When Fictional Things Invade My Workspace

We are all knowledgeable about some facet of the world. Some Religion, some certain regions of the world, others Hollywood or Bollywood; My taste is Politics and Policy from the Right (having started on the Left).

There are two things I enjoy when I am offline (among other things): Marvel Comics and Doctor Who. I met Stan Lee at a Comic Convention with my dad back in 82; Now Stan Lee lives in LA, so someone please forward this post to him.

Let's start with Marvel. Certain comics always go to the front of the line: X-Men (all branches), the Hulk and Moon Knight to name a few. Fantastic Four were too establishment for me and Spider Man just cried "wimp," I liked Spidey when he teamed up with others, same with any member of the Fantastic Four. (The best Spidey written came after House of M was over; For the FF, the Civil War had the best writing)

After the Secret Invasion by the Skrulls (shape-shifting aliens), Norman Osbourn, Spider-man's main enemy has risen into a position that combines running SHIELD (now HAMMER) and Secretary of Superhuman affairs (appointed by President Bush, confirmed by President Obama). In other words, Osbourn is publicly a hero, while the Marvel Universe understood he was a villain.

During the American Son storyline, there is a page where Wolverine and Spider Man compare President Bush to Osborne. Whisky tango Foxtrot?! Wolverine, who is a former veteran, couldn't say a few good words about Senator McCain (R-AZ), also a veteran. After the Superhero Civil war, now Marvel is saying all their heroes voted for Obama in 2008?!?!

Doesn't fit the storyline. Most of the heroes have been fighting with each other since Avengers: Disassembled. And then they all agreed on Obama. Please let Brian Michael Bendis know, that's a crock. Just because the writer is Liberal shouldn't every member of the Marvel Universe is.

I'd like to see how Nick Fury voted since 1968.

Now my other fictional thing, Doctor Who. Remember the "Sound of Drums?" Harold Saxon (The Master) killed President-elect Winters before the Year That Never Was. Now in "The End of Time, part 1," Obama is President (and is being cited as giving a speech to fix the economy on Christmas Day -- that really is science fiction) Say, President Winters is a Southern Republican, how does Obama become president?

We're looking at United States Constitutional Law here:

Let me quote Article II, Section 1, clause 3:

"The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two-thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice-President."

In other words, the President and Vice president need not be of the same Political party. The Electoral College would decide who came in first and second place. But that was Amended.

The 12th Amendment was passed in 1803, and ratified the next year:

AMENDMENT XII

Passed by Congress December 9, 1803. Ratified June 15, 1804.

Note: A portion of Article II, section 1 of the Constitution was superseded by the 12th amendment.

"The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -- the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. --]* The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States,"

There were other changes too, but given the budget that the BBC and Russell T. Davies had, they could have looked it up.

What made the old Doctor Who great, was that the Doctor for all his alien nature, still fought for Queen and Country with the Brigadier first, and then they worried what the rest of the world thought. The United Kingdom used to be an Empire and they knew more then the upstart Americans during the early iterations of the show. (yes, it was cool -- because of Doctor Who I studied up on the British Empire)

Now, Russell T. Davies is supplementing their Prime Minister with an American President. If I was British, I would be pissed off.

And I say this to all the fiction writers in books, TV and Movies, if you must bring politics into it, ASK! America is a two party System, I wish that, outside of us partisans (but the Left do not, that's another post), others would cheer on that fact. Use it. Even within the Republican party, there are differences.

But watching Hollywood, you would never know.

My question: Has some fictional book, TV or Movie talked about something you knew and then got it wrong?