I'd like a real news source to cite on Facebook about the real reasons for Hostess's shutdown. A post on Democratic Underground just isn't good enough.

And back to work! Mark Warner and others have introduced the "FAST" Voting 2012 Act.

A Summery of FAST by NBC :

"FAST legislation would award federal grants to states based on how they are able to improve access to the polls. To qualify for the grants, states would need to improve these following aspects of their voting system:

• Providing flexible registration opportunities, including same-day registration;
• Providing early voting, at a minimum of 9 of the 10 calendar days preceding an election;
• Providing absentee voting, including no-excuse absentee voting;
• Providing assistance to voters who do not speak English as a primary language;
• Providing assistance to voters with disabilities, including visual impairment;
• Providing effective access to voting for members of the armed services;
• Providing formal training of election officials, including State and county administrators and volunteers;
• Auditing and reducing waiting times at polling stations; and
• Creating contingency plans for voting in the event of a natural or other disaster.
The program also requires the establishment of performance measures and reporting requirements to ensure a state’s progress in eliminating statutory, regulatory, procedural and other barriers to expedited voting and accessible voter registration."

In my opinion, the "FAST" bill does not go far enough. It is absolutely critical to ensure a voter verifiable paper trail, to change the partisan nature of elections officials, and to de-privatize the voting machines and the tabulation machines. These absolutely must remain in the public domain and be entirely open to scrutiny and review, to be run and administered by non-partisan, non-corporate branches of federal and state governments. Getting money out of elections also needs to be taken care of, but that needs to be addressed through campaign reform legislation.
Let us begin by having a safe vote.

No other single act of legislation is more important to the survival of our Democracy now. Voting day must be a National Holiday and the guarantee of voting rights must not just be encouraged -- it must undisputed law, as fundamental to the American Experience as saluting Flag.

We need a national movement to swing into action immediately to get these reforms in place by 2014 and not just nibbled at.

The Dems would help things a lot by not rushing to take half measures, thereby taking the air out of the issue with a diluted bill -- but by truly tackling fearlessly the entire mess -- I thank people for taking steps -- but they must not be half-steps.

We need to get out in Front on This....