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silverfoxesclub-digest In this issue:
-Re: The Only Votes that Really Count (+ other responses)
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Subject: Re: The Only Votes that Really Count
Well said, Ben! If we want to change the constitution, we should go about
the proper way, through congress with an amendment.
K
Subject: Fwd: The Only Votes that Really Count
Here is a small clarification to Ben's excellent description of how USA
elects a president. It is true that as Ben said, "To win a candidate must
receive a
majority of electoral votes--currently 270." However, the majority that
is required is a majority of those electors present to vote, which could be
less than 270. This number will be 270 ONLY if all electors are present in
Washington, DC to vote on Dec 18.
Why is this fine point important? Because if Florida cannot certify its
electors, or is enjoined by the courts from certifying its electors,
because of fraud or substantial irregularities, Florida's electors would
not be present to vote in the Electoral College on Dec 18. Then the number
of votes required would be a majority of 513, that is 257, not 270 (538
minus Florida's 25 equals 513). Mr Gore has more than 257 votes already.
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Subject: Re: Our election is Over
Bravo, Ben,
Once again your sagacity unfurls its full and awesome colors for all to see.
Now, let us close ranks, let us discuss vote day elsewhere, and let us move
forward.
Again, Ben, "Bravo!"
Steve in the northern burbs of Detroit
Subject: RE: The Only Votes that Really Count
Wow Ben,
Ross Perot?
Do you know what he would say about this
site and the people associated with it?
Subject: Re: The Only Votes that Really Count
Nobody knew what he would have said
about it in 1992, when I was associated
with the campaign. The Reform Party
did not even exist at that time. I left
when he did, the morning after his
announcement that he was pulling out --
just two days after his wife said in public
that he would NEVER let the American
people down by pulling out! He lost me
then, the way Clinton lost me on July 15,
1993, when he signed on to "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" with his buddy Colin Powell.
Perot posed as a fair-minded man in
1992, which is why 19,000,000 Americans
voted for him. At some later point in the
1990s, he instituted domestic partner
benefits for gays and other single people
working in his company, but reversed that
policy a couple of years later for unexplained
reasons. Going back on his word seemed
to be part of his character, which I had
already learned in August 1992. When he
came back in October 1992 and ran for President, I
was no longer interested in anything he had
to say, but I voted for him just for the hell
of it because I found both Papa George Bush
and Clinton distasteful.
Subject: Election Humor
Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" Thursday said the uncertainty of Tuesday's
election outcome has the whole country suffering from "electile
dysfunction."
The move was a reaction to the confusion and irregularities in the
state's voting numbers that have totally disrupted the 2000 Presidential
election.
"This is the last straw," said Utah senator Orin Hatch. "First Elian
Gonzales, now this."
Several congressmen told reporters the decision has been a long time in
coming.
"We're all pretty much sick of Florida," said representative Barney
Frank. "They've been a constant embarrassment for too long now."
Added Frank, "They had Dan Marino for a while, but what have they done
lately? Oh that's right, screw up our entire democracy. I forgot"
In a speech on the Senate floor, Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy
commented that the loss of Florida's sizable elderly population will free
up billions of dollars in social security funds.
"These are valuable funds which can now be redirected toward national
defense. We can finally rebuild our demoralized, weakened military," said
the Senator to roaring applause.
From her New York campaign headquarters, freshly elected senator Hillary
Clinton echoes the sentiments of her future colleagues on Capitol Hill,
calling Florida "a hurricane-addled hellhole full of scheming Cuban
immigrants."
"Learn fucking English already, you banana boat bums," Clinton added.
As a result of the Florida screw-up, the House and Senate decreed a new
election will take place in early December. This time, ballots in each
state will be tabulated by robots.
"It is clear that our human vote-counting system is too inherently
flawed," said Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. "The presence of these
new, superior robot mast- err, I mean - tabulators will ensure 100%
accuracy."
"Remember," said Hastert, "every vote counts, especially if it's counted
by robots."
Dynamiting will begin in Florida next Wednesday, after which the state
will be completely geographically separated from the United States.
"After that, they're on their own," said Hastert. "I hope they sink.
Fuckers."
Subject: Germans Pass Domestic Partner Law
From the AP news.
Edward
Germans Pass Domestic Partner Law
BERLIN (AP) -- After a sharp debate over what conservatives branded an
``attack on family and society,'' German lawmakers took a first step
Thursday toward giving legal recognition to gay couples.
Lawmakers from the governing Social Democrats and Greens used their
majority in the lower house to push through legal changes expected to
give gays and lesbians the right to sign ``life partnerships'' by the
middle of next year.
The changes would allow gay couples to exchange vows at local government
offices and require a court decision for divorce. Same-sex couples would
also receive rights given heterosexual spouses in inheritance and health
insurance.
``The long years of discrimination are over,'' declared Greens leader
Kerstin Mueller, whose party led the push for the changes. ``Lesbians and
gays today get their rights.''
Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin said the aim was to support
lasting relationships between people regardless of their sexual
orientation.
But conservatives, who have denounced the plan as ``Marriage Light,''
could scuttle parts of the bill when it reaches the upper house of
parliament, and are weighing whether to ask the country's highest court
to rule the plan unlawful.
The German vote came more than a decade after Denmark became the first
country to give homosexual couples legal status in 1989. Others including
France and Norway introduced similar laws during the 1990s.
Before the vote, conservative lawmakers slammed the changes as
undermining the ``special protection'' for marriage in Germany's postwar
constitution.
Norbert Geis, a lawmaker for the ultraconservative Christian Social
Union, said the new institution was a ``violation of our culture'' and
``the worst attack on family and society.''
Gay and lesbian groups, who have campaigned for a decade for partnership
rights, welcomed the parliament vote as long overdue.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government promised to pursue the goal of
legal status for gay couples after he ousted Helmut Kohl in 1998 elections.
Subject: Our election is over
I am putting the brakes on chitchat
about this screwy election. Many of
us have had a lot to say, and for the
most part, it has been non-accusatory.
Some of it, however, has been
borderline, so the best thing we can
do is to break the thread because
sooner or later -- and that means
sooner -- it is going to get rougher and
will bruise more feelings here than
it's worth for the purposes of our list.
I have already had to unsubscribe someone
who has gone off the deep end with me
privately, which makes me suspect that
others may be doing some private flaming
as well.
I say again: our election is over. Let's talk
about other things and look at hot pix.
Thanks for all of your contributions up to
this point, but enough is enough.
Ben Boxer
Subject: The Internet and the Penis
Have you ever thought about the similarities between The Internet, and a
mans Penis? There is a staggering and frightening similarity. Think of
it:
1. They both can be up or down. It's a lot more fun when they're up, but
it makes it hard to get any real work done.
2. In the long-distant past, its only purpose was to transmit
information considered vital to the survival of the species. Some
people still think that's the only thing it should be used for, but most
folks today use it for fun most of the time.
3. If you don't apply the appropriate protective measures, it can spread
viruses.
4. It has no brain of its own. Instead, it uses yours.
5. If you use it too much, you'll find it becomes more and more
difficult to think coherently.
6. If you're not careful what you do with it, it can get you in big
trouble.
7. The White House uses both extensively to communicate what is on the
president's mind.
8. Some folks have it, some don't. Those who have it would be devastated
if it were ever cut off. They think that those who don't have it are
somehow inferior. They think it gives them power. They are wrong. Those
who don't have it may agree that it's a nifty toy, but think it's not
worth the fuss that those who do have it make about it. Still, many of
those who don't have it would like to try it.
9. Once you've started playing with it, it's hard to stop. Some people
would just play with it all day if they didn't have work to do.
10.When too small, few people had any use for it. When too big, you
can't possible take it all in. Different people would have different
opinions as to the perfect size of it, and it's user would never be
quite satisfied with its performance.
11.If it goes down, without warning, and without reason, the anxiety and
stress related to wondering when it will be up again is enough to shake
the foundation of most small countries.
12.In both cases, if you hire a cheap service provider, the only thing
that you can count on is that both will go down often, and neither will
let you stay on all night long.
Subject: Gay Protest Planned at Bishops' Gathering
Headline:
By Gustav Niebuhr
Text:
The demonstration, a vigil near the
National Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception, will be the fifth such
event staged over the last six months
by the organization, Soulforce Inc.
The organization said Dignity/USA, a
30-year-old group of gay and lesbian
Catholics, would also participate.
Earlier this year, Soulforce held
demonstrations outside national
meetings of four Protestant
denominations, the United Methodist
Church, the Southern Baptist
Convention, the Presbyterian Church
(USA) and the Episcopal Church,
groups with official views that vary
widely in regard to the role that gay
men and lesbians may play in church.
At each event, some participants
were quietly arrested, often on
charges of trespassing, by police
officers briefed beforehand by the
organization of its plans. "We don't
want the police to be surprised by
our presence," said a Soulforce
spokeswoman, Laura Montgomery
Rutt.
Soulforce's executive director, the
Rev. Mel White, said the Catholic
Church in the United States, with
more than 60 million members, had a
greater impact on public
understanding of issues related to
gay rights than any of its Protestant
counterparts. Mr. White, who is
ordained but not a church pastor,
also said gay and lesbian Catholics
had suffered greatly from church
teaching that homosexual acts were
"intrinsically disordered."
Mary Louise Cervone, president of
Dignity/USA, said the demonstration
was intended to be "a message that
our language and our words and our
actions have a tremendous effect on
the lives of our people." Ms.
Cervone said gay men and lesbians
would feel a part of their churches
"when we are welcomed in our
churches as whole and holy people."
In a recent exchange of letters with
Mr. White, Bishop Joseph A.
Fiorenza, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, said
the church's view of homosexual acts
was rooted in its teachings on
marriage, that such acts "cannot
fulfill the two-fold purpose of
sexuality in the God-given order of
creation to build up the
community of love between wife and
husband and to enable them to be
co-creators with Him in bringing
children into the world."
But Bishop Fiorenza also quoted the
Catholic Catechism as declaring the
church's position that gays "must be
accepted with respect, compassion
and sensitivity." Referring to the
Catechism's statement, Bishop
Fiorenza added, "Catholics who do
not observe this teaching are not in
accord with the mind and the heart
of the church."
In planning to gather on Tuesday, the
demonstrators have chosen a site
high in symbolism, but distant from
where the bishops will meet, in a
Capitol Hill hotel, from Monday
through Thursday. The shrine, the
largest Catholic church in the
Western hemisphere, stands
adjacent to the Catholic University
of America.
Some Catholic organizations invited
by Soulforce to participate declined
to do so, among them New Ways
Ministries, which describes itself as a
"bridge-building ministry" to gay and
lesbian Catholics.
"We didn't feel that the Soulforce
action was going to be in line with
our mission of education and
promoting dialogue," said Francis
DeBernardo, its executive director.
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