As the state primaries wind down, the odds that the e-voting situation will be at all improved by November just got significantly slimmer, thanks to the success of the Bush administration and House Republicans in blocking e-voting reform.
This past January, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act (H.R. 5036), which proposed a last minute, federally-funded push to help states and counties phase out paperless touchscreen e-voting machines before the November presidential contest. In addition to setting aside $600 million to fund the implementation of a paper trail in the states and counties that rely solely on paperless touchscreens, the bill has a number of great audit-related requirements that would go a long way toward ensuring the integrity of our elections.
Holt's bill passed the House of Representatives Committee on House Administration with unanimous, bipartisan support, only to be blocked by House Republicans on a near-party-line vote when it reached the floor. The White House also spoke out against the bill, opposing it on fiscal grounds.
Rep. Holt then blasted House Republicans in his own statement.
"I'd like to ask the opponents how much spending is too much to have verifiable elections in the United States. I note that many people who opposed this legislation supported spending almost $330 million in recent years to provide election assistance in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I would have hoped those who supported efforts to export democracy abroad would be equally committed to strengthening democracy here at home," Holt said.
I really think we need to stop banning all the republitards from the board. I would kill to hear an explanation for this, and how the GOP are not corrupt corporate fatcats who don't give a flying fuck about any person who didn't donate at least 6 figures to their campaign only and how they didn't steal the last two presidential elections and plan to steal this one.
Unfortunately, almost everyone left already thinks that, and the few right leaners left on the board don't have the balls to speak up.
So...the Bush administration suddendly got fiscally responsible? Opposing the bill "on fiscal grounds"? Yeah, right.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
Sadly, we'll probably never get a proper explanation for this from the GOP and the Democrats lack the balls to press the issue or even take advantage of the situation. I hope I'm wrong on the latter but I doubt it.
“There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it’s perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible … Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between drug warriors and child molesters.” - Jacob Sullum[/size][/align]
PeZook wrote:So...the Bush administration suddendly got fiscally responsible? Opposing the bill "on fiscal grounds"? Yeah, right.
Of course. If it helps people or improves democracy, it's not "fiscally responsible". The Republikan Way.
When ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.
—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
Dominus Atheos wrote:I really think we need to stop banning all the republitards from the board. I would kill to hear an explanation for this, and how the GOP are not corrupt corporate fatcats who don't give a flying fuck about any person who didn't donate at least 6 figures to their campaign only and how they didn't steal the last two presidential elections and plan to steal this one.
Unfortunately, almost everyone left already thinks that, and the few right leaners left on the board don't have the balls to speak up.
We never really had a policy of banning Republitards, but the problem with Republitards is that they have certain preferred debate tactics that happen to be against our rules. Their typical debate style, which I've run into on other boards, is to repeat their "talking points" over and over until they exhaust their opposition, and to promote absurd caricatures of liberal arguments such as "You want to sit down with Osama Bin Laden, have tea with him, and try to convince him to play nice" or "You want to destroy the institution of marriage until people are marrying dogs". The baseline level of Republitard debate is so horrendously low that it really could only exist in the low S/N-ratio environment of most poorly moderated forums, and those kinds of tactics are banned here just as they really should be banned everywhere.
The only kind of Republican who will venture on this board is one who disagrees with the party on a lot of issues, and that kind of Republican would probably not stand up and defend this anyway. If you want genuine Republitards, the only way to get them on this board is to drop all of our debate rules.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
As the state primaries wind down, the odds that the e-voting situation will be at all improved by November just got significantly slimmer, thanks to the success of the Bush administration and House Republicans in blocking e-voting reform.
This past January, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act (H.R. 5036), which proposed a last minute, federally-funded push to help states and counties phase out paperless touchscreen e-voting machines before the November presidential contest. In addition to setting aside $600 million to fund the implementation of a paper trail in the states and counties that rely solely on paperless touchscreens, the bill has a number of great audit-related requirements that would go a long way toward ensuring the integrity of our elections.
Holt's bill passed the House of Representatives Committee on House Administration with unanimous, bipartisan support, only to be blocked by House Republicans on a near-party-line vote when it reached the floor. The White House also spoke out against the bill, opposing it on fiscal grounds.
Rep. Holt then blasted House Republicans in his own statement.
"I'd like to ask the opponents how much spending is too much to have verifiable elections in the United States. I note that many people who opposed this legislation supported spending almost $330 million in recent years to provide election assistance in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I would have hoped those who supported efforts to export democracy abroad would be equally committed to strengthening democracy here at home," Holt said.
I really think we need to stop banning all the republitards from the board. I would kill to hear an explanation for this, and how the GOP are not corrupt corporate fatcats who don't give a flying fuck about any person who didn't donate at least 6 figures to their campaign only and how they didn't steal the last two presidential elections and plan to steal this one.
Unfortunately, almost everyone left already thinks that, and the few right leaners left on the board don't have the balls to speak up.
Speaking as one of those "right leaners"...you're absolutely right, this is corrupt bullshit.
The state of the Republican Party and conservative politics in general is shameful. It's so bad I've been forced to vote Democrat for the past few years, simply from lack of any worthwhile Republican candidate at all.
