Involvement

One of the advantages of no longer being on staff at the Buffalo News is that I can get politically involved, if I want. ... For the most part, I don't want.

But I may just throw $25 into an online fundraiser for Barack Obama. It isn't because I'm crazy about Obama. I simply put very little faith in p0liticians as a whole.

But it's just infuriating seeing what McCain & Co. have been doing with the whole ACORN issue. It seems like they're laying the groundwork for their protests if, as projected, the lose on Nov. 4.

As I understand it, in most states ACORN is required to turn in whatever registrations are collected -- accurate or not. That's the call of the local Board of Elections, not ACORN's. And even if people are illegally registered, it doesn't matter unless they try to vote -- in which case, Elvis Presley or Dale Earnhardt or whomever they're registered as will be liable if they're voting illegally.

So the Republicans seem to be doing their best to take the vote out of people's hands -- particularly if those people were registered by ACORN and happen to be black and likely to support Obama. By going after ACORN, they can scare people away from the polls for the vote and then challenge the results later.

And I can send my $25 to the Obama campaign.