

[littlefallsmets]

Well, then, what you're kind of saying is that... free-market capitalism because in the short term it feels like it works for you?

That sort of seems to be your argument, Ennewhy, Wal-Mart works for you and so it is good.

Not everyone has the resources with which to vote with their dollars. Very few people do, in fact. They have to take whatever is cheapest just to get by, because of prevailing economic forces, without having the luxury to pay more for quality. Which... takes out local businesses, worsens the local economy and makes them all the more dependent on places that can be a little cheaper by abusing their employees and buying from foreign and/or exploitive suppliers... and it becomes a cycle.

It becomes a race to the bottom of the drain, I believe is the analogy. Again, the momentum of advantage pulls everyone in its wake down except for a bunch of stockholders living half the country away if not on the other side of the world.

A third of the stores in the town next to my hometown of Little Falls, Herkimer, were boarded up and another third are slowly dying because Wal-Mart came in and hollowed the town out. And I can name at least one friend who found such pain in working for Wal-Mart that his only other option was signing up as Iraq cannon fodder in the armed services and... he sadly took that option.

[slink]

I'm not sure what the advantage is to shopping at small local overpriced shops as opposed to one large convenient affordable store. If people truly did value those little local shops then they would still be in business.

The value is, as I say, decent produce that isn't farmed in squalid and unconscionable cruelty, and that for instance, actually tastes of something. Andas for people not seeing the value in it - people are idiots. People pay McDonald's for the all-shite patties they hock, and pay Starbucks for coffee that tastes of plastic and all the myriad flavoured versions full of chemical goodness. This is all well and good but it's not the point.

The point you seemed to have missed, is that if you want the US economoy to be strong, more money needs to be spent on products from within the US. They may be more expensive, but that's half the point, it means more money going into the economy rather than on international trade or wallowing in accounts where it does nothing...
Big companies don't care where they source their goods as long as they turn as high a profit as they can, which again doesn't help the majority of the populace. Yes, people can get underpaid jobs, and get shafted out of full-time work so they are paid, but I truly don't see the lowering of employment standards as a good thing! Wal-Mart will continue to be a success as long as they can buy cheap, sell marginally less cheap and pay even worse. That doesn't mean it's what people want... People by and large want support from their government in times of need, instead of their only option being an underprivelaged, underpaid, undersupported job at Wal-Mart. It's a vicious circle, yes, but it's one Wal-Mart and companies like it are only too happy to keep going, to turn a profit.
US farmers and lumber get lots of government support. They're huge industries, which could be outsourced all too easily, but it's money which needs to stay in the economy...

It's not just that Wal-Mart is an example which creates a gut reaction. It's that your argument is flawed to begin with.

And I took so long writing that out... Good post lfm.

[iron_felix]

Holy shit - I didn't even know this was happening.

Gravel 2008: Let the People Decide

I could actually get behind him if it weren't for the whole National Initiative thing, which strikes me as being a colossal mistake.  Unfortunately that's the main issue he's running on.  It'll be fun watching him in the primary debates, though.