Swamp Musings

It's been a halfway useful day. Can't complain and sure can't complain about the wonderful Indian Summer. Did manage to find a batch of seed ticks to amuse me after coming in this evening but when one is wrestling scads of trumpet vines and Virginia creepers off of tree limbs that never completely fell, one expects a modest sprinkling of the State Bird of Florida. No greenhouse or garden work today and probably won't be much until the damaged fig tree decides to go dormant for the second time. It elected to sprout a full set of leaves after being mostly stripped (going dorment back then) by Frances and a lot of it is inside the greenhouse framework. It'll keep. I usually don't re-skin the g'haus until December anyway and I don't want to make the cuttings until the leaves drop.

I've about got the studio apartment access back to pre-'cane season status less the normal growth and kinda hope to be in the right attitude to offer it for rent soon. There's a bit of it's history here and I just installed a counter for fun. Rural and secluded it is and it's a long, long way to "culture".

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There's a reason for this.
Conspiracy theories about presidential election flood Internet
The Seattle Times (from the People's Republic of Washingtonistan) - Thursday, November 11, 2004

"There are claims that a suspicious number of Florida counties ended up with Bush vote totals that were far larger than the number of registered Republican voters."

" The Florida case is more nuanced than the Ohio voting battle. Numerous bloggers have noted that President Bush's vote totals in 47 Florida counties were larger — in some cases much larger — than the number of registered Republican voters in the same counties. A widely distributed piece on Consortiumnews.com said the results "are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable."

The article's main numbers are correct. But the central premise — that there is something suspicious about Bush getting more votes than the number of registered Republicans in rural counties, which use paper ballots — may not be suspicious at all. It does not account for thousands of independents or for voters who do not list party affiliation. It is also common for Florida Democrats, particularly the "Dixiecrats" in the northern reaches of the state and the Panhandle, to vote for Republicans, a pattern repeated in much of the Deep South.

Despite its apparent flaws, the Florida theory raises some interesting questions. For instance, a further look at Florida voting patterns shows that the number of counties with more Bush votes than registered Republicans jumped from 32 in 2000 to 47 in 2004. Bush's improved performance might be explained by Al Gore, a Southern moderate, having had more appeal to Dixiecrats four years ago than Kerry, who is from Massachusetts." (snip)

The following is bar napkin calculated from the following sources:
County Voter Registration By Party and Race February 9, 2004
Florida Election Reporting System

Just taking my county, Suwannee, only 28% are registered Republican but the vote was 58% for GWB. The South had always been a bastion of the Democrat party every since the Civil War, mostly in reaction to the carpet baggers from the Union that royally punished and profiteered what was left. It was the party of the Klan as well although only about 4% of Southerner's ever owned slaves. Oh yes, there was a Southern aristocracy and bits and pieces are still evident and in some future entry I'll probably write a bit of my South Alabama youngunhood. I wonder whatever happened to Lynne, Andrea, and Patricia... (small smile on the boy from the wrong side of the tracks.. ;o)

The Democratic party has left the self-reliant Southerners behind in favor of a "vision" more like a straight jacket than something which encourages initiative.

I'm going to have to get back to this subject. It's too much to handle right now as I'm halfway watching "Saving Private Ryan". Stay tuned, I feel a trip into my archives coming up soon.

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A little light-heartedness. Put your coffee down and go take a pee before clicking this link!
Dude, Where's My Votes?

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How about the Daily Arafart? I'm NOT going to link any MSM love-fest crap. That bastard needed killin' not dying of old age and excess.

Heavy stuff.
Omitted from Arafat's AP obituary
Posted by The Big Trunk at Power Line - November 11, 2004


...tell us how you really feel Jeff, don't hold back...
The Boston Globe
Arafat the monster
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist - November 11, 2004


http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Yassir_Arafat_1929-2004.asp
Yassir Arafat: 1929-2004
HonestReporting.com (436 KB)

There's a one minute movie clip that's interesting available on this link.


di, I think you may find this very interesting. Below is a 119 KB map locating current and recent militant Islamic groups in the US. It's from "American Jihad" by Steven Emerson, 2002
The terrorist network in America

I've resized it to 800 x 536 at 135 KB here so it'll open in a larger screen for us old fogies that don't see too well! ..and no, I'm NOT talking to you di so save the acid bath for others! ;o)


And last (and for me, extremely cringeworthy), this offering:
Serbian Chefs Go For Testicles

Yum?