Emphasis Added

One of the problems with the political debate today is that there are so many examples of eggregious and unimaginable behavior happening that it's difficult to keep track of them all. One of the worst that's getting lost in the din is the problems with electronic voting machines. This is so dark and sinister that it sounds like a conspiracy theory on the face of it, but the facts are pretty plain and the key questions are simply not being answered. The stock line seems to be, "don't worry about it - it's silly," and, unfortunately, a lot of what's coming from the Left sounds raving and hysterical, so it's easy to tune out.

Well, maybe. But read this detailed, objective, well-reported story from the Independent (UK) and try to tune it out. When partisan victory becomes more important than democracy itself, we have a real problem.

2:52:35 PM

Emphasize This! []

The Federalist (Rolling) Papers

States Rights according to the Bush/Ashcroft means states have the lattitude to outdo the federal government on conservative issues like service cuts, rollback of environmental rules and workplace standards, and execution of prisoners, but have no business liberalizing anything whatsoever, from criminal justice codes to personal freedom issues. Nowhere is this double-standard more apparent than in the war between Ashcroft's Justice Department (and the DEA) and the citizens of nine Western states who authorized their government, through large majorities at the polls, to permit the medical use of marijuana by patients whose doctors say they need it.

Well, the Supreme Court - yes, the Bush v. Gore Rehnquist Court - finally said bullshit to that. Today they refused to hear a case appealed by the Bush Administration that sought to punish doctors for recommending or even talking about marijuana to their patients in states where they are legally entitled to do so.

Isn't there enough real crime in this country for the Feds to worry about, without having to concern themselves trying to throw a bunch of sick people and their doctors into the slammer? If you are interested in this issue, the Marijuana Policy Project is one of the main groups trying to address the insanity of our drug laws in this country. They just won a nice one for freedom today, and they run a pretty good, informative site if you want to check it out.

8:46:08 AM

Emphasize This! []