No, Joe. That’s just the BS line that they fool you with.

The poor and lower-middle class kids die for corporate profits. You would never find a corporate CEO’s kid fighting in the trenches of Afghanistan. 1% of the politicians on Capital Hill have kids fighting in Afghanistan. The ones who are over there are underclass cannon fodder. Let’s keep it truthful on these boards.

We have to insist on the integrity of elections. Heroes have given their lives for our right to self-government.

Google: ACORN “vote fraud”

This president started his career as a community agitator with ACORN. ACORN is registering fraudulent voters across the nation.

So your analogy fails.

You do bring up good points, though, when you ask: “Is it ‘reasonable’ to let the government count our votes in the first place? After all, the government is hardly a disinterested party. Additionally, most government vote counting happens in secret, ie, the integrity of the count cannot be meaningfully observed.

“More fundamentally, are elections a tool that government uses to control people, or a tool people use to control the government?”

The answer to all those questions is the general farce of American elections. To cite just one example, polls show just 10 percent of Californians approve of the jobs done by state legislators, yet almost all legislators easily win re-election.

— John Seiler

Just as Republicans cried “WMD” to invade Iraq, they are now crying “voter fraud” to disenfranchise voters.

“The deal” is that under federal law, “preclearance” areas (such as Texas) must prove that changes to their voting laws will not disenfranchise minorities. As voter ID laws will disproportionately affect minorities, they can be legitimately blocked by the DOJ. (Perhaps the “preclearance” laws should be repealed or overturned, but at present they have not been.)

Hanging chads have nothing to do with “vote fraud” (fraud committed by voters), nor “election fraud” (fraud committed by the government workers who run elections). Fraud is deliberate. Hanging chads are not.

You say: “It is reasonable to ask for a government ID in a government election of a government politician for a government office.”

In other words: You believe it is reasonable to disenfranchise voters who do not have government ID. Perhaps we should amend the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that men are not created equal, but rather become equal when they are issued a government approved ID card.”

Also: “government election”, “government politician”, “government office”? Are politicians “of the government”, or are they “of the people”? Are we a county of, by and for the people? Or of, by and for the government?

Here’s a question for you: Is it “reasonable” to let the government count our votes in the first place? After all, the government is hardly a disinterested party. Additionally, most government vote counting happens in secret, ie, the integrity of the count cannot be meaningfully observed.

More fundamentally, are elections a tool that government uses to control people, or a tool people use to control the government?

You’re assuming that we live in a democracy. We don’t. Would the two GOP presidential candidates left standing be Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney in a democracy?

The one exclusive privilege of citizenship was supposed to be the right to vote. There really is no other incentive to become an American. Now with the government promoting voter fraud our last privilege has been rendered worthless.