Election Debate

Re "Red State Harvest" (Film, Sept. 10): A few facts are in order that Mr. von Busack didn't mention or is perhaps unaware of, as follows:

(1.) After the 2004 Ohio election, the Democrat Party commissioned an "independent study" to review the election results. This commission "found no evidence of fraud" in that election and the Democrat Party agreed with the findings. The "Election Boards" in Ohio are bipartisan, the African American voter turnout was the highest ever in Ohio and the counting of "provisional ballots" was 78 percent, which was much higher than in Florida, for example. See article by Dan Balz, Washington Post, June 23, 2005, page A10.

(2.) In the 2000 Florida election, few people seem to know that there were three issues voted on in the "Bush v. Gore" Supreme Court case. The justices voted 9-0 to not extend the two-week deadline for counties to submit additional votes, thus "reversing" the Florida Supreme Court. Secondly, the justices voted 7-2 that the methods for counting additional votes violated the U.S. Constitution's "Equal Protection Clause." Then, there was the famous 5-4 vote, which essentially confirmed the problems encountered in the first two votes. All of the votes essentially favored the arguments of the Bush legal team by a total vote of 21-6. Complete details on the above can be found in the book Breaking the Deadlock: the 2000 Election, the Constitution and the Courts by Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit published in 2001.

(3.) Finally, most people seem unaware that Florida doesn't have the provision for a "statewide" recount other than the "machine recount" which was done. This is why Mr. Gore requested a "recount" in only four heavily Democrat counties that he had already won. A media study reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 14, 2001, p. A5, found that if a recount in one of the four counties, Miami-Dade, had been done, Bush would have actually "gained" six more votes than Gore. The study stated "that result would have been a hard blow to Al Gore's hopes of claiming the presidency in a recount." The same study also found that the vast majority of "undervotes" had no vote for president and that 2.257 voters had incorrectly inserted their ballot cards into the voting machine.

Ronald Brackney

Santa Clara

Punishing Families

Re "Gone, Baby, Gone" (MetroNews, Sept. 17): Thank you for printing this story. My husband, among many others, has been informed of a transfer ... the reason given is because they are so overcrowded. This is terrible—reduce sentences then. It is such a financial hardship already to travel four hours to see him. Wait until they send him to Oklahoma, Tennessee or Mississippi! What is the CDC thinking, tearing apart families. Yes, they committed a crime; yes, they should do time (too much in California), but why if they are supposed to be "rehabilitating" them, are they taking away their families that so desperately try to keep them from becoming institutionalized! This makes no sense, and it is heartbreaking. If you go to prisontalk.com, you can look under this subject and find many families that are being torn apart. Thank you for the mom who is trying to stand up for her son and keep him close by. They send them so far away from their families anyways. We are all being punished.

Lori I.

Van Nuys

No Meat Is Humane

Re "Back in Rack" ("On the Menu," March 19): Saying that humanely raised animals are also humanely slaughtered is an oxymoron. To kill an animal and eat it, simply because you like the taste of its flesh, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called "humane." It is true that some vegetarians have fallen off the wagon by the lure of so-called "humane" meat. It's important to understand that killing an animal, however "kindly" it's done, is unnecessary for our survival. We do not need to eat meat, and studies have proven over and over that meat consumption is not only unnecessary, it can actually be harmful to our health. "Cage free" eggs are not necessarily from hens that are roaming happily around a family farm. If they have access to the outdoors for one hour each day and spend the other 23 in cages, they can legally be called "cage free." Please do not fall for the hype. Go (and stay!) vegan, for your health, for the animals sake, and for the environment.

Cindy McDaniel

Lenoir City, Tenn.

Yes on 2

The conditions for animals in factory farms, where almost all of our eggs, pork and veal come from, is shockingly inhumane. In order to make basic improvements to the lives of the suffering animals we Californians must pass Proposition 2.

Proposition 2 requires that the practice of overcrowding laying hens, pregnant pigs and baby cows in containers so small that they can't even turn around must end. Under Proposition 2, factory farms will have to let the animals extend fully their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up and turn around. These simple movements are denied to millions of animals that furnish Americans with meat. Voting YES on Proposition 2 is the least we can do.

Kermit Cuff

Mountain View