The polls are indubitable. Voters will cast their ballots according to party preference. Experts say observers should pay attention to early returns in three states - Ohio, West Virginia, and Iowa. In
the end, after all the fuss, confusion, expense and hype, only a few
electoral votes in a small number of swing states where Democratic
victories have been tallied in previous campaigns will decide the
2012 Presidential election.
With
polls varying widely on the favorite going into election day, the
smart money is pretty sure the winning electoral votes will come from
Ohio, West Virginia and Iowa.
The latest polls are skewed left, right, and down the middle, with Gallup showing Mr. Romney a 7-point favorite at 52% to the President's 48%; Investors Business
Daily's poll is giving Obama the nod at 48% to 42%; and NBC/Wall St. Journal shows the candidates in a dead heat at 47 to 47 percent, if the election took place today.
Tonight,
same bat time, same bat channels for the third and final debate
between Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama originating in simulcast and
Livestream from Boca Raton, Florida, with its 29 electoral votes. Though the topics will concern foreign policy, the latest Gallup Poll shows voters are most concerned about unemployment and the economy.
Democrats, independents, and Republicans all became more likely to name the economy as the nation's top problem in October; however, the increase was sharpest among Republicans, rising 14 percentage points, from 30% to 44%. That contrasts with a five-point increase among independents (from 32% to 37%) and a seven-point increase among Democrats (from 26% to 33%). - Gallup Poll
At courthouses throughout the Lone Star State of Texas, early voting begins today. Vote early, often, and on time - because you can... Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Casey Kelley and Dave Giddens working on Mr. Zimmerman's classic, "All Along The Watchtower"...recorded at Al's Tokio Store, Tokio, Texas, near metropolitan West, Texas. Yay-us!
Athens,
OH – Students quizzed at an Obama rally held here last week had no
clue as to the identity of Ambassador Chris Stevens, or the manner of
his death.
When a
Revealing Politics camera crew asked youthful persons who attended
the October 17 rally on the campus of Ohio University, which is
located southeast of Dayton, a few miles from the West Virginia
border, about the attack on the American Consulate at Benghazi,
Libya, on September 11, most said they had never heard of it.
Though
the rocket attack by Islamic extremists left the Ambassador and four
security guards dead, they were hard pressed to answer even the most
basic questions.
In fact,
many of the students were not only puzzled by the questions, they
behaved as if they were silly inquiries. They actually laughed it
off.
Security
arrangements by the U.S. Department of State have come under close
Congressional scrutiny and harsh Republican criticism in the weeks
that followed.
The
implications seem to have had little effect on the students, who
almost all said they are solidly behind the President in his
re-election bid against Mitt Romney.
Ohio,
with its 18 electoral votes is expected to be a key swing state on
election day, one of 15 undecided states spread out across the map.
The
Electoral College is a system of indirect votes for 538 electors who
cast their ballots in each state to elect a ticket of Presidential
and Vice Presidential candidates. It is promulgated by Art. II of the
U.S. Constitution, which was amended in 1804. A majority of 270
electors must vote to select a Presidential ticket under the present
system, which is based on population counted in each decennial
census.
The
system has been criticized by certain Congressmen, one of whom,
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, introduced failed
legislation in the 109th Cogress of 2005 to eliminate the
Electoral College system in favor of a popular vote to determine the
President and Vice President.
Her
reasons included:
Candidates
focus only on a handful of contested states and ignore the concerns
of tens of millions of Americans living in other states.
A
candidate can lose in 39 states, but still win the Presidency.
A
candidate can lose the popular vote by more than 10 million votes,
but still win the Presidency.
A
candidate can win 20 million votes in the general election, but win
zero electoral votes, as happened to Ross Perot in 1992.
In
most states, the candidate who wins a state’s election, wins all of
that state’s electoral votes, no matter the winning margin, which
can disenfranchise those who supported the losing candidate.
A
candidate can win a state’s vote, but an elector can refuse to
represent the will of a majority of the voters in that state by
voting arbitrarily for the losing candidate (this has reportedly
happened 9 times since 1820).
Smaller
states have a disproportionate advantage over larger states because
of the two “constant” or “senatorial” electors assigned to
each state.
A
tie in the Electoral College is decided by a single vote from each
state’s delegation in the House of Representatives, which would
unfairly grant California’s 36 million residents equal status with
Wyoming’s 500,000 residents.
Waco
– Delvin Maddison is heavily tattooed. Designs climb out of his
collar – a triangular shape, perhaps a pyramid – and his first
name is emblazoned over one of his brows.
He
speaks in a patois certain American Yakuza affect, a rapid and
rhythmic pattern that resembles the flowing lingo of a Harlem hustler
dancing down the sidewalk in the middle of a pitch to an uptown
visitor strange to the ways of the Apple's most famous ghetto.
Most
of his syntax is rendered unprintable by the use of terms that, if
uttered in polite conversation, would be considered extremely
offensive. It's all the more incongruous coming from the mouth of a
squat, heavily muscled Celtic warrior – a pit bull of a white man
with all the signs of an urban gladiator riding for the brand.
In
fact, in the video presentations Mr. Maddison posted on his Facebook
page, which are included here, readers who feel they
might be easily offended by the use of such language are encouraged
to forego clicking on the YouTube inserts, or, in the alternative,
muting the audio portion.
In
one of the videos, he mentions the street name of a man he calls
“Mr. Shogun, y'all know who he is," leveling the accusation that he is the one who
“did that b___h-ass s__t.”
It's
all part of an ongoing dialogue in a flame war of epic proportions
between himself and two women he claims are “hating on” him. One
of the women is Keri Nicole Schlasman-Cooper, a sister of Ms. Rogers,
the other, Carrie D. Woodlock, an old acquaintance certain
knowledgeable persons claim was a first love of Mr. Maddison in their
past lives as local high school students.
Some
examples gleaned from Ms. Woodlock's page:
Carrie D. Woodlock
I
aint takeing s__t off my face book ..... I stood up to Delvin before
any body else did u f___ing looser...., I was the 1 st one to call
him a baby killer so do your home work playboy before u start running
your mouth and I aint gotta get nobody to have my back and what you
should do instead of hitting females is a f____ing commercial for
lucky charms...btw did i mention F__k off Yesterday
at 5:39am
· Like
· 1
Carrie
D Woodlock
Just in case I forgot F__k off ..., your a real gentleman arent
you...,see your supposed to stand up for women not too them..... I
dont hang with Delvin you idiot Delvin sent me that picture of him
and my daughter. I took that as a threat and I posted it on Facebook
so the world would know that I stood up for Ashley even no matter
what because I have 3 kids and I can not imagine what she felt
without throwing up. Some times at night I have dreams about D trying
to kill me.... And I have to ask myself if there is really a kind of
evil that strong to take a womans life away......with her child in
her arms
Ms.
Woodlock is no stranger to violence. Police found her former husband
Kenny Wagner dumped on the streets with a bullet hole in his head in
2004. The case is still considered an open murder investigation.
Female
prisoners and certain jail officials who requested anonymity who were
incarcerated with Ms. Woodlock and Mr. Maddison's new love interest
say that their arguments over whether Ms. Woodlock should provide an
alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the fire became so
disruptive that jailers at the McLennan County Jail were forced to
separate them into different wings of the building.
A
sample from Mr. Maddison's page:
“im
out free and trying to clear my name of badd stuff that people
wrongly accussed me my heart goes out to ashely and her kids she was
my freind and i would have died saving her if i could have so for all
you stupid hatin ass b_____s keep my name out yall mouth love and
respect for aqll who know me and know that im not a f___ed person
like that facebook im back...”
It
is a topic that arouses deep feelings in Mr. Maddison, according to
two officers who serve in the U.S. Marshal's Service Fugitive Warrant
Task Force.
Mystified,
the two officers said no, it was all about some allegations of fraud
and theft regarding the illegal appropriation of a car in some shady
transaction involving a conspiracy of alleged criminals acting in a
combination. Mr. Maddison is one of 9 persons named in indictments
attached to the same Waco Police Department case number investigated
by Detective Rozyski.
Said
Officer Anderson, “Yeah, he was jicking pretty good...He was pretty
wound up.”
Ranger
Cawthon said, “He kept blabbing it out. He was back there in that
back seat hollering about some arson, some fire where a woman and her
kids got killed...”
Detective
Rozyski has determined that the deaths in the trailer fire were
accidental; he has reportedly closed his file.
Certain
investigators at the Waco Fire Department have disagreed, and it's
touched off a media war between the police, the firemen, and
reporters who wrote stories about the allegations.
In
the words of veteran newsman familiar with the developing story,
“They are all mad at all of us!”
According
to an official fire report written by Assistant Fire Chief Yeager,
the fire's point of origin was on a couch in the common room, or den,
of the residence. Reported at about 6:30 p.m., it was so hot when
firemen arrived two minutes later that they could not enter without
suffering burns from the flames and steam the intense blaze
generated.
In
the laconic words of Chief Yeager's report, there are no obvious
signs of the use of an accelerant, but the source of the heat that
caused the fire is unknown. A chemical analysis and arson
investigation is still pending, according to an official spokesman
for the department. Fire Marshals Fisk and Vranich were unavailable
for comment.
Informed
that persistent rumors on the streets hold that Mr. Maddison is the
object of a professional “hit,” Ranger Cawthon said, “Good!
Society would be a lot better off without him!”
The people's law firm has a new shingle - in cyberspace
Cases
chronicled step by step through day
Waco
– If you're interested in a criminal case, you don't have to wait
for news from local news outlets and print media.
Criminal District Attorney Abel Reyna
Criminal
District Attorney Abel Reyna has you covered with updates throughout
the day that are broadcast on Facebook and Twitter.
For
instance, yesterday afternoon, there appeared the notice that at 8:30
this morning, jury selection would begin in 19 Criminal District
Court in the case of Christopher Shannon Robles, a man accused of
aggravated sexual assault of a child.
At the lunch break, the word went out that the trial would resume at 1:30 p.m.
When
the jurors began their deliberations, anyone who cared to let the
“McLennan County District Attorney's Office Abel Reyna” send an
automatic update to their phone, tablet, or computer knew it
instantaneously.
Following
a guilty verdict, the clients of "the people's law firm" were informed that closing arguments had begun
in the penalty phase of the trial.
When
the jury recommended a sentence of 75 years in the penitentiary and a
$10,000 fine, the office – which is billed as “the law firm of
the People of the State of Texas” by the boss, Abel Reyna – released a written statement.
“The
bravery, strength and persistence of the two victims in this case
ensured that this defendant will not prey on any more children and
their families. Communities should be very proud,” said Staci
Smith, an Assistant District Attorney.
Reached
for comment, a beaming Felipe Reyna, Mr. Reyna's father and a former
District Attorney of McLennan County and 10th District
Court of Appeals Associate Justice, said, “You don't have to wait
for KWTX or Channel 6 or the Waco Tribune-Herald any more. It's right
there on Facebook and Twitter.”
Court hearing to determine penalty Austin
– A state district judge will soon hold hearings to determine if a
former prosecutor should be reprimanded or lose his license to
practice law for withholding evidence that led to the false
conviction of a man accused of murdering his wife in 1987.
Michael
Morton gained his release from the penitentiary in October of last
year when the results of a DNA test showed that he could not have
been guilty of beating his wife Christine to death while their
3-year-old son watched. He served nearly 25 years for a crime the
State of Texas now admits he did not commit.
In
a taped interview between Mr. Morton's mother-in-law and Williamson
County lead investigator Don Wood, she revealed that the little boy
told her that a “monster” who had “red hands” got mad at his
mother and killed her with a bludgeon made from a piece of wood.
He
told his grandmother that his father was not home at the time of the
attack.
Judge
Anderson, who was then a prosecutor and thus obliged to turn over any
exculpatory evidence requested in a discovery motion from defense
attorneys, failed to reveal the existence of the interview, along
with a total of 5 such items of evidence that would have cleared Mr. Morton, according to the State Bar investigation.
He
is charged with five violations of the rules of professional conduct
for attorneys.
Judge
Anderson faces a range of punishment that involves an array of
penalties including a public reprimand, or the loss of his license to
practice law. That penalty would automatically disqualify him for re-election as a District Judge in a court of original jurisdiction which
decides the fate of defendants similarly accused of crimes, or a
finder of fact empowered to rule in cases involving defendants
charged with civil wrongs and complaints.
