Although the glass is half full to me no matter who wins; cause at least it will be some degree of improvement over King George.

As for Obama’s organization, even as a Dem I hope the Republicans adopt, assuming they use it honestly, or more honestly than Dick Cheney would have. Actually, alot of Obama’s structure is modeled off of Bush. “We” language, going viral, use of surrogates to say what the candidate really wants to say… etc.

My hope for both parties’s use is just in the involvement and heightened discussion it brings along with. As for the voter blindness, as the new paradigm gets more typical we can only expect that people will become more informed, its the empowerment though that right now gets them really charged.

McCain has done himself no favors either.

As for Obama, eh, he’s as lukewarm of a candidate as far as the issues go for the Democrats as they’ve always put out; just his message is different.

No, less his message, his reach. See the difference between Obama and McCain is that he’s smart enough to know that if you let people become involved they’ll become excited and often, conveniently blind to the facts. My.BarackObama.com, Obama fellowships, huge rallies, the “we” and “us” language. Keep in mind I say this as a supporter.

Like the new look. I would also point out that I was listening to the Devo tune, “Mongoloid,” when I clicked over, which seems most appropriate. Funny how these things work.

the Grit

If someone thinks that this answer shows something on the list then the marker should respond appropriately. An F is for Frelling {Farscape talk for …} So it could be argued that the grade given reflects the answer given.

I sat the ‘O’ Level - ie the one before the GCSE and the major difference between then and now is that instead of giving grades out on performance compared to others - ie the top 10% of answers got top grade and so on - it is now based on marking schemes - ie if such skill is shown then such mark which turns into this grade… This move more than anything has stopped the tests from separating folk in a meaningful manner - if the tests are easier and thus it is also easier to display required stuff to get a good grade then the slight differences in marks are not used to differentiate between ever bigger hordes getting better grades.

I’ll say this - How do we know the teacher did their work? I would say you could say ‘use of profanity shows no concept for any criteria given’ and that would solve all your problems over manners - what it doesn’t is answer the question of why has somebody given such an answer in an exam - could it be that the education system betrayed them?

As in the old days - universities in the UK were recognized as having different levels of standards and some are still respected - as are some universities from the states (probably a stereotypical few that are well known … ) and now as we virtually feed ’students’ into universities over here they are becoming less able to do what they used to. And standards are falling…

Partly because the ‘A’ level also doesn’t now distinguish between performances as the GCSE doesn’t and so they find it harder to grade the level of offers for acceptance of students and that now bums on seats determines funding - so take even the dullest and just do the best with them and don’t forget to take the money because the department is struggling… of course this then makes it more dificult to maintain high standards throughout the institution…

To make things even worse the government - about to fail the failing universities - is wondering ‘how’ to make it so that those ‘youngsters’ stay within academia as long as a first degree [not grade - just get them through one degree for fuck's sake - and that's seems to be a literal sense of the government's position] then get a good grade so they can then be a ‘happy’ part of society and pay taxes - within this minefield of meanings there has not been an appreciation of academic rigour. And so the universities are responding in like manner to secure their funding.

I hope this comment is neither too long or ruins your idea for a posting…