sunnykerr

On the last page, we were discussing the policies of the candidates.

I do think that whomever is elected has the opportunity to elect new Justices to the Supreme Court, but I also believe that it's not a done deal regardless.

Look at Bush's electees. Everyone thought they'd gun for Roe v. Wade the second they had a chance. Yet, that decision still stands.

Not to mention that not all Democrats, far from it actually, are in favour of amending the second ammendment. More to the point perhaps, considering it is enshrined in the constitution, even the most determined anti-gun Justice would have to be very crafty in even attempting to remove completely the right to bear any kind of arms for all individuals.

To say nothing of the incredible sway that the NRA clearly has on this issue.

vc318

Thanks for the new thread, Sunny.

I don't see why it would matter who gets elected to the seat. Again, the right to bear arms is our constitutional right.

ceilirose

You have to amend the Constitution to take away the right to bear arms. Each house of Congress has to pass it by a large margin and the each state has to pass it or at least a majority of them do.

That's not going to happen.

Now the Supreme Court has already upheld the ban on a certain type of late term abortion procedure and if McCain win's he's stated that he will overthrow Roe v. Wade.

Fez

Did you watch Obama's speech in Germany just now? I'm impressed. A lot of marketing - but I think he gained sympathy. Too bad the German translator was awful - I switched to cnn after 5 minutes.

*Nora*

Can't believe 150.000 people came to hear him speak. Not that I dont like him, but I really didn't expect so many people to come.

Fez

Eureopean people have a lot of faith in him. If anyone is able to steer the boat of American's foreign affairs into clear water, it's him.

sunnykerr

The thing of it is... Whomever is elected as an American president has probably more impact on the rest of the world than any other national leader. For instance, I wouldn't expect our prime minister to draw huge crowds. I mean, I still Canada kicks butt. But, if we made a foreign policy decision tomorrow, it wouldn't have nearly as much impact on the world than the decisions made by the American president.

It's actual kind of painful, in a way. It's totally normal that we don't get to vote for whomever gets elected. But, at the same time, when we all know how much the decision will affect us... we can't help but have a huge vested interest.

Fez

That's true. And at the same time it pains us foreigners that we have no influence at all on the elections.

Uh Blah

Well until the election process is fixed some people in this very country won't feel like they have an affect on it either.

Fez

But only the Americans themselves can change that. But they won't change anything as most of them want to stay oblivious and this is what should bug everyone.

ceilirose

That's partly true but we do have a problem of actual votes being counted by those who do vote.

Fez

I don't really think the counting is the issue, but the registration process. I've heard of competely innocent American citizens being rejected because of the ethnicy or religion.

ceilirose

No..there were huge problems in getting votes counted in Florida in 2000 and also getting a paper trail from the electronic machines. It's an ongoing problem and one no one wants to deal with it in this country. There are registration problems too but people actually not feeling that their votes mattered is a huge one too.

Fez

That's the case everywhere. In my country there are actual people counting the votes, no machines are used!

ceilirose

I know but the mess in Florida gave us Bush for the last years, LOL. We paid a huge price for that.