Halloween

Sorry folks but this is about as excited as I get about Halloween however this brightened my day

And this made me laugh which is better than crying

and over at Violet sky is some wonderful renditions of pumpkins...hope your day is all you hoped for........................................................................

The height of frustration

Well to add to my political frustrations comes one of my pet peeves

Christmas displays not only before Thanksgiving but even before Halloween!

This picture I borrowed from Violet Sky is the best idea I've have ever seen.............

Don't you just love it!!

Screen savers

Isn't this cute?

I recently downloaded a free web site for screen savers and if you can find it.....I have the mama and baby duck one....every time I see it...............I smile:):)

So what does your screen saver look like?

Stimulus

Well yesterday, I did my part!

I hit the mall and used those gift certificates from J.C. Penny's that I have had since last Christmas and hoped and prayed they were still good. Yep, so three bras and four blouses (on sale) later I felt I was on a roll so headed for my very favorite store of all..........................................................


Savers You can call me cheap if you want to but I think paying $5.00 for a blouse instead of $30.00 and wearing it out to dinner on the difference is just plain logical. Now if I could just convince myself to invest in the market while it is at an all time low.........................
Two things I have never been good about...shopping and gambling.

Vague memory

"You can not help the poor by destroying the rich. You can not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You can not bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You can not lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You can not further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You can not build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You can not help men permanently by doing for them what they should and could do for themselves." --Abraham Lincoln

Surprise justice

Cactus plugging is the practice of vandalizing or destroying a cactus, usually a saguaro for fun. Typically the cactus is cut open, drained, then packed with explosives and ignited. In another variation, the vandal simple shoots bullets into the cactus body until portions fall off or the entire cactus falls over.

In one notorious incident in 1982, David Grundman was killed when an arm of the saguaro he was "plugging" fell on him.

The act of cactus plugging, if performed on a saguaro, is illegal. In any case, it is a particularly destructive form of vandalism as saguaros require over a hundred years to reach a substantial height.

Searching for some answers

Supreme Court rejects Ohio GOP bid
ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday, October 17, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court sided Friday with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.
The justices overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.
Ohio Republicans contended the information for counties would help prevent fraud. Brunner said the GOP is trying to disenfranchise voters.
In a brief unsigned opinion, the justices said they were not commenting on whether Ohio is complying with a provision of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 that lays out requirements for verifying voter eligibility.
Instead, they said they were granting Brunner's request because it appears that the law does not allow private entities, like the Ohio GOP, to file suit to enforce the provision of the law at issue.
"They didn't deal with the merits of the case," said Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett. "What they dealt with was a technicality on whether we had standing or not to bring the action."About 200,000 of 666,000 voters who have registered in Ohio since Jan. 1 have records that don't match. Brunner has said the discrepancies most likely stem from innocent clerical errors rather than fraud but has set up a verification plan.
Bennett said Brunner could have set up a system months ago to check the discrepancies and that her actions have left the potential for voter fraud.
"If we have a close election in Ohio and there's any doubts, the failures will be laid right at her doorstep," Bennett said.
Brunner said the court's decision would help ease confusion in the run-up to Election Day.
She said HAVA was clear that the mismatch lists were to be used to maintain the voter database, not to determine voter eligibility.
"We are very pleased that the court recognized that this was an illegal challenge on the part of the Republicans," she said.
She said the office would have found a way to comply, but there were risks that qualified voters would have been disqualified.
"I think it's an unfair tactic to subject voters to this kind of uncertainty and anxiety this close to such an important election," she said.
In court filings, the GOP has not produced any specific evidence of voting fraud, only unsubstantiated reports that voters from other states had cast fraudulent ballots during the early voting period.
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said lower court rulings have clearly said the HAVA regulations require the secretary of state to match against the list, find where there's been fraud and inconsistencies and report them to counties.
"Why in the world would that not happen? We have the technology, the budget, the means and the manpower to make that happen. Do we really want to have to find out after the fact that we had counties that would have been decided one way or another because the secretary of state didn't bother doing the job the HAVA required?" Davis told reporters on a conference call. "I think the secretary of state ought to do her job," he added.

Does anyone out there understand this ? Who would have the standing to bring action?
Here is some information about HAVA
Help America Vote Act (HAVA)
Congress passed a federal election reform law, the Help America Vote Act 2002 (HAVA), in October 2002 in response to the 2000 presidential election. The goal of the legislation is to improve administration of elections nationwide.

Goals of HAVA

HAVA will work to enhance:
Voting standards and education programs for voters and election officials
Accessibility for the disabled
Voter registration file maintenance

State Plan - The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires each state to develop a state plan describing how it will implement HAVA.

My conclusion: Because we had so many problems in the last election a law was passed "HAVA" to reduce those problems but the Secretary of the State of Ohio has not adhered to that law and no one has the right to see to it that she does.
200,000 known discrepancies? A descrpancies is a difference in facts folks, look it up, not an innocent clerical error and if it is one then take the time to fix it! Notice that she says it would create a risk that qualified voters would not be counted but no mention of the great risk that 200,000 unqualified voters would be counted. I think I favor the later myself.
I just can't seem to understand these logics and I don't even consider myself very smart. What's your take on it?

Stressed

If you are following the elections......You are probably stressed
That is why blogville is more important than ever!

I can share some of my sentiments with http://oneacrewood.blogspot.com/

A special kinship with http://granan10.blogspot.com/

Have ahhh moments with http://pattybilline.blogspot.com/

Be reminded of the really important things in life with http://chattycrone.blogspot.com/

Share greater problems in life with http://amountaintoohigh.blogspot.com/
Enjoy one of the greatest cities in the USA even though I don't live there http://nyc2dailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Have laugh on http://oldhorsetailsnake.blogspot.com/ (warning...can be off colored)
Learn a little frugality from http://lucysfrugalliving.blogspot.com/

Find a new recipe to be tempted to try on http://funcraftsandrecipes.com/
Sit and exhale on http://buttonwillowchronicles.typepad.com/my_weblog/

If the shoe fits??

Thank you...all bloggers for adding that special spice to life and keeping me sane

For once the New York Times got it right

Steven A. Holmes wrote this article for the New York Times on September 30, 1999 and it is posted in in the news paper's archives. The story reported that Fannie Mae was under pressure by the Clinton Administration to "extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans." The article goes on to say that Fannie Mae was taking on significantly greater risks in doing so and predicted a government intervention to bail them out.
Click for New York Times article
updated 10/03/08
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

September 30, 1999
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending -By Steven A. Holmes

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''
Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.
Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.
In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.
Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.
The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Well, now you know how we got here; but why is it now the fault of the Republicans?

My kind of guy

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!!

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails.
Took away their weights.
Cut off all but "G" movies.
He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.
Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.
He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.
He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them.....this is a good one......"This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."
He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place. You have to love this guy!!
With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record this past summer), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. "It's inhumane." Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes... so shut your damned mouths."

Things aren't always as it appears

There is nothing about a caterpillar than would lead you to believe

it will become a beautiful butterfly

A little hope for the day

Colt Collectors Show

The Colt Collectors Association holds a convention once a year in different locations throughout the United States. This year it was held in Houston, Texas (last week-end, in spite of the hurricane).
Only colt products are displayed or sold and many people attend simply to share their amazing collections in display. It is open to the public on Sat. and Sunday.
No, this was by no means the most expense gun for sale....the most expensive ones are not for sale.....................................................Notice the paper it is lying on? That is a letter of verification from the Colt factory that this gun is original.

There are awards given for the displays and one that I thought was exceptional was titled (Charter Oak). It was a historical display that dated back to the 1800's and a Charter from England that was located at this huge oak tree

and when in the late 1800's it was struck by lightning

some of the wood from the tree was saved and used to carve many different things, including this set of grips on these colts

These were under glass so unfortunately you see the reflection of the person with the camera. The wood was engraved with oak leaves and really beautiful.

Another nice display

and this one of Pancho Villa were just a few that caught my eye.

Although the Hilton hotel had been damaged due to the hurricane, it was in good repair and had a pretty lobby.

The first of Nov. will find us at yet another gun show in Oklahoma and going to the Gilcrease Museum to see the newly displayed 101 collection (associated with my book on the sidebar). Yep, we have packing down to a science and a special case for the guns, but it is still a real challenge to get through the airport with 20 handguns....that is a story within itself!

What our country really needs