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It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here. The
kids are starting their final week in school for this year.
Seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating the dawn of
the New Millennium. Yes, I know that's really reserved for
2001. We have begun our Christmas decorating. Let me
say that Suzy has begun the decorating. I have been my
usual helpful self. I got the tree out from its storage
location, placed it in the stand and retrieved the lights for
her. I then rescued the remaining Christmas boxes from
the closet and placed them on appropriate floors of the house
and stood back. I don't want to get in the main elf's
way. Suzy made progress on the project over the weekend. The
tree is fully decorated and I'll bet she will have the
remaining decorations up by the end of the week. At eight
years old, Andrew is the most excited in our house about
Christmas. In fact, he was so happy to have the tree in
its place he went downstairs yesterday afternoon to watch
television and plugged the tree in himself. Christmas is
great through the eyes and lives of children. And
shopping. I haven't even begun to think about making a
trip to that dreaded mall. Well, I have thought about
and I guess that's why I haven't been yet. However, I
have made a promise to the kids that I would take them
Christmas shopping. Must have been a very weak moment.
Thought I would weigh in again on all of
the goings on in Florida over over the US Presidential
election. To be more specific, the court wrangling and
the ever popular belief that Al Gore and his band of jack
booted thugs are going to do whatever necessary to have the
election decided in their favor. Some may chose to call
this an attempt to steal the election from George W. Bush.
If you were listening or watching the
news jockeys on Friday you may have been lulled into a false
sense of hope this election was drawing to a close. How
dare we get tricked into such a false sense of security. We
were starting to believe their analysis when they told us, with
a high degree of confidence, that the two Leon County cases on
absentee ballot application "irregularities" would be denied and
further, the
Florida Supremes would not overturn the case on recounts that
was before them. Especially, after the US
Supreme Court had sent their stinging remarks over their last
voting decision. Well, two out of three
ain't bad. They were correct on the two lower court
decisions (which I am sure are being appealed, but I have lost
count), but missed it on the state Supreme Court's sharply
divided opinion. In fact, the court was so divided, that
Chief Justice C. J. Wells decided to add some comments of his
own to the 70 page opinion. I
thought these were a couple of the key points in the Chief
Justice's dissenting opinion:
"My succinct conclusion is
that the majority’s decision to return this case to the
circuit court for a count of the under-votes from either
Miami-Dade County or all counties has no foundation in the
law of Florida as it existed on November 7, 2000, or at
any time until the issuance of this opinion. The majority
returns the case to the circuit court for this partial
recount of under-votes on the basis of unknown or, at
best, ambiguous standards with authority to obtain help
from others, the credentials, qualifications, and
objectivity of whom are totally unknown. That is but a
first glance at the imponderable problems the majority
creates."
"Importantly to me, I have a
deep and abiding concern that the prolonging of judicial
process in this counting contest propels this country and
this state into an unprecedented and unnecessary
constitutional crisis. I have to conclude that there is a
real and present likelihood that this constitutional
crisis will do substantial damage to our country, our
state, and to this Court as an institution."
Most believe the decision by the Florida
Supreme court will be overturned today by the US Supreme
Court, which is working on a uncustomarily fast track. Once
again, do we think this thing will be over this week? Again,
don't hold your breath. It's been fun (read that
interesting), no matter how
emotional the roller coaster has been.
This election has been good for one
thing. I get plenty of emails (like I didn't
before). Therefore, I thought I would share them with
you. Here are some of
the graphics and written word satire I have received as a
result of the Florida standoff.
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