Yup, the basics are there, beachcomber... The politics are more complicated and tend to drown out the reality of how things are supposed to work...

Voting is a major problem now... Republicans are out to enforce Draconian laws that make it harder... They have pushed Voter IDs... Sounds great but...

...when you strip off the difficulties in getting these "official" voter ID cards they are very stinky...

Let me give you a personal example... In 1985 I moved from Virgina, where I had had a driver's license since 1963, to West Virginia and then moved back to Virginia in 2005... I went to get my driver's license, took both my *original* "birth certificate" and my *original* "certificate of live birth" but was turned away because I didn't have a "certified birth certificate"... Huh???

That's right!!!

"Well, how do I get one?" I ask...

"Fill out this form and send $35 to __________ (private company)...

"What??? I gotta send money to a private company to getting a f'n driver's license in Virgina where I have already had a driver's license???"

I was pissed... So I fired off a letter to Governor Mark Warner and told him that I was pissed... He made a couple calls and I got exempted and got my license without having to fork over money to a ****private f'n company****....

In many of these Republican states this is what they are trying to do to voters... In South Carolina, for instance, they were trying to take away the votes of 80,000 elderly black people for the crime of being born at home???

This is going to be a major problem, beachcomber, in future elections... Big, big problem...

B~