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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (7658)	2/12/2003 6:01:01 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25898

World opinion? Why should that matter to those of us who are civilized and sane? Did you know that your favorite world organization, the UN, has selected Libya to lead its Commission on Human Rights and Iraq to chair its Commission on Disarmament? Is that the kind of "world" leadership you favor?

To: PartyTime who wrote (7658)	2/12/2003 7:28:45 PM
From: Just_Observing	Respond to of 25898

You see, with only half of the people in America performing the citizen duty of voting Here is how America compares with the rest of the world. These figures are through 1998. Things have become much worse since then. From an international perspective, the United States ranks 139th out of 172 countries in voter turnout. That figure, and those in the table below, are drawn from cumulative results of all elections held from 1945 through 1998. Figures are presented as voter turnout as percentage of voting age population. Who Votes Worldwide? Italy (turnout as percentage of voting age population): 92.5 New Zealand: 86.2 Uzbekistan: 86.2 Netherlands: 84.8 Australia: 84.4 Portugal: 82.4 Germany: 80.6 Spain: 77.0 United Kingdom: 74.9 Turkey: 73.5 Venezuela: 72.2 India: 60.7 Syria: 58.0 Russia: 55.0 United States: 48.3 Thailand: 47.4 Zambia: 40.5 Sources: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance; Federal Elections Commission Moreover, in the 2002 elections, less than 2 in 5 voted in the Congressional elections. The power and the money of the incumbents ensured their victory with a certainty of 99%: Of the 382 incumbents not facing fellow incumbents, 378 won -- the highest re-election percentage in history. Fewer than one in ten House races were decided by margins of less than 10%, and barely one in six were won by less than landslide 20% margins. Is it any wonder that our Democracy is in peril? pbs.org fairvote.org