At least for Federal elections.  We need a uniform, nationwide system of Federal voter registration and elections run, funded, and inspected on the Federal level.  

It wouldn't take a Constitutional amendment.

General Wesley Clark got raked over the coals by the news media for making the perfectly reasonable and fair observation that getting shot down doesn't particularly qualify or disqualify you for the presidency.  I'll go farther, and say that being in isolation during the upheaval of the Vietnam war is a big hole in John McCain's education in political history.  

Getting a pardon doesn't make you innocent.  In fact, it strongly suggests that you're guilty. Short of impeaching Bush, there's nothing Congress can do to stop him from pardoning all his cronies and maybe even himself.  But here's my idea on how to mix a little bit of sting into the blessing of being pardoned.  I think it can be done with an act of Congress.

At the Netroots Nation convention, I  went to sleep early last night and got up early to hear Nancy Pelosi answer questions.  Yesterday I'd heard some admiring comments  on her willingness to come speak to a tough audience.  I  was looking forward to a lively question and answer session.

Gee, don't the 'conservatives' pushing telecom immunity in the FISA revision read the polls?  The new president, to whom they're about to hand an unchecked new power, could use that power against them.

The House of Representatives will vote as soon as tomorrow  (Thursday, May 8) on an additional $162.6 billion for the war and occupation in Iraq.

At a time when money is urgently needed in our communities, the new bill would bring the total for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $859 billion.

You could find those figures anywhere in the news today;  I happened to lift the quotes above from a newsletter by Rabbi Michael Lerner of The Network of Spiritual Progressives (he used to edit Tikkun magazine).  You can read the whole newsletter at
www.tikkun.org

We need a national voter registration system.  The Supreme Court's decision today upholding Indiana's photo-ID voting requirement was the last straw.  But there are other reasons, too.  
Here's the NY Times story on the Supreme Court's latest abomination on democracy:
http://www.nytimes.com/...

There are several ironies in this story, and I doubt I've thought of all the odd twists it could take as it plays out.  Perhaps the most obvious is that a court ruling against Bush means that an execution can proceed.  
It seems that as President, Bush has tried to order the Texas courts to obey a ruling by the International Court of Justice (often called the World Court) that an inmate on death row in Texas wasn't advised of his right to notify and consult with diplomats from his home country, Mexico.  I assume that would mean he should get a new trial.  Texas courts and authorities have ruled otherwise, which has caused diplomatic friction with Mexico, where they don't have a death penalty.  
More below the fold:

This e-mail from the chair of the House Intelligence Committee came just a few minutes ago.  I had e-mailed the Congressman urging the House to continue to oppose retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.

I haven't had time to do much critical thinking about this.  I didn't watch Mr. Reyes on Sunday morning television the weekend before last, when he apparently sounded as if he were floating a trial balloon for another Democratic capitulation, so I won't be in a good position to judge if what he said then is consistent with what he writes now.  I'll post this, with apologies for the scanty analysis portion of the diary, partly because many of us who read Daily Kos aren't on his e-mailing list.

I went to my Texas precinct caucus tonight.  I was lucky enough to meet an old friend while standing in line.  We'd known each other in high school.  She was one year ahead of me, and was one of the best friends of my older sister.  

She told me she'd been to an Obama rally a few days earlier.  Waiting for Obama to arrive, an older black man with a veteran's organization cap sat down next to her.  They struck up a conversation.  Finally, it looked as if the candidate was arriving.  She said, "Oh, look at all the security people.  I think we're done with waiting."

The black man answered,

"Oh, I'm in no hurry.  I've been waiting my whole life for him."

In an e-mail this afternoon, Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine, expressed confidence that Barak Obama is a friend of Israel, just as Hillary Clinton and John McCain are.  

Any person accepting a Reprieve or Pardon from the President of the United States shall be disqualified to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.

If that sounds like something from the Constitution, it's because I borrowed most of the wording and the slightly peculiar capitalization from Articles I and II.  
There is no such provision in the Constitution, but perhaps it should be a law.

Am I nuts for worrying more about the integrity of our democracy than the integrity of baseball records?

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight has subpoenaed Roger Clemens and his trainer.  Apparently Clemens's lawyer hasn't got the smarts or Chutzpah that Harriet Meiers, Karl Rove, Yoo, and Addington have.  Clemens isn't going to claim 'executive privilege' or 'Cy Young Award Winner privilege'; he's going to honor the subpoena.  

Last Thursday, bringing my nine year old son home from school, I heard one of the crosswalk guards singing a Christmas carol -- it was pretty weather and we had the car windows open.  I chimed in the next line of the carol, and my son asked, surprised, "You know that song?"  I don't remember just which carol it was, but a common one, and I realized my son hasn't learned many carols in school.  I asked if they'd taught him any, and he mentioned "Jingle Bell Rock".

I got on Senator Leahy's e-mail list.  Today I got the e-mail below -- full text below the fold.  Not that I even read it all.  That first sentence,

It should never have had to come to this.

killed any enthusiasm I had.  What a wimpy, hand-wringing tone.

Come on, Senator.  By now you have to be addled not to see that George W. Bush and company were looking forward to this fight -- or to seeing you and other Democrats back down when they threaten this fight.  It has been screamingly obvious it was going to "have to come down to this" for a long time.  Bullies don't go away.  

Now you can let Bush 'run out the clock' by delaying stuff in the courts another 13 months, or you could try to talk your colleagues into demanding respect for the Senate by going straight to contempt proceedings and a trial right there in the Senate chamber, using the Senate's inherent power to hold people in contempt.  

Do you have the courage of your convictions to do that?

According to the ACLU,

Even though the Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation that provides greater protections for privacy and doesn’t give amnesty to telecommunications companies, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to move the bad Senate Intelligence Committee bill. This is not good news for those of us who respect freedom, the rule of law and the Constitution.

This was in an e-mail alert today.

Iran's nuclear program was probably conducted mostly in response to the nuclear program they thought Iraq had. Maybe that's why Iran suspended it a few months after we invaded Iraq.

Just a couple of days after threatening that our troops in Iraq will run out of bullets if Congress doesn't write him another absolutely blank, no-strings-attached check for his war, Dubya is threatening that the impasse on major appropriations bills might make tax refund checks go out late.

Can any of those eunuchs asking him questions at the press conference ask him if he's using the 'firemen first' ploy?

I can't stand to listen to Dubya's voice, but I got stuck watching his press conference just now (Tuesday morning, December 4, 2007, on CNN I think) -- muted, thankfully.  One of those 'headlines' (except they're at the bottom of the TV screen) scrolled by, saying something about tax refunds being delayed if the 'budget crisis' or some such term isn't resolved soon.  I surmised that Dubya is trying to pass the buck to Congress again, and twist Congress's arm.