Here in Mighty Mo, Ashcroft is widely & appaprently accurately credited as opposing the appointment of a very well qualified Black for judgeship, and yes, he was defeated by a dead man. Also here in Missouri a republican election official was caught throwing out Gore votes & said it's OK, cause "God wants Bush to win.. "

I'm with Joe; a Radical Moderate who dislikes abortion only marginally less than I dislike the idea of polititians telling a woman what to do w/her body. As Molly Ivins, the co-author of "Shrub -The Short But happy Political Life Of George W. Bush"* states, (I'm paraphrasing) since the polititians b.s. all the time, the best way to know what they will do in the future is to see what they REALLY did in the past (not what lies they, or their spin-doctoring lie machines, tell abt it). *Vintage Books, 2000 (vintagebooks.com) ISBN 0-375-75714-7, authors Molly Ivans & Lou Dubose. Shrub's record is generally appalling - but read it yourselves.

I must very strongly reccomend this book for those who might want to know what shrub's got in store for the nation. I have well educated, sophisticated, high-church & stock portfolio type (but ethical in spite of that!) friends in Texas who watch the political scene intently & insist that Molly Ivin's reporting is quite accurate, giving a true picture of the man whose family & connections appaprently just trashed the foundation of democracy (free elections) & bought him the white house.

My own catholic family disagree bitterly w/my politics, mostly the abortion issue, & express varrying degrees of hostiliy. Because of my expressed disgust over the election, one invited me to leave the country & is beginning to sound scary. He is VERY VERY VERY against abortion (single, aging bachelor.. & will do whatever..?? He's certainly happy to endorse election fraud in the name of God..) I haven't replied to his last angry message.. yet..

He had gleefully sent me an e-mail w/an attatched sub-program displaying "another florida ballot." It makes an exaggerated (supposed to ba a joke..) point abt Gore rigging the ballots in florida & won't let you close til you are forced to vote for Gore three times. It is pure "big lie" propaganda, clearly saying that in the state run by shrub's brother & the right wing macine - where the ballots were perverted by shrub's people & the election was probably fraudulently given to shrub - the bad guy was Gore.

Although I voted for him as the best practical choice, I'm not crazy abt Gore, but this is a particularly heinous type of propaganda. Making the victom out to look like the perpetrator & the criminal to be the victom is what has often been done to raped women. (Probably an apt analogy to what happenned to the country due the Florida mess.) I can e-mail this piece of sleazy propaganda to anyone who wants to view it first hand.

As w/my kin, the so-called right-to-lifers apparently will tolerate, blindly ignore or endorse just abt any other consequences to get the power to cram their anti-abortion notions down our throats.. Along w/this they get environmental disaster in favor of big business, "creation science," & a host of other wonders of the modern spin machine..

For them the precious rights many bled & died for are as nothing compared to the balancing righteous might of the abortion issue. & there are no other moral/ethical/civic issues that can even be considered - & nobody else can have an opinion (other than as instructed by the TV preachers.) Makes me wanna puke..

Cheers, BK

Who is bummed out by the farce of an election.. here in the heartland.... & has to go to bed, I'm on call this week.