Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Tom Lord]

    > From: "Pierce T.Wetter III" <address@hidden>

    > > Another interesting question is "why would they want to instill this
    > > power in an (umbrella) federal law enforcement agency".

    >   They aren't. 

You're right.  I misparsed a sentence in the news article which made
me think they were asking homeland security chief Ridge to ask
congress for the power; in fact, they are asking Ridge to ask congress
to give that power to EAC itself.  

This changes nearly nothing because:

     http://www.eac.gov/annualreport_2003.htm#sec1

     The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires the
     establishment of an Election Assistance Commission (EAC) headed
     by four commissioners, who are appointed by the President.

The request here is to bestow the power on political appointees of the
executive.


    > They're talking about instilling the power in the Election
    > Assistance Commission, which is not a law enforcement agency,

It is, however, the executive branch's appointees.   That Soaries
rather than Ridge would have to sign the order does not seem to me
like an important distinction, practically speaking.


    > and not part of the DHS. They're a bi-partisan commission, as I
    > pointed out in my previous rather long message. Basically,
    > they're the people who help states pay for new voting machines.

And apparently would like to be rather much more than that.

    >   Again, here's their website:

    > http://www.eac.gov/

-t