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Forums - General Discussion - Im really getting sick of the half-ars politics in the USA

Truly, the USA has become nothing more than an police state in which if a group fights for freedoms for our citizens they get demonized and attacked. If a group proves with facts that one of our policies needs to be removed, they get attacked and told all their facts are wrong while anything that the attacking party presents are completely wrong or just stupid.

Take for example the fact the FCC has finally enacted a basic form of Net Neutrality, something I strongly support, which does actually gives them some power to protect us for our own ISPs and having our faces ripped off by overly massive price-hikes. There is nothing stopping companies like Bright House and Comcast from offering different speeds at varied prices, but they cant take my 40mbps internet that costs me $99 a month and start charging me $199 or randomly decide to  instantly stop me from using Verizon.com because they are a competing company. This doesn't stop individual services from offering unique features like Bright House's internet caller ID (if you have their phone service which I dont).

That sounds all find and dandy, but the Republicans, which act like they hate big government and regulation, wants to repeal the FCC from doing that. Basically they want the government to be able to regulate the internet without having existing policies and other government entities from stopping them. Basically the "anti-regulators" who instated trash like the DHS, TSA, and the patriot act, wants to be free to regulate our access to the internet in a similar fashion as China or France.

In another side of politics, the democrats are up in arms over the possibility that we might finally cut back out support for Israel. There is no plans to get rid of all support, as we should, but cutting back sounds like a great plan and could help balance power and peace. There is also plans to put in some sanctions of some form on Israel. Of course that's going over well with the democrats as well. Why is it that people dont realize the only way peace can finally happen in Israel is to sanction and reduce funding for that state. That was Israel can't afford to go to war and it would get fined by international bodies for doing illegal attacks on its neighbors.

Of course the executive branch isn't the only ones screwing us citizens over. Next election will be the most corrupt in American history thanks to the Supreme Court ruling that corporations somehow have first amendment rights and can give unlimited amounts of money to politicians they support. Maybe we should change our motto from Land of the Free to Land of Corporate Control.

Its things like this and more that make me question what happened to the politics that existed in Andrew Jackson's or JFK's day?



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Land of the free indeed. Online extension of the Patriot act?

Rest assured though, the US is not the only place, there's been a media storm here in Norway lately over a new law they want approved, the Data Storage Directive, which basically allows the storage and screening of all data anyone who has an internet connection here ever does at all times. For "security purposes" of course... Needless to say; the people are wildly opposed the idea, even more needless to say; that doesn't matter, the bill will be passed if they want it to.

Democracy indeed, I'm glad we're imposing these solid values where individuals have all the freedom in the world in other parts of the world...



Simplistic, talking points from a memo or power point sell more to the American public now than a meaningful, respectful debate between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vida does and did in the past.

Contemporary American society is more impolite than what it was 20, 30, and 40 years ago. With the explosion of the abortion issue dividing neighborhoods, work places, and families fiercely along with all the other hot button social issues of the time, America has become less polite, more scream, more emotional, and less patient with another's opposing view. This isn't even mentioning the explosion in television programs which would compete for the average American's time alongside PBS.

Think about it, if you have a 9 to 5 job, have kids to support and nurture, a mortgage to pay, and vehicles to pay off, the last thing you want to do after a hard days work is take the time to listen and follow a debate between gigantic intellectuals like William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal. You will most likely settle for American Idol, Glee, Modern Family, or some other brainless entertainment.

We could go into Fox News injecting news with entertainment, but there are other threads for that where agreement is rare and everyone has a different opinion of who is to blame for spinning complex political issues into brainless sound bites like "tax cuts = economic policy" or "Gay Marriage = Gay Rights" or "Medical Marijuana = Path to Legalization" and so on.



yes you are 100% right about net neutrality.  The real problem is that the corporations are paying the politicians to misinform people.  They would just love it if they had that kind of control over the internet.

Not sure why you are calling out the democrats about being pro israel, there is no politician that isn't insanely pro israel in the US, it isn't possible to be tough on israel and get elected.  Every tv network and newspaper is afraid to run anything but pro israel stories because of AIPAC.  AIPAC literally runs uses millions of dollars against politicians to run tv campaigns against them if they vote against israel.   

again we shouldn't be blaming politicians for this, they have their hands tied by special interests and corporate lobbies.  They only have a small bit of change that they get to fight over, while the real change that the people want was never part of the discussion.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwxBKVTVCcc&feature=related



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Net neutrality is something that is needed, but I think the criticism of the new FCC rules is entirely justified ... It is not net neutrality, it does represent massive over-reach by an already powerful and abusive regulator, and about the only group's interests that were met by these changes are the telecommunications companies.



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Killiana1a said:

Simplistic, talking points from a memo or power point sell more to the American public now than a meaningful, respectful debate between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vida does and did in the past.

Dude, you sound hopelessly nostalgic for a period through which you didn't even live. Respectful? I really can't see anyone calling someone a Nazi in a public debate these days, and supposing they did, not even in the most fevered left-wing imagination would Sarah Palin respond by calling them a faggot and threatening to punch them in the face.



I blame republicans. They blocked the Dream Act and denied health insurance to the first 9/11 responders. It seems like in America that the actual good and hard working people suffer the most.



 

        

dany612 said:

I blame republicans. They blocked the Dream Act and denied health insurance to the first 9/11 responders. It seems like in America that the actual good and hard working people suffer the most.

They let 9/11 health insurance go through now that baby got their bottle (i.e. tax cuts for millionaires)



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

Simple solutions:

Everything politicians say to the public is recorded, their held accountable for any claim or promise they make to the people. Penalties include being fired (or impeeched), foreiting assets, steep fines and jailtime.

Major decisions and pieces of legislation can be vetoed/overturned by the people and must meet their approval in order to be passed. People have to wait 6-12months to for a repeal to a passed Bill/act ( in case they change their minds before the bill/decision has taken affect). They can ammend or modify bills/acts at any time.

too bad these will never come to fruition in America (looks at Europe)



Mitsurugi said:

Simple solutions:

Everything politicians say to the public is recorded, their held accountable for any claim or promise they make to the people. Penalties include being fired (or impeeched), foreiting assets, steep fines and jailtime.

Major decisions and pieces of legislation can be vetoed/overturned by the people and must meet their approval in order to be passed. People have to wait 6-12months to for a repeal to a passed Bill/act ( in case they change their minds before the bill/decision has taken affect). They can ammend or modify bills/acts at any time.

too bad these will never come to fruition in America (looks at Europe)

I think it is much simpler than that ...

Simply make all communications between elected officials and their staff part of the public record after 6 weeks, with the only exceptions being when the communications are about private information about an individual or if it would violate national security; and in both cases these communications would have to be reviewed by a non-partisan committee and a non-partisan auditor. I could be wrong but I suspect that when all the wheeling and dealing was made public the ability for elected officials to work against the best interests of the public to benefit special interest groups would be eliminated.