Over the past two decades, while Neil Bush has made impressive amounts of money in all sorts of interesting business deals, he has always seemed like the kid who was caught red-handed throwing chalk at the teacher, got sent to the principal and yet returned to the classroom unscathed.

These days, with the help of the Saudi Royal Family, a former junk bond dealer, a Russian mobster, the Rev. Sum Myung Moon, and mom and dad, family string-pulling is again paying off.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Ignite! Learning, headed by Neil Bush "and partly owned by his parents, is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act."

The company has managed to "place its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally," the Times reported.

"Interviews and a review of school district documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act," by the Los Angeles Times, "found that educators and legal experts were sharply divided over whether Ignite's products were worth their cost or qualified under the No Child law."

According to the Times, "Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product."

A story about these developments also appeared in a mid-October issue of BusinessWeek. Headlined "No Bush Left Behind," the magazine reported that "after five years of development and backing by investors like Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and onetime junk-bond king Michael R. Milken, Neil Bush aims to roll his high-tech teacher's helpers into classrooms nationwide. He calls them 'curriculum on wheels,' or COWs. The $3,800 purple plug-and-play computer/projectors display lively videos and cartoons: the XYZ Affair of the late 1790s as operetta, the 1828 Tariff of Abominations as horror flick. The device plays songs that are supposed to aid the memorization of the 22 rivers of Texas or other facts that might crop up in state tests of 'essential knowledge.'

"Bush's Ignite! Inc. has sold 1,700 COWs since 2005, mainly in Texas, where Bush lives and his brother was once governor. In August, Houston's school board authorized expenditures of up to $200,000 for COWs. The company expects 2006 revenue of $5 million. Says Bush about the impact of his name: 'I'm not saying it hasn't opened any doors. It may have helped with some sales.' (In September, the U.S. Education Dept.'s inspector general accused the agency of improperly favoring at least five publishers, including The McGraw-Hill Companies, which owns BusinessWeek. A company spokesman says: 'Our reading programs have been successful in advancing student achievement for decades; that's why educators hold them in such high regard.')"

According to the Los Angeles Times, "The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in reading and math." However, Bush's company "does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available until next year."

Unfortunately, the Department of Education "does not monitor individual school district expenditures under the No Child program, but sets guidelines that the states are expected to enforce, spokesman Chad Colby said."

Ignite executive Tom Deliganis admitted that "some districts seem to feel OK" about using No Child money for the Ignite purchases, "and others do not."

BusinessWeek also pointed out that the Washington Times Foundation, "A foundation linked to the controversial Reverend Sun Myung Moon has donated $1 million for a COWs research project in Washington (D.C.)-area schools. In 2004 a Shanghai chip company agreed to give Bush stock then valued at $2 million for showing up at board meetings. (Bush says he received one-fifth of the shares.) In 1988 a Colorado savings and loan failed while he served on its board, making him a prominent symbol of the S&L scandal. Neil calls himself 'the most politically damaged of the [Bush] brothers.'"

The Rev. Moon, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Milken aren't the only controversial financial participants. Fugitive Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who has been accused of having strong tries to the Chechen mafia, has been an investor in Bush's Ignite! project since at least 2003.

And then, there's mom and dad. The former first lady got herself in a bit of hot water when she contributed to a Hurricane Katrina relief foundation for storm victims who had relocated to Texas and stipulated that her donation had to be used by local schools for purchases of COWs.

"In January 2004," according to the Los Angeles Times, Neil and his mom "were guests of honor at a $1,000-a-table fundraiser in Oklahoma City organized by a foundation supporting the Western Heights School District. Proceeds were earmarked for the purchase of Ignite products."

While Mary Blankenship Pointer, the organizer of the event "said she planned the event because district students were 'utilizing Ignite courseware and experiencing great results [and].our students were thriving,' ... Western Heights school Supt. Joe Kitchens said the district eventually dropped ... Ignite because it disagreed with changes Ignite had made in its products. 'Our interest waned in it,' he said."

In addition to investors and high-powered international connections, Bush Family ties have provided the sometimes star-crossed Neil with an always accessible escape route from responsibility. Escape from prison was the operative term in 1988, when as a director of the Denver, Colorado-based Silverado Savings and Loan Association Bush presided over a monumental scam that actually cost taxpayers something north of $1 billion. A Resolution Trust Corporation suit against Bush and other officers of Silverado was settled in 1991 -- during the time his father was president -- for $26.5 million. Bush was fined $50,000 and banned from future banking activities.

He managed, however, to avoid going to the hoosegow. Instead, he left the state for the greener pastures of Texas, and the opportunity to get back on the entrepreneurial horse.

It would no doubt be difficult, even for the notoriously loyal Bush Family, to find anyone not concerned by Neil's numerous character flaws; blemishes that oozed into the public domain when Neil decided to divorce his wife of 23 years, Sharon Bush. The story goes that Neil, in one of the more fetid "You've Got Mail" moments in recent years, informed Sharon of his intentions in an e-mail.

The Bush's divorce threatened to spill over into a tell-all book by his former wife because Neil was being downright tightfisted with the financials. He ultimately loosened his purse-strings and Sharon's book was shelved.

Nevertheless, the public's right-to-know was advanced -- although some might argue that it was set back -- when it was revealed in Bush's deposition that during numerous business trips to Asia, Neil was a serial recipient of late-night visits by anonymous prostitutes; assignations that he apparently didn't have to pay for.

In a post dated October 6, Wonkette pointed to several of Neil Bush's unusual business assignations:

# "He earned $2 million from a semiconductor company in China -- owned by the son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin -- proving once again the long-term value of Poppy's years as U.S. ambassador to communist China."

# He started up "a new company created just for him with $2.3 million from Bush Family confidant Louis Marx. Neil burned through that money in two years and Apex Energy was no more."

# "Then he moved on to the Middle East, using Poppy's oil-sheik connections to get millions from the royalty and politicians of Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Dubai and of course Saudi Arabia."

# "Neil ran some shadowy Swiss 'ecumenical foundation' [the Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue] in the 1990s" with Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

On January 2, 2004, the Associated Press reported, in a story headlined "Neil Bush makes one-day profit over $170,000", that Neil Bush "made at least $798,218 on three stock trades in [the Kopin Corp. of Taunton, Massachusetts] a small U.S. high-tech company where he had been a consultant, according to his tax returns, including $171,370 buying and selling the company's shares in a single day."

AP pointed out that "Unlike the ordinary investor who buys at the market price...Bush benefited from the fact that his stock purchase costs in some cases were minimal because he got a bargain, paying $13 a share when he exercised stock options that were part of his consulting compensation from Kopin. The company's stock price was selling for many times that amount during much of the time Bush was trading. The company granted him 20,000 stock options."

In an e-mail responding to the Los Angeles Times story, Bush said that Ignite's program had improved the test scores of economically disadvantaged children and he denied that his family's political connections helped grow the company.

"As our business matures in the USA we have plans to expand overseas and to work with many distinguished individuals in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa," he wrote. "Not one of these associates by the way has ever asked for any access to either of my political brothers, not one White House tour, not one autographed photo, and not one Lincoln bedroom overnight stay."

He also characterized the Times' piece as "entirely political."

At the state funeral, the new president, Richard Cheney, read a moving tribute to the humanity and compassion of the fallen leader that was little more than a generic eulogy and contained zero content on his presidential achievements. It was difficult to escape the notion that the facts of existence matter little, while the consequences of living under a mushrooming government are engulfing every member of humanity in a macabre soap opera written on the winds of time.

In the same week while millions of Britons were witnessing the depressingly melodramatic Death of a President, it became abundantly clear that the presidency of George W. Bush had literally crashed into a brick wall and bounced backwards. Simultaneous political sea changes sweeping across America and the Middle East have dramatically pre-empted Bush's range of executive action. Both parallel political tides - those in the Middle East and America - are now running strongly against the Bush presidency.

In America, three out of four likely voters now believe that Bush has been overactive in policing the world - an astonishing statistic. That fact places Bush in a difficult political position. Now his presidency is seen as less effective in its core mission - national security - than his opponents, the Democrats. The Bush White House is tottering on its heels and threatening to collapse on its face.

In the Middle East, support for Israel and its sponsors in Bush's America, has collapsed in favor of Hizbullah and a constellation of Islamist movements from Hamas and Fatah to the Mahdi Army and the Muslim Brotherhood. The situation is now critical and getting worse. If America were to launch a new war against Iran, the pro-American regimes currently holding the reins of power in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh would be placed under immediate siege. Swiftly, the Islamist factions would topple: Hosni Mubarak in Egypt; King Abdullah of Jordan and Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In the aftermath, American companies would be unceremoniously ejected from the region, and the price of oil would soar into the stratosphere.

If America were to attack Iran, Israel would suffer immediate missile bombardment from Hizbullah, while Iran's missiles would strike against US military targets in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the American armada Bush is now assembling in the Persian Gulf. America's overwhelming military superiority has been placed in check by the military and political collapse of her client state - Israel.

In Israel the situation is moving swiftly from dire to disastrous. Confronted with rape charges, Moshe Kasav, the president of Israel, is now facing public scandal as he awaits indictment for a disgraceful sex crime. This is merely the latest Israeli scandal to reverberate through the Middle East weakening Bush's leverage on the most critical region for his beleaguered presidency. Like his predecessors, Netanyahu and Sharon, Ehud Olmert is now undergoing suspicions of financial corruption, and his government is teeter-tottering on the brink of collapse from their deepening unpopularity following their loss of the war with Hizbullah.

While Bush ordered the US Navy to move into position in the Persian Gulf to strike Iran in the closing days of his midterm campaign, North Korea distracted the world by detonating their first nuclear bomb. This outrage underlined the lengthening list of foreign policy failures now dangling like a chain of dead albatrosses around the necks of: George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice.

Last week, to respond to the maelstrom that is now perceived as a terminal crisis for his presidency, Bush took the immensely unpalatable option and submitted himself to the slings and arrows of one of his exceedingly rare press conferences. In the White House Rose Garden, Bush sought to defend his presidency from further erosion in the midst of the whirlwind of crises that could mushroom into a political earthquake in the midterm elections.

Hastily arranged to respond to the immediate threat posed by North Korea's detonation of a rudimentary nuclear device, Bush's presidential press conference unfolded as if it had been scripted like a garden-variety televisual farce. Impersonating a Hollywood caricature of himself, Bush swaggered into view and raised his voice to a shrill and threatening drawl while he rattled his metaphorical saber and brazenly threatened to wage war against the nuclear regime of Kim Jong-Il.

That was the presidential rhetoric. The strategic reality is stark - and starkly different. There is one and only one plausible US military response to the current situation: an immediate unilateral strike employing Tomahawk missiles. No other military option is feasible. Aerial bombardment - shock and awe - would be counter-productive and so would a nuclear strike. Those two options are not in the realm of political possibility. As for a multilateral military response, that option was swiftly deleted when the Chinese stated that they will support some mild form of sanction - but they will not countenance military intervention. The Pentagon now estimates up to 52,000 American corpses in a war with North Korea.

Bush's presidential paralysis is more than readily apparent. Against his own strident diatribes, Bush has accepted the political reality of a nuclear North Korea. That he still opposes the enrichment of uranium in Tehran - like North Korea a charter member of Bush's Axis of Evil - proves his reflexive xenophobia for the obvious distinction between the two nations is that one is Communist East Asian and the other is a Muslim theocracy. Bush loathes both alien cultures, but he fears the alien religion of Islam more than he distrusts the godlessness of the Marxist regime of Kim Jong-Il. He is undone.

Bush's Rose Garden statement was rhetoric - not reality. It is really nothing more than a desperate man's attempt to draw some distinction between his deeply unpopular Republican Party with its hair-trigger approach to international affairs and the multilateralist diplomacy preferred by the mainstream Democratic opposition who are ascendant in the pre-election polls.

As for the question of predicting what course of action this rogue regime will actually follow over the next three weeks until the fateful midterm elections - all bets are now clearly off. The weaker the Republicans become in the polls, the more likely they are to risk a reckless pre-election military intervention - either against North Korea or against Iran. The repercussions of either would be catastrophic. North Korea is now known to be capable of nuclear war, and Iran has tens of thousands of dedicated suicide bombers awaiting their orders to march if Bush and Cheney launch a pre-emptive attack. Internationally, it is now well known that Bush and Cheney are amassing a massive arsenal of Tomahawk missiles in the Persian Gulf - precisely the tactical instrument that they would need if they chose to strike North Korea - a target that is over 7,000 sea miles from where the US Strike Force led by the Nimitz Class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Eisenhower, is now headed.

During his Rose Garden press conference, Bush was asked to comment on the latest study published in The Lancet about the massive carnage in US-occupied Iraq. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore concluded that 655,000 lives have been lost in Iraq since the US-led invasion commenced in March, 2003. Fully 31% of these deaths can now be reliably attributed directly to the military operations of the American forces, but that figure could be too conservative since fully 56% of the Iraqi dead died from gunshot wounds. Additionally, 27% of the Iraqi dead died from explosions, either car bombs or other explosions - ie. mines, roadside bombs or aerial bombardment. When confronted with the question of the 655,000 Iraqi corpses, Bush predictably swept it away with the rhetoric that the study was not "credible." International experts are now calculating the number of innocent victims of the Bush-Blair war conservatively at 500,000. This is a staggering figure that the UN now regards as the deadliest international conflict of this century. Sadly, it represents only the first phase of the Islamic holocaust.

In the Middle East, the most respected political leader of the Shia in Lebanon, Nabih Berri, has warned that the conflict between Lebanon and Israel could break out again if the Israeli forces do not withdraw from the Shebaa Farms region of Lebanon as they are required to do by the terms of the Security Council Resolution 1701 - the ceasefire agreement. "If Israel does not pull out, we will drive them out," Mr Berri stated emphatically during a recent interview in Beirut. Accusing Israel of air, sea and land violations of the ceasefire agreement, Lebanese politicians of all parties are coalescing behind a tougher and more militant line. Working more closely now with the UN forces (UNIFIL) in the region, Lebanese intelligence is providing counter-intelligence concerning the ongoing operations of Israeli security agents inside the borders of Lebanon. According to reports from the Lebanese capital, Israel continues to conduct intelligence operations inside the territories of Lebanon in violation of Resolution 1701- as well as their lingering military occupation of the Shebaa Farms.

The US controversy over the pre-emption of the freedom of speech of American academic Toby Judt has reached the international press and media. In addition, a new case of suppression has been discovered - that of the highly respected British author and publisher, Carmen Callil. In reports in the British press, Carmen Callil claims that she has been the victim of overt political repression in Bush's America. Callil's latest book concerns the plight of Jews in Vichy France, and it contains one paragraph that caused offense to people the author described as, "fundamentalist Jews." The offensive paragraph lamented the helplessness of the Palestinian people. The concerted reaction of pro-Israel activists in New York led to the cancellation of Callil's book launch at the French Embassy in Manhattan last week. An American Rabbi, Avi Weiss, and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League have been criticized in the international media for their roles in the growing debate about the freedom of speech of intellectuals and experts to discuss the increasingly unpalatable policies of the government of Israel.

While Bush claims to be the father of a democratic revolution in the Middle Ease, the truth is actually quite different. Meaningful debate - the fountainhead of democracy - about the Middle East is routinely repressed in Bush's America. In the Middle East, the situation is entirely different. Debate about the course of events in the Middle East is robust in: Israel, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia where many are now waiting for the outcome of the midterm elections in the US.

The US midterm elections have morphed into a referendum on Bush and his outlandish policies: the war in Iraq; war with Iran; war with North Korea and his concerted attack on the US constitution and the Bill of Rights.

While the entire globe is rapt in attention, the Middle East has its eagle eyes trained on Bush's America where they are beginning to discern the death throes of a presidency.

References
Accept North Korea into the nuclear club or bomb it now /Economic sanctions are a coward’s response that would only punish the people while propping up Kim Jong-il’s dictatorship

US fears ‘hell’ of a response

North Korea: US pressure would mean war

Usa pronti a colpire i siti nucleari dell’Iran

655,000 Iraqis killed since invasion’

Israel warned: Lebanon war could start again / Hizbullah may fight over territory, says speaker / Shia leader speaks of fear UN troops will not leave

US free speech row grows as author says Jewish complaints stopped launch party / Row over postscript on Palestinians’ plight / British-born academic claims lectures cancelled

Busy Fondling Their Self-Esteem by John Pilger

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America

There are many important issues facing our nation and the 110th Congress.

Minimum wage increases and universal health care are long past due.I certainly appreciate the stirrings about bringing our troops home from Iraq within 3 or 4 months, too! After all, sic more troops were killed yesterday while our politicoes are playing footsies with each other! We thought that Nov. 7th was a day to celebrate! When the last of our brave young people come limping home to their relieved families that will be a joy-filled and historic day.

I believe, though, that those same troops and others who have fought so bravely, died so needlessly, and have been wounded for life deserve justice for what the Bush regime has put them through. I believe that this country and the world deserve justice for the raping and pillaging by the pirates who have stolen our liberties and inflicted torture and other pains and hardships upon the world. I believe that impeachment proceedings are the most important issue that the 110th Congress should put on OUR table.

Since I have written open letters to George and Reps Pelosi and Conyers, I have had almost overwhelming support for the ideas, but there are also some legitimate concerns that need to be addressed.

First of all, many people believe that impeachment proceedings will be seen as "political" revenge for what the Republicans have done to the Democrats for the last 12 years or revenge for the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Impeachment is not a political tool as used by the Republican Congress, but it is a Constitutional remedy for elected or appointed officials who are abusing their powers. If George has not abused his powers as president and commander in chief, then no president in history has. I will not detail his high crimes and misdemeanor and crimes against peace and humanity, because all of his illicit activities have already been well documented. Justice should not be a partisan issue and if Congress took their oath to the Constitution as seriously as they take their allegiance to the special interests and to partisan politicking, George would have already been impeached.

Secondly, many people are fearful that impeachment proceedings will bog down Congress. Elizabeth Holtzman who was a Representative from New York and sat on the investigative committee that recommended impeachment articles be charged against Richard Nixon said, last weekend at our impeachment forum in Philadelphia's Constitutional Hall, that this kind of reasoning doesn't give Congress enough credit. Ms. Holtzman said that Congress is able to "walk and chew gum" at the same time. I will have to take her word for it, since she is the reasoned voice of experience.

Lastly, people are concerned that holding George accountable will further divide a country already damaged and split by the "Uniter." This is a legitimate concern, but our country healed completely after the Nixon debacle, and we will heal again. I would like to also give us Americans the credit that we deserve. We have proven over and over again that we are very resilient and strong enough to withstand a quest for accountability.

Recent polls have shown that most Americans want proceedings instituted against BushCo. The newly elected Congressional leadership will not institute these proceedings unless the will of the people is shown. Many members of the Congresses, in both parties, that have been seated since BushCo came to power in an illegal electoral coup in 2000, have been willing co-conspirators in the Bush crimes against everything and it is up to the will of the American people to correct the course that is robbing the Blessings of Liberty from all of us and from our posterity. As the preamble states, it is our Constitution, as well as it is theirs, and we need to reclaim our country and our humanity before it is lost to us forever.

Bringing Articles of Impeachment against BushCo will not only bring resolution and justice to our nation and the world, but if this regime is made to be held accountable for their crimes and abuses of power, then future administrations may be slower to commit such blatant and belligerent crimes and the world will be a safer and more peaceful place. But there is an overriding reason for these proceedings to be instituted as soon as possible: A president is not above the law, or the law. A president is an elected official who has a duty to obey, carry out and protect the laws of our land, not break them as if he were a dictator of a banana republic, not leader of a once great nation. We need to restore our greatness and our credibility to a world that despises us for allowing BushCo free rein to commit their aggressions against the world.

By attaining this justice that our world so desperately needs, we people of compassion and courage cannot bring back the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed already. We cannot put the buildings back together that the war machine's bombs have destroyed. We cannot make whole the people who have been emotionally and physically wounded by these high crimes and misdemeanors. We cannot put back together the families who have been torn apart by illegal wars. No matter how hard we try, we cannot prevent the pain that has already been caused by BushCo, but by bringing them to justice, we can, and will prevent more needless suffering here at home and abroad for the present and for our posterity.

Our dead, our soldiers, and the people of Iraq are voiceless in the debate on accountability and we must be their voices. The Constitution cannot break out of its glass at the National Archives and sit-in in front of the White House or walk the Halls of Congress to demand that BushCo quit desecrating it and what the US used to stand for. It is up to us, the citizens, to protect humanity and the law of our land. As historian Howard Zinn states in the introduction to Impeach the President, the Case against Bush and Cheney, edited by Dennis Loo and Peter Phillips:

We cannot expect either Republicans or Democrats in Congress to initiate any challenge to the existing order of things. In the history of the nation, serious injustices---slavery, racial segregation, the rights of working people, the condition of women, the war in Vietnam---have only been remedied by powerful social movements that have forced the government to change its policies.

Now we have another such time.

Our very existence as a nation of laws and justice depends on it.

Please visit Impeach for Change to learn about the new and powerful people's movement for accountability. Sign up for an impeachment forum in your area on Human Rights day, December 10th, or organize one locally if there is not one near you. I will be speaking with, among other notable Americans, Elizabeth Holtzman, at the forum in NYC that day.

Please visit Gold Star Families for Peace to learn about our Walk for Change campaign in the Halls of Congress on January 3rd and 4th, 2007. You can join Gold Star Family members in our demand for peace and accountability.

2006 was the year of the Awakening and 2007 will be the year of the Change!

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spec. Casey Sheehan who was KIA in the Bush regime's war of terror on 04 04 04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and founder and director of the Camp Casey Peace Institute. Cindy has published three books and the latest is Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism.

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.

Reporting by The Herald-Tribune of Sarasota, which interviewed hundreds of voters who called the paper to report problems at the polls, strongly suggests that the huge apparent undervote was caused by bugs in the ES&S software.

About a third of those interviewed by the paper reported that they couldn't even find the Congressional race on the screen. This could conceivably have been the result of bad ballot design, but many of them insisted that they looked hard for the race. Moreover, more than 60 percent of those interviewed by The Herald-Tribune reported that they did cast a vote in the Congressional race - but that this vote didn't show up on the ballot summary page they were shown at the end of the voting process.

If there were bugs in the software, the odds are that they threw the election to the wrong candidate. An Orlando Sentinel examination of other votes cast by those who supposedly failed to cast a vote in the Congressional race shows that they strongly favored Democrats, and Mr. Buchanan won the official count by only 369 votes. The fact that Mr. Buchanan won a recount - that is, a recount of the votes the machines happened to record - means nothing.

Although state officials have certified Mr. Buchanan as the victor, they've promised an audit of the voting machines. But don't get your hopes up: as in 2000, state election officials aren't even trying to look impartial. To oversee the audit, the state has chosen as its "independent" expert Prof. Alec Yasinsac of Florida State University - a Republican partisan who made an appearance on the steps of the Florida Supreme Court during the 2000 recount battle wearing a "Bush Won" sign.

Ms. Jennings has now filed suit with the same court, demanding a new election. She deserves one.

But for the nation as a whole, the important thing isn't who gets seated to represent Florida's 13th District. It's whether the voting disaster there leads to legislation requiring voter verification and a paper trail.

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?