Lesser forms of Democracy

So there might be hope yet for the Italian women. The Italian government is calling the execution claims "unreliable", there haven't been any bodies or videos produced as proof. But this raises an even more troubling question - if one of the two groups claiming responsibility actually has them - why would they lie about their being dead? I've got a very, very bad feeling about this.

Today 6 Egyptians awere abducted, and Rummy finally came clean and admitted that parts of Iraq may be excluded from the upcoming elections due to increased violence. And then, he says "Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," Rumsfeld said, "Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet,"

This is the day after Shrub and Allawi were praising the strides in democrcy in Iraq to high heaven. Listening to them, everything's just rosy - they couldn't expect a better outcome. An outcome where a significant portion of the population is locked out of the political process that is supposed to determine their fate. Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Which makes it very clear that Bush would be happy with the same level of disenfranchisement in the U.S. That should come as no surprise, given the Republican efforts in Florida to deny thousands of citizens their right to vote.

Just look at 2000. Is an imperfect election where Bush gets re-elected better than no election at all? In their minds - You bet! I really want to believe there won't be any funky terrorism threats on election day that conveniently justifies closing down the polls in certain "blue" precincts. I really do. But with attitudes like this being expressed, it really makes me suspicious. For that matter, it wouldn't even take a terrorist threat. A good natural disaster would do the trick. Or better yet..... 4 disasters in a 2 month period. Maybe, perhaps... 4 hurricanes? Nobody can blame *you* for orchestrating an act of God, afterall. Let's take a bet. How many polling locations/ machines/ new voter registration cards in Florida do you think are going to end up too storm damaged to be of use come November? How many people will have relocated in the 60 days before the election and will get hassled for changing their residency as a result? Or not know where they're supposed to vote?