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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CAtechTrader who wrote (17859)	11/19/2000 9:31:56 PM
From: Voltaire	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 65232

Hi CT, I think I'm going to be sick. Just the effort behind it makes me ill. V

To: CAtechTrader who wrote (17859)	11/20/2000 12:08:43 AM
From: Rhino Ray	Respond to of 65232

Instructions on how to count ballots in Palm Beach. crosscircuit.com

To: CAtechTrader who wrote (17859)	11/20/2000 4:54:25 AM
From: jjkirk	Respond to of 65232

A "dimpled" chad may be "divined" for Gore, but overseas troops wanting to vote for Bush must follow a specific AlGoreithm...jj ------------------ Reason for rejection: ______________________________________ ___ Lack of voter signature ___ Lack of affirmative request for absentee ballot ___ Request for absentee ballot not fully filled out ___ Signature on absentee ballot request does not match signature on registration card or on ballot ___ Voter signature on envelope does not match signature on registration card ___ Inadequate witness certification ___ Late postmark (indicate date of actual postmark) ___ Domestic postmark (including Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) ___ No postmark ___ Voter had previously voted in this election ___ Other __________________________________

To: CAtechTrader who wrote (17859)	11/20/2000 5:28:41 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

2 THINGS AMERICA HAS LEARNED SINCE ELECTION DAY Bob Greene November 19, 2000 TAMPA -- If the events that have transpired down here under the November sun since Election Day have served any good purpose at all, it is that they have forever proved false two long-accepted tenets of American life. Those two tenets -- which we now know are just about completely inaccurate -- are: 1. The swaggering boast by politicians and political operatives that "politics ain't beanbag." 2. The sacrosanct notion that in the United States every vote counts. First, to the beanbag: "Politics ain't beanbag" has for generations been one of the favorite slogans of those who make their livings working inside -- or on the outskirts of -- politics. It's easy to understand why they enjoy saying it. When a politician says "politics ain't beanbag," the clear message is: This is an exercise for big boys. This is not child's play. But, of course, if we have learned anything in the last two weeks in Florida, it is that politics is beanbag -- politics is precisely beanbag. Beanbag -- the real beanbag -- is a juvenile pursuit meant to satisfy childish urges. Beanbag is a game played by boys and girls with minuscule attention spans and a necessarily simplified view of the world. Beanbag is endlessly repetitive, beanbag becomes (for anyone over the age of 8) stultifyingly tedious within hours, beanbag is a pastime quickly grown out of by most members of the human species. "Politics ain't beanbag," when growled by politicians, sends the intended message: No kids allowed. Yet, in the seemingly endless mornings, afternoons and nights since Election Day, politics -- at least the way it has been practiced down here, with the continuous name-calling, thepetulanthe-said-this-bad-thing-about-me-so-I'll-say-this-bad-thing-about-him, the impulsive inventing of new rules when the old ones seem unsatisfactory -- makes beanbag, by contrast, appear majestic, dignified, austere. You get the impression that no self-respecting beanbag player would go near post-Election Day politics in Florida -- a beanbag player would consider himself or herself far too mature and solid to participate in something like this. Which brings us to the second tenet that has been rendered false: That every vote counts. The new November suspicion, emanating from Florida and being gradually felt across the nation, is that perhaps every vote doesn't count. The new suspicion is that in this country a person's vote is not treated as an indisputable and objective fact, but instead as some vague and flimsy theory subject to bartering and analysis. This may be the single saddest thing to come out of the current election year. In Palm Beach County, it was reported in the days after the ballots were cast, more than 19,000 votes were simply thrown out because of purported flaws inadvertently caused by the voters. Think about that: Think about 19,000 men and women who got up on the morning of the election, who went out of their way and disrupted their daily schedules so that they could cast their ballots in what is supposed to be the single most sacred civic act an American can engage in -- and who, for whatever reason, had their ballots tossed in the trash. Evidently this happens all the time -- perhaps not in such large numbers, but it happens, all across the United States. And the most sobering aspect of this to consider is that the people whose ballots are discarded never know about it -- they are not told. They assume that they have cast their vote, and that it has counted. They are wrong. The only reason we know about those thrown-out votes in Palm Beach County is because of the contentiousness of the presidential race in Florida. Had either George W. Bush or Al Gore won Florida in a landslide, the thrown-out votes would not have been news. Butterfly ballots or not, the thrown-out votes would have been considered no big deal. We also have been told -- during the haggling over whether a hand count should be permitted -- that vote-counting machines routinely make some errors in tabulation. Really? They do? So a vote for one person is not necessarily credited to that person? And every vote counts? Then there has been the sight of election workers gathered, in teams, around ballots, taking their own votes on what the voter himself or herself might have intended to do. The very concept of what a vote is -- a stark, incontrovertible, secret and unchangeable choice made in good faith by one American in utter privacy with no interference from anyone outside the curtain -- has been, perhaps forever, altered. The post-Election Day process in Florida has been like a glimpse into the mythical sausage factory -- the one that is referred to when people say, "If you saw how sausages were made, you'd never want to eat one." We have all seen -- sometimes literally through glass windows -- how the sausage that is Election 2000 has been made. No wonder it seems inedible.

To: CAtechTrader who wrote (17859)	11/20/2000 5:38:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

Gen Norman Schwarzkopf led the Republican condemnation of a five-page guide which advised Democratic tellers how to raise objections to the postal votes. He said: "It is a very sad day in our country when the men and women of the armed forces are serving abroad and facing danger of a daily basis . . . and are denied the right to vote for the president of the United States who will be their commander in chief." ---------------------------------------------------- ***I could not agree more. When will Mr. Gore do the right thing for the country and admit that he actually may have LOST the election? Wow, I am glad I did NOT vote for this man...I do NOT even call him Vice President anymore. He is the captain of his election ship and its reputation and integrity is being tested each day. Common sense clearly is not common practice in the US political world.