2004 and other electoral shenanigans

The authors of the book, "Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?" call for an investigation of that election. I'm not a conspiracy theory fan. I believe Oswald killed JFK, I believe Elvis is dead, I believe the moon landings really happened. But I'm suspicious of the fact that ALL the exit polls were wrong in EXACTLY the same way on that dark election day in November, ALL to the benefit of George W. Bush. Hell, in other countries like Ukraine American and other foreign observers use statistically-valid exit polls to prove an election was fixed. But we just pretend it couldn't happen here and ignore the statistically-valid exit polls, and "adjust" them to fit the "actual" results.

I don't recall where I saw this, maybe in a letter to the editor, but somebody in discussing some OTHER Republican/Bushite abuse recently wrote that ignoring the various small and not-so-small abuses of power is the way a tyranny can become well established.

How do you like the taste of bananas? Fixing elections, one more sign of becoming a banana republic. With nukes.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court made a terrible ruling in validating Tom DeLay's Texas mid-term redistricting scheme. The decision might be legally sound -- the Constitutional mandate can be seen as requiring redistricting no less than once per decade -- but it is awful politically. This could create an open season in any state where control of the governor's office and legislature falls to one party -- the temptation to "pull a DeLay" and redistrict to change the balance of the Congressional delegation of the state will be very powerful. Republicans will be encouraged by DeLay's success, and Democrats infuriated and goaded into retaliation. And be sure big money interests will get involved, too.

This can't be good. We need a better way of drawing Congressional districts, to create more competitive races and force both parties closer to the middle.