At 2:53am,
we awoke suddenly to what sounded like machine gun fire strafing our backyard. Instead, it was the Albuquerque Police Department’s
helicopter coming in very low over our house before circling back again and again. This is the helicopter that cost the city millions
because it was supposed to be extra quiet. In fact, it is much louder than any other copter in a city with a lot of copters (Abq has 3,
Bernalillo has 2 or 3, TV stations have 2, Fed has god-knows-how-many).
Keep in mind, this is not UNMH Lifeguard. This is the
police swooping in in the middle of the night terrorizing sleeping citizens. Why? Was there a slowdown in traffic on the Interstate? It
doesn’t matter. If you ask the cops, every second they are in the air, they are saving lives. The truth is they are pissing away money
and disturbing the peace every second they are in the air.
After 10 dreadful minutes, the copter drifted on, looking for some
other place to kill time. And a few blocks away, another citizen was jarred out of his bed. mjh
A Different Analysis of the Electoral College Breakdown
AP: Bush Leads Kerry in Electoral Votes By RON FOURNIER, AP
With three months remaining in a volatile campaign, Kerry has 14 states and the District of Columbia in his column for 193 electoral votes. Bush has 25 states for 217 votes, according to an Associated Press analysis of state polls as well as interviews with strategists across the country. …
Bush and Kerry are running even in 11 states with a combined 128 electoral votes. Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan and West Virginia are the toughest battlegrounds. Two other tossups, Pennsylvania and Oregon, could soon move to Kerry’s column. …
All total, 21 states are in play. Some will bounce between “lean” to “tossup” throughout the campaign.
Four years ago, Bush won 30 states and their 271 electoral votes _ one more than needed. Gore, who won the popular vote, claimed 20 states plus the District of Columbia for 267 electoral votes.
Since then, reapportionment added electoral votes to states with population gains and took them from states losing people. The result: Bush’s states are now worth 278 electoral votes and Gore’s are worth just 260.
Even if Kerry consolidates Gore’s states, no easy task, the Democrat must take 10 electoral votes from Bush’s column to close the electoral vote gap.
Kerry’s best prospects may be in the five tossup states won by Bush in 2000: Ohio, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire and West Virginia.
Winning either Ohio’s 20 electoral votes or Florida’s 27 would do the trick.
Amen, Cal
Neither the cultural problem nor its solution can
be found in Washington. It lies in the decisions by millions of Americans … to construct their own moral authority. Sufficiently
large numbers of Americans either do not believe, or do not practice, what the Scriptures teach and cannot be made to do so through a
constitutional amendment or any other law. …
Perhaps if those pushing for a constitutional amendment better modeled what they
preach for others, they might find more favor among secular powers. …
Conservative Christians could use an “extreme makeover”
to repair their own homes before they demand that others conform to a standard they themselves have trouble meeting. …
Paul [the
Apostle] does not tell believers to embrace politics to influence or change the Roman government. Quite the contrary. He says, “Have
nothing to do with them” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). …
To seek to implement such a code [as the Bible] through human law is an exercise in
futility and is neither expected nor mandated in that New Testament covenant.
The Bible is a book for those who would accept its
message. Should anyone who does not believe it be expected to obey what it says? …
America may be living on borrowed time, but
its “lease” will not be extended by new laws or constitutional amendments. … I wouldn’t count on a “wicked and adulterous generation”
rescuing itself through a marriage amendment or any other human effort.
Electoral Vote Predictor 2004
Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004
Kerry 332 – Bush 195
After 6 Months, You Deserve a Month Off
USATODAY.com – White House to move to Texas for a while
By Laurence McQuillan, USA TODAY
08/03/2001
WASHINGTON — Six months after taking office, President Bush will begin a month-long vacation Saturday that is significantly longer than the average American’s annual getaway. If Bush returns as scheduled on Labor Day, he’ll tie the modern record for presidential absence from the White House, held by Richard Nixon at 30 days. Ronald Reagan took trips as long as 28 days. …
[S]ome Republican loyalists worry about critics who say Bush lets Vice President Cheney and other top officials do most of the work. They’re also concerned about the reaction of the average American, who gets 13 vacation days each year.
“It can foster other images,” says William Benoit, a professor of political communication at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Maybe he’s lazy, maybe he’s not determined. It feeds into the impression that he’s not in charge.”
Bush, who is scheduled to return to Washington on Sept. 3, is taking his vacation while Congress is in recess. Cheney will be in Wyoming. …
President Bush’s father was criticized in 1990 for remaining on vacation in Kennebunkport while dealing with the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.
Bush has described playful plans for his days at the ranch, which was finished in the spring. Talking to members of the agricultural youth group FFA last week, Bush joked that he looked forward to “seeing the cows. Occasionally they talk to me — being the good listener that I am.”
But White House image-makers worry a lot, and Bush was a bit more serious a few days later when he spoke on videotape to the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree. He read from written remarks: “I’ll be going to my ranch in Crawford, where I’ll work and take a little time off. I think it is so important for a president to spend some time away from Washington, in the heartland of America.”
Some observers say Bush taking a month off could feed a perception fostered by critics that he is disengaged and does not work hard enough.
However, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll of 1,015 people taken in April found that many don’t take that view. Of those surveyed, 70% said Bush was working hard enough.
I wonder how many people NOW think he was working hard enough. mjh
‘The rabid, reactionary religious right’
SENATE VOTES NO ON ANTI-GAY AMENDMENT outcomebuffalo.com
”The rabid, reactionary religious right has rarely looked more ridiculous. They know they don’t have the votes to come even close to passing this amendment. But they have sufficient stranglehold on the White House and the Republican leadership in Congress to force the issue to a vote anyway, in a desperate effort to arouse their narrow-minded constituency and somehow gain an advantage in the elections this year.” — Senator Ted Kennedy (D, Mass.)
Sofort mit Ihren Papieren! (Give me your papers — now!)
CNN.com – Police stop Amtrak train in Newark – Jul 22, 2004
Police stopped Amtrak train 170 Thursday in Newark, New Jersey, for what Amtrak called “police activity” after a note was found in a
bathroom, an Amtrak official said.
The train was allowed to continue its Washington-to-Boston trip after a search. …
“The
passengers were kept on the train … and there was a check of passengers’ IDs,” Stessel said. “Because so many passengers on that
particular train use monthly passes, it was important that we understood exactly which passengers were on that train, and so when police
conducted their investigation, they wrote down the names and ID information of everyone onboard.” …
[An Amtrak spokesman] referred
to the police activity as a “routine sweep.”
A passenger on the train, Jeffrey Rodgers, told CNN that officers with dogs
came onto the car where he was riding. He said they also videotaped the car and its passengers. …
Amtrak said the train was
carrying around 800 passengers.
800 new records in the local and federal databases. mjh
Amendments to the Constitution
Article
[IV.]
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
”They who would give up an
essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” — Benjamin Franklin