Not sure if it will do any good but....

[Placid Dingo]

Local and, to an extent, state politics are areas where petitions, protests etc can have some traction and noticeable effect.  I won't deny that.  I actually encourage voting in local/city/county council elections, and you know how I feel about voting in national elections.  You can actually get the potholes fixed.

However, if you petitioned the Federal government to fix your potholes, it would either a) make more potholes, citing "economic necessity, or b) send in no-bid contractors to fix the potholes, flanked by Blackwater mercenaries, who would then shoot up a school bus and set a puppy on fire, while the actual repairs would take three times as long, cost over four times what the original estimates suggested, use dummy corporations as third party contractors to embezzle money and then hire some local company at 10% of what they were given to do the job anyway.

Thats how the Feds roll, yo.

I find it really interesting how the voting hype is always in the opposite direction. Most people who get riled up over national politics hardly notice local government, yet local governments are the ones that get things done which are most relevant to our everyday lives. It's not clean execution either. My mother, who is the director of the local library, sits on the city council as one of the department heads. She has told me stories of outrageous embezzlement by the former head of parks and rec that wasn't found out for years, and seriously drained the city's funds in that department. So I totally agree with your sentiments.

I think that people tend to think more along the lines of, "this stuff's more important because it's higher up." And, it's for some weird reason more noticeable. Technically what's going on in your neighborhood should be more noticeable. But maybe that's the whole thing. It's all too close for people to be able to focus on.

Also, media again; report on Obama, 1 story relevant to whole nation.

Report on locals...

Also, I wonder if Nigels idea could actually be implemented.