DON"T FORGET TO VOTE

[DanG]

Went to the Gretna, Fla City Hall to vote this morning. Everything was amicable, with the usual banter between voters and poll workers.  There were a handful of demonstrators out by the road, all lobbying for their favorite local candidates...none for the national hopefuls. There was one stranger out there, with a little desk set up outside under the shade of a young pine tree. He came inside once, while I was there, then went back to his post.

The down side of it all, is the fact that I got about 20 phone calls today. >:(  Most of them were recorded messages with the voices of prominent people. >:( >:(   ALL of them were sponsored by the Democratic Party or the Kerry campaign. >:( >:( >:( >:(    That tells me that those folks don't respect me, my rights, or my intelligence.  I don't appreciate that. >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(   I am strongly in favor of a law against placing random calls with a recorded message!

[redpowerd]

I always thought they were to stay a certain distance away

im pretty sure its 100' from polling place.

i know what you mean with them DanG phone recordings, and theyre all from the left, ive been getting them for the last week!

anyone know when the polls closed in the states that have allready been recorded? IN, KY, WV, GA  and VT

[Bruce_A]

For the last week I have been getting those recorded calls from both parties. I voted before the calls and don't like them at all.

[wiam]

VT is 7:00

[pigman]

Ky polls close a 6 pm. half of state in eastern time zone, half in central time zone.  8)

[Phorester]

VA polling places open from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM.  

All pol-e-tickers have to stay back 50 feet from the polling place entrance.

The ladies writing names were not at all friendly today, as they have been in all other elections.  Very serious, as were all the other people helping.

[Paschale]

 There was one of them poll watcher people in our townhall today.  That's the first time I've ever seen one of them around here and I guess, no I know that I didn't much like it.  She was just standing there with a clipboard looking serious :

I think there was one of those at my place to.  It bugged me--she was just standing there, behind the poll workers, watching the proceedings.  I wanted to ask her, "who are you?"  There's something fishy about people who are supposedly watching over the proceedings, as if they're protecting our rights to vote.  No one asked her to do that for us, except whatever candidate she happens to support.  I trust the little old ladies who are always working the polls much more than that crotchety old busybody back there with her clip board!   >:(  

[LeeB]

Beenthere,
                I agree that we have the best system in the world. My point is that I don't care for either of the two major canidates and would like to have a third and viable choice. I get real tired of hearing the same old bs from the two parties. I just would like to see politics be good for the people and not just the politicians. LeeB

[Ron Wenrich]

Our lines were pretty average for a major election.  My line was about 5 minutes.  There were lines that were as long as 5 hours.

There was no electioneering at the polls.  I think the 100' distance is about right.  A couple of years ago, we had a twp commissioner who based his whole race by talking to people at the polling place.  He won.

Phone calls only came from the Republicans.  I never listened to any of them.  

The third party got a leg up this year because the Democrats didn't run anyone.  If you look through your state rolls, you would be surprised to see how many row offices are held by third party members.  That's the only way there will be an effective move for a 3rd party.  Perot could have done it, but blew it with Buchannon.

[Minnesota_boy]

Having a 3 party system or even more parties sounds great until you see the results.  Check out Italy for a multi-party system or Canada for a 3 party.   Learn what gets done or not done when the leader of the nation has less than a majority vote for them.

[DanG]

Ron, I think it's interesting that all of your calls came from the Republicans. We got a few from them over the course of the last few weeks, but ALL of yesterday's flood were from the Dems. I suppose it has to do with what state you're in and how the parties think they will fare there. ???

I got at least 4 calls from Bill Clinton. I made a rude comment, and hung up each time. Perhaps the nature of my comment is what kept him calling back. ??? : :D :D :D :D

A while back, I mentioned a "voter initiative" on our ballot that would limit the percentage a lawyer could recieve in a successful suit. It appears to have passed, but only applies to cases involving medical issues. It will be interesting to see what effect it has. Maybe we will see less "ambulance chaser" ads on tv, now. ;D  The opponents of the measure(lawyers  :) said it would give doctors a free pass to butcher people, but 2 more initiatives passed, that will crack down on them, too. One of them opens up a doctor's record of complaints to the public, and the other is a "three strikes and you're out" rule, where a doc loses his license after 3 malpractice convictions.  We may end up with a shortage of doctors AND lawyers in this state, before long.

My son is practicing law in Ft. Lauderdale, and his firm specializes in defending lawsuits, mostly for the insurance companies. I'll have the inside track on what effect the initiatives end up having. ;D

[redpowerd]

DanG, youre lucky, i would LOVE to "talk" with bill clinton. ;D

[raycon]

Around here its been nothing but republican calls.
Unplugged the phone at 10pm Monday so the kids would not be disturbed while sleeping. Four years from now it'll probably be some new technology like a talking appliance ...did you vote yet....did you vote yet...did you vote yet.

[Ron Wenrich]

I don't know if they have any idea of party affiliation when they make those calls.  I'm a registered independent, so, it that were true, I would expect calls from both sides.  

I heard of one guy who got 84 calls in one week.  Unplugging the phone also works as a deterrent.  I'm sure glad the politicians exempted themselves from the do-not-call list.

As for the malpractice, our state has disallowed lawsuits out of the locale in which the infraction occured.  Philadelphia was known for higher settlements, so lots of lawyers would start the suit there.  But, that can't happen anymore.

I don't like the preferential treatment that one profession gets over the other.  If a $250,000 cap is good enough for a doctor, why doesn't it apply to the drunk driver, truck driver or anyone else that causes damages?  

Our state has been targeted for those high doctor's premiums.  One of the reasons they are so high is because they don't police their ranks.  Bad doctors continue to practice.  They get sued, and their rates go up.  

I heard one comment made that maybe we should be looking into insurance reform instead of tort reform.  The insurance companies don't need to go to anyone to justify the increase in rates.  And when you don't have very many insurance companies writing business, they do what ever they want.

[DanG]

Ron, I have no clue why this new law only applies to medical cases. ???  It does not put a cap on the awards, merely caps the percentage the lawyer can get. IMHO, it was sorely needed. There have been cases where the plaintiff ended up in the hole, after taxes. You see, due to a glitch in the tax laws  ??? :, if a plaintiff wins more than $1million, he has to pay income taxes on the entire amount, and the legal fees are not deductible.  Commonly, the lawyers take 70%, and the taxes on $1million is 38%. That means the lawyer gets $700,000, and the aggrieved individual gets $300,000, but his tax liability is $380,000.  Hardly any litigants are aware of this until it hits them squarely between the left back pocket and the right back pocket!  With this new plan, the lawyer can only take 30% of the first $250,000, and 10% of everything over that.  It seems a whole lot more fair, to me.  I agree that it should apply to all lawsuits, and not just to medical cases.

The other two initiatives remove the doctor's responsibility to police themselves.  The State is gonna do it for them. ;D

I don't think the calls had anything to do with the "victim's" affiliation. Our phone is listed in my wife's name, and she is registered as NPA(No Party Affiliation).  We got a few calls from the GOP in the past few weeks, but only from the Dems on the final day. It seems to be a geographical call.  Those statisticians seem to think they can control everything by studying the demographics, but they always fail to take into account human intelligence.

I'm a little frustrated with the political commentators who say that Bush won in spite of his economic policy. They seem to ignore the possibility that some of us AGREE with his economic policy. Apparently, a lot of us do.

[Furby]

I went in at 12:45PM, only took 5 min. and I was #352.
I think there was a "poll watcher" there, but lunch had just arrived, so I don't know which one it was.  :D :D :D