Today the State Board of Elections of North Carolina certified Diebold voting machines (motto: “trust us”) for use in North Carolina elections, in spite of the strong voter transparency laws of our state. Diebold admitted it couldn’t (or chose not to) comply with the law. Our board of elections didn’t seem to care and happily certified them, anyway.

I think a smackdown is in order for the SBOE and for Diebold. If North Carolinians care about free and fair elections, it’s time to speak up.

Read the EFF press release for more information.

Terror suspect Jose Padilla has been indicted on terrorism charges and I couldn’t be happier. Padilla is a so-called “enemy combatant” in the eyes of the Bush administration, which has led to his incarceration for three years in a military prison without being charged with any crime.

“The issue before the Supreme Court is still alive and active — that the president signed an order to hold an American citizen for three years without criminal charges,” said Andy Patel, Padilla’s attorney. “The fact that they now decided to charge Mr. Padilla with a criminal offense doesn’t mean they couldn’t do this again to another person in the future.

It only took three years of Padilla’s life to bring charges against him. He’ll finally have his day in court. Padilla is a known gang member. He may be a terrorist. He may even be the John Doe 2 from the Oklahoma City Bombing. Regardless of all this, he is due his day in court. Now’ll he get it.

Let’s see if these charges stand.

Did oil execs lie to Congress about White House meeting?

In a related story, natural gas prices are pleased with their latest outrageous price hike and don’t feel inclined to lower prices, even though wholesale prices have stabilized.

Life is good for those in the energy business.

When Kelly and I moved into our home in Garner, we had two immediate brushes with Garner politicos. Our first day, a car pulls up to our house. Inside was mayor Don Rohrbaugh, who lived a few houses down the street. Talk about first impressions! I was impressed with any city where the mayor personally greets you on the day you move in!

The second brush was a bit more cryptic. Kelly wasn’t used to standalone mailboxes, having lived in townhouses or apartments all her life. One day Kelly put mail in the mailbox without raising the flag. This brought a stern message from our mailman, scawled boldly on a piece of paper: “mail will not be delivered without raising the flag!” We chuckled at the serious tone of the note, wondering if we had violated some kind of federal postal service law or something. We sure made sure that flag was up!

Over time, I got to know our mailman and soon discovered he was on the town board. From then on, Ronnie Williams always said hello as he made his rounds. He’d ask about the family when I met him at the mailbox. We would wave as he and his wife went for walks around the neighborhood. He would also say hello to me when I attended the occasional board meeting. I began to realize that Ronnie had a rare opportunity as a politician: few people know their towns the way a mail carrier does. He was on the street every day and knew everyone by name. Mail carriers arguably know their towns better than the cops that patrol them.

It was a cold November day when Ronnie last campaigned for alderman. I stopped into my local polling place and said hello to him as he greeted voters outside. I didn’t like seeing my neighbors working in the cold weather, so I returned later with hand warmers for everyone. Ronnie and the others were very appreciative.

Ronnie’s a good guy. Garner is in good hands with him as mayor. It’s good to see a neighbor do well.

Things are cranking up here now that its election time. Jesse Helms is stepping down and Erskine Bowles and Liddy Dole, among others, are vying to take his spot.

I saw my first negative commercial tonight during the news. Dole had a picture of Bowles up there with everyone’s favorite villian, Bill Clinton. I just rolled my eyes and changed the channel.

As long as this country continues with essentially two political parties to choose from, we will always be stuck with voting for the lesser of two evils. At this point in history, it’s easier for politicians to paint the other candidate as a lowdown dirty snake than it is for them to actually formulate their own positions on the issues. “If I can make the other dude look like the devil,” the thinking goes, “I don’t have to choose a side.”

The whole thing has got me fed up on politics. And this is from a guy who has seriously entertained thoughts of running for office some day.

What we’re missing is leadership. It takes leadership to actually state your position on something. I rarely agreed with the positions Jesse Helms took, but I will give the man this: he was always true to his word. When he made up his mind about something, you had better have a mountain of evidence if you want to convince him otherwise. It’s a shame he was often wrong, but you never had to guess where he stood.

Contrast this with the two major candidates vying for his seat. I don’t know much about Erskine Bowles. Very few of us do. But he came back to Charlotte saying he wasn’t interested in Helms’s Senate seat. Then the World Trade Center gets demolished, and somewhere the patriotic fever in him reignites. Can’t make up your mind, Erskine?

He promised at the start of his campaign that he would only be promoting himself, and not resort to the dreaded negative campaigning. Hearing this, I surfed over to his website to see what his platform was. Uh, platform? There was none. Nowhere was there any mention of any of his positions.

Sorry, buddy. We North Carolinians aren’t so dumb as to send someone to the Senate on his good looks alone.

Elizabeth Dole, on the other hand, is completely different … not! She pretends North Carolina is her home in spite of not having lived here since the early 1960’s. No one had even heard of Andy Griffifh back then, for God’s sakes. She is nothing but a carpetbagger in this respect.

She weasled her way into Reagan’s cabinet based on her gender, telling him he needed more “diversity.” She flip-flopped on major issues like gun control. When the Brady Bill was made law, she went on record fully supported the banning of assault weapons.

Liddy has softened up in her old age. Now that the NRA has come calling, she has suddenly become a strong supporter of gun rights. Call me crazy, but that sounds like she’s speaking out of both sides of her mouth. It has been said that her husband Bob Dole, was at the time of his Senate term the biggest friend of PAC’s in Congress, and would change his position at the signing of a check. Looks like Elizabeth has learned well.

Is this the best we can do? Aren’t there any alternatives? Actually, yes. There are third parties, and if enough people learn they don’t have to vote against candidates, but can actually vote for somebody, this country will be in a better place.

As for me, I’m heading for the Libertarian Party. It’s the one party I’ve found that has any sanity.