Usa Thread

[dean]

The flip side to this is that the parties like the system that way it is. For Presidential elections, they don't want to have to contest every state for votes. They certainly don't want to allow third party candidates a majority system, under which they would have a better chance of having their voice heard and take votes away from the two major parties.

[Flashermac]

Any time a serious third party emerges, a major party steals its thunder. That is what FDR did to Norman Thomas and his Socialist Party. Thomas himself said he need not run any more, since the Democrats had enacted his program(me).

[Flashermac]

"The only states that matter anymore are the swing states and those are the ones that get the most attention from the candidates"

 

How would it be any different without the EC? Candidates would go to the big cities and the most populous states, and ignore states with far fewer votes.

 

 

[unit731]

What? ALEC (again, again)

 

 

In just the past 24 hours, there has been a growing cascade of reporting on the GOP vote-rigging effort and the National Popular Vote effort to stop it. Here's the latest from all over the internet:

The Atlantic:

 

The GOP Plan to Take the Electoral-Vote-Rigging Scheme National

 

A Republican operative reveals his initiative to award presidential electors by congressional district in states across the country.

This nationwide plan is being orchestrated by our old friend Ken Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State of Ohio in 2000 and 2004. And given that America's currently gerrymandered congressional districts just gave the House of Representatives to Republicans even though Democrats got a million more House votes, it's pretty clear why the GOP thinks going nationwide with their "one district, one vote" plan is so swell.

 

And you'll never guess who's helping Mr. Blackwell out:

 

ALEC Has Opposed "Popular Vote" Efforts Which Would Protect Against Partisan Rigging of Electoral College

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has actively lobbied against state plans to implement a national popular vote for president, urging state legislators to preserve the Electoral College -- which GOP legislators are now trying to rig to ensure the the next president is a Republican. In late 2011, ALEC officially changed its policy on the Electoral College to implicitly support allocating electoral votes by congressional district.

 

 

WINK

[dean]

The last election was decided, basically, by the swing states of Ohio, Florida and Virginia. The last 3 weeks before the election, it was rare to see Romney or Obama not in one of those states. In an election based on popular vote, you would see the candidates in California, New York and Texas a lot more than you see them under the current system. Even with my living in a small state like Kansas, that wouldn't bother me at all, as they don't come here much at all anyway. I also think that the primary season needs to be re-done to take away from the clout that states like New Hampshire and Iowa have now. With 50 states, you could have them grouped into 5 voting blocks and have a primary every two weeks for 10 weeks. Every 4 years, the order would be changed,so that every 20 years, one voting block went first during the primary season. I don't think that the primary season in 2012 was helpful to Romney, with him getting bloodied about every week by one of his Republican opponents. By the time he got the nomination, he didn't have enough time to re-invent himself and move to the center.

[Steve]

Been the same about the election since it started. The top 4 or 5 swing states are the most important. 40 of the 50 states are pretty much decided. The electoral worked when the country was founded. What the founders didn't assume was that we would form political parties.

 

As for the Republican changes, I'd be just as vehementally against if it were Democrats. It leaves voters disefranchised and their votes counted less. The present system does it as well but this proposal exasperates the problem.

 

A viable third party won't make it unless one of two things happen. Its truly grassroots and takes hold or is financed by one or more the uber rich such as Perot's Reform Party. We saw how the Republicans tried to keep Johnson and others off the ballot in swing states. It will happen again. Some Dems will try the same. The powers that and this not only includes both parties but the lobbyists dont want it The last thing the lobbyists want is to have to try and bribe a third party and see their power diluted. And they certainly don't want a 3rd party with some integrity. They can't be bought.

 

Flash is right that both parties have been guilty of manipulation in the past, Democrats in big urban centers in particular. However, the past doesn't excuse the actions of the present and right now its mainly the Repubicans doing the most repugnant, anti American things. Also, you have a bunch of house Republicans who have this Don Quixote, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington mentality to save the country and the Congress and in reality all they are doing is just opposing ANYTHING that goes against their ideology with no room for compromise. The government simply can't run without some compromise. They are used to weak willed Dems in the past (and present) and think if they are obstinate enough they will eventually get their way and spin it in the press that they are saving America from itself.

[Flashermac]

Gerrymandering was invented in Massachusetts in 1812 by Democratic Gov. Gerry (pronounced Gary). He redistricted the state to make sure his party came in power. Others quickly realised it was a good idea.

[Flashermac]

Attack on family in Compton latest incident in wave of anti-black violence

 

 

A Latino gang is intimidating blacks into leaving the city that was once an African American enclave. It's part of a violent trend seen in other parts of the L.A. area.

 

The trouble began soon after they arrived.

 

The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into a little yellow home in Compton over Christmas vacation.

 

When a friend came to visit, four men in a black SUV pulled up and called him a "nigger," saying black people were barred from the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies. They jumped out, drew a gun on him and beat him with metal pipes.

 

It was just the beginning of what detectives said was a campaign by a Latino street gang to force an African American family to leave.

 

The attacks on the family are the latest in a series of violent incidents in which Latino gangs targeted blacks in parts of greater Los Angeles over the last decade.

 

Compton, with a population of about 97,000, was predominantly black for many years. It is now 65% Latino and 33% black, according to the 2010 U.S. census. But it's not only historically black areas that have been targeted.

 

Federal authorities have alleged in several indictments in the last decade that the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered street gangs under its control to attack African Americans. Leaders of the Azusa 13 gang were sentenced to lengthy prison terms earlier this month for leading a policy of attacking African American residents and expelling them from the town.

 

Similar attacks have taken place in Harbor Gateway, Highland Park, Pacoima, San Bernardino, Canoga Park and Wilmington, among other places. In the Compton case, sheriff's officials say the gang appears to have been acting on its own initiative.

 

Sheriff's detectives said Friday they had arrested Jeffrey Aguilar, 19, of Gardena and Efren Marquez, 21, of Rialto, both alleged members of the Compton Varrio 155 gang, and are continuing to look for more assailants.

 

"This family has no gang ties whatsoever," Sheriff's Lt. Richard Westin said. "They are complete innocent victims here."

 

The 19-year-old family friend managed to break free that first day and run into the house, where the children were the only ones at home.

 

The attackers left, but a half-hour later a crowd of as many as 20 people stood on the lawn yelling threats and epithets. A beer bottle crashed through the living room window as the youngsters watched in horror.

 

"They were scared if they called the sheriff they'd be killed," Westin said. "So they called their mom, who called the Sheriff's Department."

 

The gang members were gone by the time deputies arrived, but they kept coming back, almost daily, driving by slowly until they got someone's attention, then yelling racial insults and telling them to leave. The mother sent the children to live with relatives and is now packing up to leave herself.

 

"This gang has always made it clear they have a racial hatred for black people," said Westin, who has worked in the area for more than two decades. "They justify in their own sick minds because of their rivalry with the Compton black gangs. They repeatedly used racial epithets, they use racial hatred graffiti and they tag up the black church a lot."

 

At the home on 153rd Street on Friday, the rain-drenched street was empty and quiet. But the gang's presence was clear.

 

Its tags marked several long walls, stop signs, curbs and school crossing signs — often with the nicknames of individual gang members included.

 

Crews remove the graffiti almost every morning.

 

Down the street, the Greater Holy Faith Missionary Baptist Church — a remnant from the time when Compton was almost all black — is often tagged, most recently, just below the cross.

 

Neighbors say its pastors come on Sundays and no longer live in the area.

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0126-compton-20130126,0,977110.story

[Steve]

Blacks and mainly Mexicans dont get along in LA. Its actually different in the Bay area and San Diego. They get along there. Latinos comprise the prison population in power now and its all down to numbers. They often start riots in prisons to show the Blacks who is in control. In the past, Black gang members of different sets (groups) like bloods and crips didnt socialize and had to be separated now, all the black gangs cling together for self preservatioin and protection because of the sheer numbers of the Latinos.

Its primarily the LA mexican gangsters.

Non mexican inmates from El Salvador and other countries dont like or get along with the LA Mexcian gangs but they have the numbers .

Very different than how I grew up, we got along very well with the Puerto Ricans and later the Dominicans with a few Cubans scattered about.

Its not only Compton but Watts, traditionally known as the Black ghetto of LA is now majority latino. South Central is mostly latino. The only 'Black' neighborhoods are the middle class ones in Windsor Hills,etc that are near South Central and those are actually being re-gentrified by young, white, liberals who are priced out of the white neighborhoods. The homes in these Black middle class areas are very nice, much cheaper and safe. The cops don't let anything happen in these areas, there are many neighborhood associations. I lived in one such neighborhood with my uncle in Inglewood. He told me to come to the next neighborhood cook out so they can see my face so when I walk around no one calls the cops.

[Flashermac]

Will people ever change for the better?