And a tip o' the hat back to you for your kindness, good chums!

Does anyone in the Secretary of State's office even bother to check the voter roles for correct SSN's?

This reminds me of the Republicans in Georgia who are SCARING the great unwashed masses there with stories of illegal aliens voting multiple times.

So, the Republicans in Georgia are trying to foist a Voter's Card on their electorate.

The local paper down there, the AJC, asked local election officials exactly how many complaints they have received about illegal voting in the past 20 years.

One complaint. That was without merit.

Voter's Card=Poll Tax=GOP Scare tactics.

And, this is for King Ron himself: if PPS has all the money than it needs, your words, then why are we taking hours of valuable class time from the students for assemblies to sell magazines? Guess who collects all the forms, the money and the paperwork. Every day. For two weeks.

Teachers, that's who, teachers who should be teaching. Instead, we spend hours raising money in a state where businesses that make $25,000,000 or more a year can pay just 10 dollars in tax. A state where business pays around 10-percent of all taxes. The restof us pay the other 90 percent. A state with our world famous low, low beer tax. one which hasn't changed since Rummy had that sisterly sleepover with Saddam in Baghdad for Reagan.

First -- for all interested in the race, there's a great site I've found called Saxton Watch which is doing some good stuff in parallel with our friends here at Blue Oregon and my site, The Dirty Northwest.

Phil -- that's a good question. Governments are very concerned about accurate voter roles, which is why they often will farm such verification efforts out to data companies for processing. There is, in fact, an entire industry surrounding such work.

It was this type of verification in Florida during the 2000 election year that was sent to ChoicePoint -- a company chaired by influential Republicans -- where voters with a demographic match to the Democratic party were improperly scrubbed from the roles. This lead to voters being turned away on election day and is one of the many "irregularities" that lead to George W. Bush's eventual appointment by the US Supreme Court.

Sid -- great points!!!

Just shows you how close the candidates think this race is. I'm sure this is one of many down and dirty tactics we're going to see on the march to election day. I think ultimately it's a pretty big blunder for Saxton who tried to spread Fear Uncertainty and Doubt over immigrants and instead now looks more like he's not all that creditable.

After the whole move for a better school issue the Trib had on Saxton you'd think he'd play his cards more carefully.

But the whole immigration issue is a red herring. Saxton is just 'ME 2ing" the national republic party line. I think there are MUCH bigger issues that are MUCH more important to Oregonians than the number of people here who aren't here officially.

You know, these false claims that illegal immigrants can get drivers licenses is bull. A friend of mine just moved down here from Washington, and in order to get insurance in Oregon he needed an Oregon drivers license.

Long story short, a week later he was able to obtain the license, after scrambling to get his social security card and birth certificate from back home to proove he was a citizen.

So just how exactly are illegals getting licenses?

It is too bad that voters are stupid enough to fall for this crap.

Tonite I heard one of those news stories that features clips of ads from around the country. And the very same words about "the police can't even check to see if immigrants are here legally" (maybe even the same announcer, not sure) were on an ad from another state. If that ad is running in another state, certainly it isn't about what the Oregon Secretary of State is doing, or the Oregon Gov. or the Oregon legislature!

At a local candidate debate tonite with several candidates, only one thought there should be no public services to illegal immigrants. Consensus was that all children should be in school, and sick people should have access to at least the Emergency Room. (Didn't public health departments start as a way to prevent the spread of contagious disease? )

Oh, and a friend and I were talking tonite about Saxton, polls, and the way he is running his campaign. If he Ron it could be his worst nightmare. Regardless of what Saxton thinks, being sworn in as Gov. doesn't come with a magic wand. Even years when the Gov. and the presiding officers were of the same party there were sometimes strong differences of opinion. If Saxton won we could see a stronger legislature and a weaker governor.

You mean everything they say on television isn't true, Mommy?

I should note that the PPS magazine fundraising rodeo also affects the front office secretaries who are the final collectors of all the money and all the paperwork. Not just a teacher thing.

And, some students actually enjoy doing the fund-raising because if they sell a certain amount of magazines they get to ride in a Hummer Limousine.

And they are happy to not have to buy the gas.

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