Re: British Politics
Very Well. E para gje qe ndodh me "Bleeding Hearts" extra left Chicken wing forumheads eshte qe per Ameriken dhe gjerat ne pergjithesi flasin me hamendje dhe duket se flene mbi dafina.
Nuk mund te diskutosh dicka ne rast se nuk ka ne anen tjeter nje complete understanding or grasp if you may te asaj cka eshte ShBA sot. While here is big and growing (We'd like to invite britain to become the 51,st state) lol - it is not as imprialistic as one would imagine. John Locke is still a college topic and politics in general can be seen as larger yet less refined copies of british poli-tricks. the country is changing, greeks and albanians are already running for mayor or city counsilor. minorities will soon be leaders, an Austrian idiot might be the president soon, or Hillary- how bout that [ndaluar]!@ This is sitill the land of oportunity though, and this stuff is all real check this out...
18-year-old mayor-elect's proclamation: "It's cool"
By P.J. Huffstutter
Los Angeles Times
HILLSDALE, Mich. — When Mike Sessions ran for vice president of the Hillsdale High School student council last year and lost, he swore he'd make a political comeback.
This week, the senior did so in a startling way: He was elected mayor of Hillsdale.
On Thursday, after officials reviewed each ballot, they announced — to the shock of many in town — that the 18-year-old had beaten Douglas Ingles, 670-668.
"It's amazing. It's cool," said Sessions, whose four-year term begins Nov. 21. "I'm so excited, I think I'm going to be ill."
School already has taken a back seat.
He missed homeroom Thursday to do phone interviews with Michigan rock-music stations. He didn't show up at the middle school where he volunteers as a teacher's aide because he and his family had been whisked to New York to do "Late Show with David Letterman."
His parents called the high-school principal and told him Sessions was sick.
"He's been coughing and getting over bronchitis since Saturday," said his mother, Lorri Sessions, 42, a custodian for a sorority house. "It's been overwhelming."
Indeed, five days before the election, Sessions wound up in the emergency room because of the bronchitis. He had spent too many nights knocking on doors in the cold, trying to persuade residents to write his name on the ballot when they voted.
"I tried to tell him to wear his coat," said his mother. "But he wouldn't."
Ingles, who owns a local roller-skating rink, declined to comment on his defeat by someone too young to have his name on the ballot during the spring primary. Earlier this month, The (Toledo) Blade quoted Ingles, 51, as saying: "How much credibility does an 18-year-old have?"
Being mayor in Hillsdale, population 8,200, is a part-time job, City Manager Tim Vagle said; it comes with a $3,600 annual stipend.
Hillsdale's day-to-day administration and operation are handled by Vagle. The mayor and the other eight council members make policy decisions and approve the budget.
Sessions won't have an office or staff. He is required to attend two City Council meetings a month.
"It shouldn't conflict with him being in school. They're held at night," said Vagle. Which is a good thing, Hillsdale High Principal Peter Beck said: "I told him that if he wins, he'll still need to finish his homework. ... I'd hate to have to suspend a city official."
In late September, days after turning 18 and registering to vote, Sessions walked into the City Clerk's Office and filed his intention to run for mayor as a write-in candidate. His advertising budget was modest: the $700 he had saved from his summer job selling cotton candy and candied apples at local county fairs. But it was enough to pay for hundreds of business cards and 50 lawn signs.
In the three weeks before the election, Sessions got classmates to help him organize public meetings and canvass neighborhoods.
"Each day after school, he would pick an area and go door to door, telling people who he was and that he was running for mayor," said Lauren Beck, 17. "He'd talk about why he should be mayor and had a sample of the ballot so he could show people where they had to write in his name."
At first, residents thought Sessions was doing it as a joke or as a way to bolster his college application by adding mayoral candidate to his list of after-school activities, along with being the announcer for the high-school soccer team.
Some people laughed. Others shut the door. But then the mood around town shifted.
"A lot of people seemed impressed that he was working so hard," said Brandon Thomas, 17, who has known Sessions since elementary school.
The candidate spoke at the Kiwanis Club, a record shop and the local firehouse. Hillsdale's three-man department was sold: Convinced Sessions would help it fill a firefighter-job opening that has been vacant for two years, it endorsed him.
Sessions even brought in stacks of voter-registration cards to the school cafeteria and persuaded students who were 18 to vote, the principal said.
Lorri Sessions and her husband, Scott, 46, a medical technician, said their son long has been interested in politics.
"He would watch the town City Council meetings on TV every week," Lorri Sessions said. "He'd try to get us to join him. He found the whole process fascinating."
A few years ago, after the automotive-manufacturing plant Scott Sessions had worked for left town, Lorri Sessions said her son began talking about running for office.
The economy in Hillsdale, in south-central Michigan bordering Indiana and Ohio, has been slumping since several large manufacturing facilities either closed or relocated in recent years. The unemployment rate hovers around 6 percent, and more than 10 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line — $19,350 for a family of four — census figures show.
"Here's this kid talking about how there are grants to help towns like ours attract biotech companies," said shop owner John Spiteri, 49, who voted for Sessions. "I'm friends with Doug [Ingles]. He's taught my kid to skate. But people here are hungry for anyone who can pump life back into this town. I had to vote for Mike."
Sessions will graduate from high school in June and said he plans to remain in town and study political science at Hillsdale College.
The phones at City Hall have been busy since the election results were announced, with calls from curious residents and pleas from at least three Hollywood studio executives, each of whom wanted to buy the movie rights to Sessions' story.
