Good Morning & God Bless To Everyone !!!
Today is January 7, the 7th day of 2014 and there are 358 days left this year were it is a blessed day in the work for our Lord here at:
For God’s Glory Alone Ministries !!!
It is another beautiful day here in Albuquerque where it is presently around 20 degrees but there is absolutely no wind, thus no wind chill factor, and we’re expecting highs in the mid to upper 40’s under wonderful skies full of God’s precious sunshine today. Almost makes me feel guilty as I watch the weather dropping into almost historic lows across much of the country. We urge everyone out there to please be careful in these very hazardous conditions and plan any travel carefully. I’m seeing many reports of flights being cancelled or delayed.
It is with great pleasure this morning to announce that Pastor Dewey’s wonderful young pup Reno is progressing well in his recovery from his surgery. He obviously still has a lot of recovery yet to do but all signs are good. Reno is just so very full of love to share with anyone who wants it! His surgery wounds are healing well & his energy is starting to pick up now. I’m ready to shift my prayers for him from the recovery mode into the wishes for good health & good follow-up doctors appointment reports myself although the Pastor, understandably, is still in the ‘I’m worried about my boy’ mode. We’ll get him there but when I talked to him late yesterday all signs were good and I thank Everyone for their prayers.
So, What Happened Today In 1789:
America’s First Presidential Election Is Completed
 |
|
| Nominee | George Washington |
|---|---|
| Party | Nonpartisan |
| Home state | Virginia |
| Electoral vote | 69 |
| States carried | 10 |
| Popular vote | 38,818 |
| Percentage | 100% |
America’s first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.
As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president & vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.
Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party’s central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators & representatives in Congress. The District of Columbia has 3 electors. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all-system, with the exception of Maine & Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.
On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state’s electors meet, usually in their state capitol, & simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial: Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren’t constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition & required by law in 26 states & the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by $1,000 fine). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress & on January 20, the commander-in-chief is sworn into office.
Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponent. This happened in the elections of 1876, 1888 & 2000. However, supporters contend that if the Electoral College were done away with, heavily populated states such as California & Texas might decide every election & issues important to voters in smaller states would be ignored.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On January 7 In History:
1327 – King Edward II of England is deposed;
1558 – The French, under the Duke of Guise, take the French port of Calais from the English. It was the last English possession in France;
1776 – From Philadelphia, Samuel Adams writes to his friend Colonel James Warren that the idea of a confederation, or loose political union, among the colonies “is not dead, but sleepeth.” To those who believed they would see the confederation completed long ago Adams wrote, “I do not despair of it — since our Enemies themselves are hastening it”;
1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard & American John Jeffries travel from Dover England to Calais France in a gas balloon becoming the 1st to cross the English Channel by air;
1807 – Responding to Napoleon Bonaparte’s attempted blockade of the British Isles, the British blockade Continental Europe;
1830 – 1st railroad station in the United States opens in Baltimore Maryland;
1859 – Just six days after the fall of the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, U.S. officials recognize the new provisional government of the island nation. Despite fears that Fidel Castro, whose rebel army helped to overthrow Batista, might have communist leanings, the U.S. government believed that it could work with the new regime & protect American interests in Cuba. Less than two years later, the United States severed diplomatic relations, & in April 1961, unleashed a disastrous–& ineffectual–attack by Cuban exile forces against the Castro government (the Bay of Pigs invasion);
1864 – Former Secretary of Interior in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, Caleb Blood Smith, dies in Indianapolis Indiana;
1865 – In retaliation for the Sand Creek massacre, Cheyenne & Sioux warriors attack Julesburg Colorado;
1890 – W B Purvis patents the fountain pen;
1892 – A massive mine explosion leaves nearly 100 dead in Krebs Oklahoma. The disaster, the worst mining catastrophe in Oklahoma’s history, was mainly due to the owner’s emphasis on profit over safety;
1901 – The confessed Colorado cannibal Alfred Packer is released from prison on parole after serving 18 years;
1927 – Commercial trans-Atlantic telephone service is inaugurated between New York & London;
1934 – Six thousand Pastors in Berlin Germany defy the Nazis insisting that they will not be silenced;
1942 – Japanese siege of Bataan begins in the Philippines during WWII. The fall of Bataan 3 months later is followed by the notorious Bataan Death March;
1945 – British Gen. Bernard Montgomery gives a press conference in which he all but claims complete credit for saving the Allied cause in the Battle of the Bulge. He was almost removed from his command because of the resulting American outcry. Montgomery had already earned the ire of many American officers because of his cautiousness in the field, arrogance off the field, & willingness to disparage his American counterparts. The last straw was Montgomery’s whitewashing of the Battle of the Bulge facts to assembled reporters in his battlefield headquarters—he made his performance in the Ardennes sound not only more heroic but decisive, which necessarily underplayed the Americans’ performance. Since the loss of American life in the battle was tremendous & the surrender of 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry humiliating, Gen. Omar Bradley complained loudly to Dwight D Eisenhower, who passed the complaints on to Churchill. On January 18, Churchill addressed Parliament & announced in no uncertain terms that the “Bulge” was an American battle an American victory;
1947 – “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” is the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts;
1952 – French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi;
1953 – In his final State of the Union address before Congress, President Harry S Truman tells the world that the United States has developed and deployed a hydrogen bomb;
1955 – Marian Anderson becomes the 1st African-American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House;
1965 – General Nguyen Khanh & the newly formed Armed Forces Council, (the General’s who had participated in the coup on December 19, 1964), restore civilian control of the South Vietnamese government;
1979 – Vietnamese troops seize the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh toppling the brutal regime of Pol Pot & his Khmer Rouge;
1989 – Showa Tenno Hirohito, the 124th Japanese monarch in an imperial line dating back to 660 B.C., dies after serving six decades as the emperor of Japan. He was the longest-serving monarch in Japanese history. Following WWII, Under U.S. occupation & postwar reconstruction, Hirohito was formally stripped of his powers & forced to renounce his alleged divinity, but he remained his country’s official figurehead until his death in 1989. He was succeeded as emperor by his only son, Akihit;
1998 – Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton;
1999 – The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton who is formally charged with lying under oath & obstructing justice begins in the Senate;
2009 – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin endorses Russia’s decision to turn off gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine;
2013 – It was one year ago today!
Now, Off To The Fun Stuff:
Today’s I’m Just Too Cute Face:
Today’s Founder’s Quote:
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” –Thomas Jefferson (1781)
Today’s Word Of The Day:
ObamaCare – to insure the uninsured are insured by making the insured uninsured which will then make them pay more to be insured again so the original uninsured can be insured for free.
Today’s Christian Inspirational Music Video:
The Prayer https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YPiCVuSOzmI
Today’s Computer Law:
When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.
Today’s Definition Of Friendship:
Today’s Work Sign:
At an Optometrist’s Office: “If you don’t see what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.”
Today’s Crazy Law:
In Arizona – Hunting camels is prohibited.
Today’s Silly ?:
On those DIY TV shows, why does everyone shopping for toilets at the hardware store open the lid to see what’s inside? Won’t they be getting the one in the box anyway?
Today’s Sign Of The Times:
Do You Remember This Guy?
Today’s Patriotic Quote:
“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” – Abraham Lincoln
Today’s Silly Sign:
Today’s Verse & Prayer:
Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:12
Abba Father, I will never fully understand how you could love me so much that you would allow your son to die for me, as my sacrifice. Please help me love others sacrificially. I know the power to do this is not within me, so please pour your love into my heart so that I may share that love with others. Through Jesus, my brother and my sacrifice, I pray. Amen.
Today’s Christian Thought:
Today’s Funny Church Sign:
Until Tomorrow – GOD BLESS To Everyone !!!
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC), without changing anything in the Constitution.
The National Popular Vote bill would change current state winner-take-all laws that award all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who get the most popular votes in each separate state (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but since enacted by 48 states), to a system guaranteeing the majority of Electoral College votes for, and the Presidency to, the candidate getting the most popular votes in the entire United States.
The bill preserves the constitutionally mandated Electoral College and state control of elections. It ensures that every vote is equal, every voter will matter, in every state, in every presidential election, and the candidate with the most votes wins, as in virtually every other election in the country.
Under National Popular Vote, every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in every presidential election. Every vote would be included in the state counts and national count.
When states with a combined total of at least 270 electoral votes enact the bill, the candidate with the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC would get the needed majority of 270+ electoral votes from the enacting states. The bill would thus guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes.
The presidential election system that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founding Fathers but, instead, is the product of decades of evolutionary change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. States can, and frequently have, changed their method of awarding electoral votes over the years. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided).
Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls in recent closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%.
Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
The bill has passed 32 state legislative chambers in 21 rural, small, medium, and large states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 10 jurisdictions with 136 electoral votes – 50.4% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.NationalPopularVote
Follow National Popular Vote on Facebook via NationalPopularVoteInc
Where you live should not determine how much, if at all, your vote matters.
The indefensible reality is that more than 99% of campaign attention was showered on voters in just ten states in 2012- and that in today’s political climate, the swing states have become increasingly fewer and fixed.
The current state-by-state winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but since enacted by 48 states), ensures that the candidates, after the conventions, will not reach out to about 80% of the states and their voters. Candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or care about the voter concerns in the dozens of states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind.
Presidential candidates concentrate their attention on only a handful of closely divided “battleground” states and their voters. There is no incentive for them to bother to care about the majority of states where they are hopelessly behind or safely ahead to win. 10 of the original 13 states are ignored now. Four out of five Americans were ignored in the 2012 presidential election. After being nominated, Obama visited just eight closely divided battleground states, and Romney visited only 10. These 10 states accounted for 98% of the $940 million spent on campaign advertising. They decided the election. None of the 10 most rural states mattered, as usual. About 80% of the country was ignored –including 19 of the 22 lowest population and medium-small states, and 17 medium and big states like CA, GA, NY, and TX. It was more obscene than the 2008 campaign, when candidates concentrated over 2/3rds of their campaign events and ad money in just 6 states, and 98% in just 15 states. Over half (57%) of the events were in just 4 states (OH, FL, PA, and VA). In 2004, candidates concentrated over 2/3rds of their money and campaign visits in 5 states; over 80% in 9 states; and over 99% of their money in 16 states.
80% of the states and people have been merely spectators to presidential elections. They have no influence. That’s more than 85 million voters, 200 million Americans, ignored. When and where voters are ignored, then so are the issues they care about most.
The number and population of battleground states is shrinking. Policies important to the citizens of non-battleground states are not as highly prioritized as policies important to ‘battleground’ states when it comes to governing.
Because of the state-by-state winner-take-all electoral votes laws (i.e., awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state) in 48 states, a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide. This has occurred in 4 of the nation’s 57 (1 in 14 = 7%) presidential elections. The precariousness of the current state-by-state winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes is highlighted by the fact that a shift of a few thousand voters in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in 4 of the 15 presidential elections since World War II. Near misses are now frequently common. There have been 7 consecutive non-landslide presidential elections (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012). 537 popular votes won Florida and the White House for Bush in 2000 despite Gore’s lead of 537,179 (1,000 times more) popular votes nationwide. A shift of 60,000 voters in Ohio in 2004 would have defeated President Bush despite his nationwide lead of over 3 million votes. In 2012, a shift of 214,390 popular votes in four states would have elected Mitt Romney, despite President Obama’s nationwide lead of 4,966,945 votes.
With the current state-by-state winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes, it could only take winning a bare plurality of popular votes in the 11 most populous states, containing 56% of the population of the United States, for a candidate to win the Presidency with a mere 23% of the nation’s votes!
But the political reality is that the 11 largest states rarely agree on any political question. In terms of recent presidential elections, the 11 largest states include five “red states (Texas, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia) and six “blue” states (California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey). The fact is that the big states are just about as closely divided as the rest of the country. For example, among the four largest states, the two largest Republican states (Texas and Florida) generated a total margin of 2.1 million votes for Bush, while the two largest Democratic states generated a total margin of 2.1 million votes for Kerry. In 2004, among the 11 most populous states, in the seven non-battleground states, % of winning party, and margin of “wasted” popular votes, from among the total 122 Million votes cast nationally:
* Texas (62% Republican), 1,691,267
* New York (59% Democratic), 1,192,436
* Georgia (58% Republican), 544,634
* North Carolina (56% Republican), 426,778
* California (55% Democratic), 1,023,560
* Illinois (55% Democratic), 513,342
* New Jersey (53% Democratic), 211,826
To put these numbers in perspective, Oklahoma (7 electoral votes) alone generated a margin of 455,000 “wasted” votes for Bush in 2004 — larger than the margin generated by the 9th and 10th largest states, namely New Jersey and North Carolina (each with 15 electoral votes). Utah (5 electoral votes) alone generated a margin of 385,000 “wasted” votes for Bush in 2004. 8 small western states, with less than a third of California’s population, provided Bush with a bigger margin (1,283,076) than California provided Kerry (1,235,659).
Now political clout comes from being among the handful of battleground states. 80% of states and voters are ignored by presidential campaigns.
Winner-take-all laws negate any simplistic mathematical equations about the relative power of states based on their number of residents per electoral vote. Small state math means absolutely nothing to presidential campaigns and to presidents once in office.
In 2008, of the 25 smallest states (with a total of 155 electoral votes), 18 received no attention at all from presidential campaigns after the conventions. Of the seven smallest states with any post-convention visits, Only 4 of the smallest states – NH (12 events), NM (8), NV (12), and IA (7) – got the outsized attention of 39 of the 43 total events in the 25 smallest states. In contrast, Ohio (with only 20 electoral votes) was lavishly wooed with 62 of the total 300 post-convention campaign events in the whole country.
In the 25 smallest states in 2008, the Democratic and Republican popular vote was almost tied (9.9 million versus 9.8 million), as was the electoral vote (57 versus 58).
In 2012, 24 of the nation’s 27 smallest states received no attention at all from presidential campaigns after the conventions.- including not a single dollar in presidential campaign ad money after Mitt Romney became the presumptive Republican nominee on April 11. They were ignored despite their supposed numerical advantage in the Electoral College. In fact, the 8.6 million eligible voters in Ohio received more campaign ads and campaign visits from the major party campaigns than the 42 million eligible voters in those 27 smallest states combined.
Now with state-by-state winner-take-all laws (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but since enacted by 48 states), presidential elections ignore 12 of the 13 lowest population states (3-4 electoral votes), that are non-competitive in presidential elections. 6 regularly vote Republican (AK, ID, MT, WY, ND, and SD), and 6 regularly vote Democratic (RI, DE, HI, VT, ME, and DC) in presidential elections. Voters in states that are reliably red or blue don’t matter. Candidates ignore those states and the issues they care about most.
Support for a national popular vote is strong in every smallest state surveyed in recent polls among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group. Support in smaller states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK -70%, DC -76%, DE –75%, ID -77%, ME – 77%, MT- 72%, NE – 74%, NH–69%, NE – 72%, NM – 76%, RI – 74%, SD- 71%, UT- 70%, VT – 75%, WV- 81%, and WY- 69%.
Among the 13 lowest population states, the National Popular Vote bill has passed in nine state legislative chambers, and been enacted by 4 jurisdictions.
Very extensive review of the electoral process kohler, (sorry, I don’t know if its Sir or Ma’am). I myself could spend hours debating, just with myself, the pro’s and con’s of our system. It has definitely been a hot topic for quite a number of elections now and not even sure exactly where I stand on it all but do feel there is probably a better way. That’s all well above and outside my league though!
Thank you very much for your input. Very informative and I’m sure our readers will enjoy reviewing your perspective on it all.
More debate, and action, is one of the things I feel our country is desperately in need of right now for sure.