The Guild 10-29-2002 Halloween Treats

MIX cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Pour over cookie dough.

BAKE at 350°F for 20 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Drizzle with melted chocolate to make spider web design.

Preparation
BEAT cream cheese in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until well blended after each addition.

ADD white chocolate, vanilla, pecans and food coloring; mix well. Spread in foil-lined 8-inch square pan. Top with sprinkles.

Preparation
SPLIT 15 cookies, leaving filling on one side of each cookie. Finely crush plain split cookies and 5 whole cookies.

MIX crushed cookies, margarine and sugar; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan to form crust. Stand remaining 15 split cookies on edge around side of pan, alternating filling and cookie sides out.

SPREAD chocolate ice cream evenly over crust. Chop remaining 12 cookies; stir into vanilla ice cream. Spread over chocolate layer. Cover; freeze 3 hours or until firm.

REMOVE side of pan. Spread or pipe whipped topping on top of dessert. Decorate with assorted candies to form pumpkin patch. Using colored gels, make pumpkin faces on orange filling on split cookies around edge, and if desired, on additional split coo kies. Stand additional cookies on edge on top of dessert. Serve immediately.

Preparation
MIX 2 cups marshmallows and melted chocolate until marshmallows are completely coated. Drop by spoonfuls onto sheets of wax paper to make 24 clusters.

DECORATE each with 8 short pieces of licorice for legs and additional marshmallows or assorted candies for eyes. Let stand at room temperature or refrigerate until firm.

2 pkg. (4-serving size each) JELL-O Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

Preparation
CRUSH chocolate sandwich cookies in zipper-style plastic bag with rolling pin or in food processor.

POUR cold milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently stir in 3 cups of the whipped topping and 1/2 of the crushed cookies. Spoon into 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining crushed cookies.

DECORATE assorted cookies with icings to make "tombstones." Stand tombstones on top of dessert with Indian corn and pumpkins. Drop remaining whipped topping by spoonfuls onto dessert to make "Ghosts." Store leftover dessert in refrigerator.

Preparation
SPLIT cookies, leaving filling on 1 side of each cookie. Coarsely chop plain split cookies; set aside.

PREPARE cake batter as directed on package. Gently stir in chopped cookies; spoon into 24 paper-lined medium muffin cups.

BAKE as directed on package. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

DECORATE orange filling on split cookies with black decorating icing to resemble pumpkin faces. Let dry.

STAND 1 pumpkin face on edge in frosting on each cupcake. Decorate as desired with marshmallows.

The Battle of Big Education
In the Florida gubernatorial race, education is front and center. Both Bill McBride and Jeb Bush claim to be reformers, but only one of them is.

[snip]
The concept of merit is central to Gov. Bush's approach to education. Elected in 1998 as an education reformer, Jeb Bush shook up the system. Under his leadership, Florida started using a state standardized test to give schools grades (A-F), with extra funds going to improving schools and those with good grades. Kids in perennially bad schools are offered vouchers to attend private ones. A new Bush proposal expand a program that pays teachers extra for seeking national certification and serving as mentors to other teachers. On the higher education front, Bush unilaterally abolished affirmative action for minorities in university admissions with One Florida.

McBride favors an immediate $2,500 across-the-board pay hike for teachers. He believes this will help recruit the new teachers the state will need if voters pass two constitutional amendments on the ballot--one would provide kindergarten for all 4-year-olds whose parents request it, and the other would reduce class size. Additional planks in McBride's lengthy education platform are eliminating the grading of schools and improving early childhood intervention. (He supports the class-size amendment; Bush opposes it.) McBride, though, has had difficulty explaining how he would pay for all he wants to accomplish, admitting in his second debate with Bush that the class-size amendment might cost $15 billion, about one quarter of the state budget. (In a related note, the Florida Education Association has been his biggest organization donor, giving more than $1.5 million for primary ads alone, and Cathy Kelly of the FEA is on loan as his campaign manager.)

Bush has not been shy about trumpeting his initiatives' success. The more controversial, the harder he tries to convince Floridians of his good intentions. This has been particularly true of One Florida, launched in 1999. The governor's office has issued statistics showing that eliminating affirmative action hasn't been as devastating for minorities as some supposed it might be: Enrollment percentages for minorities at most schools have fluctuated only slightly, thanks in part to expanded outreach and a provision that allows the top 20 percent of graduating seniors from each high school to enroll in a state university. A number of university presidents--a group that has traditionally fought for affirmative action--have praised the governor's initiative.

"I know in my heart that we're on the right track," Bush said recently in Orlando, calling racial preferences a "soft bigotry of low expectations," a phrase uttered often by other members of the Bush political family.

Among minorities Bush stands to fare quite well. He is expected to win a majority of the Hispanic vote, and to hold approximately the 12 percent of blacks he garnered in 1998. In his losing bid to defeat Democrat Lawton Chiles in 1994, Bush got a paltry 4 percent of the black vote; this year he's the honorary campaign chair for the United Negro College Fund. [snip] (The Bush family is a long time contributor to UNCF) WeeklyStandard

Bush to Sign Voting Changes Bill
FOXNews

WASHINGTON — President Bush is signing legislation to revamp the nation's voting system and protect against the kinds of errors that threw his own election into dispute two years ago.

The White House scheduled a morning bill-signing ceremony for Tuesday, starting Bush's two-day respite from campaigning for GOP House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates in next Tuesday's elections.

Under the Martin Luther King Jr. Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2002, states will receive $3.9 billion in federal money over the next three years to replace outdated punch-card and lever voting machines or improve voter education and poll-worker training.

The new law's protections against voting error will not affect next week's balloting but are scheduled to be mostly implemented in time for the 2004 congressional and presidential vote, which will most likely include Bush's re-election bid. [YEA!]

It was Bush's bitter 2000 Florida recount battle with Democrat Al Gore — with its confusing "butterfly ballots," half-perforated punch ballots and allegations of voter intimidation — that gave rise to the legislation. Bush's election was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. [NO! It wasn't decided by the SC. The SC said to FSSC you can't change the rules in mid stream. THAT ended the idiocy. The election had already been decided!!]

The House approved election changes late last year and the Senate followed suit in April, but Republican demands for strong anti-fraud provisions stalled reconciliation of the two versions for months. Lawmakers did not send a final bill to Bush until last Wednesday. [It's shocking, dims don't want tough anti-fraud provisions?!]

"This has been a long marathon, but the finish line is finally in sight and the winner is the American public," said Senate Rules Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. "This landmark legislation will ensure that everyone not only has the right to vote on Election Day, but that their voice is heard."

Beginning Jan. 1, first-time voters who registered by mail will be required to provide identification when they show up at the polls. [How about a measure that requires everybody to provide identification, everytime they vote. That's the way we do it in my little county. That was probably over the top for the dims.]

By the 2004 vote, states will be required to provide provisional ballots to voters whose names do not appear on voter rolls. Those provisional ballots would counted once valid registration is verified.

For 2006 balloting, states will be required to maintain computerized, statewide voter registration lists linked to their driver's license databases. States will also be required to have voting machines that allow voters to confirm the way they marked their ballot — and, if necessary, change their votes — before they are finally cast.

Such voting software was tested in one jurisdiction in the 2001 Virginia gubernatorial election. The Century Foundation, which reviewed the results, found that the "lost vote" rate went from between 600-700 votes in the 2000 election to just one vote in 2001, said Tova Andrea Wang, a staffer to the National Commission on Federal Election Reform who later oversaw the foundation's study.

"The bill goes a long way toward addressing a lot of the problems, but the extent to which the bill works relies on what the states do because they are given a lot of discretion," said Wang.

"A new polling machine is fine and great as long as people know how to use it, and there's no specificity in the legislation on poll-worker training and voter education." [That's left up to the states. Geez, we should be spending federal dollars on teaching people how to vote?!]

Wang and other election experts also worry that discriminatory enforcement of the voter-ID requirements could especially disenfranchise minorities, the poor, immigrants and students. She called the provision "something that may have to be revisited." [Who's a dim lib?]

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