No matter how many people ultimately vote, Mr. Sherbet and local election judges say they will be ready.
Dallas County elections administrator Bruce Sherbet has worked the polls for 28 years and six presidential elections and can forecast as well as anybody what Election Day will look like.
"I don't think we're going to see, at the end, this huge record that we're seeing in early voting equate on Election Day to 100,000 or 200,000 more voters than we've ever had before. I think it's going to be more representative that people just turned out early," he said.
Mr. Sherbet is predicting that Dallas will have a record turnout overall, something on the order of 730,000 to 750,000 votes in a county where more than 1.2 million people are registered. That would far outpace the 2004 record of 691,000 voters.
Already, 480,000 people have voted in Dallas County. That means 250,000 or more voters could come out for Election Day, Mr. Sherbet said.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Trick or Treat? It has always seemed appropriate to have our National Elections after Halloween in America....
Voters Across Nation Hit by Dirty Tricks
By DEBORAH HASTINGS,
AP
(Nov. 2) - In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks — confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.
The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.
Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.
Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.
In New Mexico, two Hispanic women filed a lawsuit last week claiming they were harassed by a private investigator working for a Republican lawyer who came to their homes and threatened to call immigration authorities, even though they are U.S. citizens.
"He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter," said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-year-old Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. "He totally, totally scared the heck out of her."
In Pennsylvania, e-mails appeared linking Democrat Barack Obama to the Holocaust. "Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4," said the electronic message, paid for by an entity calling itself the Republican Federal Committee. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake."
Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen "an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities."
The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.
Across the country, many of these first-time voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic. Activist groups say it is this fresh crop of ballot-minded citizens that makes some Republicans very nervous. And they say they expect the dirty tricks to get dirtier in final hours before Tuesday.
"Oh, there's plenty of time for things to get ugly," said Zachary Stalberg, president of The Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based government watchdog group that is nonpartisan.
Other reports of intimidation efforts in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania include leaflets taped to picnic benches at Drexel University, warning students that police would be at the polls on Tuesday to arrest would-be voters with prior criminal offenses.
In his Jewish neighborhood, Stalberg said, fliers were recently left claiming Obama was more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel, and showed a photograph of him speaking in Germany.
"It shows up between the screen door and the front door in the middle of the night," Stalberg said. "Why couldn't someone knock on the door and hand that to me in the middle of the day? In a sense, it's very smartly done. The message gets through. It's done carefully enough that people might read it."
Such tactics are common, and are often impossible to trace. Robo-calls, in which automated, bogus phone messages are sent over and over, are very hard to trace to their source, say voting advocates. E-mails fall into the same category.
In Nevada, for example, Latino voters said they had received calls from people describing themselves as Obama volunteers, urging them to cast their ballot over the phone.
By DEBORAH HASTINGS,
AP
(Nov. 2) - In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks — confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.
The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.
Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.
Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.
In New Mexico, two Hispanic women filed a lawsuit last week claiming they were harassed by a private investigator working for a Republican lawyer who came to their homes and threatened to call immigration authorities, even though they are U.S. citizens.
"He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter," said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-year-old Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. "He totally, totally scared the heck out of her."
In Pennsylvania, e-mails appeared linking Democrat Barack Obama to the Holocaust. "Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4," said the electronic message, paid for by an entity calling itself the Republican Federal Committee. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake."
Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen "an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities."
The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.
Across the country, many of these first-time voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic. Activist groups say it is this fresh crop of ballot-minded citizens that makes some Republicans very nervous. And they say they expect the dirty tricks to get dirtier in final hours before Tuesday.
"Oh, there's plenty of time for things to get ugly," said Zachary Stalberg, president of The Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based government watchdog group that is nonpartisan.
Other reports of intimidation efforts in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania include leaflets taped to picnic benches at Drexel University, warning students that police would be at the polls on Tuesday to arrest would-be voters with prior criminal offenses.
In his Jewish neighborhood, Stalberg said, fliers were recently left claiming Obama was more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel, and showed a photograph of him speaking in Germany.
"It shows up between the screen door and the front door in the middle of the night," Stalberg said. "Why couldn't someone knock on the door and hand that to me in the middle of the day? In a sense, it's very smartly done. The message gets through. It's done carefully enough that people might read it."
Such tactics are common, and are often impossible to trace. Robo-calls, in which automated, bogus phone messages are sent over and over, are very hard to trace to their source, say voting advocates. E-mails fall into the same category.
In Nevada, for example, Latino voters said they had received calls from people describing themselves as Obama volunteers, urging them to cast their ballot over the phone.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
My prediction for the election....
IF you believe the polls. Obama is going to win.
IF you believe that people LIE to people taking polls, then the race is tighter and a dead heat... those independents are going to vote for McCain on Tuesday.
I have emailed, put up signs, called people, and knocked on doors and voted early. I have contribute money to members of both parties and mostly for our local Sheriff, who deserves to complete the job SHE started.
In TEXAS McCain will win.
But not in Dallas.
In USA, we will be up late on Tuesday Night.
IF MCCAIN WINS, it will be in the E college or the Supreme court. (See posting below.)
Unlike Gore, Obama will not go down without a fight to the finish. He has been tested and tempered in this campaign to become President of USa. He is not a home-grown radical or terrorist.
Colin Powell put it be best:
"he examined both campaigns in the last few weeks, he said, he became “concerned” that “in the case of Mr. McCain, he was a little unsure how to deal with the economic problems.”
“Every day, there was a different approach,” he said, adding that he also “would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.”
McCain would be a good president, Powell said, but Obama is “a transformational figure” who would be an “exceptional” leader.
“I truly believe that at this point in America’s history we need a president who will not just continue ... basically the policies we have followed in recent years,” he said. “We need a president with transformational qualities.”
For that reason, he said, “I will be voting for Barack Obama.”
Freddallas
IF you believe that people LIE to people taking polls, then the race is tighter and a dead heat... those independents are going to vote for McCain on Tuesday.
I have emailed, put up signs, called people, and knocked on doors and voted early. I have contribute money to members of both parties and mostly for our local Sheriff, who deserves to complete the job SHE started.
In TEXAS McCain will win.
But not in Dallas.
In USA, we will be up late on Tuesday Night.
IF MCCAIN WINS, it will be in the E college or the Supreme court. (See posting below.)
Unlike Gore, Obama will not go down without a fight to the finish. He has been tested and tempered in this campaign to become President of USa. He is not a home-grown radical or terrorist.
Colin Powell put it be best:
"he examined both campaigns in the last few weeks, he said, he became “concerned” that “in the case of Mr. McCain, he was a little unsure how to deal with the economic problems.”
“Every day, there was a different approach,” he said, adding that he also “would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.”
McCain would be a good president, Powell said, but Obama is “a transformational figure” who would be an “exceptional” leader.
“I truly believe that at this point in America’s history we need a president who will not just continue ... basically the policies we have followed in recent years,” he said. “We need a president with transformational qualities.”
For that reason, he said, “I will be voting for Barack Obama.”
Freddallas
This is the real Halloween Story... USA COST PLUS CONTRACTING BY NASA...
NASA on Oct. 31 awarded a $206.5 million contract to a longtime contractor, United Space Alliance, to provide services for the next generation of its space-exploration program.
The contract will provide mission and flight crew logistics, training and flight support for the International Space Station and subsequent space exploration activities after the space shuttle program is ended. "This primary contract, which starts tomorrow (Nov. 1), and continues through the end of the fiscal year 2011, will be the primary one for planning, training, and the flying of the new Constellation series of spacecrafts that will replace the space shuttles when they are retired from service in 2010," NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told eWEEK.The Constellation Aries I (crew transportation) and Aries V (cargo) space ships are being designed without wings -- unlike the space shuttles -- because they will be used for new missions to the moon and eventually to Mars, Humphries said.United Space Alliance, based in Houston, has been NASA's primary provider of these services since the mid-'90s, Humphries said. Prior to that time, NASA granted individual contracts for the large set of services needed to get space vehicles into their missions.The two-year, 11-month Integrated Mission Operations Contract covers ground-based human spaceflight operations capability development and execution, including support to mission planning and preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real-time mission execution.
The cost-plus-award-fee contract provides for an optional one-year extension, which would increase the total value of the contract to $371 million. The extension period, if exercised, would be from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012.
United Space Alliance is a space-flight operations company that is a joint venture, owned equally by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It was established in August 1995 as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). The company employs about 10,000 people in Texas, Florida, Alabama, and the Washington, D.C., area.
The contract will provide mission and flight crew logistics, training and flight support for the International Space Station and subsequent space exploration activities after the space shuttle program is ended. "This primary contract, which starts tomorrow (Nov. 1), and continues through the end of the fiscal year 2011, will be the primary one for planning, training, and the flying of the new Constellation series of spacecrafts that will replace the space shuttles when they are retired from service in 2010," NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told eWEEK.The Constellation Aries I (crew transportation) and Aries V (cargo) space ships are being designed without wings -- unlike the space shuttles -- because they will be used for new missions to the moon and eventually to Mars, Humphries said.United Space Alliance, based in Houston, has been NASA's primary provider of these services since the mid-'90s, Humphries said. Prior to that time, NASA granted individual contracts for the large set of services needed to get space vehicles into their missions.The two-year, 11-month Integrated Mission Operations Contract covers ground-based human spaceflight operations capability development and execution, including support to mission planning and preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real-time mission execution.
The cost-plus-award-fee contract provides for an optional one-year extension, which would increase the total value of the contract to $371 million. The extension period, if exercised, would be from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012.
United Space Alliance is a space-flight operations company that is a joint venture, owned equally by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It was established in August 1995 as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). The company employs about 10,000 people in Texas, Florida, Alabama, and the Washington, D.C., area.
One of my readers (maybe the only reader) tells me that it time again for a lesson about the Electoral College...
Supporters of the electoral college say that we need to keep it because it “forces candidates to campaign in small states” and because the “Founding Fathers” decided that it was the fairest way to elect a president.
However, the Electoral College, in my opinion, is an antiquated and outmoded system that has given the highest office in the country to the loser in the actual election seven (7) times in U.S. history. I fear it will do so again on Tuesday, but that’s another matter. Here’s a brief summary of the sordid history of the electoral college:
2000:
Bush 50,456,002 47.87%
Gore 50,999,897 48.38%
Note: Other candidates – like Buchanan and Nader, took more than a million and a half votes away from the two major candidates. Without them, the outcome would have been different – either Gore would have won the electoral college as well as the popular vote, or Bush might have won both the popular vote and the electoral college.
1960 (Kennedy/Nixon)
1968 (Nixon/Humphrey – this was the start of campaigns that focused solely on “battleground” states. Nixon had seen it go the other way once, and was not about to let it happen again.)
1976 (Carter/Ford)
In 1824, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote AND the electoral college, but in a four-man race, he failed to earn 50% of either. So the House of representatives decided the race, and picked John Quincy Adams, who had come in third.
In 1876, Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral college (after the only “Congressional commission” in U.S. history sorted things out in Hayes’ favor several months after the election).
In 1888, Grover Cleveland won the popular vote, but Benjamin Harrison won the electoral college.
However, the Electoral College, in my opinion, is an antiquated and outmoded system that has given the highest office in the country to the loser in the actual election seven (7) times in U.S. history. I fear it will do so again on Tuesday, but that’s another matter. Here’s a brief summary of the sordid history of the electoral college:
2000:
Bush 50,456,002 47.87%
Gore 50,999,897 48.38%
Note: Other candidates – like Buchanan and Nader, took more than a million and a half votes away from the two major candidates. Without them, the outcome would have been different – either Gore would have won the electoral college as well as the popular vote, or Bush might have won both the popular vote and the electoral college.
1960 (Kennedy/Nixon)
1968 (Nixon/Humphrey – this was the start of campaigns that focused solely on “battleground” states. Nixon had seen it go the other way once, and was not about to let it happen again.)
1976 (Carter/Ford)
In 1824, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote AND the electoral college, but in a four-man race, he failed to earn 50% of either. So the House of representatives decided the race, and picked John Quincy Adams, who had come in third.
In 1876, Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral college (after the only “Congressional commission” in U.S. history sorted things out in Hayes’ favor several months after the election).
In 1888, Grover Cleveland won the popular vote, but Benjamin Harrison won the electoral college.
LOOK OUT BELOW! Taking out the trash is more exciting in orbit.....
Space Station Trash Plunging to Earth
By Tariq Malik,
Space.com
(Oct. 31) - A piece of space station trash the size of a refrigerator is poised to plunge through the Earth's atmosphere late Sunday, more than a year after an astronaut tossed it overboard.
NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking the object - a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant thrown from the International Space Station - to make sure it does not endanger people on Earth. Exactly where the tank will inevitably fall is currently unknown, though it is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sunday afternoon or later that evening, NASA officials said.
By Tariq Malik,
Space.com
(Oct. 31) - A piece of space station trash the size of a refrigerator is poised to plunge through the Earth's atmosphere late Sunday, more than a year after an astronaut tossed it overboard.
NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking the object - a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant thrown from the International Space Station - to make sure it does not endanger people on Earth. Exactly where the tank will inevitably fall is currently unknown, though it is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sunday afternoon or later that evening, NASA officials said.
We had lots of kids, and I do mean kids, this evening. And strangely for us most of them were Hispanic... so in the paper I read today...
Get set for Day of the Dead in Dallas
12:23 AM CDT on Saturday, November 1, 2008
By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News dsolis@dallasnews.com
The jack-o'-lanterns have faded and the goblins have retreated, with Halloween giving way to Días de los Muertos, the Mexican homage to the departed.
But it's not always easy to distinguish between the two celebrations, which run for three consecutive days (Halloween on Oct. 31 and Day of the Dead on Nov. 1-2).
Then there's the blended commercialization of the two – at Mexican bakeries and upscale supermarkets, traditional pan de muerto loaves mingle with black-cat cookies.
Latinos agree there's room for both. But many would like to put some distance between the popcorn balls and the chicken mole, a traditional Day of the Dead dish.
"I see the influence of Halloween as very natural," said Patricia Urbina, director of Teatro Flor Candela.
"[But] the act of doing an altar is an act of great love. Halloween is about scariness, blood, darkness and devils. It is the opposite of our Day of the Dead."
At the Latino Cultural Center, Día de los Muertos kicks off tonight with an indigenous-influenced play directed by Ms. Urbina.
Traditionally, Mexico's Dias de los Muertos represents a syncretic mix of Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs. Events are tied to All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, but many rituals are pre-Hispanic.
The iconic symbol of the celebrations is an altar with offerings to the departed, featuring elements of nature.
The altars can include favorite foods from the earth, fluttering paper cutouts called papel picado to represent wind, candles to symbolize fire and a liquid or beverage to signify water.
In recent years, the Internet has fueled the popularity of Day of the Dead traditions and led to elaborate celebrations in non-Latino communities.
"This fiesta is very organic," Ms. Urbina said. "All of us feel love for those who have passed on."
An exhibit of Day of the Dead art at the Bath House Cultural Center, which began three weeks ago, is now its biggest event of the year, and most of the artists lack Spanish surnames. More than 500 visitors attended the opening.
Enrique Fernández, the show's curator, said he sees the exhibit as an emotional canvas for artists of any culture to express their appreciation for someone no longer living.
Try as some might to keep Días de Los Muertos separate from Halloween, some children in Mexico City spent Friday embracing All Saints' Eve:
They wore scary costumes and carried plastic pumpkins.
12:23 AM CDT on Saturday, November 1, 2008
By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News dsolis@dallasnews.com
The jack-o'-lanterns have faded and the goblins have retreated, with Halloween giving way to Días de los Muertos, the Mexican homage to the departed.
But it's not always easy to distinguish between the two celebrations, which run for three consecutive days (Halloween on Oct. 31 and Day of the Dead on Nov. 1-2).
Then there's the blended commercialization of the two – at Mexican bakeries and upscale supermarkets, traditional pan de muerto loaves mingle with black-cat cookies.
Latinos agree there's room for both. But many would like to put some distance between the popcorn balls and the chicken mole, a traditional Day of the Dead dish.
"I see the influence of Halloween as very natural," said Patricia Urbina, director of Teatro Flor Candela.
"[But] the act of doing an altar is an act of great love. Halloween is about scariness, blood, darkness and devils. It is the opposite of our Day of the Dead."
At the Latino Cultural Center, Día de los Muertos kicks off tonight with an indigenous-influenced play directed by Ms. Urbina.
Traditionally, Mexico's Dias de los Muertos represents a syncretic mix of Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs. Events are tied to All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, but many rituals are pre-Hispanic.
The iconic symbol of the celebrations is an altar with offerings to the departed, featuring elements of nature.
The altars can include favorite foods from the earth, fluttering paper cutouts called papel picado to represent wind, candles to symbolize fire and a liquid or beverage to signify water.
In recent years, the Internet has fueled the popularity of Day of the Dead traditions and led to elaborate celebrations in non-Latino communities.
"This fiesta is very organic," Ms. Urbina said. "All of us feel love for those who have passed on."
An exhibit of Day of the Dead art at the Bath House Cultural Center, which began three weeks ago, is now its biggest event of the year, and most of the artists lack Spanish surnames. More than 500 visitors attended the opening.
Enrique Fernández, the show's curator, said he sees the exhibit as an emotional canvas for artists of any culture to express their appreciation for someone no longer living.
Try as some might to keep Días de Los Muertos separate from Halloween, some children in Mexico City spent Friday embracing All Saints' Eve:
They wore scary costumes and carried plastic pumpkins.
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