Green and Lib Presidential Candidates Arrested

http://www.badnarik.org/newsfromthetrail.php?p=1346
http://www.progress.org/2004/debates08.htm

Apparently, it's illegal to show up to a presidential debate if you're in a 3rd party.

3rd parties are clearly undemocratic and must be banned forever!!!

It is when you are a consistent troublemaker who's only out for attention (thanks, btw, to the CPD for giving it to them) and has next to zero support in the general electorate.

At least Perot scored fucking 19%.

Perot also participated in the debates. Coincidence?

They only have such low support because they aren't given an opportunity to publicly speak their opinions. Perot only got a shot at it because he was extremely rich and bought his way into the public eye.

Even though they have no chance of winning they tend to bring important issues to the table that the major candiates like to avoid.

Issues that the major candidates AND their supporting corporations that fund the so-called debate commission like to avoid. You think those businesses want to see Green or Libertarian policies enacted? Yeah, right.

^exactly

Policies like "Stop fucking up the envrionment by telling people if they buy smart cars they have small dicks, more like its the other way around" and "Dont fire your employees if they stick a pro-kerry sticker on thier smart car"

I like them because they're the only parties that are for the legalization of weed, at least for medicinal purposes. Plus they are for downsizing the military, which would also be useful as soon as we get out of Iraq. Thirdly, neither party sucks corporate cock.

deathbringer said:

"Dont fire your employees if they stick a pro-kerry sticker on thier smart car"

I don't suppose you're going to refer to the unions who demand that you vote democrat or lose your job. You know, the unions that also run schools that don't even allow teachers to have a picture of the president of the United States in their classroom

Ralphis said:

I don't suppose you're going to refer to the unions who demand that you vote democrat or lose your job. You know, the unions that also run schools that don't even allow teachers to have a picture of the president of the United States in their classroom

rofl what unions are those? my ex-gf's father was a big-time republican who never ever voted democrat (though I think he may have voted for Gore last election, but he was retired by then) and also a teacher for a good 20 or 30 years.

as for the president picture thing, I'd like some sources, but it probably counts as not pushing your views on your students since teachers normally aren't supposed to do that. plus in my high school few (if any) teachers had an actual classroom that was theirs as where a class was held was based on how many students and what was avaliable at the time.

edit: oh and I also might add that the greens and libs are both insane and neither is moderate enough, though the greens have their hearts in the right place.

Ralphis said:

I don't suppose you're going to refer to the unions who demand that you vote democrat or lose your job.

Voting is anonymous, so how exactly would they force you to vote democrat or find out if you voted/didn't vote democrat? Just because you are registered as a democrat doesn't mean you can't vote republican. :p

I don't think any labor union can force you to do anything with your own vote, though my dad doesn't like how his labor union supports democrat candidates with some of his own finances.

Cyb said:

rofl what unions are those? my ex-gf's father was a big-time republican who never ever voted democrat (though I think he may have voted for Gore last election, but he was retired by then) and also a teacher for a good 20 or 30 years.

Almost entirely EVERY construction union, and most school unions

as for the president picture thing, I'd like some sources, but it probably counts as not pushing your views on your students since teachers normally aren't supposed to do that. plus in my high school few (if any) teachers had an actual classroom that was theirs as where a class was held was based on how many students and what was avaliable at the time.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_100304_middleschoolteacher.html

She wasn't pushing any views. Like it or not(the latter applies to most of you), President Bush is just that, our president. Kerry IS NOT and was never. I think the article and the comments speak for themselves

edit: oh and I also might add that the greens and libs are both insane and neither is moderate enough, though the greens have their hearts in the right place.

Nutcases

Ralphis said:

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_100304_middleschoolteacher.html

She wasn't pushing any views. Like it or not(the latter applies to most of you), President Bush is just that, our president. Kerry IS NOT and was never. I think the article and the comments speak for themselves

You found the most whacked out crazy story of the night and applied it to a group of people. I heard this story before and I was skeptical... did you even read the follow up story on the same page? It confirms what I thought was probably happening. Let's face it, teachers are a very protected job and she had to be doing something MUCH MORE than just having a picture of President Bush on the wall... and the follow leads me to believe that that was the case.

Danarchy said:

Apparently, it's illegal to show up to a presidential debate if you're in a 3rd party.

purposely crossed a police barricade

That could've been a determining factor.

Ralphis said:

Almost entirely EVERY construction union, and most school unions

my entire family is in construction and they're mostly conservative (mainly due to their upbringing) but I have no real recollection what party if any they affiliate themselvs with. and as has been said, votes are anonymous so there's no way to enforce any sort of policy like that short of watching someone cast their vote.

Ralphis said:

She wasn't pushing any views. Like it or not(the latter applies to most of you), President Bush is just that, our president. Kerry IS NOT and was never. I think the article and the comments speak for themselves

yeah, like scuba said, the followup. Having your job threatened as a teacher is VERY hard to do. One of my old hs teachers was convicted of child molestation (he's currently in the county jail) and was not fired for it (tho he probably would have been had he not resigned). Another teacher had more than one sexual harassment case charged against him and he's still working there. After three years it's nearly impossible to lose your job, so this lady would have to do quite a bit to get to that point, and not simply putting up a picture of Bush which is fine, though not overly necessary and a bit odd for a middle school class. Current presidential pictures seem to suggest support for that person more than historical or teaching purposes unless the other 42 presidents accompany it.

Cyb has a point. You have to do alot of freaky shit to get canned if you're a middle school teacher.

Yeah, there were a ton of teachers at my high school that were busted for everything from sexual harassment (of students) to assult (on students), to displaying pornography (to students), and none of them were fired. They were all put on administrative leave though, which I think means they still got payed while not being able to work. YOUR TAX DOLLERS IN ACTION!

Anyway, I think I may vote for Cobb this year since Kerry is starting to get a good lead.

Cyb said:
edit: oh and I also might add that the greens and libs are both insane and neither is moderate enough, though the greens have their hearts in the right place.

Heh, we just had our federal election and with the greens getting a good chunk of the vote (for a minor party). I don't know what the American greens are like, but I will say that the result for the greens is about the only thing I'm happy with in this election :(

Darkhaven said:
Cyb has a point. You have to do alot of freaky shit to get canned if you're a middle school teacher.

I wonder if that's a result of the lack of interest public schools are getting for either your parties?

yea schools are a wierd place. though i do remember a very pro-democrat teacher in high school. however some private schools are fairly bad as far as religious dogma they teach children or warped world history.

as for the teacher at my highschool. he was a cool guy and he always made sure you got reisterted to vote if he knew you where 18. infact i think he him self was able to register you, i do remeber you could go to that room and do it.

Captain Red said:

I wonder if that's a result of the lack of interest public schools are getting for either your parties?

no it's due to the sheer strength of the teacher's union coupled with it being a government job (which is also impossible to get fired from here). their first three years it's insanely easy for them to get fired (and they are stuck with the classes full of people of, er, let's say, lesser intelligence) since it's all based on the grades of their students. once you get past those three years though you're pretty much set for life. you won't become a millionaire or anything but you'd be hard pressed to find a more secure job and after 20 or more years your salary gets pretty high (assuming you're not in an underfunded city district).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067152934X/qid=1097453489/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/103-1557761-1181407?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

This book gives a good point by point explanation on why it is almost impossible to fire a teacher. Some of the interesting bits are statistics that 15% of all teachers are incompetent, and what to do if you suspect that your child may have a bad teacher.

From what I recall there are so many reasons that a teacher cannot be fired. Like Cyb said, strong teacher's unions, Strong federal protection, and several others.