Let's resurrect the ER Rowdy discussion threads!

[Melissa G]

IMHO, there have been some rather boring drags to the conversation that helped suck all the life outa here and slowed down the desire to post threads or post much at all for that matter...

Now.. if such interruptions come back we can all try out our nifty new DU ignore features :evilgrin:

If you missed it, the link to discussions of said features is here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3048509

Perhaps, more of the EDV's will wander back in and liven up the joint. :party:

Differences of opinion are great for debate but those constant, uninformative wet blankets can be used as test cases for our newly invented, multi layered, DU functions.

What say you ERDers? Shall we give it a whirl and get the forum alive and kickin' again? :kick:

[Wilms]

1. Elad could help.

pERHAPS DU'S SOFTWARE CAN DELETE THE ALL-CAP POSTS.

gOT IT, bUSTER?



:evilgrin: :hi:

[Melissa G]

2. Great graphic, wilms! This is acutally a good thread

for posting your pet peeve i guess...Let 'er rip ERD...
Hi wilms:hug::hi:

[Peace Patriot]

3. I don't know what there is to argue about any more--it's so obvious that

the Bush Junta was neither elected nor re-elected, and that even the new Democratic Congress--voted in by the people in spite of a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites, warmongers and corporatists--is still not very represenative of the American people and has many illegitimately elected members.

But I suppose we could fight about what the "thumb on the scales" percentages were.

[Melissa G]

4. I don't particularly want to argue... I prefer information and general

gregarious, 'cutting up' behavior amongst friends. I just wanted to get the posts flowing again and invite the old crew back to the clubhouse by reminding those that have drifted away that there are reasons to come back.

[Bill Bored]

5. All kinds of stuff going on -- just not here.

A lot of wind was taken out of the sails when the Dems took back Congress.

In the next 2 years, we'll really see who trusts these voting systems and who doesn't. It's time for them to put up or shut up.

[Melissa G]

7. I disagree with you a bit on this, Bill 'cuz I don't trust Congress to put up ..

I don't trust what they might put up without our vigilance and I don't trust that it will happen in a timely enough manner without our keeping watch.

We had a good brain trust happening here and I don't want to let it get dispersed when there is so much work that still needs to be done. :hi:

[Bill Bored]

14. Well don't look at me! I don't ban anyone from MY threads.

I tried to compliment Autorank on this one, after I nominated it, and I'm not even allowed to post there, nor to PM the guy. WTF?:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x464585>

Maybe the owners are trying to save bandwidth or something by cutting down the size of these threads. Otherwise, why allow so much self-censorship? It plays on our worst instincts.

Those of us who can't tolerate disagreement will kill this forum eventually.

That would be a loss.

[kster]

6. Once the judge said, We The People are not allowed to see how the votes got counted

it woke up the masses. We got em, its just a matter of time.

[Melissa G]

8. I believe that it is true that the tide has turned in our favor

I also felt that way just before Bush stole it from Kerry.

Who was it who said that eternal vigilance is the price of democracy?

[Kurovski]

9. I think it was Jefferson.

A version thereof.

[Melissa G]

12. You're probably right, Kurovski and I think it was the other way 'round

The price of democracy is eternal vigilance.

The one thing the last few years have taught me is the We,the People need to be the leaders and drag those Congress critters in our wake to make sure the right things are done... and done right.:patriot:

[hunter]

10. It's the mundane that will kill these machines...

They are trouble to maintain, and most voters hate them.

My parents live in a place with a high population of elderly people. The last time they voted the lines were long, and many of voters vowed they would be voting absentee next time. My parents said they are done with the machines.

When it comes right down to it, most people hate computers.

Easy absentee balloting such as we have in California will kill these machines.

Of course, mail-in and drop-off balloting has it's own sets of problems...

I think what we should be demanding here is hand-countable and not hand counted paper ballots, with rock-solid auditing and a generous approach towards hand recounts.

[Wilms]

11. Really good post. n/t

[Melissa G]

13. That ,and the high cost of maintenance. Keeping this crap maintained is

just throwing more good money after the initial bad purchase.

That's why I like this forum, chatting here clarifies our discussion, and gives us talking points for our congress members and election officials.

Many is the time that i had short notice of a voting machine hearing and printed out threads from here to get clear about points on any number of significant issues.

[Stevepol]

15. I've used this forum a lot too and learned a ton from the posters.

What we need to do I think is just make sure people don't forget this. There's a 2-year window of opportunity now before the thumb on the scales pushes harder in order to make up for the tremendous advantage the Dems have now because of the Bush junto. The tilt was greater in 06 than in 04 and it will be greater in 08 than it was in 06, guaranteed. Unless of course we can get both a voter-verified PAPER BALLOT print-out and some sort of very robust REQUIRED AUDIT for the machine counting.

If we lose this opportunity, we lose everything.

However, I also agree that a lot of these posts now are being done in GD and not even cross-posted here. I think they should start here.