A Minority View

I've written an email to the UN asking for a raw data feed for UN General Assembly votes that could be fed into publicwhip. No reply yet. This 200-3 vote pattern is quite common.

If we were the 51st state at least we would have some kind of say in which idiot was the president

Just to show that some Americans have had it all taped down for years, here's some more top-class art:

- Prime Minister's office, Prime Minister speaking.
- Greetings, this is the Secretary of War at the State Department of the United States... We have a problem. The companies want something done about this sluggish world economic situation... Profits have been running a little thin lately and we, we need to stimulate some growth. Now we know there's an alarmingly high number of young people roaming around in your country with nothing to do but stir up trouble for the police and damage private property... Doesn't look like they'll ever get a job. It's about time we did something constructive with these people... We've got thousands of 'em here too... They're crawling all over. The companies think it's time we all sit down, have a serious get-together and start another war... The President? Oh he loves the idea! All those missiles streaming overhead, to and fro... Napalm... People running down the road, skin on fire... The Soviets seem up for it... The Kremlin's been itching for the real thing for years. They want a little going-away-present for mister Brezhnev - Hell, Afghanistan's no fun... So whadya say?... We don't even have to win this war. We just want to cut down on some of this excess population... Now look. Just start up a draft; draft as many of those people as you can. We'll call up every last youngster we can get our hands on, give 'em an hour or two to learn how to use an automatic riffle and send 'em on their way... El Salvador? How 'bout Northern Ireland? Or a "moderately repressive regime" in South America? We'll just cook up a good Soviet threat story in the Middle East - we need that oil... We had Libya all ready to go and Colonel Khadafy's hit squad didn't even show up. I tell ya... that man is unreliable. The Russian had their fingers on the button just like we did for that one... Now just think for a minute - we can make this war so big, so BIG. The more people we kill in this war, the more the economy will prosper... We can get rid of practically everybody on your dole queues if we plan this right. Take every loafer on welfare right off our computer rolls... Now don't worry about those demonstrators, just pump up your drug supply. So many people have hooked themselves on heroin and amphetamines since we took over, it's just like Vietnam. We had everybody so busy with LSD they never got too strong. It kept the war functioning just fine... It's easy. We've got our college kids so interested in beer they don't even care if we start manufacturing germ bombs again. Put a nuclear stockpile in their back yard, they wouldn't even know what it looked like... So how 'bout it? I mean, look - war is money. The arms manufacturers tell me unless we get our bomb factories up to full production the whole economy is going to collapse... The Soviets are in the same boat. We all agree the time has come for the big one, so whadya say?!?... We all agree the time as come for the Big One!
- It's marvelous!
- That's excellent. We knew you'd agree... The companies will be very pleased.

TheThe alternative

You may also be thinking of:

The ammunition's been passed
And the Lord's been praised
But the wars on the televisions
Will never be explained
All the bankers gettin' sweaty
Beneath their white collars
As the pound in our pocket
Turns into a dollar

THIS IS THE 51st STATE OF THE U.S.A
THIS IS THE 51st STATE OF THE U.S.A
THIS IS THE 51st STATE OF THE U.S.A
THIS IS THE 51st STATE OF THE U.S.A

Source
iTunes sample

gerbil said:

"If we were the 51st state at least we would have some kind of say in which idiot was the president"

Not the way they fix the voting over there

The New Model Army were denied entry the the US for a sellout tour on the basis of "insufficient artistic merit" shortly after releasing this track. They had toured before and the US public were buying plenty of their records.

I wonder what the reason could have been?

gerbil said:

--- "If we were the 51st state at least we would have some kind of say in which idiot was the president"

Same goes for the population of various other protectorates. And if you're in DC, you don't even get representation in the Legislature...

Good song,dodgy haircut!Frightenly true sentiment!

wasn't there a newer version of the song?? i remember there was one..

Once upon a time this 51st state was 1 state, or.... 13 colonies.

Once upon a time this 51st state was just one state - I mean, 13 colonies...