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Here’s the background: Florida’s 13th Congressional District is currently represented by Katherine Harris, who as Florida’s secretary of state during the 2000 recount famously acted as a partisan Republican rather than a fair referee. This year Ms. Harris didn’t run for re-election, making an unsuccessful bid for the Senate instead. But according to the official vote count, the Republicans held on to her seat, with Vern Buchanan, the G.O.P. candidate, narrowly defeating Christine Jennings, the Democrat.

The problem is that the official vote count isn’t credible. In much of the 13th District, the voting pattern looks normal. But in Sarasota County, which used touch-screen voting machines made by Election Systems and Software, almost 18,000 voters – nearly 15 percent of those who cast ballots using the machines – supposedly failed to vote for either candidate in the hotly contested Congressional race. That compares with undervote rates ranging from 2.2 to 5.3 percent in neighboring counties.

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And I have to say that the omens aren’t good. I’ve been shocked at how little national attention the mess in Sarasota has received. Here we have as clear a demonstration as we’re ever likely to see that warnings from computer scientists about the dangers of paperless electronic voting are valid – and most Americans probably haven’t even heard about it.

As far as I can tell, the reason Florida-13 hasn’t become a major national story is that neither control of Congress nor control of the White House is on the line. But do we have to wait for a constitutional crisis to realize that we’re in danger of becoming a digital-age banana republic?

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After the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of Shiites by Sunnis, President Bush should go on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and give an interview headlined: “If I did it, here’s how the civil war in Iraq happened.�?

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For decades, the day after Thanksgiving has been called simply Black Friday, because it is the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, when retailers supposedly move into the black, or start turning a profit.

But bargain hunters competing for scarce quantities of “doorbuster�? discounts have given this day an increasingly sharp-elbowed, close-fisted and purse-swinging edge.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, an estimated 15,000 shoppers pushed and shoved their way into the Fashion Place mall in Murray, Utah. Police soon joined them, responding to reports of nine skirmishes.

Once inside, shoppers ransacked stores, overturning piles of clothes as they looked for bargains. A retailer’s dream — too many customers! — quickly turned into a nightmare, forcing store clerks to shut their doors, and only let people in after others left. The mall even briefly closed its outside doors to avoid a fire hazard.

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“I had sworn to myself that I wouldn’t cross the doorstep and come in here,�? said one Chicago resident, Marilynne Felderman, 61, a longtime Marshall Field’s shopper, standing inside the chain’s elegant State Street store, now a Macy’s. “But here I am�? — encouraged, no doubt, by deals like a five-piece luggage set for $49.99.

To take advantage of yesterday’s discounts, shoppers hatched elaborate strategies, drawn up on maps and in spiral-bound notebooks.

Stefanie Brooker, 41, slept over at the home of her friend, Michelle Wolfe, 43, so the pair could draw up a battle plan for hitting Best Buy, Kohl’s, Linens ’N Things and Toys “R�? Us near Columbus. Yesterday morning, the two operated under strict instructions: “Once we get started,�? Ms. Brooker said, “no one’s allowed to eat, drink or go to the bathroom until we are done.�?

This is simply addictive behavior on a national scale. The country is fucked.

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Our flight this morning aboard Air Canada’s s flying closet to Charlotte was fun.

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Not much fuss at the security pageant. We packed our liquids in our checked luggage, seeing no need to perform toilet mid-flight. A man waiting in line asked if it was okay to bring his pie on board.
“That aint’t a liquid,” said the TSA employee.
“Oh, good,” said the man.
We refrained from asking aloud whether cherry pie filling was considered a gel.
“Unless it’s sweet potato,” she said.
“It is,” he said.
“Then I’m gonna have to confiscate it!” said the TSA employee, to general laughter.

On the other side of the x-ray, one of the bins had a watch in it. It didn’t belong to the girl ahead of us. We held it up and asked if t was anyone’s. No one responded, so we handed it to the x-ray employee. Under his breath, we heard the attendant say, “Glad I came to work today.”

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A team of suspected terrorists involved in an alleged UK plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners escaped capture because of interference by the United States, The Independent has been told by counter-terrorism sources.

An investigation by MI5 and Scotland Yard into an alleged plan to smuggle explosive devices on up to 10 passenger jets was jeopardised in August, when the US put pressure on authorities in Pakistan to arrest a suspect allegedly linked to the airliner plot.

As a direct result of the surprise detention of the suspect, British police and MI5 were forced to rush forward plans to arrest an alleged UK gang accused of plotting to destroy the airliners. But a second group of suspected terrorists allegedly linked to the first evaded capture and is still at large, according to security sources.

The escape of the second group is said to be the reason why the UK was kept at its highest level – “critical” – for three days before it was decided that the plotters no longer posed an imminent threat.

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“Just because Richard Stallman is paranoid doesn’t mean Microsoft’s not out to get you. For a hint about the possible end-game of Microsoft’s Trusted Computing Initiative, check out the patent application published Thanksgiving Day for Trusted License Removal, in which Microsoft describes how to revoke rights to render based on ‘who the user is, where the user is located, what type of computing device or other playback device the user is using, what rendering application is calling the copy protection system, the date, the time, etc.’ So much for Microsoft’s you-should-have-control assurances.”

A Swiss man is looking for directions, and he pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.

“Entschuldigung, können Sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asks. The two Americans just stare at him.

“Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?” he tries. They continue to stare.

“Praat julle Afrikaans?” The Americans just look at each other.

“Parlare Italiano?” No response.

“Hablan ustedes Espanol?” Still nothing.

Disgusted, the Swiss guy drives off.

One American guy turns to other and says, “Y’know, maybe we should learn a foreign language.”

“Why?” says the other. “That guy knew five languages and it didn’t do him no good either.”