Somebody else posted this on another board and I thought I would share it. This Icke guy is apparently pretty far out there and the end gets pretty weird, but I think a lot of what he says during most of this is pretty accurate. He's not a supporter of either candidate . . .but I think anybody with an interest in politics will find this interesting.

David Icke - Live At The Oxford Union Debating Society

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

David Icke is, you know, quite crazy.

I know. . .that's why I'm having a hard time figuring out if everything he says is hooey. Did you watch the video? Some of what he says makes so much sense.

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

It's easy to fall into the trap that there is no difference between parties or that some huge global conspiracy exists to enrich the very few. Quite frankly, David Icke is nuts. Ralph Nader (did you know that he's second generation Lebanese?) often states that our 2 parties are virtually the same.

But, there is a huge difference in philosophy between the parties. Some of the debates that we have in our country, for instance, strong central government vs. strong state government, have gone on since our founding. For Republicans, all tax cuts are good, deficits don't matter, war is always good, dissent is bad. government should be small enough to drown in a bathtub, and intellectuals are bad, not to mention elite. They believe in Horatio Alger stories and trickle down economics.

From these memes, I envision the US as a alliance of 50 separate and autonomous states. It would be difficult to garner enough support for us to ever act as a country. 50 different educational systems with 50 different standards, 50 different health care systems, 50 different tolerances for pollution, 50 different squabbles, 50 different trade policies and 50 different fiscal policies; this is the Libertarian wing of the GOP. Then, you have the Fundamentalists wing that wants to outlaw abortion, teach Creationism as science and legislate morality.

The Democratic Party has an entirely different philosophy; they believe in giving everyone an equal opportunity. They are not talking about Socialism, just equal opportunity. This means everyone must get a quality education and access to health care. In order to do that, it means sufficient taxes to carry out these programs. It means that we, the people, must pay attention to the legislation being passed and demand accountability. I think that we are stronger as a country when we have a prosperous middle class.

Republicans have redistributed wealth, it all went to the top 1%.

Differing philosophies yes maybe. . .different actions. . .not so much. That's the point. They sell it like they are different, but anymore their actions aren't really. I'll ask again. . . did you get that healthcare or better access to quality education under Clinton? I know we sure as hell didn't get smaller federal government and less taxes under Bush! And don't blame it on partisan politics. . . they sure were able to come together quicky when it came to the bailout.

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

I got through the twelve minute mark. And I only watched that long because I went to college at Oxford in the early 80s, and I attended religiously the Oxford Union debates.

I thought the whole thing was sad. When I went there, we hissed every ridiculous sentiment. The audience was just so apathetic. It wasn't even a packed audience.

And he was so hiss-worthy. Maybe he said something more worthwhile down the road, but all I can think is, "he gets paid for that?"

What did he say that you thought was great, because I didn't see anything in my admittedly limited time watching him.

The idea of a quality education for everyone actually came from Jefferson. I originally started thinking about affordable, quality health care for all under Clinton. Newt, and others, sure made sure that wasn't going to happen.

I think your ideas about what the two parties stand for our pretty off base.

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm