ok... this whole moving primaries and caucuses up thing is getting ridiculous. after all these years, traditionally the new hampshire primary and the iowa caucus are the first to vote in the country as the democrat and republican races kick off. now everyone wants to move ahead of each other and be the first in order to "influence" who get's the final nod to represent the party. they're all constantly changing the dates now, and telling one another "if you move before us, we'll move our date ahead again." pretty soon... no one will know when the primary is... it'll be like 10 years ahead of the actual year for the election, and it will be a surprise announcement. "SURPRISE! we're holding our state's in 10 minutes. go vote!" i think either we should do away with the primary system and just have everyone on the final ballot, or have every state vote on the same damn date already. besides, i think a big problem with why our country has such low voter turnout and participation is because they are so tired of the politics. it seems like all the candidates are constantly out there getting face time for votes. there always seems to be negative political ads on tv these days. maybe the public is just tired of it all and has tuned it all out? perhaps since it's so ingrained into the background of daily lives when election day does come around nobody cares because it's constantly there anyways?
what's up with the sabres this year? why are they sucking so much? (oh yeah, they screwed the pooch by letting both their captains go from last year). what's up with philly and boston being decent too?
in football news... remember when the afc east used to be a powerhouse division? how times have changed. miami is still terrible, the jets are in shambles, and the bills are in 2nd place (i don't even know how we're even up there). will anyone be able to stop brady and the pats? i'm getting sick of watching him hook up with moss for touchdown after touchdown.
i have a confession to make. i was actually rooting for cleveland to beat the bosox... despite the fact that i like the red sox. it's only because cleveland's AAA minor league affliate is the buffalo bisons, and a lot of their roster has been brought up through their farm system and played ball in buffalo. i'm just happy that the yankees didn't make it and the indians knocked them out.
the track 'science' on 'strange birds' is a really good track to crank up the volume on. when i listen to it... it feels like i'm just immersed in this sonic space as it builds up. definitely dig the hi-hat.
Comments (2)
The staggered primary race may have made sense in previous generations, before television for instance. The best way that a candidate could make himself known would be to travel state to state, and if voting were happening on the same day across the country, each candidate could decide to focus on just their portion of the country because they'd be unable to be everywhere, and you could end up with odd results. The staggered system allows all the candidates to participate more nationally. However, for quite some time now, television has changed politics irrevocably. In today's 24-hour news cycle, anyone with even a passing interest in voting will have heard of most of the running candidates months in advance. By keeping the system staggered in the current climate, a few small states have undue national influence. The primary election should be a general one on the same day across the nation so that the majority will of the party may be registered.
But doing away with primaries altogether isn't a horrible idea either, though for this to work the voting would have to be upgraded to an automatic roll-off ballot, where the voter would rank the candidates in the order of preference. The benefit of this system is that candidates who don't have as much money but still have a good following will be able to get more votes. Voters would no longer face the question of whether a vote for this "less popular" candidate is going to "take away" votes from a more popular candidate, thereby making the worst candidate win. (I'm not referring to any particular recent election.) With roll-off voting, if your first choice candidate doesn't get enough votes to win the election, your vote automatically rolls down to the next candidate of your choice rather than being discarded altogether.
I think we should have this system anyway, across the board, but it would especially important if primaries are eradicated because of the influence of money in running a political campaign. Of course, something could be done about that, too, but fat chance.
What the hell is 'strange birds'?
Posted by Tansal![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://gdbtc.sanraproductions.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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November 5, 2007 5:01 PM
Posted on November 5, 2007 17:01
I totally love the track Science! I haven't listened to it in awhile and I so should. Thanks for reminding me.
I totally don't understand the whole pre-election system in your country. Cra-azzzy!
Hey, have I heckled you about your dollar yet?? Tee-hee! ;)
Posted by Christielli | November 5, 2007 9:32 PM
Posted on November 5, 2007 21:32