Day: November 18, 2008

Write-In Votes Reveal Keen Electorate

Trish

Hillary Clinton should have just held on until the write-in votes were cast. At least that’s what the results in Jacksonville show.

Write-in votes were released by the Duval County Supervisor of Elections office today, and there were some surprising results. First, the tally reached 736. Second, George W. Bush got two votes in favor of a third term. Next, not all of the candidates are still with us, and a few never were. Finally, Jesus out-polled God by 17 votes.

The full results:

  • Sen. Hillary Clinton (234)
  • Rep. Ron Paul (174)
  • None of the above (23)
  • Jesus (23)
  • Gov. Mike Huckabee (21)
  • Gov. Mitt Romney (14)
  • Gen. Colin Powell (8)
  • God (6)
  • Left blank but “Write-In” checked (6)
  • Undecided (5)
  • Vice Pres. Al Gore (4)
  • Bishop Vaughn McLaughlin [Local Potters House Church] (4)
  • Sen. Fred Thompson (4)
  • Obama (4) [Did these people not notice his name was already on the ballot?]
  • Mayor Rudy Giuliani (4)
  • Stephen Colbert (4)
  • Donald Duck (3)
  • Donald Foy [Local black Republican who recently switched parties to Independent] (3)
  • Mickey Mouse (3)
  • T. Boone Pickens (2)
  • Bill Cosby (2)
  • Blll McMillon [American Atheist party member] (2)
  • Bill Nye [The Science Guy?] (2)
  • Chuck Norris (2) [Siphoning the Huckabee vote]
  • Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice (2)
  • Frank Harden [Former radio announcer ] (2)
  • Franklin Graham [Son of Rev. Billy Graham] (2)
  • Lou Dobbs (2)
  • Pago Possum (2)
  • Gov. Sarah Palin (2)
  • Sen. Sam Brownback (2)
  • Gary Benzenburg (2) [?]
  • Pres. George W. Bush (2)
  • Sen. John Edwards (2) [Safe to say, one of these votes was not cast by Elizabeth]
  • Lee Goddard [Local newspaper sports writer] (2)
  • Tim Tebow [Florida Gators quarterback and first sophomore winner of the Heisman Trophy] (2)
  • Abstain (1)
  • Against All (1)
  • Alfred E. Newman (1)
  • Pres. Bill Clinton (1)
  • Bill O’Reilly (1)
  • Gov. Bill Richardson (1)
  • Bobby Bowden [Florida State University Football Coach] (1)
  • Bugs Bunny (1)
  • May the Best Man Win (1)
  • Me (1)
  • Morgan Freeman (1)
  • Mr. Bill (1)
  • Rep. Newt Gingrich (1)
  • None (Anarchy) (1)
  • Oprah (1)
  • Pat Buchanan (1)
  • Ralph Nader (1)
  • Hilary Bush (1)
  • Homer Simpson (1)
  • Jay Plotkin [Local state’s attorney candidate] (1)
  • Pres. Jimmy Carter (1)
  • Joe the Plumber (1)
  • John Doe (1)
  • Sen. Joe Lieberman (1)
  • Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (1)
  • They Both Suck ’08 (1)
  • Tiger Woods (1)
  • Tommy Chong (1)
  • Pres. Harry Truman (1)
  • Weird Al Yancovic (1)
  • William Crosby [?] (1)
  • Willie Nelson (1)

A Bailout Plan for Consumers: Use Treasury to Pay Off Americans’ Credit Cards

Jon Ponder

Last month, representatives from both the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Services Roundtable proposed reducing the amount of credit card debt held by financially troubled consumers by 40 percent:

The unusual joint request from the Financial Services Roundtable and the Consumer Federation of America highlighted the urgency of the situation: consumers — even those with strong credit records — defaulting at high levels on their credit cards, while banks battered by the credit crisis bleed tens of billions in red ink from the losses.

The reduction would have to be approved by U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, whose Treasury Department agency oversees national banks.

Here’s an even better idea: The Federal Reserve estimates that the total of all credit card debt in the United States is $900 billion. Why not use taxpayer money to pay off all consumer credit card debt in one fell swoop?

Hey, $900 billion is a steal in comparison with the money we taxpayers are shoveling out to Wall Street, the automakers and the citizens of Iraq.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

I’ve got some in my fridge. It tastes fine to me.

— NASA engineer Bob Bagdigian, on a new $250-million water-recycling device that will process the International Space Station crew’s urine for communal consumption

Did Mormons Join Prop 8 Fight to Woo Christian Right after Romney, FLDS Debacles?

Jon Ponder

The presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, left, and the FLDS polygamy scandal exposed the schism between Mormons and Christian extremists

Many people within the Christian right view Mormonism as a demonic cult, primarily because they believe Mormon dogma asserts that Jesus was the brother of Satan. So why then would Mormons donate half the $40 million budget of the Christian extremists’ Proposition 8 campaign to end the right for gays to marry in California?
By revealing their hateful, almost gleeful aggression toward gays, any inroads Mormons may have made with Christian extremists in this sorry episode could well come at the cost of hobbling their efforts to join mainstream society forever.
Some are suggesting that the Mormon leaders were attempting to align themselves with the Christian right after tensions were exposed between them and evangelicals during the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, a lifelong Mormon whose grandfather had five wives:

The Southern Baptist Convention website categorizes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a “cult” that is “radically” different from historic, biblical Christianity.

A faith guide issued by the influential Christian right group Focus on the Family declares that “God cannot be identified … with the Mormon religion’s notion of god.” And each year, evangelical organizers behind the National Day of Prayer bar Mormons from speaking at their proceedings…

“It would be extraordinarily hard for mainline denomination people in the South to openly and strongly politick or be involved in a Mormon’s run for office,” said Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination and a fixture of the Christian right.

The division was so pronounced that Romney was forced to give a speech about his faith — an effort that was compared to John F. Kennedy’s speech on his Catholicism during the 1960 campaign. Unlike Kennedy’s speech, however, Romney’s was not well-received, mainly because it was delivered with all the emotional impact of a Powerpoint presentation.

It also hurt the Mormon cause when, two months after Romney dropped his presidential bid, a scandal erupted in which the state of Texas removed dozens of children from a compound operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a renegade polygamous Mormon sect. The visuals of the glassy-eyed “sister wives” in their 19th-century prairie dresses were a stark reminder of the Mormons’ history of polygamy, child sexual abuse and violence.

So did this spate of bad news lead the Mormon leaders to join forces with their Christian enemies, and, if so, was it a smart decision?

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