A problem we have on the Left is that many of our most ardent activists have no sense of humor.

For the record, "having no sense of humor" here means trying to rationally respond to the diary with an argument about the probability that the 2004 election was rigged electronically.

It's a big debate that's gone on there (and elsewhere) for quite a while. My take is that the possiblity is quite distinct given that the systems Dibold sold the government were ludicrously insecure and downright faulty in a lot of cases. However, no hard evidence exists that anything went on that might have swung 100k votes in Ohio. While I recognize the potential for widespread fraud -- and I absolutely hate the fact that there were actual, measurable, voter supression activites that were actively witnessed -- I'm not about to accuse the Bush administration of subverting democracy in the 2004 election.

Nor am I willing to call for the heads of any members of their campaign other that Kenneth Blackwell, who served as both Ohio Secretary of State (thus overseer of all election-related activities) and Ohio Chair for Bush/Cheney'04. Last person who did that was... Katherine Harris, who more or less did steal the 2004 election by purging 30,000 elegeble voters, overwhelmingly African Americas, from the rolls. A turnout of 5% among those voters would have swung the election in favor of Al Gore. Yeah. She stole it, just like Kenneth tried to do.

But Kenneth's state wasn't within the margin of error for that sort of skullduggery. The reality is that the GOP, the "conservative movement" and the religious right put together a politlcal machine which turned out more votes than the Democrats and their coalition were able to match.

Or rather, that's what I believe. I believe it because there's nothing solid pointing to another reality, and this is the world you have to play in if you want to participate in the politlcal process. Even though there was the potential for electronic fraud, and we all know the people in charge are ethically challenged, you can't call the other party illegitimate -- essentially guilty of treason -- without some sort of hard evidence implicating specific individuals.

Otherwise there's no bottom. It's just a war of all against all. I don't believe in that kind of reality.