Free Republic

Running a search on google news, using "march 3, 2004" and primary, I only found the one story on voter turnout. Remarkable!

http://www.rochesterdandc.com/news/0303DP3FG3V_news.shtml

(Starting in paragfraph 16)

Turnout very low

Voter turnout was lower than expected throughout the day but was hurt further after news leaked that Edwards would drop out, political experts said. Turnout statewide was also low.

Thomas Ferrarese, Monroe County Democratic elections commissioner, estimated Monroe County turnout at 16.8 percent of eligible Democratic voters — the lowest in any Democratic presidential primary in at least 20 years.

Since 1980, turnout for Democratic presidential primaries in Monroe County has averaged about 30 percent.

“I was hoping we’d be up in the 20s (percent),” Ferrarese said. He said voters were probably turned off because they assumed Kerry would win.

Europe's problem in the pension end reflects the very low birth rates. In Europe, the average number of births per woman is under 1.5, well below the 2.1 needed to have ZPG.

The reason for the low birth rate? Because of large government pensions, young people are financially strapped. In addition, because of poo education and high tax rates, about 25% of Western Europeans between ages 18 and 30 have never worked.

With these problems, Europe will not be competitive this century. Most of Europe is already on the long slide back to Islam. The United States must avoid their problems or face the same fate.

We need a high birth rate. With immigration from Central American and the Middle East, we have that. We need less government spending per capita. Under the current President and Congress, things are getting bleak for stopping runaway government spending. We need a work ethic. Most American high school students cheat regularly on their homework.

Conclusion: if we restricted immigration (legal or illegal) we would have a dying economy, like Europe.

Which lessons of history?

In 1945, we won WWII. In 1946, The Republicans took Congress. In 1948, they were poised for victory but let the big city machines take it away.

In 1990, we won the Cold War. In 1992, x42 won the Presidency. In 1994, the National Socialst medical bill was on the verge of passing. But Newt Gingrich, minority leader of the House, and Rush Limbaugh spoke up. And the Republicans have run the House ever since.

The lessons of history teach us that the voters of these United States are fickle. The swing voters can be swayed. The thing to remember that the election is in November 2004.

The recent Senate misadventure says that we need anywhere from three to 11 more Senate seats to get judges confirmed. Three more may give Bush the nuclear option. 11 more should get cloture passed. We may get the three, but not the 11. Why 11 and not 9? Because who knows how McCain, Snowe, Collins and Chafee will vote.

If you go to www.scottpolls.com you see D leading R by 46% to 37%. It is good that it is not November 2004. I think that the Democrats are peaking too soon. My odds are:

Bush wins: 80-85%
Dean wins: 0-5%
Gephardt wins: 5-10%
Kerry wins: 0-5%
Hitlery wins: 0-0%

For the Senate, the Republicans should pick up 3-8 seats. In the House, it could go anywhere. The Ds could win the House back or the Republicans could pick up 15 seats.

What the Democrats have miscalulated badly is that Bush will pick up many more Christian votes than he did in 2000. Conservative Christian churches are growing, while leftist churches are in decline. And many who stayed home in 2000 will be reenergized in 2004.

In the South, Bush has locked up the vote, unless Gephardt wins. Even there, Gephardt takes Missouri and Arkansas, but what else? In the Northeast, Bush is gaining among Catholics. In California, Bush is gaining among Hispanics, who I see as a future core Republican voting bloc, if we treat Hispanics with respect. This could move New Mexico and California into the Republican zone.

I also am listening to the swing voters. The media is hurting us here, badly. They believe the crap the media is saying about Iraq. That is why it is important to make it clear that Iraq is a success. In addition, a drop in oil prices into the summer of 2004 would help the economy and Bush popularity.

Just remember that American political history is filled with zigs and zags.

It is inteded to work for teh Republicans in three ways.

1. Many of the Democrats in 1994 whined that Republicans weren't approving judicial nominees, and were using these tactics. In the 2004 campaign, they can legitamtely be attacked for using the tactics they argued against.

2. This is the biggie. Many of the nominees are female, Hispanic, black. The Republicans can run targeted ads saying the Democrats won't let women, Hispance and black judges get an up-or-down vote. It won't help much in the black community, but with Hispanics, women, and big-tent independents could be decisive.

3. Many of the judge candidates are Catholic. Dean is polling very poorly among Catholic voters already. Frankly, if the poll numbers I've seen are accurate and continue, Dean is dead on the Catholic vote alone.

In addition:

4. Dean was governor of Vermont. Vermont is 99%+ white. Based on his statement on Southerners with the Confederate flag, Dean is likely to make some major gaffe in the campaign concering blacks also. It isn't necessary to get the black vote; lower turnout is enough.

5. The issue that needs to be pushed hard is education. If Bush/Republicans can get past black apathy - example - one 1,000 student school where I teach has 12 parents in the PTA - and raise hope for education in the black community, the Democrats lose in every way. But he needs to sell, sell, sell that package.

It's New Hampshire!

Illbay had this remarkable capacity to make a total ass out of himself, even while he made a good argument.

When did Illbay make a good argument? If I was ignorant on an argument, I'd just find IllBays' side, then take the other. I never noticed going wong that way.

How's bout we just have ONE Tom vs. Arnold thread

I have a great idea. Some of us like Tom, while others like Arnold. How about we all get behind a compromise candidate, Tom Arnold?

Steve Carlton definitely did karate. As a top athlete, he probably would have tried several martial arts, including kung fu. I also remember him sticking an arm into rice, which strikes me as more kung fu than karate.

FYI: Steve Carlton was in the episode (615) of Married with Children where Al Bundy reenacts his fourth touchdown agains Ed "Too Tall" Jones. Sugar Ray Leonard was also in that episode.

Most overrated player: "Pistol" Pete Maravich. Easily one of the best on offense ever, college and pro, his defensive skills meant that his teams would never challenge for championship titles. "I don't want to play 10 years [in the NBA] and then die of a heart attack when I'm 40." - Pete Maravich, 1974. He died at age 40, in 1988, after only 10 years in the NBA.

Underrated: Rickey Jackson, New Orelans/San Franciso 1981-1995. Defensive phenomenon, had misfortune to play for Saints most of his career.

Harvey Sterkel - softball - most dominating fast pitch softball pitcher ever. Won eight games in a row, including three shutouts in 24 innings the final day, for the national championship.

I once saw Sterkel pitch a 7 inning shutout. He faced 21 batters on 73 pitches. One guy hit two foul balls. Other than that, nobody touched him. 21 strikeouts, perfect game. Absolutely amazing.

Don't remember his speed - between 95 and 115, underhand drop ball and knuckleball. Was offered tryout with White Sox under Veeck at age 35, reluctantly turned it down because he couldn't return to amateur play if he ever got paid to play ball. Darn shame. If he could have pitched over the plate at 60' 6" instead of 43 feet, at that speed and ball movement, would've been as tough as Elroy Face in relief.

Note two targets: Daschle and a Globe (tabloid) photography editor.

Daschle was going to run for President in 2004. The Globe had come down hard on x42 and Hitlery, after they had left the White House and Globe thought it was safe to tell the truth.

For freedom

Isn't that part of chaos theory?

Would you believe five power plants?
How about a Boy Scout with a couple of D Batteries?

Sorry about that, Chief.

Wasn't Hitlery in Cleveland this week? And wasn't Barbara Olson on one of the 9/11 planes? Coincidence? I think not!

There are real-world reasons that people don't apply Windows updates. One, there can be a lot of updates. Two, in a small office, expertise may be lacking. Three, and most important, updating Windows can and often does break existing applications. So, sensible admins test before updating, and only install 'critical' updates anyway.

I'm not an admin, but I hang with them. Linux/Unix/FreeBSD are good for servers; Macs are good for graphics/art/3D/game design, and Windows is good for desktops, many applications, and full employment for admins. This is my and admins observations.

Windows makes a decent db server in SQL 7/2000/2003, but web server, the way to go is FreeBSD/Apache. It all depends on what you are using the machine for.

correspond with bosses from home and would NOT want them to receive weird mail allegedly from me. So far, none of these returned items were to anyone I ever heard of.

It could be spammera, or folk looking for vulnerable systems. The fact that your system sent out stuff tells me your system is vulnerable as food for the worm.

One, do you use Outlook for your e-mail? My guess is yes. It would be nice if you figured out how the hackers told your system to spam. But they could amateurs or heavy hitters.

Noticing the problem is the first step. Someone here knows more than I (actually, several soemones).

For freedom!

Dang! All I got is my dual Intel 4004s. Should I upgrade to an Athlon XP?

Not necessarily, although that's the way to bet.

Let's review the facts:

1. There will be multiple Republicans and multiple Democratss filing. All it take are $3,500 and 65(!) ssignatures. It takes more signatures than that to run for dogcatcher someplaces.

2. Arnold is the early frontrunner. Yes, Simon has a lot of support, but Arnold will draw Democrats and Independents, and soome Greens and Libertarians.

3. As the race winds down, people will look at the polls and choose from among the top 3-5 candidates - which among the Republicans means Arnold and Simon. Unless McClintock manages a major rise in name recognition.

4. The Democrats have a very short time to figure out what to do.

5. The logical thing to do (remembering that the Democrats love power) is for x42 to call Davis and suggest that he resign. This puts Bustamente as Governor.

6. Then the question becomes "Is the recall moot?" Not being a lawyer, I can't answer this one. But it seems to me that Bustamente has a reasonable chance of winning that argument.

for freedom

Steve Carlton. One year he won 29 games on a Philadelphia team that won 61 total. That means all other pitchers combined for 32 wins. That makes the team, absent Carlton, the second worst in modern baseball (1962 Mets with 40 wins were only marginally worse). Course, he's in the HoF.

Luis Aparicio. SS Chicago White Sox. His lifetime batting aveage is under .300, but consider Comiskey Park. In 1959, the White Sox won the pennant with a record low batting average .228 or .229. The Dodgers finally won a Series that year - if they had stayed in Brooklyn I believe the Sox would've won (or that Brooklyn wouldn't have won the pennant). Helped medicre pitchers get ERAs in the < 2.50 range - Nellie Fox at second meant they had one of the best defensive infields in history. Aparicio walks; steals second; takes third on an infield grounder by Fox; scores on a sacrifice fly - and that's when the offense was working.

Kenny Anderson (Cincinnati QB). I'm prejudiced on this one. My stepbrother George was his center in high school. We went 4-3 his senior year; the only time my home town ever had a winning season. If he had played for a good team, would've had minimum 2 Superbowl rings - if for San Francisco, 4-7 rings. His later stats not so good; aside from a perennial Pro Bowl tackle, not enough protection in the pocket.

note: Steve Carlton and I, when in St. Louis, had the same karate instructor, sensei Sam Brock. I'd put him as most underrated American martial artist. In competition, he lost a total of three times; Bill (Superfoot) Wallace beat him. Chuck Norris didn't.

Any relation to a Captain John J. Sheridan, (2215-2281?)Earth Alliance, Agamemnon, 2253-2259, Babylon 5, 2259-2262, President, Interstellar Alliance, 2262-2279?

Not me (mainframe/PC COBOL MVS VB 6/Net) but if you are still looking, I can probably - almost certainly - get names. So - is this still open?

For freedom,

markfive

BREAKING NEWS..... Did you all see this??? French Government Bans Term 'E-Mail' JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press PARIS - Goodbye "e-mail," the French government says, and hello "courriel" - the term that linguistically sensitive France is now using to refer to electronic mail in official documents. The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of "e-mail" in all government ministries, documents, publications or Web sites, the latest step to stem an incursion of English words into the French lexicon. The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology insists Internet surfers in France are broadly using the term "courrier electronique" (electronic mail) instead of e-mail - a claim some industry experts dispute. "Courriel" is a fusion of the two words. "Evocative, with a very French sound, the word 'courriel' is broadly used in the press and competes advantageously with the borrowed 'mail' in English," the commission has ruled. The move to ban "e-mail" was announced last week after the decision was published in the official government register on June 20. Courriel is a term that has often been used in French-speaking Quebec, the commission said. The 7-year-old commission has links to the Academie Francaise, the prestigious institution that has been one of the top opponents of allowing English terms to seep into French. Some Internet industry experts say the decision is artificial and doesn't reflect reality. "The word 'courriel' is not at all actively used," Marie-Christine Levet, president of French Internet service provider Club Internet, said Friday. "E-mail has sunk in to our values." She said Club Internet wasn't changing the words it uses. "Protecting the language is normal, but e-mail's so assimilated now that no one thinks of it as American," she said. "Courriel would just be a new word to launch." hee hee

Could you have posted this with praragaffes, like post 44 did? And, no I didn't see this. By the way, this is so cool. Rather than waiting to post it in the 40s, don't you think you should have started your own thread with this?

For freepdumb,

markfive