Vote, but Tip Your Monitor

From Captain's Quarters comes this disturbing story. Non-citizens demanding the right to vote in local elections. Terrific. See my over-joyed comment on his page.

Then, surfing on over to Drudge, there's this little tidbit. Now we have international monitors watching our elections? I think I was most disturbed to find that they've already been here. They monitored our Cirque du Eleccion here in California last fall when the Governator took the field from a host of misfits. I'm sure that just impressed the socks off our monitors. But the truly disturbing question is, why are they here in the first place?

The last time I checked, we are (or were, anyway... it has been awhile since I checked) a sovereign nation. Our Constitution is second to none in the world as an instrument of democracy. It delineates the rights that we as citizens enjoy. We have checks and balances in place to ensure that those who would abuse these rights are given every opportunity to witness justice first-hand. With that in mind, why on earth would we allow a third party to monitor one of our most basic processes? Are we in essence making a confession that we, as a nation, aren't mature enough to police ourselves? Or is it just a question of making sure we don't elect a dimpled chad to high office?

Thomas Jefferson made a wonderful declaration in his 1801 inaugural speech: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none." Setting aside, for a moment, the fact that we're already deep in the hole on this issue, I ask the question:

Does anyone else see this as just another example of abdicating our sovereignty?

Maybe at this point it would be easier to just join the EU and abdicate our responsibilities as well.