insuring that the republicans can filibuster anything they don't agree with

Sounds like a plan

Really!

One of the arguments by which the Corporate Rulers brainwashed the population that they should be 'counting' all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code, is that it would be "more efficient."



Now we have long lines, voter purges and all kinds of blockades to voting, as they "efficiently" pick and choose the best advocates of Corporate Rule for public office.

It's RIGGED. And it was set up TO BE rigged, during the 2002 to 2004 period. You only have to look at Congress to know this--was there ever a worse bunch of unrepresentative assholes? Or just look at the facts of the election system itself: EVERY STATE now has electronic voting systems, run on 'TRADE SECRET' code--code that you and I are forbidden to review--with half the states doing NO AUDIT AT ALL of these machine results, and the other half doing only a miserably inadequate 1% audit; and, furthermore, the whole system--75% of the voting machines in the U.S.--is now controlled by ONE, PRIVATE, FAR RIGHTWING-CONNECTED corporation (ES&S, which bought out Diebold)!

Who ever set up such a riggable system, who DIDN'T INTEND TO USE IT for rigging elections?

We have completely lost transparency in vote counting--on top of everything else we've lost. It is the coup d'grace of Corporate Rule, and these other humiliations--long voting lines, vote purges, et al--are the RESULT of rigged elections, giving power to people who were NOT elected and whose mission is to destroy democracy.

It's not going to stop until we get rid of these 'TRADE SECRET' voting systems.

Congress is never going to do that. WE have to do that, in every state, county and precinct in the country. We have to demand restoration of PUBLIC vote counting!

The old paper ballot system WORKED--efficiently, well, transparently--and there were no long lines because, a) the system was decentralized, with as many precincts as needed to keep it simple and accessible; and b) it was aimed at enfranchisement not DISenfranchisement, and at transparency not MYSTERY.

Now, you go to your county registrar's "central command" and get MYSTIFIED by technical GOBBLE-DE-GOOK about how your vote is being counted, and you get referred to "the experts" if you have any questions about this mysterious 'TRADE SECRET' system, and if you have any objections to it, you are told that you are "not an expert." I'm quoting the former Los Angeles County Registrar, who said just that--"you are not an expert"--to an ordinary citizens who, in fact, WAS an expert--a computer specialist--who had questioned Diebold systems in particular.

You are not an expert!

It's possible that an OPEN SOURCE code system could be fair--get the corporations and their 'TRADE SECRETS' out of it!--but I'm not for that solution, at present. I think we need to go back to old-fashioned, hand-counted, paper ballots, and PERSONAL vote counting by us citizens--with our own eyes and hands--overseen PERSONALLY by citizen observers. We need to remove this remote electronic component and get back to being citizens again, and take responsibility for our most important duty in a democracy: insuring correct vote counts. And we also need to include, in that process, everyone who is NOT computer literate or capable of reviewing PUBLIC code. THEN we might consider PUBLICLY-OWNED "open source" code in an entirely PUBLIC electronic voting system with a paper ballot backup and a much bigger audit (at least 10%).

These small tinkerings with this wholly corrupt election system are an insult, actually. You think mandating enough 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines to prevent "long lines" is going to change anything for the better? It ain't. And Barbara Boxer ought to know better and probably does know better--but that's a sadness we have to suffer these days, and overcome: our sadness at the loss of integrity of those who serve this system of Corporate Rule, even the best people.

I was appalled the other day to read that John Kerry called Colombia "the model for Latin America"--a country where labor leaders and other advocates of the poor are routinely murdered, and where FIVE MILLION peasant farmers have been brutally driven from their lands! Good God! How could he say that? HOW COULD HE?! It is incomprehensible to me--but we really must come to understand these things--the lures of the Corporate Rulers and War Profiteers in destroying the consciences of intelligent, talented, well-meaning people--and we need to get beyond such disillusionments and think about structures of power, and how to get our power back, as a people.

No. 1 priority: Get rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines.

Thank you so much for stating the most important fact! As long as we have those machine's nothing will change & I'm a firm believer that's why we have so many repukes in office today.

Absolutely right on all counts.