One of the right's favorite scary stories is the one about voter fraud. Sure, neither party needs to be reminded that every vote counts, or that important elections can be very, very close. But while the left and libertarians have been focused on the potential perils of black-box electronic voting, Republicans have kept up a steady drumbeat for state- or nation-wide voter ID cards. The basic idea is to create a small barrier to voting in exchange for the elimination of sneaky behavior at the ballot box—in North Carolina, our own Virginia Foxx (R-5) was trying to drum up support for a national voter ID card last year. But voting is a fundamental right, and every impediment to an individual's freedom to exercise their right to vote must come with a very good reason.

The Biography page on Robin Hayes's campaign site calles him a "business man." I guess that sounded better than "multi-millionaire." A letter to the editor in the Charlotte Observer (free registration required) has some frank words for Hayes regarding his sudden concern that he's making too much money:

U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Concord Republican, announced recently that he had proposed legislation to reduce the salaries of members of Congress by 5 percent, in response to the federal budget deficit and the spending demands created by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.Rep. Hayes, a hosiery mill president and member of a wealthy textile family, probably can afford to cut back a little. In a recent financial report, he listed assets of between $34 million and $88 million.

A quick search for information about Lloyd Scher—who may run against ethically challenged Republican incumbent Robin Hayes in NC's 8th Congressional District in 2006—reveals that during his time on Mecklenburg County's Board of Commissioners, he often stood in opposition to the politics of Commissioner Bill James.

For instance, when James wanted to make sure that school counselors couldn't discuss sexuality with students unless the parents were notified, Scher was one of the commissioners who voted "no." When James floated a "proposal to eliminate county funding to any agency that provides information about homosexuality and other 'crimes of nature,'" Scher was one of the bare majority that defeated it, saying: "This isn't about homosexuality. The main purpose for this is to do a scoreboard . . . to determine who's really a Republican and who's not."

Karen Kwiatkowski (a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force) says that American troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are changing the way we view those conflicts and the way we view the administration that sent them in the first place.

We still won’t see this level of honesty in all the major national papers, but we no longer have to rely solely on the independent or international news for the truth. Talk to the reservists and guardsmen and active soldiers and marines who have returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan, on leave and between tours. Hear their words across your kitchen table and your local bar, listen to their pillow talk and their advice to their children, nieces and nephews.

Based on Raleigh's News & Observer's report, "glitch" is perhaps a word too mild:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. --

Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina refugees face possible eviction because their federal relief checks haven't arrived - four weeks after the money was promised.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was to send checks of $2,358 to cover three months' housing. But evacuees said FEMA has mailed checks to former addresses in New Orleans or to the wrong address in Charlotte, which never reached their intended recipients.