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Today I voted. In person. At the town library.

I know that Washington is almost all vote-by-mail now, but you're still allowed to vote in person at disabled access voting sites.

I do not like voting by mail personally, I think that it should be restricted generally, and I won't do it. I don't even trust the mail for money, why would I trust it with my vote? There are myriad problems with mail voting: ballots could be intercepted either going to or coming from the voter, or simply lost.

Even apart from the USPS, there's still big problems with voting at home: it takes away the guarantee of secrecy. You could sell your vote, or be subject to bribery or blackmail for your vote. And with voting at home by paper, signature verification is much less secure than physical ID verification, and you also have all the problems inherent with paper ballots: they are more susceptible to errors in transferring the votes from paper to electrons, with a greater potential for overvotes, undervotes, and the election board's "interpretation" of my vote, and they degrade over time.

So I won't even drop my paper ballot off, because it still has the problems inherent in paper ballots, plus the lack of secrecy guarantees. That's not to say voting machines don't have their problems too, but they are fewer, and easier to fix.

I wonder if I am the last person since all-mail voting went into effect in Snohomish County to have never missed an election, and never voted by mail ballot (dropped off or mailed). When it goes into effect statewide, I wonder if I'll be the last in the state. Everyone else I know has either missed elections, or has voted by mail.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.

I realize that not everyone has followed all that we've written about Democratic Senate candidate Fred Walser, and we've written so much, and made so many serious claims, that some people think that some of what we've said isn't true (some have claimed it's a bunch of lies). I assure you, every word we've claimed is true.

But it is, of course, understandable that people want to see the evidence without digging through the thousands of words we've written, so here's a summary of the major claims, with direct links and quotations. If there's anything in there you believe is not well-sourced enough, or if you have any questions, please let me know, and I will provide whatever information is required.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.

When Rick Warren asked Obama for the nation's worst moral failure, I paused the DVR and told my friend, "The worst moral failure of our nation is our repeated attempts to define away the rights of individuals, whether it is with slaves, or segregation, or (in my opinion) abortion, or even today in terms of property rights. We don't come out and say we are taking away rights, we simply deny that you have any rights, so that we no longer have any problem taking from you what is rightfully yours."

I unpaused the DVR and Obama said:

I think America's greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don't abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me ... and a notion of -- that basic principle applies to poverty. It applies to racism and sexism. It applies to, you know, not having -- not thinking about providing ladders of opportunity for people to get into the middle class. I mean, there is a purvasive sense I think that this country is wealthy and powerful as we still don't spend enough time thinking about the least of these.

To me the greatest moral failure is that the government steals from the people their very essence of liberty. To Obama, the greatest moral failure is that the government doesn't give enough to people.

Call me crazy, but I think stealing from people is worse than not giving to people. Active wrongs are worse than passive wrongs. Aggressively taking what belongs to me is worse than simply not giving me something that I have no right to in the first place.

I do believe, of course, that it is vitally important for us to help those in need, but this is not the primary responsibility of governments. The primary responsibility of governments -- as stated in our founding document -- is to secure individual liberty. And in many ways, our government has abjectly failed to do so, and continues such failures.

McCain took a similar tack as Obama, talking about giving to others, but focused his remarks on the failings of Americans as individuals, rather than its government:

I think America's greatest moral failure has been throughout our existence, perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than our self interest although we've been at the best at it of anybody in the world. I think after 9/11, my friends, instead of telling people to go shopping or take a trip we should have told Americans to join the Peace Corps, Americorps, the military. Expand our volunteer, expand what you are doing. Expand the create missions that you are doing that you are carrying out not only here in America but throughout the world, especially in Rwanda ... The first words of your very successful book is this is not about you. And you know that really also means, serve a cause greater than yourself interest.

Yes, it absolutely is a moral failing that we do not do more for our fellow man. And together as individual Americans, that probably is our greatest moral failing. But corporately, as a nation -- embodied in the government -- no, our greatest failing is disregarding liberty and individual sovereignty.

Note carefully the language used, even though they sound similar. McCain speaks of individual choices to help others. Obama speaks of government programs that ignore liberty. I don't know what McCain would have said, had he spoken of the greatest moral failing of our government, but given everything he's said in the past, my guess is he'd be a lot closer to me than to Obama.

So Obama is wrong on two points: first, that "not giving" is worse than "stealing," and second, that it is the government's responsibility to "give" at all (for in order to give, it has to take).

And this is our choice, in a nutshell: individualism that includes respect and care for the rest of society, or collectivism that disregards individualism for the supposed sake of society.

The words expressed by both candidates regarding the Supreme Court -- where Obama sided squarely with jurists like Breyer who, by his own admission, does not respect the rule of law -- is enough to make me vote for McCain. And I have, actually, many reasons to vote for McCain. But even if I had no other reasons, the individualism vs. collectivism views would serve as a powerful reason on their own.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.

I was listening to Bill Richardson on "This Week" say that it's basically Bush's fault that fighting was continuing in Georgia, because if only he had a better relationship with Russia, we could put pressure on them to stop, and Obama would do just that.

Riddle me this: when has any nation anywhere, ever in modern history, put such pressure on Russia to stop doing something like this?

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.

I have to stop watching the Olympics now. I just heard this on the TV: "The games of the twenty-ninth Olympiad on the networks of NBC are brought to you ... by Walt Disney Pictures' new comedy 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua,' in theaters October third."

Having the Olympics under an evil regime like China is one thing, but advertising for the most insidiously evil movie of all-time is going too far.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.