Imagethief

I admire Obama. Would make an excellent president. Far better than the current turd in power.

My ideal choice would be Mike Bloomberg as president and Hagel as vp. Look at the work mike has done for ny. Simply amazing. Imagine if he takes over the country.

And in 2004, I registered billrichardson.us because I wanted him to run for president, decent guy, unfortunately I did not renew that domain. With hillary and obama, the rest of the field has been obscured.

The country doesn't need another right left president, it needs someone who make the domestic economy a priority rather than ieding hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of men.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Is that a film a TV series? Sounds brilliant!

Will, I find your "even if it's the American democratic process" jab inaccurate, if not belitteling:

- did you blog about fact villiage election had expanded to county level 5-6 years ago?

- did you blog about district-level People's Congress couple years ago? If you are in Beijing you must have seen it.

And before you reply with the standard "one party" retort, make sure you check out the elections where non-CCP, some cases even write-in candidate defeating CCP candidates. (I have links ready.)

Will,

You're a brave soul. My father, bless his soul, told me that there are three things not to discuss at a dinner party with mixed company. Sex, religion, and politics. I'm not sure where he read that, and I can't bothered to google it at the moment.

Were he here today, I think he would more than likely expand that policy to blogging topics.

It's one thing to have a nice heated/unheated chat with friends, colleagues, or the occasional stranger in a bar. I can usually pick up pretty quick whether the aformention topics are broachable.

Here in the blogosphere, unfortunately, we have people who look for a fight (Charles Liu's comment above) or debate, where clearly one was not asked for.

I think it very childish for one to "slam" a blog author for not providing content... For me, the whole point of a personal blog is to post whatever I want.

And to to it all off, the reader clearly misunderstood the statement, as he seemed to think you were extolling the virtues of "the American Democratic system" as a jab at the Chinese system. When in fact I read it as the exact opposite. :)

Sex, religion, and politics to be discussed next time I'm on town. Bring a crowd.

@Charles Liu - WTF?

I am glad to learn that American village elections have expanded to the county level. Should allow people to vote out some of the more notorious county sheriffs and other figures. If they had done this 20-30 years ago then scenarios like the Dukes of Hazzard would never have happened.

The district-level People's Congress thing mystifies me, though. Why would you need another democratic assembly just to discuss school management and funding?

Will, here what you wrote

"it's nice to see the democratic process coming to China, even if it's the American democratic process"

This is at a minimum inaccurate, as village election had expanded to county level. Also district level election, an indirect election for national People's Congress, started couple years ago.

Again you give them too little credit.

@William

Not until the Taishi story came out couple years did people learn impeachment of village officias in China was not unprecedented:

http://sun-bin.blogspot.com/2005/10/taishi-and-village-impeachment.html

One study group documented 52 cases of village level recall/impeachment proceedings.

Joke at who's expense?

Will, feel free to make light of the jabs you are taking on the Chinese, but the links are all factual.

For example the US group that compiled the villiage level impeachments were the 6/4 TAM students.

Here are some more progress on China's election front your joke neglects to recognize:

- Civil rights activist Lu Banglie winning *municipal level election* freely and fairly as an independent candidate:

http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%C2%C0%B0%EE%C1%D0&cl=3

- Beijing holding district level People's Congress election [district PC deputies are electors for national PC]:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/08/content_288018.htm

"independent candidates in Beijing's district people's congress elections. The independent candidates are nominated by groups of 10 or more voters"

Will --

Next time you talk about American politics, you should simply attach someone's dissertation on village politics in China for those who for some completely unknown reason see a clear linkage.

Democracy... Isn't that when there is a Government versus the Opposition coupled with a swathe of anti-Government (and sometimes pro-Government) "non aligned" members from other various political parties ?

I just love Elections in Australia. The process and verification, trusteeship and scrutineers makes it as clear as the air in Arizona. Political guillotines are common.

Government Senators and Ministers can 'cross the floor' and vote with the Opposition to ensure that some Government bills will not be enacted, according to their conscience and complaints/advice from the electorate.

Without fear of imprisonment, or inexplicable disappearance of family members.

Sigh.

Compare and contrast. It's as easy as sipping a latte in Starbucks.

When you have a dominant ahhh (read between the lines) un-reproachable lot in power, with no threat of opposition then we do not need to connect the dots.

However, we are here and should be circumspect in criticism of the Political process here (obvious references not displayed). We are guests here, and it would be best if we kept our thoughts behind closed doors, among friends.

Sure ain't like Arkansas, Birmingham or Sydney.

Jamieson.