Hard Starboard
Array Here were the vote totals:Fourth BallotC 116 / 59 reqdL 137 / 70 reqdFred Hiltz 56 / 75 ( 3 / 2)Victoria Matthews 60 / 62 (-2 / -2)Fifth BallotC 116 / 59 reqdL 137 / 70 reqdFred Hiltz 60 / 81 ( 4 / 6) *Elected*Victoria Matthews 56 /56 (-4 / -6)Not a big vote shift, but then, we’re not talking about a lot of electors here.On StandFirm, someone was asking what caused the shift of support from Matthews to Hiltz? I think liberals voted for Hiltz because he’s a liberal, and other liberals voted for Matthews because she’s a woman.
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Elena left Friday afternoon/evening, while I waited until after work to leave (didn’t leave until 9 O’clock that night).We drove to our first stop in El Paso. My car broke down twice on the drive to El Paso, it would lose all power and I’d pull to the side, wait a while, and it would start again.In El Paso we slept in since I got in so late. It’s a very painful drive across Texas, in June, with no AC, and being limited to 65mph even though the limit is 75.SaturdayWe were making progress in our 1000 mile journey and Elena needed a rest.
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Until now I waited for utility companies to provide services. I thought I might enjoy some time without phone, internet and cable. Drank coffee and napped and unpacked. Stopped into the nearby liberal, maybe leftist, bookstore then began the trek home. We think Eagle Rock, Pasadena and Glendale were pit stops for people heading to Palm Springs. Pump, pump, pump, got a third of the way up then I pushed that thing home. La Loma Road is an oasis between Eagle Rock and Pasadena. Home at last.Today I took a trip to the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles, to register the new vehicle. I arrived before it opened and took my place on the other side of the building. So I waited in line outside for about 5 minutes. Then I waited for another 10 minutes once the doors opened at the Window, Non-Appointment. I retrieved a form to complete which took about 10 minutes. I waited for my number to be called. I waited for another 10 minutes until my number was mumbled. I closed the windows otherwise I was on the hook for a brisk housecleaning.The escape concluded with new phone service, internet access and cable TV.
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How’s the Taliban on the Med taking shape?***With the burning of churches, for starters:Fatah leaders have appealed to Israel to halt security measures against Fatah gunmen in the West Bank and promised to continue their massive crackdown on Hamas there, Palestinian Authority officials here said on Sunday.The appeal was delivered to the government via US and European officials who met with several Fatah leaders here in the past few days, the officials told the Jerusalem Post. How the same man who adroitly captured the essence of the long time Palestinian strategy (the triangle offense) of alternately playing Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad against Israel in two-on-one confrontations while the third pretended to go limp can fail to see the same template at work in the supposed Fatah-Hamas split is simply baffling:Hamas has a problem that will start emerging in the coming days. Divided government, Muslim-style, which reached its inevitable fruition a week ago.Conclusion: Now Hamas is ensconsed in Gaza while Fatah is entrenched in Judea and Samaria. Abbas can play the good cop and con a fresh fortune out of ourselves and the EUnuchs and use it to quietly rebuild Fatah’s military strength, while Hamas has an Iranian-backed base right smack on the Mediterreanean coast from which they can operate with impunity throughout the region.And the bonus? The US will likely also demand that Olmert order the IDF to give Fatah terrorists free reign in Judea and Samaria.Olmert and Bush claim that by backing Abbas militarily, financially and politically they will be setting up an alternative Palestine which will rival Hamas’s jihadist Palestine. Bush, Olmert and all proponents of the notion of strengthening Fatah in Judea and Samaria refuse to answer one simple question: Why would a handover of Judea and Samaria to Abbas’ Fatah produce a better outcome than Israel’s 2005 handover of Gaza to Abbas’ Fatah?They refuse to answer this question because they know full well that the answer is that there is absolutely no reason to believe that the outcome can be better. They know that the guns the US transferred to Fatah in Gaza were surrendered to Hamas without a fight last week. They know that Fatah built a terror superstructure in Judea, Samaria and Gaza which enabled operational cooperation between Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror cells.So why embrace the fantasy that things can be different now, in Judea and Samaria? Assisted by its Syrian-sponsored Palestinian allies, Hizbullah has rebuilt its arsenals and reasserted its control in southern Lebanon because UN forces in southern Lebanon have done nothing to prevent it from doing so.No country on Earth will volunteer to fight Hamas and its jihadist allies in Gaza. When Abbas was seeking election in 2005, he declared to a cheering mob in Gaza that Palestinian terrorists being sought by Israel were âheroes fighting for freedom.â…Such is the delusional U.S. looking-glass on Palestinian society that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the administrationâs staunchest Abbas booster, told columnist Cal Thomas last October, â[Y]ou can look at any opinion poll in the Palestinian territories and 70 percent of the people will say theyâre perfectly ready to live side by side with Israel because they just want to live in peace.âCome again? Why isnât President Bush demanding that Abbas not only order the disarming of Hamas in the West Bank (which Abbas did only because Hamas is fighting Fatah, not because Hamas is a terrorist organization), but that he also disarm the al-Aqsa Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
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Array Here were the vote totals:Fourth BallotC 116 / 59 reqdL 137 / 70 reqdFred Hiltz 56 / 75 ( 3 / 2)Victoria Matthews 60 / 62 (-2 / -2)Fifth BallotC 116 / 59 reqdL 137 / 70 reqdFred Hiltz 60 / 81 ( 4 / 6) *Elected*Victoria Matthews 56 /56 (-4 / -6)Not a big vote shift, but then, we’re not talking about a lot of electors here.On StandFirm, someone was asking what caused the shift of support from Matthews to Hiltz? I think liberals voted for Hiltz because he’s a liberal, and other liberals voted for Matthews because she’s a woman.
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Elena left Friday afternoon/evening, while I waited until after work to leave (didn’t leave until 9 O’clock that night).We drove to our first stop in El Paso. My car broke down twice on the drive to El Paso, it would lose all power and I’d pull to the side, wait a while, and it would start again.In El Paso we slept in since I got in so late. It’s a very painful drive across Texas, in June, with no AC, and being limited to 65mph even though the limit is 75.SaturdayWe were making progress in our 1000 mile journey and Elena needed a rest.
link
Until now I waited for utility companies to provide services. I thought I might enjoy some time without phone, internet and cable. Drank coffee and napped and unpacked. Stopped into the nearby liberal, maybe leftist, bookstore then began the trek home. We think Eagle Rock, Pasadena and Glendale were pit stops for people heading to Palm Springs. Pump, pump, pump, got a third of the way up then I pushed that thing home. La Loma Road is an oasis between Eagle Rock and Pasadena. Home at last.Today I took a trip to the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles, to register the new vehicle. I arrived before it opened and took my place on the other side of the building. So I waited in line outside for about 5 minutes. Then I waited for another 10 minutes once the doors opened at the Window, Non-Appointment. I retrieved a form to complete which took about 10 minutes. I waited for my number to be called. I waited for another 10 minutes until my number was mumbled. I closed the windows otherwise I was on the hook for a brisk housecleaning.The escape concluded with new phone service, internet access and cable TV.
link
How’s the Taliban on the Med taking shape?***With the burning of churches, for starters:Fatah leaders have appealed to Israel to halt security measures against Fatah gunmen in the West Bank and promised to continue their massive crackdown on Hamas there, Palestinian Authority officials here said on Sunday.The appeal was delivered to the government via US and European officials who met with several Fatah leaders here in the past few days, the officials told the Jerusalem Post. How the same man who adroitly captured the essence of the long time Palestinian strategy (the triangle offense) of alternately playing Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad against Israel in two-on-one confrontations while the third pretended to go limp can fail to see the same template at work in the supposed Fatah-Hamas split is simply baffling:Hamas has a problem that will start emerging in the coming days. Divided government, Muslim-style, which reached its inevitable fruition a week ago.Conclusion: Now Hamas is ensconsed in Gaza while Fatah is entrenched in Judea and Samaria. Abbas can play the good cop and con a fresh fortune out of ourselves and the EUnuchs and use it to quietly rebuild Fatah’s military strength, while Hamas has an Iranian-backed base right smack on the Mediterreanean coast from which they can operate with impunity throughout the region.And the bonus? The US will likely also demand that Olmert order the IDF to give Fatah terrorists free reign in Judea and Samaria.Olmert and Bush claim that by backing Abbas militarily, financially and politically they will be setting up an alternative Palestine which will rival Hamas’s jihadist Palestine. Bush, Olmert and all proponents of the notion of strengthening Fatah in Judea and Samaria refuse to answer one simple question: Why would a handover of Judea and Samaria to Abbas’ Fatah produce a better outcome than Israel’s 2005 handover of Gaza to Abbas’ Fatah?They refuse to answer this question because they know full well that the answer is that there is absolutely no reason to believe that the outcome can be better. They know that the guns the US transferred to Fatah in Gaza were surrendered to Hamas without a fight last week. They know that Fatah built a terror superstructure in Judea, Samaria and Gaza which enabled operational cooperation between Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror cells.So why embrace the fantasy that things can be different now, in Judea and Samaria? Assisted by its Syrian-sponsored Palestinian allies, Hizbullah has rebuilt its arsenals and reasserted its control in southern Lebanon because UN forces in southern Lebanon have done nothing to prevent it from doing so.No country on Earth will volunteer to fight Hamas and its jihadist allies in Gaza. When Abbas was seeking election in 2005, he declared to a cheering mob in Gaza that Palestinian terrorists being sought by Israel were âheroes fighting for freedom.â…Such is the delusional U.S. looking-glass on Palestinian society that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the administrationâs staunchest Abbas booster, told columnist Cal Thomas last October, â[Y]ou can look at any opinion poll in the Palestinian territories and 70 percent of the people will say theyâre perfectly ready to live side by side with Israel because they just want to live in peace.âCome again? Why isnât President Bush demanding that Abbas not only order the disarming of Hamas in the West Bank (which Abbas did only because Hamas is fighting Fatah, not because Hamas is a terrorist organization), but that he also disarm the al-Aqsa Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
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