by James Glaser
November 4, 2002

America is strutting all over the globe telling every other country how to run their way of life. America tells everyone that we know what is best for them, not only in the form of government they use, but how their economy should be run.

Well like most people that "know it all," America has some work to do in its own back yard. November 5th and we have our "free elections" that we have been telling the rest of the world to emulate. The only problem with this is that our last two elections haven't been all that free'

In many places in this country dead people vote. In other places if you are the wrong color, you don't get to vote. Still in other polling places, they let you vote, they just don't count those votes. This has been going on for so long that we are now asking other countries to come to America and observe our elections, much like we have done for many other nations, to ensure that our elections are above board.

A delegation of European and North American election observers including ones from Russia and Albania will be here this year. Have we hit a new low or what? Russia and Albania will now be sending people to watch American polling places in the State of Florida, because our freedom to vote in that State has been lost.

I think they picked these two countries because they both have a history of fraudulent elections and they will be able to spot people in our country doing the same. This is the first time that international observers have come to the United States and if the last two elections are any model of the American election process it will not be the last.

Even before this election has gotten under way, there is a court challenge to how Florida is running this years election. The suit filed in Miami- Dade Circuit Court is against Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections David Leahy, the county's Republican Party, and a group called the "Emergency Committee to Stop Bill McBride" McBride is running for governor against Jeb Bush, the President's brother.

This "Emergency Committee" plans to station 450 poll watchers at heavily Democratic precincts on election day. This is legal, but the law says that each person has to submit an application. Now the Republican Secretary of State Jim Smith's Office of Elections has decided to take the list of 456 observers without requiring applications.

Al Cardenas chairman of the Republican Party of Florida said "the Republican Party and the Bush campaign know nothing about this." One observer said that Mr. Cardenas sounded like Colonel Klink, I KNOW NOTHING!

Quotes from the Orlando Sentinel, Maya Bell and David Cazares