Just When I Thought It Couldn’t Get Any More Stressful...

I’m going to have to be brief here for a while — we’re in the middle of some production team shakeups for the National Film Challenge competition this weekend. Nothing catastrophic, mind you, but enough to require some juggling and a bit more of my attention than I’d previously anticipated.

I’ll try to keep folks posted, but in the interests of providing at least some food for thought, I’ll direct to to former president Carter’s op-ed piece for the Post this morning. Think the election will go off without the problems that plagued the 2000 election? Not a chance. The 2004 election’s going to make the 2000 election look like a textbook example of an ideal outcome. I can guarantee you that no matter what the outcome, we’ll be unlikely to have anything approaching a “legitimate” result. Especially since the absence of paper ballots makes recounting an impossibility. (Hey, there’s a typical G.O.P. solution: Recounts causing problems? Eliminate all possibility of having recounts at all! Problem solved.) Of course, given that it’s mostly the Republicans that are trying to rig the election, I’d anticipate more of an outcry should Duh-bya “win” the election, but let’s be honest — regardless of which side implemented the corrupt system, both will be equally able to cry foul afterward.

Another story I’m working on finding corroborating evidence on is one mentioned on WTOP this morning. Time magazine is doing the investigation, but doesn’t appear to have anything online as of yet. Details are “sketchy,” but indications are that — afraid that the Iraqi people might dare to vote for candidates other than our hand-picked puppets — the CIA started implementing a plan to do whatever it could to rig the elections in our favor (but of course they’d still be “full, free and fair,” naturally). Unfortunately for them, their plans reached a point where Congress had to be briefed... and Nancy Pelosi saw the plans. Naturally, she went ballistic, and the scheme appears to have been scrapped, or at least scaled back. More details as they emerge...