Is this a halloween type story?

A British train conductor stamped and carefully returned the ticket of a slumbering passenger without realizing the man was dead.

Shortly afterwards the train pulled into York station in northern England and rail staff alerted paramedics when they realized the man was not breathing.

"The conductor needn't have been so careful, as it turned out that the passenger had expired, long before his ticket ever did," said a report in the British Transport Police's staff magazine.

In view of what we are about to undergo in the United States next week, it is time for a brief review of U.S. Government, 101A

The Electoral College

The president and the vice president are the only electice federal officials not chosen by direct vote of the people. They are elected by the members of the Electoral College, an institution provided for in the U.S. Constitution.

On presidential election day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every 4th year, each state chooses as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. In 1964, for the first time, as provided by the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution. the district of Columbia voted for 3 electors. Thus, with 100 senators and 435 representatives, there are 538 members of the Electoral College, with a majority of 270 electoral votes needed to elect the president and vice president.

Although political parties were not part of the original plan created by the Founding Fathers, today politcal parties customarily nominate their lists of electors at their respective state conventions. Some states print names of the candidates for president and vice president at the top of the November ballot, others list only the electors' names. In either case, the electors of the party receiving the highest vote are elected. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, allow for proportional allocation. (Note: Colorado is voting on this matter next week and could become the third state to do so.)

The electors meet on the first Monday after the 2nd Wednesday in December in their respective state capitals or in some other place prescribed by state legislatures. By long-established custom, they vote for their party nominees, although this is not required by federal law; some states do require it.

The Constitution requires electors to cast a ballot for at least one person who is not an inhabitant of that elector's home state. This ensures that presidential and vice presidential candidates from the same party will not be from the same state. (In 2000, Republican vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney changed his voter registration to Wyoming from Gov. George W. Bush's home state of Texas.) Also, an elector cannot be a member of Congress or hold federal office.

Certified and sealed lists of the votes of the electors in each state are sent to the president of the U.S. Senate, who then opens them in the presence of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives in a joint session held in early January and the electoral votes of all the states are then officially counted.

If no candidate for president has a majority, the House of Representatives chooses a president from the top 3 candidates, with all respresentatives from each state combining to cast one voter for that state. The House decided the outcome of the 1800 (Thomas Jefferson) and 1824 (John Quincy Adams) presidential elections. If no candidate for vice president has a majority, the Sentate chooses from the top 2, with the senators voting as individuals. The Senate chose the vice president following the 1836 (William H. Harrison) election.

Under the electoral college system, a candidate who fails to be the top vote getter in the popular vote still may win a majority of electoral votes. This happened in the elections of 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison), and 2000 (George W. Bush).

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Having reviewed the procedures, I must say that this needs to be be changed. Since it is part of the constitution, a constitutional amendment would be needed to change things but that would be a slow and cumbersome process so I think the people of Colorado are doing the right thing by trying to pass a ballot proposition to allot the votes proportionately as Maine and Nebraska already do.

The whole system is so screwy that for the first time in recent memory, the candidates are campaigning like crazy in Nevada (5 electoral votes) Utah (5), Idaho (4), Alaska (3), etc. Usually these states are all but ignored as only the big states like California, New York, and some others are looked upon as being important. Due to the closeness of the upcoming election Nevada and other small states may become the swing states instead of the usual ones like Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, etc. Bush has all but ignored California because he feels he has already lost this state. If our 55 electors were to be alloted proportionately, all candidates would be more inclined to campaign here or in other states alloting votes proportionately, not just the "undecided" swing states. They say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Well, in this case it was broke from the beginning. Let's get it right for once and all.

This is the best of times and this is the worst of times. It is the best of times because the Red Sox are now one win away from their first World Series win since 1918. It is the worst of times because a man who does not play with a full deck sits in the White House and has so brainwashed and scared so many ignorant people in this country into thinking we need him for another four years, that it is pathetic beyond belief. My god, at least Hitler was a better public speaker than this fool. As this is written I believe there is a good chance that the Red Sox will one of the next four games and thus win the series but I would not place any bets on Kerry winning the election. There are just too many variables there and too many fools in this country. Then too, the election system is in need of a major overhaul including proportioning out the electors. That is, get rid of the "winner-take-all" approach. It is grossly unfair if candidate A wins 51% of a state's popular vote to give him or her all the electors. That candidate should only get 51% of the electors and the other candidate(s) the remaining. Until this happens there is no fairness in the U.S. election system. Also, much needed third parties will never have a chance until the system is changed.

These may not be the best ideas around but things sure would be more interesting in Washington. Read these ideas from the U.K.

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"Doughnut-guzzling, beer-quaffing Homer Simpson may not be the model father but he has won the hearts of British TV fans who want the nuclear power plant worker to be the next U.S. president.

Former president George Bush notoriously said American families should be "closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons" but Homer was overwhelming favorite in a Radio Times magazine poll on which U.S. TV character should take over at the White House.

As Americans ponder tax and security pledges from President Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry ahead of the November 2 poll, television fans have been considering Homer slogans such as "No big government, just big waist sizes."

In a manifesto compiled for the magazine by The Simpsons' writing staff, the bumbling animated TV hero also pledges: "I promise there will be fewer nuclear disasters with me as your mayor than with me as your nuclear safety inspector."

Homer got 24 percent of the vote in the poll of more than 2,000 readers. Second place went to the more obvious choice of Josiah Bartlet, the president played by Martin Sheen in "The West Wing."

Pompous but eloquent radio psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane was third followed by Sergeant Bilko from "The Phil Silvers Show." Gil Grissom from "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was fifth with 10 percent of the vote. Other favorites were Jack Bauer from "24," "The Cosby Show's" Dr. Cliff Huxtable, Phoebe Buffay from "Friends" and "The Sporanos'" Tony Soprano."

Only 8 more days of b.s. from Bush & Co.

President Bush, presenting himself as the best candidate to keep America safe, was accused by John Kerry on Monday of "unbelievable incompetence" in the disappearance of hundreds of tons of powerful explosives in Iraq.

"Every step of the way, this administration has miscalculated," Kerry said in Dover, N.H. He spoke shortly before traveling to Philadelphia for a rally with former President Clinton, who was making his first political appearance since heart surgery nearly seven weeks ago.

Kerry said the Bush administration had "miscalculated about how to go to war, miscalculated about the numbers of troops that we would need, miscalculated about sending young Americans to war without the armor they needed, without the Humvees they needed that were armored."

"And the incredible incompetence of this president and this administration has put our troops at risk and put this country at greater risk than we ought to be," Kerry said.

Running mate John Edwards, campaigning in Ohio, added, "After today, it's hard to imagine that even they'll continue believing things are going well."

The International Atomic Energy Agency said about 350 tons of highly explosive material had disappeared in Iraq, apparently stolen because of a lack of security at governmental installations.

The central argument of Bush's re-election campaign is that he can do a better job protecting America than Kerry, and polls show that voters trust Bush more on this issue.

Bush, in an ABC interview broadcast Monday, was asked about the possibility of a terrorist attack on the United States before the election, a threat the administration has repeatedly raised. "We don't have actionable intelligence to say there's an attack, and of course if we did, we'd be moving heaven and earth to stop it," the president said.

Asked in the interview if he has considered the fact that he could lose, Bush replied, "I'm not there yet."

Bush and Kerry are focusing their efforts on fewer than a dozen states that remain highly competitive, with both camps making last-minute scheduling decisions to reflect realities on the ground.

The president was to deliver a speech Monday in Greeley, Colo., to call attention to his handling of the war on terror. He was accompanied by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The president was headed to Iowa afterward for events in Council Bluffs and Davenport.

The new speech was part of a multi-pronged, final-stretch effort by Bush to hone the defining issues of the campaign and to find a way to break the neck-and-neck status of the race.

Monday's focus on the war on terror includes a new television ad that closely tracks the president's remarks. Bush accuses Kerry of not having what it takes to prosecute the anti-terror war.

Then on Tuesday, Bush plans an address on the economy. It's an area where Kerry believes he is stronger, but Bush will contrast what he says is the economy-boosting impact of his tax cuts with a charge, denied by Kerry, that the Massachusetts senator would raise taxes on all Americans if elected. That argument would come as Bush appeared at three rallies in Wisconsin and one back in Iowa.

By Friday, Bush will shift to the topic of leadership qualities "in a very personal way, in a way he hasn't done before," including a recounting of how people he has met with have shaped his views of the war on terror and his presidency, said communications director Dan Bartlett.

The campaign also plans its final ad, to be a rare 60 seconds long and released later in the week, intended to capture the president as likable and trustworthy by including "very emotional" footage of Bush talking in various settings, Bartlett said. That ad — which Bartlett called "our closing pitch to undecided voters" — would not mention Kerry.

With only a few states left on both sides' target lists, a now-familiar coincidence of scheduling has Bush and Kerry spending the night in the same state, the president in La Crosse, Wis., and Kerry about 200 miles away in Green Bay. Bush was also coming close to crossing paths with Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, who was stumping in Racine, Wis., and Dubuque, Iowa, on Monday.

Republican-leaning Colorado, where Bush was starting his day, has moved in recent weeks from the fringes of the campaign to dead center — and then perhaps back toward the sidelines.

Bush won Colorado big in 2000, by 51 percent to Al Gore's 42 percent. But a weak economy, the state's growing Hispanic population and a competitive Senate race gave Kerry reason to give it another look, and he began last month targeting the state as one of a handful he hoped to steal from the Bush column.

Only 9 more days until D-Day!

With that in mind, I would like to post the following.

Reasons to not vote for Bush:

He tried to link Saddam Hussen to 9/11 even though there was no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.

The lack of a postwar plan has left U.S. and allied troops in a violent quagmire with little hope for a scheduled peaceful withdrawal.

The "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive war has torn apart internaitonal alliances.

His market-driven agenda has weakened long-protected safeguards for clean air, clean water and wilderness conservation.

The Patriot Act has become a tool for the systematic encroachment into personal privacy and rights. The very essance of democracy - the establishment of open government and personal-privacy protections - has been reversed under this administration.

Bush's obsession with tax cuts have failed to produce new jobs as promised and now the country is facing a record $422 billion national budget deficit in 2004. Despite the Bush administration rosy spin, overall economic growth has stalled and Bush, if re-elected, would be the first president since Herbert Hooever to preside over a net decline in the number of jobs.

The judiciary is the area of most concern. With a currently divided U.S. Supreme Court with several aging members of the court, Bush appointments could severely set back civil rights.

Only 11 more days until D-Day!

It is truly amazing how Bush can keep saying that he will lower health costs when he hasn't done anything during the past four years. How are the next four years supposed to be any different? He keeps uttering the same old tired slogans and misinformation and lies that he has been uttering for the past four years. Also, how is he going to make this country any safer? Kill everyone in the the world who does not believe the same way he does? He is one sick puppy!

So, come election night, I will have two bottles of chilled beverage ready. One will be wine to drown my sorrows. The other will be champagne to celebrate the end of a long night's journey into hell and the election of one who is of commander & chief stature, not one slick failed oil man who is after all he can get for his buddies.

My biggest concern now is that I have not read the voter handbook and know virtually nothing about all the state and city ballot propositions here in San Francisco. Those are always a pain in the rear and subject to being overthrown by the electorate or by the courts.

Apparently my mind is still in NYC as I just repeated myself in some things written on the 19th. Sorry about that.

Earlier this week I returned home after a short visit to New York City. I went there with a friend who wanted to look at some neighborhoods that might be of interest should he be able to move there as is his present desire. We found two delightful areas. The urban area of Brooklyn Heights was charming as was the more suburban setting of the Forest Hills section of Queens. The latter is probably more pricey however as it appeared to be mostly single family homes.

While in the Big Apple we took in three performances at the Metropolitan Opera (Carmen, Otelllo, and Aida). This was our first experience in that venue and were impressed by its excellent acoustics. Here the San Francisco Opera house has a rather muffled sound especially for the orchestra but at the Met the sound was very much alive as in good concert halls. The storm scene at the beginning of Act One of Otello knocked our socks off as they say. It was very impressive. It was an excellent performance too with Ben Heppner in the title role and sounding better than ever and Barbara Frittoli as Desdemona. She too was very impressive. James Levine conducted Otello. The cast in Carmen was very good too with an unknown (to me) Russian mezzo (Marina Domashenko) in the title role. The tenor was Neil Shicoff who also sounded better than I have ever heard him. Hei-Kyung Hong sang the role of Micaela and was the best in this cast. Placido Domingo conducted. Aida was the big disappointment except for the fact that I finally saw a Grand March that was grand. The cast was not very good and even Dolora Zajick, a favorite, was having an off-night. The soprano, Fiorenza Cedolins, was terrible. Oh well, two out three in a weeks time is not bad all things considered.

Now back to the real world and the San Francisco Opera and the Symphony.

I don't know who are worse, Bush & Cheney, or their supporters. Both are guilty of distortions, selective use and twisting of facts, and half-truths. Then Cheney has the gaul to accuse Kerry of saying anything to win the election while he and his partner in crime have been guilty of that from day one. Also, how can anyone vote for a man who avoided fighting for his country but is responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American and Iraqi civilians just to get at the one man who had nothing to do with 9/11/01? Then to boot, he incurs a huge deficit. Some "commander in chief" he is. He sure didn't look like a commander sitting in a school room with a stupefied look on his face for seven minutes following the attacks in NYC. Why didn't he stand up, excuse himself with a brief announcement that there was an emergency that needed tending to, and leave? Would that have been so difficult? Apparently! If he wins re-election my choices for a country to move to has shrunk since the "god-party" in Australia won rather big recently which means the Gestapo will be out in force there in the years to come. Life is getting very discouraging on this planet and perhaps it is time that the real god, the creator, not some phoney-baloney mythological "old man", actually hurls a few planetoids at us so life can start all over again however will the new human, or whatever, beings do a better job? Ha!

Back home and back to the real world. It was a great week in New York City and was very enjoyable although we walked a lot despite riding many subway lines to reach far flung locations all the way from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan to Riverside Church on the Upper West Side, close to Harlem, as well as eastward into Queens (Forest Hills) and into Brooklyn (Brooklyn Heights) from which we walked back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge for some spectacular views of Manhattan. Also got good views of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The highlight of the visit was the Metropolitan Opera. Having been attending performances here at SFO since the fall of 1976 we had grown used to the somewhat muffled sound of the orchestra at the War Memorial Opera House so the Met's superb acoustics was spectacular especially in Verdi's Otello with the crashing chords of the beginning of Act One. Also discovered St. Thomas Church in midtown Manhattan, somewhat similar to Grace Cathedral in SF (although physically smaller) but the choir of men and boys is excellent and is sometimes in residence at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, U.K. Yes, they are THAT good.

Now we just have to stay calm during the remaining 14 days until the presidential election. Those jerks still have not let up and now accuse Kerry and Edwards of saying anything to try to win the election. Strange but I thought that that was what Bush and Cheney were doing. That is like the pot calling the kettle black. So sad...so sad!

Here's an interesting little story out of England.

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Help is at hand for foreign doctors working in northern England whose patients complain of sore "lugholes" or say they're feeling "jiggered" and can't stop "gipping."

Health officials in Doncaster, South Yorkshire have compiled a guide of local dialect and slang to help a group of seven Austrian doctors -- all fluent English speakers -- better understand their sometimes thickly accented patients.

"We recruited these doctors because of a shortage in Britain and though they all speak very good English they've struggled with the local dialect," health authority spokesman Ian Carpenter said Friday.

"The guide includes some terms that are quite vulgar, but the doctors have found it very useful and it's also helped them integrate into life in the area," he added.

The Austrians, among the thousands of recent overseas recruits into Britain's National Health Service, will now know that "lugholes" are ears, feeling "jiggered" means exhausted and "gipping" is vomiting.

Other terms include "doofer" for penis, "tackle" for testicles and "popped his clogs" for dead.

"We're looking to hire more doctors from Spain so the guide will be all ready to help them too," Carpenter said.

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I wonder if they could make something like that in the U.S. for older citizens in an effort to help us understand the younger set. Might do wonders for parents and their children as well.

Well, that's it for this week as I head off to the Big Apple. Will be back on these pages sometime after the 18th.

I was surprised to read a letter to the editor in the SF Chronicle this morning in which the writer commented on Bush's "incredibly clear vision for the future" and concluded by saying that "Bush is America's only hope." Good grief, if what he said last night and last week are examples of his vision, than it will only be four more years of failures. It is really very disturbing that some people have been brainwashed by these neo-cons into thinking they their way is the right way and the only way. Nothing could be further from the truth. I could excuse young people for falling into this trap as they have nothing to compare Bush to but older people should know better. It will be a sad, sad day for America and for the world if Bush wins re-election. If he does I am out of here.

The second debate between The Bush and Kerry is now over, thank God. I am so sick and tired of hearing that whiny (whiney?) voice of Bush. He sounds like a frustrated teenager who doesn't know what he is going to do next. People apparently think Bush is stronger on defense but I don't know what they base the illogic on. My negative opinion of Bush goes way beyond policy differences. I just don't feel he is qualified mentally or emotionally and he is probably the laughing stock of the world. I would hate to be a political leader from another country and have to meet with him. As a footnote to this, a good friend in Thailand told me that a couple of years ago Bush had gone to Thailand on several matters and while there he offered them x-number of dollars in foreign aid. The King declined the offer. Yes, it is a constitutional monarchy so the king reigns but does not rule but he is so respected by his people that what he approves or disapproves of is what will happen. This made a lot of people happy there and I was glad to hear the news also. You just know that any foreign aid comes with a lot of strings attached and such a deal would have put Thailand in a bad position. They are in good shape financially now and don't need the dirty money from Washington.

As for the third debate next Wednesday, I will miss that one as I will be in NYC at the Metropolitan Opera that night and mercifully away from TV sets at the time. Carmen will be far more interesting than Bush.

Oops...would your Convention & Visitors Bureau promote cow pie throwing contests? Well, the one in Oklahoma sure did and you know what has now hit the fan. Oh what a mess. Even lots of gramatical and spelling errors to boot.

My favorite magazine cover of the day, week, month, year...whatever. 

Ralph Nader is an idiot. Now he is in bed with the devil as indicated in this article. He should go back to umpiring Little League games.

I really wish the debate between Cheney and Edwards had been on later in the evening. Some evenings I have great difficulty in getting to sleep but listening to Cheney droning on and on would cure that problem very quickly.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A change in the U.S. Government is urgently needed. The fact that the Bush has lied or deceived so much that a number of simple minded folks here in the U.S. believe him, or worse yet, think he is a great president is scary. For the good of this country and for the good of the world we need a change. We need a president who will be honest and who will work with other countries. We are part of the world community but the Bush's community seems to be limited to his friends in Texas. The job of president should not be given to a spoiled rich kid with no curiosity in anything and a stubborn arrogance.

Bush's campaign of oversimplifications and misrepresnetations do not serve the American people. In fact, his continual repetition of his theme that the war in Iraq is part of the war against terrorism is beyond oversimplication and comprehension.

This country has a clear choice next month. The person this country needs for president is someone who sees facts - not someone who dreams up delusions of rightousness.

Where's George? I want my Georgey-porgey! 

Since I can't seem to get the link below to the Chronicle news article to work, I can only suggest that you go directly to www.sfgate.com after which you would go to the Chronicle pages and check the INSIGHT section of the Sunday Chronicle. You will find the article there.

Something needs to be done about our election system, specifically, the "electoral college". Some people would like to do away with it but given the present form of our government and they way the president is elected, that would probably not be a good idea. Some say that its elimination would disenfranchise voters from the smaller states and that they would not bother to vote. This is a valid point however one letter writer to this morning's Chronicle points out a greater danger in the current system whereby it is possible for a presidential candidate to carry only 11 states by a slim margin, and win enough electoral votes to become president. How would the people in the other 39 states feel about that.

Given the political reality of the situation I don't expect the electoral college to be eliminated any time soon but there is a way to overcome the inequities of the current system. In today's Chronicle there is an excellent article about the folly of the winner-take-all system that we now have. The title of the article is "Why Your Vote Matters Less" and should be read by all voters. Unfortunately, I am pessimistic and doubt that our political leaders will have the guts to change even this system.

While I can vote Republican, the people in that party that I have respect for are fewer and fewer these days. Now the extremists have taken to accusing Kerry & Edwards of wanting to Ban the Bible. What will those jerks think of next? These people have completely run aground and have nothing positive to put forth so the only thing they can do is to put down other people. I see this in my daily life. The problem extends from the person on the street up to the highest levels of corporations and government. No wonder we are hated around the world so much.