So the Repukes in the House are going to read the Constitution out loud??

[Seshmeister]

A sacred text written by a bunch of English slave owners.

The US constitution was brilliant at the time, fucking A+ best constitution in the world 300 years ago.

Since then just about every country in the world has looked at it and cherry picked the good bits and left out the shitty stuff leaving you with one of the worst.

[Unchainme]

A sacred text written by a bunch of English slave owners.

The US constitution was brilliant at the time, fucking A+ best constitution in the world 300 years ago.

Since then just about every country in the world has looked at it and cherry picked the good bits and left out the shitty stuff leaving you with one of the worst.

with all due respect Sesh, why demean those that were involved by calling them "Slave owners"? To have a good comparsion, consider Kant, the german philosopher. He was a bit of a bigot, but his stuff was easily able to be turned around and used still to this day in modern philosophy, to actually preach equality and rationale.

It was quite a different time period and quite a few such as Ben Franklin were very much against the whole ordeal.

and i do agree, the damn thing does indeed need an reboot. It's again, quite a different time, I bet the founding fathers of this country ever thought that the US would be global power, there would be large corporations, that the country would be this large from Pacific to Atlantic, that the automobile, television and computers would have such a major impact on policy, or that trade with countries around the world would be so prevalent.

[FORD]

I think the whole damn system needs a reboot. The US counts the UK, Canada, Israel and Australia among our strongest allies. What do all of those countries have in common?

Besides a real goddamn health care system.

A parliamentary system of government, as opposed to a corporatist controlled duopoly.

Not that those countries are immune to right wing douchebaggery, of course. NuttyYahoo is among the worst of the worst. The Hosers can't seem to get rid of Stevie Wonderbush. And after Poodle Blair ruined the Labor party, even the Brits went back down the Tory road. But at least other parties can get a foothold in those countries (i.e. the NDP in Canada at least having a presence in their Parliament, as opposed to the Green party or any similar US entity)

We could learn from our friends. On more than one level.

[Unchainme]

to add, I love this take by Biafra, somewhat anarchistic, but I think more people like him need to speak up, instead of the same ol' same ol' politicians.

[Nitro Express]

What a complete crock of squalid maggoty scum spunk.

I think your politicians are even more useless and shitty than ours which is saying something.

I find your politicians entertaining. Obama is boring as hell. Congress is just people mumbling and crying. The Supreme Court are like ghosts because you never see them.

Also, if you shout out things, you get nasty stares and get punished. So much for free speech in Washington. Congress and presidential conferences would be better if we could let the insults fly and then have a guy in a powdered wig bang the gabel and yell order....order....order....

[Nitro Express]

I think the whole damn system needs a reboot. The US counts the UK, Canada, Israel and Australia among our strongest allies. What do all of those countries have in common?

Besides a real goddamn health care system.

A parliamentary system of government, as opposed to a corporatist controlled duopoly.

Not that those countries are immune to right wing douchebaggery, of course. NuttyYahoo is among the worst of the worst. The Hosers can't seem to get rid of Stevie Wonderbush. And after Poodle Blair ruined the Labor party, even the Brits went back down the Tory road. But at least other parties can get a foothold in those countries (i.e. the NDP in Canada at least having a presence in their Parliament, as opposed to the Green party or any similar US entity)

We could learn from our friends. On more than one level.

The system works fine if it runs the way it was originally intended to. The states originally had most the power. All the Federal Government in Washington was supposed to do was handle international diplomacy, run the military, regulate interstate commerce, and mint money. The President was commander in chief of the military, the Senate gave the states equal representation in Washington DC. The House handled the federal budget. The states were to govern themselves within their borders and the federal government governed the relationship between the states and foreign countries.

The whole healthcare issue really should be handled by individual states instead of the federal government. What corrupted things is the federal government got in bed with the Federal Reserve bank and could print endless amounts of money and the states can't. Then the states sold out to the Feds for federal money and got taken over.

[Nitro Express]

It makes sense. California is culturally different than Alabama. Not everyone wants things done the same way. Some areas are very conservative and others are liberal. If the states have most the authority then they can run things the way the people in that state want to run it. Some states would opt for a single payer plan and others would opt for a more capitalistic plan. Today, we want to make all the states the same and I see that as a huge mistake.

[Nitro Express]

Counting a slave as 3/5 a person was a compromise. In the Southern states at the time of the Continental Congress there were more slaves than free men in the South. Every state was trying to grub their share and the Southern states wanted to count all the slaves as one whole person in order to have a huge population based representation in the Federal Government. The northern states didn't want to count the slaves at all since this gave the south an unfair advantage.

We just have to remember slavery was well established when the colonies broke away from England and what to do about it was a huge question and not easily solved. The south and the north never got along that great because they were so economically and culturally different. This is what led to the civil war later.

The US Constitution can be changed and ratified but it's not an easy process. The 3/5 wording no longer applies since slavery is no longer practiced and black people are counted on the census and if they are citizens can legally vote. Maybe reading the constitution was a good thing because now we are talking about it. The Constitution outlines the process of changing parts of it that are outdated or no longer apply but it takes a majority vote in congress and approval by the president.

[Nitro Express]

Niether Jefferson or Franklin totally liked the constitution. They both saw some flaws in it but agreed it was a good enough compromise. Jefferson wanted a Bill of Rights added to it since he believed in a small federal government with the focus being on individual rights. It might also be noted that Thomas Jefferson had a high distrust of organized religion.

The so called bible believing patriots of today probably would be criticizing Jefferson and Franklin if those guys were alive today. Franklin liked late night parties and women and Jefferson distrusted organized religion and felt it had no place in government affairs. Today we have a neo conservative movement that in all actuality probably couldn't stand many of the founding fathers they praise if they went back in a time machine and actually met those guys.

[Seshmeister]

with all due respect Sesh, why demean those that were involved by calling them "Slave owners"? To have a good comparsion, consider Kant, the german philosopher. He was a bit of a bigot, but his stuff was easily able to be turned around and used still to this day in modern philosophy, to actually preach equality and rationale.

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable.

[BigBadBrian]

A sacred text written by a bunch of English slave owners.

The US constitution was brilliant at the time, fucking A+ best constitution in the world 300 years ago.

Since then just about every country in the world has looked at it and cherry picked the good bits and left out the shitty stuff leaving you with one of the worst.

You always come across as one who is extremely jealous of america and Americans. You know that, right? Too bad you weren't born here, Sesh. Evidently God wasn't smiling on you, being born in that shitty little island nation and all.

[Hardrock69]

One of my fave activities used to be watching "Question Time" in the House Of Commons. They would show it for an hour or so here in the States on C-Span on Sunday nights.

The name calling, laughter, loud commentary, boos, yelling and other boisterous behavior in what many people would think to be a solemn meeting of public representatives was incredibly entertaining. The US Congress are a bunch of old fuddy duddies in comparison.

[Nitro Express]

You always come across as one who is extremely jealous of america and Americans. You know that, right? Too bad you weren't born here, Sesh. Evidently God wasn't smiling on you, being born in that shitty little island nation and all.

Lemmy compares the US with the UK.

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