Voting for Dummies...
There is a ton of anguish these days about the act of voting. There's also a ton of crapola surrounding the issue. Depending on what side of the political spectrum you reside on, your thoughts about voting revolve around:

1. It's a sacred right. So sacred that there should be no rules governing it.
2. It's a sacred right, but one that has responsibilities attached to it and which should be exercised in a legal and responsible manner.

Guess which party espouses which position? I'll give you half a nanosecond because that's all it should take to figure out who believes what.

According to a democrat, a vote is such an important thing that we should give to it to people who have no intention of using it responsibly. We should allow them to vote wherever the heck they want to, as many times as they see fit. Voters should never have to identify themselves, nor even prove their eligibility, nor citizenship. Ballots should be passed out in prison because, well, you know, criminals are after all, the most reasonable and responsible people on earth.

And if the rest of us don't agree, well, they have regiments of lawyers standing by to make sure we do.

Yes, the vote is a sacred right, which is exactly why there were laws written to protect the right, and to protect the integrity of the vote.

I don't see why it's unfair to ask people for identification when they vote. Why is it such a nasty thing to ask people to vote where they registered to do so? Why is it that if a vote is invalidated because the voter screwed up the process, can't produce the identification, can't prove citizenship or eligibility, that somehow that voter has been disenfranchised? The laws of this country, while often contradictory or sometimes stupid, ARE written down. They can be referenced. They can be read. Polling places are full of people who are there to help -- to make sure you vote properly (according to the law and to help with the details). Signs abound in polling places, with instructions on how to vote or how to get help in order to vote. Voter registration is something available to the public year-round, every year, not just an election year. Heck, some states even register you to vote when you get a driver's license.

How friggin' difficult is it to get it right? It's the citizen's responsibility to make sure they're eligible to vote and that that they comply with the law. It's the government's job to make sure the law is complied with. Have we become such a society of morons that we need to be lead by the hand to engage in this "sacred right"? Have we become so lazy and retarded that we can't even do this properly? I mean, hell, we're only asking that the laws be obeyed!

But the democrats don't wan the law to be obeyed. They want the law to be changed. On the fly. As it suits their needs. Fine, if you want the laws changed, let's do it after this is all over (heck, we've been having this debate, on and off, for 4 years already!). Only now, when it's close to Election Day and John Kerry needs every social sycophant vote he can get, NOW we decide is a good time to review the voting process? Gee, I wonder how THAT happened?

Here's the skinny on your vote:

1. You have the right to vote provided you are an American citizen.
2. It is your responsibility to know: the date of the election, your polling place, your party affiliation (if any), what documentation you need. If you don't any of this, we have wonderful devices like telephones and the internet where people can find this information for themselves. Surprisingly, most of it is provided by some government agency. Surprisingly, it's all free, too.
3. It is your responsibility to obey the law.
4. You have not been "disenfranchised" if you have failed to do any of the above. What you are is a victim of your own stupidity if voting is that important to you.
5. Get it out of your head that we live in a democracy. We don't. We live in a representational republic. We only use democratic means to select our representatives. Hence, the Electoral College, which has served the country pretty well for 230 years. The Electoral College is supposed to protect us from the lunacy we're seeing now (the Kerry Mob).
6. It's your responsibility to make sure you punched the right chad, pulled the correct lever or wrote in the proper name, in the proper place and in the proper way. If you have any doubts, there are poll workers to help you out. When in doubt, ask. Simple advice, huh?
7. Never in the history of the world has there ever been a psychic poll worker. They cannot divine "your true intent" after the fact, and after you voted for the wrong guy. That was your responsibility, you dope, and it's not theirs to correct any mistake you might have made.
8. Something needs to be done to standardize the system, to ensure only the eligible vote and to do something to straighten this mess out. I wouldn't count on democrats to do it because that would entail applying thought and logic to the problem. It would also deprive them of the means with which to continue to steal elections, where possible.
9. Literacy, or rather the lack of it (or perhaps the will to utilize it) has repercussions at the voting booth. Instead of decrying the "disenfranchising" of minority voters, perhaps the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson could take a serious look as to whether such minorities actually KNOW what the hell they're doing before they enter the voting booth. Oh, I forgot; nothing is the black man's fault. Silly me...
10. The cacophony, the collection of legal beagles, the insinuation of racism, the media hysteria, are all being orchestrated by the democratic party which will once again attempt to win in the Court of Appeals what it could not win in the Court of Public Opinion. It's cynical and it's corrupt and I hope sincerely that on Jan 21st, the day after G.W. Bush is inaugurated a second time, that Congress sits down and hammers something out or else your local election for dog catcher will someday end up in court.