My votes in the '06 Florida general election

Being that I am located on the other side of country from my home in Florida, I voted via an absentee ballot this year. Here's a sample ballot for my county and here are the votes that I recorded:

(1) United States Senator: Belinda Noah (NPA)
(2) Representative in Congress, District 7: John L. Mica (REP)
(3) Governor and Lieutenant Governor: Charlie Crist; John Kottkamp (REP)
(4) Attorney General: Bill McCollum (REP)
(5) Chief Financial Officer: Tom Lee (REP)
(6) Commissioner of Agriculture: Charles H. Bronson (REP)
(7) County Commissioner, District 2: Mark L. Belas (REP)
County Commissioner, District 4: Ed Taylor (DEM)
(8) Retain Justice of the Supreme Court, R. Fred Lewis?: NO
Retain Justice of the Supreme Court, Barbara Joan Pariente?: NO
Retain Justice of the Supreme Court, Peggy A. Quince?: NO
Retain District Court of Appeal, Justice Emerson R. Thompson?: NO
(9) Circuit Judge, 7th Judicial Circuit, Group 27: Luis Bustamante
(10) No. 1 Constitutional Amendment: YES
(11) No. 3 Constitutional Amendment: YES
(12) No. 4 Constitutional Amendment: NO
(13) No. 6 Constitutional Amendment: YES
(14) No. 7 Constitutional Amendment: YES
(15) No. 8 Constitutional Amendment: YES
(16) Superintendent of Public Schools: NO

Methodology:
(1) I dislike the incumbent, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, and I dislike the Republican candidate, Katherine Harris. Therefore, I voted for an independent conservative candidate: Belinda Noah. Harris has no chance in beating Nelson, anyways, so why should I vote for my party's candidate, of whom I dislike? By voting for Noah, I am thus registering my disgust at the Republican Party for their lack of sense in nominating a candidate.
(2) John Mica has been a good conservative in Congress and has been responsive to the concerns of his constituents. His opponent, Democrat John Chagnon, is too left-wing for my taste.
(3) I dislike Republican Charlie Crist, who is too liberal on immigration, and I strongly dislike his opponent, Democrat Jim Davis, who is basically a socialist supported by every minority and special interest group possible. I wanted to vote for the conservative Reform Party candidate, Max Linn, to register my opposition to the Republican's choice of candidate, but out of fear that a socialist may be able to slip in behind our backs, I reluctantly registered my vote for Crist.
(4) I voted for Bill McCollum, whom I have supported in every election since I first began voting. The Republican Party never gives this man enough support, and it's about time this good, strong conservative, got a chance.
(5) Tom Lee is Jeb Bush's choice of candidates, and since Jeb has done such a good job as a governor in regards to the budget, I trust him on this. What was Jeb thinking when he chose Crist!?
(6) Charles Bronson is the obvious choice for this position.
(7) These are local elections that I'm sure none of you care about.
(8) I voted against retainment of any of these judges because they are all left-liberals and oppose many issues that I hold dear, such as school vouchers. In particular, all three of those Supreme Court justices joined to shoot down Florida's voucher program.
(9) Again, local stuff.
(10) This amendment would bring greater efficiency and eliminate waste and fraud in many state programs. For that reason I support it.
(11) This amendment would make it harder to amend the state constitution, a measure I greatly support. Too often special interests with agendas that should be dealt with at the legislative level skip the process altogether, especially when they know it will never muster, and trick voters into voting for amendments that support them, like regulating types of pig farming (from the 2002 election). I voted YES for that reason.
(12) This is a perfect example of the kind of special interest amendment that I just described. NO!
(13) I voted YES for this. It modifies an existing constitutional provision and is effectively a tax cut.
(14) Again, I voted YES because this modifies an existing constitutional provision and cuts taxes (this time just for those who have lived in Florida their entire lives, not just everybody; an overall plus in a state that is rapidly becoming overpopulated).
(15) YES! This makes it impossible for government to use eminent domain laws to enrich private persons or public entities for tax collection purposes.
(16) NO! This is just what we don't need: unions with more power.

Through a Glass, Darkly

Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.

In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

I have battled for fresh mammoth,
I have warred for pastures new,
I have listed to the whispers
When the race trek instinct grew.

I have known the call to battle
In each changeless changing shape
From the high souled voice of conscience
To the beastly lust for rape.

I have sinned and I have suffered,
Played the hero and the knave;
Fought for belly, shame, or country,
And for each have found a grave.

I cannot name my battles
For the visions are not clear,
Yet, I see the twisted faces
And I feel the rending spear.

Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet, I've called His name in blessing
When after times I died.

In the dimness of the shadows
Where we hairy heathens warred,
I can taste in thought the lifeblood;
We used teeth before the sword.

While in later clearer vision
I can sense the coppery sweat,
Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.

Hear the rattle of the harness
Where the Persian darts bounced clear,
See their chariots wheel in panic
From the Hoplite's leveled spear.

See the goal grow monthly longer,
Reaching for the walls of Tyre.
Hear the crash of tons of granite,
Smell the quenchless eastern fire.

Still more clearly as a Roman,
Can I see the Legion close,
As our third rank moved in forward
And the short sword found our foes.

Once again I feel the anguish
Of that blistering treeless plain
When the Parthian showered death bolts,
And our discipline was in vain.

I remember all the suffering
Of those arrows in my neck.
Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage
As I died upon my back.

Once again I smell the heat sparks
When my Flemish plate gave way
And the lance ripped through my entrails
As on Crecy's field I lay.

In the windless, blinding stillness
Of the glittering tropic sea
I can see the bubbles rising
Where we set the captives free.

Midst the spume of half a tempest
I have heard the bulwarks go
When the crashing, point blank round shot
Sent destruction to our foe.

I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.

And still later as a General
Have I galloped with Murat
When we laughed at death and numbers
Trusting in the Emperor's Star.

Till at last our star faded,
And we shouted to our doom
Where the sunken road of Ohein
Closed us in its quivering gloom.

So but now with tanks a'clatter
Have I waddled on the foe
Belching death at twenty paces,
By the star shell's ghastly glow.

So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.

by General George S. Patton

Weird? Yes. Patton believed that he had lived through many ages and had been resurrected time and again. This is one of my most favorite poems.

And He Said Fight On (Tennyson)

Time and its ally, Dark Disarmament,
Have compassed me about,
Have massed their armies, and on battle bent
My forces put to rout;
But though I fight alone, and fall, and die,
Talk terms of Peace? Not I.

They war upon my fortress, aim their guns
Are shattering its walls;
My army plays the cowards' part, and runs,
Pierced by a thousand balls;
They call for my surrender. I reply,
"Give quarter now? Not I."

They've shot my flag to ribbons, but in rents
It floats above the height;
Their ensign shall not crown my battlements
While I can stand and fight.
I fling defiance at them as I cry,
"Capitulate? Not I."

by Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)