Republicans Have no Interest in People Voting

Republicans Have no Interest in People Voting

This past election serves as a watershed moment for neo-conservatives and corporatists (I say this because they are not conservative ideologues, but rather power brokers). And the Rovenites know this. With the full might of the White House, a cooperating media and 9-11 in their back pocket, the neo republicans have maximized their vote share. We Dems need only capture a few more votes out of the disenfranchised to tip the country back in our favor.
Knowing this, Republicans will do all they can to restrict voting opportunities. Thus the HAVA was used not to actually help people vote, but to obscure and devoid thousands of democratic voters. We progressives must stand up loudly and get these measures passed:
As states by Progress Report:
Although major voting problems appear to have been avoided this year, serious issues remain in the nation's electoral system: electronic voting machine problems, long lines, confusion over provisional and absentee ballots and the lack of paper trails for lost votes. Computerized voter databases and upgraded technology, both mandated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) but so far under-funded and inconsistently enforced, should help resolve some of the problems by 2006. Some of the problems from this year's election include:
• Electronic voting machines recorded "extra" votes. A voting machine in a suburban Columbus, OH precinct recorded an additional 3,893 votes for President Bush even though there were just 800 voters registered in the precinct. Similar glitches were discovered in e-voting machines across the country. There were as many as 10,000 extra e-votes cast in Nebraska and 19,000 mysterious "extra ballots" were added on electronic machines in Florida.
• No paper trail for electronic machines meant some votes "disappeared."Â More than 4,000 early votes were lost in North Carolina's Carteret County because an electronic voting system could not store the volume of votes it received. This could have been avoided with a verifiable paper trail.Â
• Long lines made voting difficult for millions of Americans. The most common problem of all in this year's election was long lines which caused hours-long waits in many precincts in the country. The problems appeared to be particularly acute in some low-income areas due to the lack of adequate numbers of voting machines.Â

Republicans do not care about the troops

Republicans do not care about the troops

I am sick of the empty words, support the troops, and the meaningless bumper stickers that people put on their cars but do nothing to support the troops.

Apparently supporting the troops and being patriotic, does not mean arming them with the best equipment and all the armor. For Rumsfeld to claim, he knew nothing of the extent of the problem during the run up to war and it now is a sham. Three years ago when there was first talk of the war, I was involved in the beginning of Military Family’s Speak Out (www.mfso.org) and the first thing we wanted to address was if our family members were going to be sent to war that they have the equipement which even then we knew was not enough.

Supporting the troops seems to not mean making sure they have adequate health care or veterans support. Troops injured during the war are sent to Walter Reed Hospital. And while they are there, they have to PAY FOR THE FOOD, that is being served to them. Once they are out, they will get poor veterans care, have to pay for services, way as much as a year to get services.

Supporting the troops seems to mean paying them a tenth of what Halliburton and private contractors get paid for doing work in Iraq.

Supporting the troops seems to mean putting a bumper sticker on your car, feeling good about yourself, and being completely apathetic to the injustice being paid to their service.

Why I am not a Republican Week

I do not hate Republicans.

I actually think they play an important role in the government. As a progressive it is good to have a debate on the size of government and the success of programs. In many ways I am a conservative Democrat. But the current state of the Republican Party in no way resembles a reality based group. Gone is the party of small government not interfering in the affairs of its citizens. And in comes a theocratic power hungry corporate machine.

You cannot have a debate with a person who has divorced themselves from reality and is willing to lie to your face to keep power.

You can't call something a "clear skies initiative" that will obviously lead to more pollution. Just be honest, you believe that the balance between conservation and pollution is tilted to much toward conservation. We can have a real debate about that, debate it on its merits and let democracy decide, but don't say it is going to lead to less pollution when you know it will cause more.

Don't call it no child left behind and then send an unfunded mandate to states, where schools will obviously fail. Just be honest, you don't believe in universal education and would like to see less funding go toward it. Let's have a debate on the role of education in our society, not lie about it.

Don't say your energy bill will end energy dependence, when in fact it will increase it. Be honest, you believe investment in Oil companies is good for the economy, and that investment in alternative fuels is not as important. That is why you are only funding resource driven fuel initiatives and not alternatives.

Don't say that you don't want to privatize Social Security and turn it into a entitlement program, when your proposal is to privatize social security and turn it into an entitlement program for the poor. Just be honest, you believe social security is to social oriented and want to end it, be honest and lets have that debate on the merits.

The real attack since the Bush Presidency has been on the truth and reality. We can have a real debate, but Republicans are not interested. They only want to lie to you about it, obfuscate the details, and then lie some more. Only when Dems call them on this and the Media actually fact checks the lies, is there hope we may be able to have real discussions in America again.