There is a new story circulating today that a former assistant—Paul
Re: Armstrong doping question
Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:50:06 +0100
"Just zis Guy, you know?" <u...@ftc.gov>

We don’t like our Prime Minister either. A lot of people were not at all happy about the idea of invading Iraq, and that had no connection with their views on other political issues of the day.

We don’t think your businesses are anti-green. We do think your President is, but we have evidence for that. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that he’s an oilman, a global warming denier and apparently hell-bent on using all the oil before anyone else does.

Is your electoral process corrupt? Even W’s best friends surely could not think that Florida 2000 was anything other than fishy. Just as our PM’s best friends could not pretend that the postal votes fiasco looks good.

Is your citizenry overweight? You said it, not me. And Greg Critser said it in Fat Land. The idea that the US is the world’s most overweight nation is not some kind of invented prejudice, it’s a documented fact - and all the documentation is coming from US doctors who are concerned about it.

Are Americans stupid? Nobody said they were. Misled, sometimes, but no more stupid on average than the sheeple of any other country.—Just

I think the political view is fairly constant, and largely manifests itself across political issues. Conservatives will have a fairly predictable suite of positions they take over a range of issues as do "liberals". It’s rare for people to cross over politically.—Stephen

But that wasn’t what I said. Opposition to the war came from people of all political colours.—Just

Again, another form of negative American stereotyping. Americans do everything for oil. That was why the US was involved in bombing Serbia and Kosovo. That was why the US was involved in Vietnam. That is the driving force for the Iraq invasion. Oil dictates American foreign policy. No other country in the world cares about oil (at least not to the point of fighting over it) except the US. Greedy American oil companies want to rule the world.

I don’t buy it. It’s a factor in any nation’s foreign policy (or it out to be for a responsible government). It’s not the over-riding rule in foreign policy decision-making though.—Stephen

No, anti-Bush stereotyping. Lots of Americans are active environmentalists, Bush is not. It is possible to dislike individual Americans - even the leader - without being anti-American. Neocons can’t see this, of course, but everyone else can.—Just

See, I didn’t say that. I think greedy capitalists want to rule the world. Not all of them are American.—Just

Europe largely bought into the "stolen election" claims in Florida/2000, and to a lesser extent Ohio/2004. (Strange that the Republicans were so clever as to "steal" votes in some 60 voting districts controlled by Dems in Florida and also managed to do so in Ohio in 2004: the very states that ended up deciding the election!)

In fact we had a tied election in 2000. Every voting error or person missing from a voter list suddenly got magnified into a "plot" to steal an election. There have been plenty of after-event studies done to show there was no such plot to steal elections in 2000 and 2004. But the belief is still there amongst the more [politically] liberal bent of mind.—Stephen

Yes. It’s largely anecdotal or outright made up.

Voting "irregularities" happen all the time. Sometimes because the voter wasn’t on the ball, e.g. registering or changing residence, or not filling out town census forms (which will automatically kick you off voter rolls here in Massachusetts). Sometimes the "system" screws up. People got dropped from voter lists through no fault of their own. It was the fault of some city worker, or machine, or whatever.

The infamous punch ballot was used by several states. They’d been used in FL previously. The ballots must be approved by elections commissions from all parties. No complaints. No serious problems in past elections although the "hanging chad" issue was known; no serious problems in the 2000 election in other states. ONLY FLORIDA! Why would that be? Because FL closely decided the election.

The idea that Blacks were systematically dropped from voter rolls is just largely made up by unhappy liberals trying to undermine a narrow win in Florida and a narrow capture of the Presidency in 2000 by a conservative.

The same thing was tried in Ohio (because that was the state that determined the win) in 2004. Not quite so close so it was more difficult to make political hay out of it.

I especially liked the group of seniors in FL/2000 who reported into a news camera that they "thought they might have been disenfranchised".—Stephen

Really. So no black voters were disqualified on spurious grounds then?—Just

Actually, that’s not quite right. Punch card ballots are also used in Cook County, Illinois, and the number of spoiled ballots was rather startingly high. This wasn’t a 2000 election phenomenon, but did come to light in 2000 because of the Florida issue. There were no close races in 2000 in Illinois so it didn’t matter to the election outcome. The mess in Florida did get the government to act to prevent a future fiasco, though.

Cook County has since installed equipment that you run your ballot through that informs you if you have under- or over-voted. (Only over-voting results in a spoiled ballot.)—Mike

 
 
 
 

Absolutely! A real problem brought on by junk food probably. I think about 30% of children are over-weight (maybe obese). Still, "all Americans" are not overweight.

And I might add, Europe is merrily following the weight-gain trend. The US is simply ahead of you that’s all.—Stephen

Nobody said they were. But most are, and it is a documented fact that /more/ Americans are /more/ overweight than are Europeans. Which invites the question of why you dropped that particular issue into the discussion...—Just

Fair enough. —Stephen