In California, the state will decide on what it is going to do with its voting machines, and what additional security measure it might employ, or one hopes, turf electronic voting all together. Florida is also plagued by errant voting machines, that despite claims of being fixed, still are not working properly, or safely.

(Tallahassee, Florida) Florida’s optical scan voting machines are still flawed, despite efforts to fix them, and they could allow poll workers to tamper with the election results, according to a government-ordered study obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. (source)

You would think, nearly 8 years after the ‘hanging chad‘ debacle, that at least Florida would be making headway in preventing becoming a laughing stock again. Guess not, because it seems everyone is in love with the concept of E-Voting. Nice thought, but shouldn’t the concern be more about preserving Democracy and the principle that one person’s vote can make a difference?

With electronic voting, it seems that who gets the best computer hacker, is who will win, not how many actual votes they get. That is the reality of today’s electronic love affair. If the big computer players like Microsoft and others, are unable to secure their own systems, would seem logical that you won’t be able to secure voting machines either. And as for those security measures, well, they are only as good as the people working the polling stations, and in their integrity.

Can you really see a worker, who adamantly opposes Pro Choice, being in a position of altering the election from a Pro Choice candidate to a Pro Life candidate, not being tempted to do so? Specially if they know they can’t be caught? Specially if they know that it is nearly impossible to tell if a machine has been altered or hacked?

If you believe that can’t happen, then explain the recent Florida election for Congress, where 14,000 votes simply fell off the computer records.  Go back and re-live the 2004 Presidential election, and all the conspiracy theories that exist about that one, then come back, and say electronic voting is better than a simple paper ballot.

Want Democracy? Use Paper not a Computer to decide who will govern, and who won’t.

Well at least not in front of the Colliseum.

Once more, it shows you how Homophobia is just a cover up for Racism. Do you really think a straight couple would get hauled into jail and charged, because they were kissing in public? That’s what happened in Rome, because it was two guys kissing. Dressed, not groping,  just kissing and they now face 2 years for Lewd Conduct.

The pair were rushed into a police car and taken to a police station where they were held for several hours.  Eventually they were issued a summons to appear in court and released. (source)

You have to wonder, what is going on these days with all this hatred for Gays? I know it starts with leaders like the Pope or President Bush who push their own Agenda of Hate, in order to gain support, or to hold power, but why are so many willingly helping them achieve that? Why are ordinary people reaching out, to Hate?

Maybe it is naive of me, but I always thought that when people are different, that its a good thing. I believed that it was those differences that made a nation great, made a society advance, but today it seems that differences only divide nations, corrupt societies. I don’t understand it, because our society today is based on a form of religion that welcomes such diversity. Yet it is those religions that are screaming the most, yelling the loudest, that differences are intolerable, that differences are somehow evil.

I wonder, do people like the Pope or George Bush, and his minions, ever think about the consequences of their insane drive to hold dominion over us all? Is it just a power thing, or is it more than that? I look at the drivel from people like Hitler and Phelps, and then at the mouthings from the likes of Bush and the Pope, and I see less of a difference each day.

Why are we being so angry at those who are simply different?

It is hard for me to understand, how evil some people can be. Specially when they also profess to be spokesmen for God. I find it hard to accept that anyone who believes, and I mean truly believes, in God, could spew so much hatred as the Good Reverend Phelps does. It boggles my mind really, when I hear his chants, his denounciations of homosexuals, all in God’s name. Worse, I suppose, is those who follow his teachings, or rantings, might be more apt of a description.

Once again, he has attempted to erect a statue in Casper Wyoming, regarding Mathew Shepard. Once again the town has rejected his hatred. I find it unbelievable that he has so much hate in his heart, that he has totally blocked out what God is about, what his Lord Jesus is supposed to have died for. Yet on he goes, parading and causing pain at Military Funerals, and elsewhere, because of his hatred.

Phelps’ proposed a monument that would have been 5 to 6 feet tall and made of marble or granite.  It would have had a bronze plaque bearing the image of Shepard and have  an inscription reading “MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God’s Warning: ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’ Leviticus 18:22.” (source)

While he is open about his hatred, it is those who hide that hatred, who couch in politically correct terms, that maybe worry me the most. People like Bush and Pope Benedict, who preach hatred in a way that reaches and touches far more, than the evil mouthings of a Phelps. Even the Democrats are guilty of it, as they cower, afraid to stand up and deny the hatred spewed by people like Bush. Oh sure, they all complain about the Phelps of the world, yet when it comes to actually forcing a stand, of fighting for what is right, what is decent, they cower.

The Mathew Shepard Bill continues to languish in the US Senate, because George Bush threatens to Veto it, (see comment ‘VETO HATE, Not Justice‘) and the Democrats are afraid to raise a fuss about it. Oh they’ll go after Albert Gonzales, because it can score them political points. They’ll push for Amnesty because it could garner them more votes, but when it comes to defending the constitution, to protecting a minority that is unpopular as Gays are, they cower.

At times like this, I wonder if there truly isn’t absolute evil, disguised as Politicians.