I love debating politics so if everyone would oblige me feel free to post important topics in the politics of your country! The more international it gets the better! It is always interesting to hear what other people know and think of your countries politics. Please keep it civil, everyone is entitled to their opinions! For now I'll lead with this: Currently in the US the Republican controlled house is attempting to pass a spending bill that would effectively cut "Obamacare". Of course the Democrat controlled Senate wont pass it. What do you think about this latest Republican attempt to repeal "Obamacare"? Is this the time to be doing this?
First of all I'm not an American and I rely on the news of what's happening there. Just like USA, we, have also a Presidential System. I think the separation of powers are pain in the ass to pass or repeal a bill/law. I think they, The republicans, who want to repeal Obamacare will not succeed. Do you think Obama will pass/approve to repeal it? I think NO. Wait for another Republican President to be elect by the "electors". If the senate is dominated by the Democrats, if the Republican Congress and President wants to repeal the Obamacare, The president has to use the "Pork Barrel Funds" to buy/legally bribe the Democrats in the senate in exchange to Veto or say "YES" to abolish the Obamacare. Here in the Philippines these are some short story of our oligarchic system. The monopoly of Power and Wealth. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_uTFfvxLrw[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gevTmyWtHVo[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VikoHKuEzng[/youtube] Though conspiracy prone, these videos are based on facts.
Yea it wont pass but that I think is the Republican party's plan, if we don't pass this spending law the government will shutdown therefore if Obama vetoes it he will take the blame for the government shutdown. Oh and by the way, here, bribes are called "political contributions or support"; that however is done mostly by corporations in our country. It's interesting "pork barrel" funds has a different meaning here, that is money used for public work projects(repairing roads, upkeep, community programs,etc) however that is not to genuinely help us it is to ensure our votes; kind of like politicians sucking up to us. It is interesting to hear about the Philippines political engine, there religion seems to play a part, that's really interesting. As for the media is all of it regulated by the government? Here we have 3 major news networks fox news, cnn, msnbc which all cater to different political sensibilities I don't want to write too much so Ill stop there lol
hmm interesting. i read an e-book called "Greasing The Wheels: Using Pork Barrel Projects to Build Majority Coalitions in Congress by Diana Evans." First book to theoretically and empirically examine the use of pork barrel projects by political leaders to buy Congress members' votes The only book to looks at the use of pork barrel projects as a leadership technique for buying votes for general interest legislation Case studies include a number of high profile pieces of legislation: highway policy, NAFTA, and appropriations committee earmarks. And then, i said.. "wow. the same thing happening here." The only difference is, here, example, P70M worth of just 1 flagpole. WTF! P70M?!!!! Not 70k? Road projects, scholarships, etc... And then suddenly i read a news... <a class="postlink" href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7058542&page=1&singlePage=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id ... ePage=true</a>
oh ok so maybe it does mean the same thing lol Technically I guess it does count as corruption but it gets our tax dollars working for us so im fine with it. What I am not fine with is congressional campaigns, seriously the most disgusting thing. I think if more Americans knew about it they wouldn't stand for it. Fortunately the government not does keep us from education but they certainly don't provide it. That's why the American people constantly vote for divided government and then blame Congress for nothing happening.
I noticed that we're just the 2 person replying here :lol: Maybe the others might think that we are too old talking about politics here. :lol: Well, you're all still blessed with that kind of political culture. What can you say about your electoral college system? I think USA should shift to Parliamentary Democracy. Same thing here, we should shift the current system. If USA became Parliamentary, I think the rest will follow. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.psmag.com/politics/dismissing-gridlock-a-case-for-parliamentary-systems-3790/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.psmag.com/politics/dismissin ... tems-3790/</a>
Im sure we'll get a third haha I don't think we should change to a parliamentary system but we should definitely reform our electoral college system. We should change to a popular vote system. I don't think the parliamentary system is better because while getting things done may be easier who is to say whether they are the right things to do? Also I am one to believe it gives a rise to corruption, for example in Japan through a few coalition the Liberal Democratic Party has been in power for the most of about 60 years; all it takes is a few political coalitions. Japan has the "Iron triangle" where politicians, bureaucrats, and business men control the government. The bonus of our system is the people are also accountable, but with education not a priority this becomes a detriment. So I think education is the key to making our democracy work. But that is nothing to say about other countries, there are different conditions so there will probably be different solutions, but not knowing those conditions I cant possibly say that our system is the best and should be implemented everywhere.
Popular vote? Noooooooooooooo!!! Come to think of it. In a concept of Talent show. Which is better? Text Votes/Public Votes (popular voting Presidentialism) VS Judges' Votes (Parliamentarism)? Oh my Good! Don't be like the other 3rd world countries. Be proud of your electoral college. Maybe there's a reason why the founding fathers wrote that in your constitution. As the Group Poltitical Scientists and scholars said that Presidential System is problematic. I dunno but at this point the experts has more point. Like the Ivy League in The USA. Take a look at these ck. Corruption Index (2010) Top 20 GDP Per Capita (2009) Bottom 30 GDP Per Capita (2009) ok. let's wait for other opinions. :lol:
(everything relates to politics haha) I don't think he is either, he is definitely not a hero because whatever idealism he may have held about leaking those documents he hurt some people and the credibility of the US and that may have bigger consequences down the line. I think that if he leaked the info out of his perceived sense of righteousness he should have accepted the consequences of his actions, that said I don't think his head should roll if he's caught. This info should have of course been public, but the reaction to CIA spying has really irked me, what did people think the Central Intelligence Agency was doing?
Yeh most recently he revealed that the Australian government was spying on Indonesia, which caused all these riots in Indo. What exactly did they think a Intel agency does. And it urks me when people get all scared and anti-government when they find out that the CIA is spying on them - if you have nothing to hide, what are you scared of.
In Thailand mob by Suthep has been capture CAT (CAT Telecom Public Company Limited) and power cut. This have influence website is collapse or can't enter this web in Thailand and internet. I can't enter website in Thailand too many wedsite,another wedsite are Facebook,Twitter can enter beacuse it's server USA not in Thailand and some websites can enter. I'm very afraid they are resist between mob and Government. This pictures.
Yingluck Shinawatra is :m201: Yuri Fujikawa AM (Assembly Member aka City Councilwoman) - Hachinohe City <a class="postlink" href="http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/news4vip2/imgs/7/5/75f44042.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/news4vip2 ... f44042.jpg</a> She looks like Mikie Hara (Gravure Idol). Yuri deserves some flowers
TonkunG Is talking about anti government protest in which pro government supporters were killed, I heard the leader of the anti government protests Suthep is calling for an absolute monarchy. This is pretty serious stuff, civil war level maybe. Stay safe TongkunG. On a lighter note, women in politics are pretty awesome, Fujisawa looks super young too.
yeah. I heard about the monarchists too. According to Thai Constitution the Monarch or "King" has some reserved powers. Maybe the king controls the armed forces w/ or w/o the advice of Ruling Party's PM? The monarchists can influence the king of whatever agenda they have. The opposition (the anti-reformist, elite oligarchs, monarchists, etc...) are behind this. It's a high-time now for Thailand to amend their constitution. The monarch must be a pure-absolute ceremonial head of state. As of now PM Yingluck survives the non-confidence vote. She should resign. The ruling party can force Yingluck to resign with ease anytime for the sake of cooling down the protestors (and for the party). Stay safe TG.
I've wanted to ask this for a while now: What does everyone think of Japan re-militarizing themselves? Abe Shinzo seems to very subtly be moving towards rearming Japan and of course he will always have US support in order to counter China. I'm particularly interested to hear anyone that lives in Asia's opinion.
It's an awfully tricky balance they need to maintain. China's decided they should be the central power of East Asia and have begun to push other countries around with territorial disputes (Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan being the major victims). Japan's the only country with the heft to counter China, but unfortunately the ones running Japan are also the ones who felt what Japan did during the first half of the 20th century was good and they want to use that energy to renounce renouncing war. Obama's probably right to bring America's focus to Asia, but the Middle East keeps blowing up and he keeps having to pay attention. Again, China sees this as an opportunity to assert themselves.
you have a point jerec. but i think china has no plans to invade any of Asian countries. If ever the first one they will invade is Vietnam. the only way to make China kneel on their knees is to steal(not literally) investors from them. lets see what they can do. :twisted: I know its very hard to beat China's cheap labor to attract investors but you know what we're gonna do? Its free market. China is not absolutely a communist state its just the name of the Ruling Party. BTW guys, let's have some short political quiz. I just wanna know your results. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz/quiz.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz/quiz.php</a> here's my score: *note: don't take the score seriously it's not absolute.
