There's no significant effort in the Democratic Party anymore.

But they still make a lot of noise, and if they gain some power they'll be carving away at the same old stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I ain't happy with them... just better than what we have now.

Not really. Other than background checks, but I would assume you support that, based on your support for felon ownership restrictions.

I was not talking about guns.

When one votes for a presidential candidate one is voting for the electors from one's state to cast their votes for the same candidate. If one votes for the Republican candidate, one is really voting for an elector who will be "pledged" to vote for the Republican candidate. The candidate who wins the popular vote in a state wins all the votes of the state's electors.

The Electoral College system was instated by Article II of the Constitution and later amended by the 12th Amendment in 1804.

Every state gets a number of electors equal to its number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives, plus one for each of its two U.S. Senators. The District of Columbia gets three electors. State laws determine how electors are chosen, they are usually selected by the political party committees within the states.

I bow before you vast wisdom concerning my knowledge of the EC. Sow what did I win, anyhow? My very own vacation in Guantanomo?

PS How did this thread get into gun control AGAIN? We only have 60 billion threads discussing the topic. Go shoot somebody, Maggie - you'll feel MUCH better, I'm sure.

Psst Mari, college not collge. Collge is a typo. ;)

We all know that, I think. But Maggie used my joke about Ben Franklin's type setting abilities to imply that I knew nothing about the electoral collge, electoral college, electoral collage or any other variant there-of. (actually, I admit to being rather poor at collage ;) )

An ear, for making a silk purse from. But anybody can Google up something after the fact. Congress is bicameral, so a simple majority of both houses is meaningless. The implication of ignorance was drawn from that.
See thread topic.

I will be waiting in anticipation down at the post office for my ear. Could you send me van Gogh's?

I love the word "bicameral," don't you? It sings trippingly off the tongue. I believe I first heard the word in 8th grade civics class.

I WAS under the impression that it was possible for the Senate to get that all important 2/3 majority. HM kindly corrected me. You, as usual, started a minor war over it.:rolleyes:

Politics as usual.


Eight more years of fixing the last eight years. That's the way I see it.

A simple majority in both houses, while not as good as a 2/3 majority, is quite meaningful. It's what the Republicans have had for a while.

I'm afraid you're being optimistic....I think it will take more than eight years to undo the damage. :(

Come on, Griff... I've already explained elsewhere why I think this war is blameless, both from a Libertarian point of view as well as an American nationalist one: in a nutshell, removing nondemocracies and replacing them with democracies, especially ones with enough self-confidence to destroy and devour anti-democratic groups within and anti-democratic foes without, is nothing but good for all mankind.

That is and will always be why I think I'm a stronger libertarian than you are. Libertarianism must not be a mere hothouse flower, that can only flourish in a benevolent U.S. environment; it should be something that can not merely defeat its enemies, but ruin them.

MaggieL: actually, a simple majority is critical. Why? The majority party chooses who heads the various commitees. That's important. That == control of what comes up for a vote. Personally, the R's may have dug themselves into a hole by eliminating Dems from Conference Committees. They're gonna be D's bitches.
Seperately, there won't be any impeachment proceedings. For one, only about 1/4 of the country supports them, and the Dems aren't that stupid (anyone remember what happened when the R's impeached Clinton? His ratings when up). Secondly, who becomes Prez if GWB goes down? Cheney! Are you f'in kidding me? Would you really want the man who doesn't release the list of employees in his office to preserve his Executive privilige as the Leader of the Free World? Not me.