Sunday, February 24, 2008

So Nader Is Joining The Race?

Ummm, OK....

Actually, I really don't think this will that much of a factor.

I know people who think he took votes from Gore eight years ago and thus cost the Democrats the election.

Nahhhh.

I can pretty much tell you what happened and why Bush has managed to be elected twice. It was a combination of two things.

First, Gore was associated with the Clintons. Now, the Clintons are a love/hate thing. It seems that most Americans either LOVE them or HATE them. There are enough people out there who HATE the Clintons that anyone associated with them will lose votes.

Second, especially in the last election, people were afraid of the liberal stance of the Democrats. The problem is that most people, if they have a choice between someone who appears to be a LOT more liberal, or a little more conservative, will go with the conservative.

In other words, the massive group of middle-of-the-road voters took their vote to Bush. Not because they really wanted Bush, but because they were making the best of bad choices.

Perhaps the Democratic Party has gotten a clue, because Obama, day by day, looks more and more like a truly viable candidate that can beat the Republicans.

Nader is joining the race?

In my not at all humble opinion, Nader isn't really going to make any difference at all.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Justice Finally Prevailed

Yes, justice finally prevailed in Solano County last week.

So, what happened?

On October 19, 2005, there was a terrible, terrible accident in Vacaville. A young man named David Bell ran his car up onto the sidewalk near an elementary school. Several people were injured and two children were killed.

The DA was trying David for 2nd degree murder and 10 counts of assault.

Now, David is a developmentally disabled man, who obviously does well enough to get a drivers license. A simple soul, he was devastated by what happened. He's been held in jail for over two years on these charges.

But what did happen?

According to the DA, David came upon slower moving traffic, flew into a rage, tried to pass the other cars on the right, ran up onto the sidewalk and injured 10, killed 2.

However, according to witnesses at the scene, David was completely out of it. He didn't know what had happened. The path of the car simply veered off, hit several parked cars and hit the children and parents leaving school. After being arrested, doctors diagnosed a seizure disorder. So David had a seizure. There was no malice, no anger, no deliberate running off the road, no intent to harm anyone.

Now, this is no surprise to me. My ex has a seizure disorder, and in fact, no longer has a drivers license because I turned him in after he had a seizure while driving (not his first, but since he was in deep denial and convinced his doctors that he was ok, the medication was keeping it under control, he was still driving). Yes, similarly, he had the seizure, was going faster and faster, ran a stop sign, nearly hit another car headon, sideswiped some small trees, until the car finally came to a halt. How do I know all this?

Our daughter was in the back seat. She unfastened her seat belt, leaned over the seat, couldn't pull his foot off the gas, so she pulled on the emergency brake and brought the car to a stop. She probably saved both their lives. And when he came out of it, he was, of course, bewildered and had no idea what had happened.

(That's the way it is with seizures and why they're so hard to diagnose. If the patient has no clue and there's no witnesses to the seizure, how do we know that it happened?)

In any case, does this all sound all too much like David's scenario?

David's first trial ended in a hung jury and reports say that most of the jurors were for acquittal. The second trial ended last week. David was acquitted of all charges.

Justice was finally served for this young man.

Having said that, my heart still goes out to the families who were injured and most especially to the Cardenas family, who lost two young children. While David received justice, they still mourn their babies. No matter how the trial turned out, they still suffer. There are no winners in this case, only blind justice.

May God watch over them and their other children and comfort them in their sorrow. In Jesus' name, Amen, Amen, Amen...


Link:
http://thereporter.com//ci_8207955?IADID=Search-thereporter.com-thereporter.com

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Who're You Going To Vote For??

Do you know who you're going to vote for?

I know who I'm going to vote for.

Interestingly, the results this website gave me the same answer that I'd already come to...

http://www.votechooser.com/

If you haven't decided who to vote for, maybe it'll help you out.

If you've already decided, it may (or may not) confirm your decision.

Have fun!