Ben Dover points out"  "Again your history is flawed! the trouble came when we started allowing NON-LAND-OWNERS to vote in Federal elections!! The founding fathers had it right, then Democrats fucked it all up! As usual!!!"

Well, how much land?  Can I buy an inch in AK off a cereal box so I can vote?  How about a time-share?

So I suppose it would be Thomas Jefferson or one of those who fucked that up, although voting has usually been a state thing, and it wasn't until Reconstruction that the Feds really got into it.

I guess Ben & all those Christians will be able to prove how the Reconstruction Republicans were really Democrats in drag, sorta like Mark Foley; and we've really been going downhill long before we gave the darkies the vote.

Those are your choices, guys.  Ya take religious righties as they are, or not.

Aren't you glad Ben is governing the TER politics, and not out running for office somewhere?  This guy could be on YOUR condo association board, which is just another good reason to stay the FUCK away from condos!!!

but the amount you actually PAY in taxes should!!

If someone is living off the public welfare, NO vote. After that, I say you get 1 vote for every 1000 you pay in taxes!!

Democracy is for pussies!!!!

even UC grads?  What if a convicted felon makes tons of $$, like Mike Millken?

What taxes are we taking about, all FICA deductions?  

So you don't think govt should be separate from the economy?  You know, sort of buy your votes, you either take the deduction, or get the vote?

have a scale whereas if you are in the military or a teacher,fireman,police officer, etc then you would get credit towards the amount you paid. (They are basically taking lesser pay to perform for the common good).

However, if you are not doing something like this and not paying taxes, SD & STFU...

man, go back to school before you try to play with the big boys.

Rookie!!!

you tried to answer one of 3 questions!!   That's below 70%, but since you're Republican, we'll pad your grade and you get a nice "D" for effort.  

Try to answer the other 2, and then we'll ask you how you figure your scale lines up with the 14th amendment, you know, that equal protection shit that people shouldn't be slaves?  

You know, the problem you seem to be having here is that you folks are going to have to work a whole lot harder than you're accustomed to, before you can turn the clock back 2 or 300 years.

Now sit down and have a drink, I know you must be exhausted from all that reading.  Ya fucking idiot.

I am not the craziest motherfucker in the discussion.

what brilliance are you gonna lay on us, that it's a "country"??!!

Your statement doesn't even make it to rookie.

The technical answer is that the US is a republic [as we electe various folks to serve in gov't and we hope "represent" our "interests" [and the common good as well, if that's not too much of a stretch], as oppossed to doing it al ourselves, personally, and a federal republic as well.

that "republic"  vs "democracy" or any other one-word definition is something for philosophers to  talk about along with how many angels can dance on the heads of pins.  Neither term figures into the US constitution or any other basic structural document of the US, and neither term is clear, let alone clearly applicable to the US govt.

What the issue is, is a mantra for ivory tower political philosophers who are part time Human Events writers with insufficient applied knowledge to acheive true soulful wisdom, RIGHT BEN!!??

I'm gonna send Ben over to Dr Mona Lisa Schulz (PLEASE GOOGLE HER WHEN YOU"RE BORED), and let them argue about true soulfulness.

from his ass to his brain without seeing the light of day.  All that shit in the outside world is scary to a conservative, who reacts by putting his head as far up his ass as he can.

So find yourself the strangest sounding shit you can, like maybe something about people begetting and smiting each other, and that must be the Godawful truth.   If God gets angry with you and sends locusts or floods, whatever you do, do NOT think about it or try to fix it, no, you just run screaming and yelling until you find somebody who will take your money to build himslef a nice big house and pray for you.

ONE vote if you pay ANY tax?

Or better yet, ONE vote if you don't accept ANY money, payment in kind, any tax credit or any individual benefit from the government?

There is quite a difference from a democracy.

show me some document that is basic to US govt that relies on your definition, or not.

The fact that the constitution describes a specific procedure or form does not make a rats ass what you want to call it.   You could call it fucking pumpkin pie and it'd work the same way.

ie, one man/woman/TG, one vote, unless you're alien or felon, works much better.

I mean, if we were to count votes by overall taxes, a lot of Repubs would be disenfranchised.

The problem with thinking direct taxes should be the primary measure of contribution is that govt often finances things thru debt, which of course devalues the currency and makes anybody with a position vested in the currency pay.

What works best is giving people a variety of inputs, like their vote, their money, their feet, and other choices.  Then they work things out for themselves.

-- Modified on 12/3/2006 7:15:00 PM

I'm sure you've never complained about the complexity of bureaucracy, so you think your scale would not be an administrative disaster and invitation to an ongoing fight.

And one of the basic problems with the tax idea is that anybody holding the currency is penalized in lieu of taxes when the govt finances thrught debt, so you'd probably have to give a lot of Chicoms the vote.

of the blacks, but how do we deal with the Jews?

you believe that words do not mean things, or they mean whatever you would like them to mean.

Just not reality though.

Try reading the Federalist Papers for a start.

but what you do with your mother is your own business

the reason I don't answer a lot of your questions is simply because you are not worth my time.

Anyone who can do nothing but hurl insults is a non-entity in the political debate and not to be taken seriously, yeah, like you...

my guess is you don't get to vote on a single piece of legislation? Does that sound like a democracy?

"and to the REPUBLIC, for which it stands". Do you need me to tell you where this phrase is from

DUH....

BTW, good luck in the Special Olympics, because you just got your ass kicked here...

"The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the popular children's magazine Youth's Companion by socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy on September 7, 1892. The owners of Youth's Companion were selling flags to schools, and approached Bellamy to write the Pledge for their advertising campaign. It was marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Americas and was first published on the following day."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

Now, what were you saying?