Similarly, the situation in Florida is being determined, if not by armies, then by armies of lawyers descending on the state. And is this not a version of armies of lawyers descending on, and in the process reconfiguring, the State?

We should not be surprised. Most of the operations of power and law today occur not through the consent of the governed, not through a process of political deliberation, not even through strategically placed party machines. Rather, they happen in arbitrations, conference rooms, and courts as corporation and those who benefit from them rewrite the law in their own image. The global corporate order depends on this. The sovereignty of specific states is its biggest threat; global capital needs open borders. It travels, we might say, not on an information super-highway, but in the sewers of corporate law. This election is just the most visible sign of the triumph of the mechanisms of law, of the lawyers, over democracy.

Once one recognizes the triumph of the rule of lawyers, two things become clear. One, the outcome of the election, who is inaugurated, is less relevant than the fact that the people have already lost. Precisely because the election will be decided in a courtroom, the process has collapsed; there is no longer a separation of powers or the illusion of government by the people. Two, the endless proclamations by network media of 'peaceful process' lull viewers into agreeing with rule by lawyers. More specifically, Tom Brokaw piously compared the United States with seemingly 'less advanced' democracies, declaring that here the election won't be decided by 'mobs and mass boycotts.' But that may be exactly what it takes to redemocratize the electoral process and reclaim it from the lawyers.

Jodi Dean
www.aliensinamerica.com

By sifting information from Disinformation.com and a handful of other sites digging into the votescam story in Florida the following is now evident regarding the 19,000 invalidated ballots. The incredibly cumbersome and abnormally slow process of collecting and transfering all ballots offered several opportunities for the following to take place. The ballots were invalidated because of a second punch for a candidate added to the first punch already in place. To add that punch would require only a second for the deft hand of a Bush inside operative either in the original polling place or while ballots were in transit. Given 60 seconds to the minute, 60 minutes to the hour, to add the second punch invalidating potentially 19,000 Gore ballots would then require only 5 and one third hours of behind scenes work by operatives on the Bush payroll. What are the probabilities this was done? Consider the fact that brother Jeb Bush is governor of Florida, and polling places are generally either awarded as patronage rewards or in other ways are open to the intimidation of the political powers that be. Consider also the fact that the Bush brothers learned both a flexibility of ethics and the mindset for undercover operations at the knee of the elder Bush, former Director of the CIA prior to both a vice presidency and presidency raising many unanswered questions re Iran-Contra, etc.

THE STINK IS SUCH THAT AT A MINIMUM FLORIDA OFFICIALS MUST REPOLL ALL 19, 000 TO SEE WHO THEY REALLY INTENDED TO VOTE FOR. EMAIL, CALL, OR WRITE EVERY HIGH RANKING DEMOCRAT, FLORIDA OFFICIAL, NATIONAL COLUMNIST, OR NADAR VOTER YOU KNOW OF TO URGE THIS MOVE.

David Loye
www.partnershipway.org

I feel quite happy about the election since my candidate, Nobody, scored another stunning victory.

The majority of citizens simply ignored the Gush/Bore Bullshit Machine, and "voted for Nobody," i.e. didn't vote at all.

According to the latest [wobbly] figures, since Gush and Bore each got the vote of [roughly] 1/4 of the eligible voters, and Nobody got the vote of [roughly] 1/2, then Nobody won. Adding the "protest votes" for Nader, Browne etc., Nobody >won even bigger, since in this carefully rigged system, third party votes are, in effect, votes for Nobody.

I congratulate the majority for their growing common sense. Ihe 1/2 of 1% who own damn near everything -- especially the politicians and the media -- spent THREE BILLION DOLLARS on this circus and still cdn't convince most of us that it matters a damn.

Cheer up! As Wavy Gravy always said, Nobody will really cut your taxes; Nobody can represent you better than you can represent yourself; -- and Nobody makes better apple pie than Mom!

Robert Anton Wilson
www.rawilson.com

A man called CNN and said that inside his polling place in Missouri the lady who gives out the ballots to voters told him that "God wants you to vote for Bush". She gave him a Christian Coalition voting packet and said the Christian Coalition instructed her to do this. It was of course illegal. Question is, how widespread was it? Meanwhile, Michael Moore, the influential leftist commentator who brilliantly backed Nader, is now saying there should be a popular revolt to overturn the electoral college, which is antiquated, so that the popular vote which chose Gore, will be in effect, electing Gore. Michael Moore is trying to salve his secret feeling of culpability, for supporting Nader and thereby helping cost Gore the election (probably) . . . Electing Bush (not certain yet but likely), means that some people will die: clean air and water laws will be undercut, pollution will return full bore, and people will die as a result--vulnerable people like asthmatics and the elderly first--due to environmental toxicity. Bush also means the gap between rich and poor will widen, and poverty, too, can kill people.