In article ,
Dave wrote:
On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 07:46:35 +1000, OzOne said:

I strongly suspect that if there was no substance to the report then
Bush wouldn't be running around like a chook without a head trying to
find someone to blame!

I'm reserving judgment, but no one has, so far as I know, come up with a
believable explanation of how, in a period of a few weeks, 35 or 40
truckloads of explosives were moved to an undisclosed location without
detection at a time when about the only traffic on the roads was U.S.
military vehicles.

Dave is such an even-handed guy that he ALWAYS reserves judgement
about Bush's reported failings, but never reserves judgement about
Kerry's.

Perhaps we should keep an open mind about the ballot fiasco going on
right now in Florida:

Banks execute millions of ATM transactions every day, giving the
customer a printed receipt if requested, and get them all right all
the time. Not a margin of 1%, no recounts, but 100% right all the
time. Why can't we make a voting system that is 100% right all the
time? It would seem to me that the right way to do this would be a
touch screen machine that asks the voter to make choices for the
various offices in a language chosen by the voter (with audio output
if desired), and when all done prints a paper ballot the voter can
personally verify and deposit in the ballot box. The computer total
would be available instantly after the polls close but in the event of
a challenge, these paper ballots could be optically scanned or even
hand counted. I can't believe a system like this is infeasible and it
would certainly help restore faith in the electoral process.

But the problems aren't only technological. There may be deeper forces
at work. Today's New York Times reports that tens of thousands of
absentee ballots in Florida's heavily Democratic Broward County have
mysteriously vanished. The county says it mailed them but the post
office says it never got them.


--
Jonathan Ganz (j gan z @ $ail no w.c=o=m)
http://www.sailnow.com
"If there's no wind, row."