PAUL KRUGMAN ON THE ELECTRONIC VOTE SCAM

From the New York Times via the Houston Chronicle:

Meanwhile, leaked internal Diebold e-mail suggests that corporate officials knew their system was flawed, and circumvented tests that would have revealed these problems. The company hasn't contested the authenticity of these documents; instead, it has engaged in legal actions to prevent their dissemination.

Why isn't this front-page news? In October, a British newspaper, The Independent, ran a hair-raising investigative report on U.S. touch-screen voting. But while the mainstream press has reported the basics, the Diebold affair has been treated as a technology or business story -- not as a potential political scandal.

And

But there's nothing paranoid about suggesting that political operatives, given the opportunity, might engage in dirty tricks. Indeed, given the intensity of partisanship these days, one suspects that small dirty tricks are common. For example, Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently announced that one of his aides had improperly accessed sensitive Democratic computer files that were leaked to the press.

Given that Bush and company quite literally stole the 2000 presidential election, it's not difficult to imagine that it could easily happen again. Democracy really is on the line, here. Click here for more.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$