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A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....09-18-03...."California Recall Ruling is more than you think"
JohnHuang2;Dutchess;Billie
| JohnHuang2
Posted on 09/18/2003 3:27:16 AM PDT by dutchess
A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day
Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997. Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.
A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.
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~ Billie, Mama_bear, dansangel, Dutchess, Aquamarine, FreetheHostages
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California Recall Ruling is more than you think
by JohnHuang2
Three weeks before voters too dumb for punch-card balloting are scheduled to punch their ballots in "California's historic recall, a federal appeals court (Monday) postponed the Oct. 7 election, ruling that the use of older punch-card ballot machines would disenfranchise those voters, especially poor and minority citizens," the Washington Post reports this week.
Deep-thinking analysts note deep-thinkingly that postponement enhances Gray Davis's "chances for keeping his job."
'Darn! Where was that Court when I needed it?' Saddam Hussein wonders wistfully.
"A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the American Civil Liberties Union that the use of punch cards in six urban counties would subject voters there to a greater likelihood that the ballots would be misread or discarded as happened during Florida's election fiasco in the presidential vote in 2000," added the Post. If poor and minority voters in these six urban counties vote next month, poor and minority voters will be disenfranchised.
Liberals now believe the use of older punch-card ballot machines is inherently racist.
The machines hotly deny the charge.
But there's more to this ruling than that. Far more. This decision is more than just politics and law. In fact, it may have escaped most pundits, but it appears the Court has broke new ground -- trailblazing into scientific discovery.
The Court says the voting system Californians have used for decades is no good and it would be terribly unfair to recall a governor who's no good under such a system. Why is it suddenly no good and unfair? Well, something really freaky happened in these six urban counties since last November, the ruling suggests: In these counties, poor and minority voters, whose I.Q.s were adequate in November for using 'older punch-card ballot machines' to re-elect Gray Davis, have since suffered a drop of 30-40 I.Q. points on average. Man, I hate when that happens! No one has yet pinpointed a cause, but the steep I.Q. drop has rendered poor and minority voters in these six urban counties unable to read punch-card ballots, the court decision suggests. Moreover, three weeks is hardly enough time to expect poor and minority voters, with diminished intelligence, to locate polling stations in these six urban counties, much less decide whom to vote for, or whether or not to recall the wonderful governor. Moreover, given their severe physical disability, dead voters will certainly need more than a month to trudge to the booth (though there's always the absentee ballot).
In its wisdom, the Court understands how grossly unfair it is to expect California to build democracy and hold elections sooner than war-torn Iraq, especially with this hideous affliction sweeping these six urban counties. In ruling that poor and minority voters in these six urban counties are too stupid to vote, the Court has come under fire for racism.
The Court hotly denies the charge, noting that while it believes minority voters in these six urban counties are currently too stupid to vote, the Court didn't think they were too stupid to vote last November. It isn't 'racist' to say there's a massive intelligence failure among poor and minority voters in these six urban counties, says the Court.
But therein lies a silver-lining: If the Court ruling withstands legal challenge, "the most likely date for the recall would move to March 2004 -- when every county in the state is scheduled to have the newer electronic touch-screen ballot machines in use." Pause for a moment and think about that, folks. Touch-screen ballot machines are trickier to use than punch-card ballot machines. Far trickier. This suggests the Court sees the condition of diminished intelligence and capacity among poor and minority voters as only temporary, ending sometime around next March -- just in time for the next elections! Isn't that wonderful? But more than that, by March, poor and minority voters in these six urban counties will actually be smarter than they were last November! Indeed, moving from simpler, punch-card balloting to high-tech touch-screen balloting -- a system these six urban counties have never used before -- should be a cake-walk.
![](http://d21c.com/TheHeatons/johnhuang/johnvoterfraud.jpg) |
In a related development, Democrats, citing "security experts," charge that high-tech touch-screen balloting is no good either because the system can be easily rigged. "Worms and viruses already have crippled computers around the world. Now computer security experts warn that hackers could cripple democracy itself," screams the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "They say hackers," especially racist hackers out to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, "could rig the touch-screen voting machines that states are buying to replace error-prone punch cards like those that tainted the 2000 presidential elections," the paper adds. Democrats like Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio demand an investigation into the racist touch-screen system.
"Kaptur fears that hackers," especially racist hackers with links to evil Republicans, "or even the voting machine companies themselves, could conspire to rig elections" -- a claim the voting machines immediately challenged.
To drive her point home convincingly, Kaptur powerfully provided no evidence for the charge. The voting machines declined to be interviewed for this article.
You may reach Rep. Marcy Kaptur via email at: MarcyKaptur@LaLaLandForDemocratsWhoBelieveInBlackHelicopterConspiracyTheories.gov.
Summing up, a Left-wing court in San Francisco postpones an election because it thinks black and latino voters in six urban counties are too stupid to use punch-card ballots to vote but they weren't too stupid to use punch-card ballots to vote for Gray Davis back in November, so the court decides voters too stupid to use simple punch-card balloting are smart enough to use high-tech balloting they've never used before but the high-tech balloting is better because it has a lower error-rate which is almost the same as the error-rate with punch-card balloting which is already below the national average, but that's not the point because, says the court, punch-card balloting is unconstitutional, but that doesn't mean politicians elected by punch-card balloting are unconstitutional, it's just that recalling politicians by punch-card balloting is unconstitutional and disenfranchises voters voting under such a system, based on the Constitution's 14th Amendment which produced the Bush V. Gore decision which liberals slammed at the time as election theft that disenfranchised minorities in Florida but Bush V. Gore is indispensable, say liberals, as a safeguard to keep minorities from being disenfranchised and thwarting election theft....
I hope it's all clear now.
Meanwhile, the chaos in Baghdad continues. A 41-year-old bystander was "killed by a stray bullet early Friday when an off-duty police officer exchanged gunfire with and wounded two men who he claims tried to steal his sport utility vehicle outside a downtown nightclub," NBC5.com reports. The Chicago Tribune says violence intensified over the weekend, with five men "killed in shootings Saturday and Sunday in" Baghdad, "according to police."
Oops! The Chicago Tribune and NBC5.com reports were local crime stories out of Chicago, not Baghdad. Apologies if my getting Chicago confused with Baghdad caused any, er, confusion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sky is Falling! Sky is falling! Part III
"Americans are expressing rising dismay with U.S. casualties in Iraq, declining confidence in the Bush administration -- and growing doubt whether the war was worth fighting," ABC News reports.
"Bush's own ratings have suffered in tandem with these concerns," says ABC News. "His approval rating for handling the situation in Iraq has fallen by 17 points since the end of April, from 75 percent then to 58 percent now. His overall job approval rating is down to 59 percent, matching its lowest since Sept. 11, 2001, in ABCNEWS/Washington Post polls.
Oh, no! I goofed again! This ABC News report dates back to July! July 11 to be exact, its headline blaring, Rising Doubt: President Facing New Challenges of Credibility and Casualties.
Okay, lemme try again...
"President Bush's job approval rating has dropped to 52 percent, close to the lowest level of his presidency, says a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, released Friday," The Associated Press reports.
AP: "'We're right back where we started,' said Frank Newport, executive editor of The Gallup Poll. 'The public perceives the economy is poor. We don't see any sign of consumer pickup in our data. There's little question that Iraq is not helping and is probably hurting (Bush)."
The "poll of 1,025 adults was taken Monday through Wednesday" of last week, "after the president's nationally televised address on Iraq," the AP notes.
However, after plunging Monday, Tuesday and early Wednesday of last week, Bush's ratings have since bounced back, the dramatic rebound beginning in the afternoon hours of Wednesday, September 10. During the early morning hours that day, the President's job approval rate was 52 percent, as CNN-Gallup reported. But by early Wednesday afternoon, the President's job approval rate soared to 58 percent, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post Poll. The morning-to-afternoon turnaround in Bush's numbers seemingly caught most analysts, who predicted the Bush meltdown would continue, by surprise.
But wait! A Fox News Opinion Dynamics Poll, taken Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 9-10), indicates the Bush rebound began in earnest on Tuesday, not Wednesday, a whole day earlier than I thought two minutes ago in this column. hmmmm. Since the CNN-Gallup and Fox News Opinion-Dynamic survey periods overlap, this raises serious questions. Was there ever a 'Bush meltdown' last week to begin with? CNN-Gallup pegged Bush at 52 percent early last week. The pundits wrote Bush off for dead. Fox News Opinion Dynamics pegged Bush at 58 percent early last week. The pundits said that poll doesn't count because the pundits wrote Bush off for dead. But CNN and Fox can't both be right. Then, to complicate matters even further, ABC News-Washington Post, in a poll conducted Wednesday-Saturday (Sept. 10-13), pegged Bush at 58 percent. By my math, that's 2 against 1.
"We're right back where we started," said "JohnHuang2," executive spammer of Free Republic. "The public still perceives the Democrats as poor alternatives. We don't see any sign of political pickup in our data for Democrats. There's little question that Iraq and the War on Terror is not helping and is probably hurting them." ;-)
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
![](http://d21c.com/billie/FRfinest/John.gif)
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Thanks, Mixer!
1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar. 2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up. 3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit. 4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it. 5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me a FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: freepers; fun; military; patriotic; surprises; veterans
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
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To: LadyX; deadhead
Yes, thank you colleen, and thank you Sistah for the beautiful pressed-flower picture that you made for me using that graphic. It is sitting in front of me on my computer shelf as I type. One of my most treasured possessions.
Well, you drag your feet a bit still. I notice you had a bit of a problem keeping up with me walking to Denny's for breakfast.
241
posted on
09/18/2003 7:45:25 PM PDT
by
WVNan
To: MEG33
coulda spelled out more'n Texas, too - then I would not have looked so dummm....I took it literally....got shot between the eyes - smack dab, it was....
242
posted on
09/18/2003 7:46:27 PM PDT
by
LadyX
(((( Count your blessings - not your woes ))))
To: LadyX
Hehehe....you guys are slow tonight. Don't even recognize my wittiness. (Or maybe I'm not as funny as I thought)
243
posted on
09/18/2003 7:47:01 PM PDT
by
WVNan
To: lonestar
Sigh.Well we've lost..but there's always next week!Good night!
244
posted on
09/18/2003 7:47:06 PM PDT
by
MEG33
To: WVNan
Yeah - you definitely could play Running Back - - - plow through the line and speed by 'em all!
245
posted on
09/18/2003 7:48:08 PM PDT
by
LadyX
(((( Count your blessings - not your woes ))))
To: MEG33
Sorry your team lost MEG. Better luck next time. Pay the preacher more.
246
posted on
09/18/2003 7:49:13 PM PDT
by
WVNan
To: MEG33; lonestar; WVNan
Good night to all of you.
Think I'll sgn off early and read a while, all Isabeled out, Nan.
God bless you and Jack and MEG and lonestar and all who read this.....
The Walton Family, too...:))
247
posted on
09/18/2003 7:51:49 PM PDT
by
LadyX
(((( Count your blessings - not your woes ))))
To: LadyX
Are we going to bed now Sistah?
248
posted on
09/18/2003 7:53:08 PM PDT
by
WVNan
To: LadyX
See? We always do that. Good night Maggie-Boy. God cover you with His wings. (((((Sistah))))))
249
posted on
09/18/2003 7:54:47 PM PDT
by
WVNan
To: WVNan
{{{{{{{ Nan }}}}}}}
250
posted on
09/18/2003 7:55:54 PM PDT
by
LadyX
(((( Count your blessings - not your woes ))))
To: LadyX; All
To: Aquamarine
Glad I caught your music post, Aquamarine!
Thanks, and God bless you richly.....loveya...
M
252
posted on
09/18/2003 8:01:19 PM PDT
by
LadyX
(((( Count your blessings - not your woes ))))
To: WVNan
Thanks!
Hi :)
253
posted on
09/18/2003 8:02:09 PM PDT
by
visualops
(Support independent musicians - boycott the RIAA label! visualops.com)
To: Aquamarine
I was talking about the list of FReepers with family in the Armed Forces...(post #4)
FReepers' loved ones who are serving our country. If you have someone you would like to add, please address a post to Billie; Mama_Bear; Dansangel; Dutchess; Aquamarine; or FreetheHostages and we will add their name to this list
254
posted on
09/18/2003 8:05:49 PM PDT
by
visualops
(Support independent musicians - boycott the RIAA label! visualops.com)
To: WVNan
Good thinking!..but you would say that....;)
255
posted on
09/18/2003 8:11:17 PM PDT
by
MEG33
To: visualops
That's the prayer list. I've added you and your cousin to mine and will make sure that all the other hostesses get the message.
To: All
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Tomorrow is POW/MIA DAY
HeadlineMarch 3- 1973:
U. S. Forces Out of Vietnam;
Hanoi Frees the Last P.O.W.
JULY1973
The Secret of Our Survival by Capt. James E. Ray, former POW
Pssst, I struggled upright on the damp pallet in my solitary cell to hear better. It had sounded like a whisper.
No, I must have been hallucinating. I slumped back, wondering how long it had been since my 105 Thunderchief had been shot down as we bombed a railroad bridge on the HanoiChina supply line.
That was May 8,1966. I tried to forget the weeks since, the endless interrogations, the torture that left me screaming in agony
Now I wish I had gone down with the plane. Anything would be better than the desolation, the awful sense of guilt at writing a confession under torture, the aloneness.
There! I heard it again. Now an unmistakable, Hey, buddy?
I scrambled flat on the floor and peered through the crack under the door. I was in one of the many cells facing a walled courtyard. The whisper had come from the next cell. I whispered back. He introduced himself as Bob Purcell, another Air Force man. We waited as the guard passed and then began to converse.
Soon all the prisoners on that yard were whispering. We started by learning about each other, where we were from, our families. One day I asked Bob what church he went to.
Catholic, he said. And you?
Baptist.
Bob was quiet for a moment, as if my mention of church evoked deep memories. Then he asked, Do you know any Bible verses?
Well, the Lords Prayer, I answered.
Everyone knows that.
How about the twenty-third psalm?
Only a little.
I began whispering it. Hed repeat each line after me. A little later he whispered the entire psalm back to me.
Other prisoners joined in, sharing verses they knew. Through these contacts a fellowship grew among us. The others said that I shouldnt feel bad about confessing under torture. Weve all done it, they assured me. I didnt feel so alone anymore.
As the number of prisoners grew, two of us shared a cell. My first roommate was Larry Chesley, a Mormon from Idaho. Though we had a few differences of belief, our common denominators were the Bible and Jesus Christ, and we were able to share much Scripture.
For by now it had become vital to our daily existence. Often racked with dysentery weakened by the diet of rice and thin soups, our physical lives had shrunk within the prison walls. We spent 20 hours a day locked in our cells. And those Bible verses became rays of light, constant assurances of His love and care.
We made ink from brick dust and water or drops of medicine. Wed write verses on bits of toilet paper and pass them behind a loose brick at the toilets.
It was dangerous to pass these on. Communication between cells was forbidden and a man unlucky enough to be caught passing a note would be forced to stand with his arms up against a wall for several days, without sleep.
But the urge to share developed inventiveness. One night I lay with my ear pressed against the wooden wall of my cell to hear Thump... thump as somewhere on the wall, cells away, a fellow POW tapped out in Morse code: I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. (Psalm 121:1)
He tapped out his nameRuss Temperlyand passed on the seven other verses in that psalm, which I scratched on the concrete floor with a piece of broken tile.
By 1968, more of us were squeezed together and for two years four of us lived in an eight-by-eight-foot cell. In this close proximity, even minor personality rubs could flare into violent explosions. For instance, one guy liked to whistle. Talk about getting on your nerves! Some of the verses that helped us bear with one another were from Romans: Every man among you is not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.... (12:35)
Only by following Christs teachings in constant forgiveness, patience and understanding were we able to get along together. The whistler? We recommended a schedule for when he should whistle.
Two and a half years went by before I could write my parents. A year later, I was allowed to receive my first letter. In the meantime, we subsisted on letters written 2,000 years ago.
By late 1970, almost all of the American POWs had been moved to Ha Lo, the main prison in downtown Hanoi. Newspapers later called this the Hanoi Hilton; we called it Heartbreak Hotel.
Some 50 of us lived, ate and slept together in one large room. Thanksgiving came shortly after we moved in and we held a brief service. We all were surprised to find how many of the men knew Scripture, learned from those verses passed along in whispers, bits of paper and wall thumpings. We immediately made plans for a Christmas service. A committee was formed and started to work.
Bits of green and red thread decorated the walls, a piece of green cloth was draped like a tree. Our crèche was made of figures carved from soap rations or molded from papier-mâché of moistened toilet paper.
We pooled the verses we knew and we now had a consensus Bible, written covertly on bits of paper. It was the only Bible we had. As we sat in silence, the reader began: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.... A six-man choir sang Oh Little Town ofBethlehem.
He went on: And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes.... Away in the manger no crib for His bed, our Little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head.... sang the choir.
Once again, I was a youngster in Sunday school at the First Baptist Church. Time had rolled back for all of us grizzled men in prison pajamas as, with eyes shining and tears trickling through beards, we joined in the singing. Glinting in the light from the kerosene lamp was a cross made of silver foil.
Occasionally, the guards would knock on the door, ordering us not to sing; but they finally gave up. Our program continued into a communion service led by Air Force Lt. Tom Moe. A Lutheran, he sang his churchs chants as Episcopalians, Methodists and men of other denominations bowed their heads together.
Later that night, after many months of our asking, the commander brought us a real Bible, the first any of us had seen in prison. He said we could keep it for one hour. We made the best of it. One of us read aloud the favorite passages called out by the others. We also checked some of our handwritten Scripture. Amazingly, we werent far off.
We didnt see that King James version again for several months. Finally, after continual requests, one of us was allowed to go out and copy from it for one hour each week.
But when wed start to copy, the interrogator would plant his elbow on the Bible for 15 minutes. Then, after hed let us start, hed ask mundane questions to distract us. Id just ignore him and write as fast as I could. The next week, wed have to return the previous weeks copy work. They seemed to be afraid for us to keep the Scriptures, as if they sensed the spiritual help kept us from breaking.
From that, we learned a most important lesson. Bible verses on paper arent one iota as useful as Scriptures burned into your mind where you can draw on them for comfort.
After five weeks, we didnt see the Bible again. But that had been enough time for us to memorize collectively the Sermon on the Mount, Romans 12, First Corinthians 13, and many of the psalms. Now we had our own living Bible, walking around the room. By this time, too, we held Sunday worship services and Sunday school classes. Some of the eat, drink and be merry type fighter pilots took part; some of them contributing as much to the services as the guys who had always professed to be Christians.
We learned to rise above our surroundings, to overcome the material with the spiritual. In constantly exercising our minds, we developed teaching seminars in which we studied special subjects led by men experienced in various fields. These included learning Spanish, French, German, Russian. I particularly enjoy music and will never forget the music course.
Bill Butler, the leader of this program, drew a giant-sized piano keyboard on the floor with brick dust. Then, standing on a key, one assistant would hum its note. Other assistants, up the keyboard, hummed each note of the chord which was being demonstrated, while Bill explained how chord progression works.
Two years passed this way at Heartbreak Hotel, years of continuing degradation, sickness, endless hunger and never knowing whether wed see home again. But instead of going mad or becoming animals, we continued to grow as a community of men, sustaining one another in compassion and understanding.
For as one of the. verses I heard thumped out on the wall one night said: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
His Word became our rock.
257
posted on
09/18/2003 8:29:15 PM PDT
by
Dubya
(Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,but by me)
To: deadhead
I don't know, but thanks for the ping. :^)
258
posted on
09/18/2003 8:33:32 PM PDT
by
Dubya
(Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,but by me)
To: dutchess
The layout is absolutely S-U-P-E-R-B! Great job! :-)
((((((((((dutchess))))))))))))
To: WaterDragon
Thank you, friend
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