U.S. Panel Rejects Plan For Paper Ballots

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 5, 2006

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Dec. 4 (AP) — A federal advisory panel rejected a recommendation on Monday that states use just voting machines whose results could be independently verified.            More HERE

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   This comes as no surprise to anyone. They made some claim about the state election boards being overwhelmed with the requirement.

    If this would help our election process actually work, then I see no reason that the states cannot be a little inconvenienced. Between all of the machine mess-ups and fraud in our past elections(FL-13 for one) you would think that the states would welcome an actual paper trail for when these pieces of junk go down or do not work as they are supposed to work.

   The Democrats need to push this issue when they get into office as most of the voting problems are against the Democratic party in the first place.

Message From A Megachurch

By E. J. Dionne Jr. via The Washington Post
Tuesday, December 5, 2006

American politics took an important turn last week at a church in the foothills of Southern California's Santa Ana Mountains.

When Rick Warren, one of the nation's most popular evangelical pastors, faced down right-wing pressure and invited Sen. Barack Obama to speak at a gathering at his Saddleback Valley Community Church about the AIDS crisis, he sent a signal: A significant group of theologically conservative Christians no longer wants to be treated as a cog in the Republican political machine.

     Senator Obama's speech HERE