Thursday, March 31, 2005

In Heaven there are still waters available from which all may drink freely. And now, after 13 days without so much as a drop of water, Terri Schiavo can finally enjoy a drink of water again.

There are those who say that Republican efforts to stop Terri's miserable death have hurt their party. They forget that sound policy is sound politics.

And they must not have seen the pictures of the children being arrested outside Terri's hospice room. Children arrested for simply trying to bring a thirsty woman a glass of water. Children, walking with slow determination carefully clutching a paper cup or a glass so as not to waste a drop of precious water. Children simply trying to obey the golden rule, "do as you would be done by." Children who would make any parent proud.

These children want to grow up in an America where a helpless woman is not starved to death at judicial command for the crime of becoming inconvenient.

Those children are Terri Schiavo's legacy. May we prove worthy of them.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

[T]he For the Relief of the Parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo Act was just another day at the office for legislators working to manipulate the jurisdiction of our courts to achieve political ends. Hostile members of Congress increasingly seek to reverse or forestall decisions they don't like by eliminating jurisdiction over important constitutional cases, shuffling selected lawsuits between state and federal courts, and choking off the discretion of judges to weigh evidence and law.

[I]n 1932, Congress passed the Norris--La Guardia Act ... [T]his is the law that created American labor. ... [P]rogressives didn't try to pass another "labor law" that the courts could ignore: instead they stripped judges of their very power, or jurisdiction, to hear cases involving strikes. ... The judges couldn't hear labor cases after that, and they couldn't issue injunctions. ... [N]ow the workers could run wild.

NEP would tax the price of our domestic oil up to the higher OPEC price and thereby discourage consumption. Then NEP would rebate the proceeds of the tax back to consumers, American citizens, on a per capita basis. ... In other words NEP was a redistribution of income. .. Also NEP had a special benefit for organized labor. It would have raised energy costs in Texas and the South, to which anti-union employers were moving from the North and Midwest.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Thursday, March 24, 2005

At least 122 voters gave new meaning to the adage "vote early and vote often" by apparently casting absentee ballots through the mail, then showing up in person to vote on Election Day. And, officials say, at least 120 felons statewide cast ballots and now face possible prosecution.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

It was no coincidence that Senator Ron Wyden Congressman David Wu, two Oregon Democrats tried to block Congressional efforts to save Terri Schiavo from being starved to death They were afraid the bill might somehow endanger Oregon's assisted suicide law.

Wyden and Wu were protecting their constituents' right to kill themselves legally in the same way that a Senator from West Virginia protects coal mining, while a Senator from Kansas looks out for farmers.

The events of this weekend are a reminder that Federalism doesn't work so well when it comes to moral issues. Politicians who represent a state with, say, homosexual marriage will inevitably feel compelled to defend and yes impose their peculiar institution upon other states. That means that what happens to marriage in Massachusetts and California matters a great deal to the rest of us, just as a Florida woman in Florida denied food and water was rightly a national issue.

Recommended reading: Peggy Noonan "Don't Kick It."

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Friday, March 04, 2005

Requiring voter photo identification. Voters who show up at polling places without a photo ID would be provided only with a provisional ballot.

Improving voter registration records. To ensure that voter rolls do not include illegitimate voters or duplications, a federally mandated statewide voter database slated for 2006 should be implemented as soon as possible.

Setting a consistent date for certifying results. To minimize the perception of impropriety, all counties should certify their results on the same day.

Modifying provisional ballots. Provisional ballots should be a different color than regular ballots, and provisions should be adopted to ensure such ballots aren't read by optical scanners at the polling sites.

Reduce[d] wait times for voters at polling places. Just because people wait in line to do "significant" things like attending a concert or drinking at a fashionable nightclub should not mean they must do so to accomplish something as "insignificant" as choosing our nation's leaders.

Requires states to allow citizens to register to vote on Election Day. This ensures there are no safeguards against duplicate voting, so long as the voter does not go back to the same polling place later that day. The "honor system" has long proven itself good enough for Chicago and Wisconsin elections. Let's make it national.

The Count Every Vote Act of 2005 will provide a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines and ensures access to voter verification for all citizens, including language minority voters, illiterate voters and voters with disabilities. And the lines to vote will get shorter as more people have reasons to stand around arguing?

Wednesday, March 02, 2005