Wherein I Praise Conservative Governors

When conservatives do something right, I am not afraid to call attention to it. And in Florida, Charlie Crist is doing the right thing that his predecessor Jeb Bush would not.

Gov. Charlie Crist said Thursday he wants to spend about $32 million to convert all voting machines in Florida to produce paper trails.

''What we're talking about here is Democracy and it is precious,'' Crist told a crowd of several hundred people at a gathering of the nonpartisan Voters Coalition of Palm Beach County.

''You should, when you go vote, be able to have a record of it,'' Crist said, calling it ''common sense.''

The proposal will be part of Crist's budget he presents to the Legislature on Friday.

It's more than common sense, but it took a long time for a Republican to embrace it. And it's significant that this is happening at Ground Zero for election troubles, Florida. Even Brad Friedman of BradBlog have to give kudos to Crist, while hammering Crist's Secretary of State office for continuing to cover up failures in the recent FL-13 election (you know, the missing 18,000 votes scam).

Positive reinforcement also needs to go out to Texas governor Rick Perry, who signed an executive order mandating the use of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine in all schoolchildren in the state. This vaccine is almost entirely effective in stopping the spread of cervical cancer, which kills thousands of women annually. The religious right's attempt to preventing the approval of the vaccine, because they felt it would allow young girls to be more promiscuous, is maybe the ugliest example of how the theocons would rather see women die than not bend to their will. Perry may not be doing this for the right reasons - the mandatory order will net Merck, who produced the vaccine, billions in sales - but he's right in doing it. Anyway, I'd like to see government reward pharmaceuticals like Merck who produce drugs in the public interest rather than the latest and greatest version of Viagra. Saving women's lives and stopping the spread of a particularly lethal form of cancer deserves a just reward. And Perry deserves praise for ensuring that every girl in his state will get vaccinated.