What do you call it when someone gives money to a government official in return for favors?

- Bribery.

What do you call it when a large corporation gives money to a government official in return for favors?

- A campaign contribution.

What do you call the form of government where a small elite exploits and intimidates the citizens?

- A dictatorship.

What do you call the form of government where a small elite exploits and intimidates the citizens, and the citizens can choose every few years which part of the elite should occupy the government buildings?

- A democracy.

What do you call it when someone carrying a gun enters your house and steals your valuable possessions?

- An armed robbery.

What do you call it when a multinational corporation supported by armed forces enters your country and steals your valuable possessions?

- Free trade.

What do you call it when a group of people take the law into their own hands and kill people without a fair trial?

- A lynching.

What do you call it when the US takes the law into its own hands and kills people without a fair trial?

- Operation Enduring Freedom. (The invasion of Afghanistan)

What do you call someone who steals from the rich and gives to the poor?

- Robin Hood.

What do you call someone who steals from the poor and gives to the rich?

- The US government.

What do you call a weapon that can kill thousands of people?

- A weapon of mass destruction.

What do you call a weapon that killed 1.5 million Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children?

- Sanctions.

What do you call an army that will fight for whoever pays the most money?

- Mercenaries.

What do you call an army in Afghanistan that will fight for whoever pays the most money?

- The Northern Alliance (or United Front).

What do you call an attack on the Pentagon, a military command and control center in the US?

- A cowardly attack on American freedom and democracy.

What do you call the destruction of an Afghan village by US bombs?

- An attack on a Taliban military command and control center.

What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people were killed in the September 11 attack on the US?

- An atrocity.

What do you call it when nearly 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war?

- A mistake.

What do you call it when very rich people exploit poor people?

- Greed and selfishness.

What do you call it when very rich countries exploit poor countries?

- Globalization.

What do you call a foreign oppressor in the last century that controlled the economic and social life of a country?

- A colonialist power.

What do you call a foreign oppressor in this century that controls the economic and social life of a country?

- The International Monetary Fund.

What do you call it when people are slaughtered?

- A massacre.

What do you call it when 100,000 to 200,000 Iraqis are slaughtered by the US at a loss to American forces of 148 (46 of which were killed by friendly fire)?

- Gulf War I.

What do you call members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white racist organization?

- American patriots.

What do you call members of the Black Panther party, a black racist organization?

- Prisoners on death row.

What do you call the extermination of a people?

- Genocide.

What do you call the extermination of native Americans in the US?

- A glorious episode in American history.

What do you call someone who stands up in front of a crowd and tells stories?

- An entertainer.

What do you call someone who stands up in front of a crowd at the Pentagon and tells stories?

- Donald Rumsfeld.

What do you call a television station that broadcasts only the government's views?

- A propaganda station.

What do you call the BBC when the World News consists solely of half an hour of a Pentagon briefing?

- Fair and impartial.

What do you call the 2002 presidential election in Zimbabwe where there were serious irregularities?

- A flawed election.

What do you call the 2000 presidential election in the US where there were serious irregularities?

- A victory for democracy.

What do you call it when American Whites advocate an exclusively White state and the expulsion of all non-Whites?

- Racism.

What do you call it when Israeli Jews advocate an exclusively Jewish state and the expulsion of all non-Jews?

- Zionism.

What is the name of the leader wrongly accused of trying to create an ethnically pure Greater Serbia?

- Slobodan Milosevic, on trial as a war criminal until his death.

What is the name of the leader trying to create an ethnically pure Greater Israel?

- Ariel Sharon, a "man of peace".

What do you call a leader who sells out his country to a foreign power?

- A traitor, or Quisling.

What do you call a British leader who sells out his country to a foreign power?

- Tony Blair.

Which Middle East country (whose name begins with I) does not possess nuclear weapons, agreed to allow access to UN weapons inspectors, and has been occupied by the US?

- Iraq.

Which Middle East country (whose name begins with I) possesses nuclear weapons, refuses to allow access to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and receives around $5 billion p.a. in aid from the US?

- Israel.

What do you call it when innocent people are killed by those resisting a brutal occupation?

- Terrorism.

What do you call it when innocent people are killed by an occupying army?

- Collateral damage, self-defense, or caught in the crossfire.

What do you call it when Saddam Hussein kills his own people with chemical weapons?

- A crime against humanity.

What do you call it when the FBI uses chemical weapons to murder 96 US citizens (including women and children) in Waco, Texas?

- Law and order.

What do you call a serial killer who claims that God told him to do it?

- A psychopath.

What do you call a serial killer who claims that God told him to invade Iraq?

- George W. Bush.

-A man lost in his geography:

1-"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe." George W. Bush

2-"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
George W. Bush

3-"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
George W. Bush

-A man lost in his logic:

4-" It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
George W. Bush

5-"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." George W. Bush

6-"These people are trying to shake the will of the Iraqi citizens, and they want us to leave...I think the world would be better off if we did leave..." George W. Bush

7-"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." George W. Bush

8-"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
George W. Bush

9-"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." George W. Bush

10-Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness. George W. Bush

-A man lost in space:

11-"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
George W. Bush

-a man with heaven on his side:

12-"I believe God wants me to be president."
George W. Bush

13- [I was] "chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment." George W. Bush

14-"God told me to strike at al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East." George W. Bush

15-"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." George W. Bush

-a man lost in his vocabulary:

16-" Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." George W. Bush

17-"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur'." George W. Bush



18-"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is, 'to be prepared'."
George W. Bush

19-'There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.' George W. Bush

- thoughts coming straight from George Orwell's '1984':

20-"Iraq and Afghanistan ...are now democracies and they are allies in the cause of freedom and peace." George W. Bush

21-"Ariel Sharon ... is a man of courage and a man of peace." George W. Bush

22-"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." George W. Bush

-a deceiving pacifist:

23-"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." George W. Bush

24-"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." George W. Bush

25-"Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
George W. Bush

26- "Governments accountable to the voters focus on building roads and schools - not weapons of mass destruction." (N.B.: The U.S. has 10,000 nuclear weapons) George W. Bush

-the theologian:

27-"Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion." George W. Bush

28-"The Islam that we know is a faith devoted to the worship of one God, as revealed through The Holy Qur'an. It teaches the value and the importance of charity, mercy, and peace."
George W. Bush

-the flip-flopper:

29-"I favor leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion question." George W. Bush

30-"I am pro-life." George W. Bush

31- "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." George W. Bush

32- "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." George W. Bush

33-"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories...for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." George W. Bush

-The forecaster of things to come:

34-"Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties [in Iraq]." George W. Bush

35-"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur." George W. Bush

36-"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." George W. Bush

37-"Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast, and I have a message for them: If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you." George W. Bush, (speech of March 17, 2003)

38-"To the C students, I say you too can be president of the United States." George W. Bush

The astute observer:

39-"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." George W. Bush

40-"Brownie (Michael Brown of FEMA), you're doing a heck of a job." George W. Bush

-A man and his environment:

41-"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
George W. Bush

-The double-talker:

42-"There's a lot of suffering in the Palestinian territory, because militant Hamas is trying to stop the advance of democracy."(N.B.: The Hamas government was democratically elected) George W. Bush

43-"We look forward to analyzing and working with legislation that will make - it would hope - put a free press's mind at ease that you're not being denied information you shouldn't see." George W. Bush

-The would-be dictator:

44-"In a time of war, the president must have the power he needs to make the tough decisions, including, if need be, the decision to grant himself even more power." George W. Bush

45-"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."
George W. Bush

46-"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." George W. Bush

47-"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." George W. Bush

48- "I will not withdraw [from Iraq], even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." George W. Bush

49- "I'm the decider, and I decide what's best." George W. Bush

-And, last but not least, CONSIDERING THE MESS IN IRAQ:

50-"I don't have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy." George W. Bush

But one resident has set up an anti-Islamic website with an odometer-like counter that keeps track of terrorist attacks since Sept. 11. A committee has formed to buy another property and offer to trade it for the Muslims' land. And next-door neighbour Craig Baker has threatened to race pigs on the edge of the property on the Muslim holy day. Muslims consider pigs unclean and do not eat pork.

"The neighbours have created havoc for us and we didn't expect that," said engineer Kamel Fotouh, president of the 500-member Katy Islamic Association.

Fotouh vowed to press ahead with plans for a mosque on the four-hectare site, as well as a community centre that would offer after-school activities, housing for senior citizens, a fitness centre and an Islamic school.

"We just bought it," Fotouh said. "And we are going to use it. We have the right like any one of them."

Katy, population 13,000, is a mix of middle-class bedroom-community neighbourhoods and small farms on Houston's western edge and boasts of being the hometown of Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger. It is 70 per cent white and 24 per cent Hispanic.

The Houston metropolitan area has about 170,000 Muslims, according to the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, and among their many mosques is one built in Houston by former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon.

The Islamic association bought the land in Katy in September for US$1.1 million. It said the overall cost of the project has not been determined.

The dispute began when the group asked Baker to remove his cattle from their newly bought land. Baker agreed but mistakenly thought the Muslims also wanted him off the land his family has lived on for more than 100 years. The rumour spread.

Baker, who makes marble and granite fixtures for kitchens and bathrooms and also owns livestock, said he got so mad he put up a sign announcing the pig races.

(Baker's attempt to offend missed its mark, according to Fotouh. Muslims do not hate pigs, he said; they just don't eat them.)

As for the website, the address is virtually identical to that of the Katy Islamic Association. The site claims the neighbours will have to hear the Muslim call to prayer from the mosque's minaret five times a day, the Islamic group denies that, and offers an audio sample.

Besides keeping track of the running total of post-Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the website provides home addresses of some association members and advises people who see anything suspicious to contact the FBI. Many people have sent anti-Islamic e-mails to the site.

A few complaints about the mosque project have also trickled in to Harris County offices: The "Coming Soon" sign was on government property; the parking lot gravel was piled up without a permit; the project would increase traffic in the quiet neighbourhood.

County Commissioner Steve Radack said traffic concerns can be addressed as they are elsewhere, with off-duty police officers. He also noted the group has said it would comply with rules on drainage and flood control.

Cynthia Blackman wrote Radack that the centre was a security risk: "Would you and your family safely and comfortably live next to this 11-acre Muslim mosque and facilities?"

The reaction has not been all negative. Fotouh said one man came to the mosque on a Friday afternoon and apologized for his neighbours. "He moved me, really," Fotouh said. "The sense of fairness, the sense of standing by the underdog."

Though he now concedes the Muslims are probably not after his land, Baker said he is obligated to go through with the pig races, probably within the next few weeks, because "I would be like a total idiot if I didn't. I'd be the laughingstock now because I've gone too far."

"It still continues to rise, even though the overall incidence of salmonella in general has fallen," said Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department undersecretary for food safety. "It's one that we still don't have all the scientific evidence we need to know how best to attack it.

"Even though that particular bug is going up, the overall incidence of food-borne illness from salmonella is declining, and the amount of salmonella positives has shown a dramatic drop."

Salmonella sickens at least 40,000 people and kills about 600 every year in the United States.

Many different salmonella bacteria make people sick, but salmonella enteritidis is one of the most common. It causes fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea. In vulnerable people, infection become deadly by spreading beyond the intestine to the bloodstream.

At one time, eggs became contaminated with salmonella on the outside from contact with fecal bacteria. But in recent years, the salmonella enteritidis strain has been found inside intact, disinfected, grade A eggs.

This type of germ contaminates eggs inside a hen's ovaries, before shells are even formed.

Now the germ is turning up in broiler chickens, the kind used for meat, according to research by the Agriculture Department published in the December issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cooking poultry to 165 degrees will kill the salmonella germ. The government also strongly recommends that people use food thermometers and follow basic rules for kitchen safety: wash hands often, keep raw poultry and meat separate from cooked food, and refrigerate or freeze food right away.

However, a recent CDC study on food poisoning from salmonella noted that the risk of illness from salmonella enteritidis increased the less people ate at home.

"This measure may, in fact, be considered to be a proxy for eating a larger number of commercially prepared meals," the CDC found.

That study said that while overall infections from salmonella were lower than in the mid-1990s, infections from salmonella enteritidis were 25 percent higher.

While salmonella is commonly found in poultry, it is found in many other products, from pork and beef to raw fruits and vegetables and dairy products.

"We gave it our best shot and didn't get clear and convincing evidence that the cloud ceiling had cleared for us," launch director Mike Leinbach told the crew. "We have to declare a scrub at this time."

The shuttle commander, Mark Polansky, responded. "Thanks to the team for all the hard work, try not to be too disappointed and we will be ready to support for the next time we get a chance," he said.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said it would make a new attempt to launch the shuttle on its mission to the International Space Station (ISS) at 8:47 pm Saturday (0147 GMT Sunday).

The shuttle's external fuel tank was filled with two million liters (500,000 gallons) of liquid hydrogen and oxygen when the launch was scuttled, after a tense half-hour of on-again-off-again weather conditions.

"We had to scrub the launch tonight because the cloud ceiling exceeded our requirements," said NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham.

NASA has described the shuttle mission as the most complex to date, with three space walks scheduled to rewire the ISS and install a new 11-million-dollar truss segment.

The Discovery mission was to be the first night shuttle launch since the Endeavour flight in November 2002.

The three shuttle launches following the February 2003 Columbia tragedy -- in August 2005, and in July and September 2006 -- were scheduled during daylight so that ground and shuttle cameras could closely photograph the spacecraft's exterior tank in case pieces of thermal insulation or ice broke off during liftoff.

A piece of insulating foam damaged Columbia's heat-shield shortly after launch which led to the shuttle disintegrating upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard and grounding the shuttle program for more than two years.

Discovery's mission will be the third and final shuttle launch of the year, and the fourth since the Columbia disaster.

NASA has planned 14 shuttle missions -- including this one -- through 2010 to finish building the International Space Station.

The weather forecast for a Saturday launch, however, was discouraging, with only a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions.

The space agency has set a window for rescheduling the liftoff that lasts until December 26, but after December 17 it would have to reprogram the shuttle's computer to adjust to the date change at the end of the year.

After December 26, the Discovery mission would have to wait until mid-January for another chance at liftoff.

One of the astronauts aboard Discovery, American Sunita Williams, will be staying at the ISS. She will repace German Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency, who arrived at the Space Station in July and will be returning to earth at the end of Discovery's mission.

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who fanned partisanship during much of his reign, preached the need for the two parties to work together as he bid farewell to the U.S. Congress on Thursday.

"Beyond Democrat or Republican, we are Americans," the retiring Tennessee Republican told colleagues. "It's our responsibility to uphold the dream."

As majority leader the past four years, Frist, 54, stirred some big partisan battles, particularly when he broke tradition in 2004 and campaigned against Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in his home state of South Dakota. Daschle lost a re-election bid.

In sharp contrast to the way Republicans treated Daschle afterward, Frist's delivered his farewell address in a packed Senate chamber.

Only a few Republicans bothered to show up for Daschle's good-bye to the Senate two years ago. Frist walked in near the end.

As Democrats victorious in last month's elections prepared to take control when the new Congress convenes next month, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid urged members of his party to attend Frist's farewell.

"We don't want to be seen as petty," a Democratic aide said. "We don't want to be seen as trying to get even. We want to show some respect."

Frist, a heart-transplant surgeon, was first elected to the Senate in 1994 with a promise not to stay more than two six-year terms. In keeping that vow, he said: "It's time for fresh faces and fresh resolve."

Frist became Senate Republican leader in January 2003, after he helped his party win control of the legislative body as head of the Senate Republican campaign committee.

In last month's elections, Republicans lost the Senate and House to Democrats, largely because of the Iraq war and discontent with what was denounced as a "do-nothing Congress."

Frist had been criticized for his work as majority leader, some saying he seemed more concerned about advancing Bush's interests than those of the Senate.

Yet Frist had some major accomplishments, such as cranking up the global war against AIDS and helping increase security of the United States after the September 11 attacks.

Frist had been considered a potential 2008 White House contender. But last month he announced he had decided instead to resume his career in medicine.

Another outbreak involves the E.coli O157:H7 bacteria, a singularly nasty E.coli strain that originates in the stomachs of grain- and corn-fed cattle. In September, three people died and 200 others fell ill after eating bagged spinach from a Californian grower. There have been problems, too, with salmonella, including one outbreak in tomatoes which affected dozens of people across 21 states.

Michael Pollan, a journalism professor who has written extensively about food safety, said all the recent problems stemmed from the intensive, industrial-style agriculture increasingly practised in the United States.

The 0157:H7 strain of E.coli was unknown until cattle were taken from their traditional grazing grounds, pushed into industrial feedlots and fed grain and corn instead.

Faeces from those animals, in turn, can sometimes enter the water supply on big farms and find its way into irrigation canals in vegetable fields.

Professor Pollan recently likened many US farms to giant "petri dishes" in which all sorts of bacterial cultures could grow and thrive. Fast-food chains have taken steps to safeguard their ground beef - which can easily get mixed with faeces - but vegetables represent a new front in the fight for public health.

Federal investigators responding to the Taco Bell outbreak also checked the safety of other ingredients. Now the lawsuits are flying. On Long Island, outside New York, the family of an 11-year-old boy who fell ill filed a negligence suit against the chain. The boy ate three tacos last month and had to be treated in hospital. He recovered.

This is typical Bush politics. When in trouble, appoint a prestigious investigative committee, make a lot of smoke, and then continue with the same foolhardy practices that started the problem. After 9/!!, a similar committee was nanmed and they "investigated", failing to come to any realistic conclusion without having deposed any of the major figures in the administration, particularly not Bush and Cheney, and issuing a large tome of recommendations to prevent its happening again, none of which were instituted by the administration or the Congress. In this instance, they have re-written the Bible, solving all the international conflicts of history, but only if we accept the whole thing rather than "picking and choosing as if it were a fruit salad". So much for that, since Bush has already announced his intention to "cherry pick".

Those of us who were aware of the events of the world for the past couple of decades warned against attacking the Middle Eastern countries, both Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly the latter. In their history, these nations have been "conquered" and occupied time after time and have worn out their enemy by the simple method of out-lasting them. They merely go on with their lives as if nothing had happened, living by their own rules and methods, informally enforcing their traditional roles and dealing with those who break their rules in their own manner, summary execution. Personally, I recall stating in a forum of mixed political persuasion that invading either of these countries would be tantamount to entering the lion's den and would end in the greatest defeat ever experienced by the American war machine and I suffered being berated as a "fraidy-cat peacenik" and "un-patriotic". It is small consolation to be able to say, "I told you so."

But, what should we expect? We went into Iraq with just a quarter of the forces that were used in the Gulf War, with no mechanism having been prepared for "re-construction" because, if you recall, Mr. Bush had said that he was "not into nation building". Once Saddam fell, those charged with control of that poor nation were concerned merely with stealing the taxpayers' money and enjoying the privilege of instituting any brain storm that occured to them, because there was no constructive leadership at the top. There was no preparation for the invasion with insufficient military personnel, requiring the activation of the National Guard, many units equipped with old, unreliable vehicles which were anything but battle-ready, in order to have the minimal force which was used. The word "draft" became a dirty word, since the administration was well aware of the kickback that would have caused as wealthy people would realize that their own sons and daughters would be put at risk. It was more important to keep the consumer goods flowing so that the profits would continue to pour into the pockets of the multi-national corporations and, thus, the campaign funds into the coffers of the political parties.

The first proposal of the ISG to hit the dirt was, of course, the proposal to end the conflicts between Israel and its neighbors. This, the most important of the entire publication, is a hot potato which neither the administration nor the Congress dares to touch. The political hold of Israel on our government, through their lobbies and their campaign funding, is so strong that it cannot even be discussed without accusations of "anti-semitism". While Iran is threatened with annihilation for their attempt at developing nuclear technology, it is a well-known fact that Israel also possesses nuclear power, though discussion of that is also forbidden. Would it not express our good will if those nations were to be brought together in Jimmy Carter fashion and pushed to come to an agreement in eliminating this threat to Middle East peace?

President Bush is right about one thing. This war will go on and on and on! Not until after he leaves office and not before current members of Congess either see the light or are dis-elected, will any leader be found with the ability and determination to restore peace to the Middle East. We can only pray that the United States is still standing when it is over, despite the loss of the lives of our young people, the overwhelming indebtedness of our treasury, and the destruction of our own democracy. Never mind the idiotic plans to "re-deploy outside the country" or to "set a timetable". The only way our troops will ever leave Iraq will be to deploy to the border, cover their arses, and get the hell out.........fast!

The author is a very "with-it" old lady who aspires to bring a bit of truth, justice, and commom sense to a nation that has lost touch with its humanity in the search for societal "perfection".

Sherlock Holmes used to solve them, con artists the world over have been trying to commit them, and books have been written about them--perfect crimes.

A perfect crime has several elements, the most important of which is to not get caught. The ideal perfect crime also has a big payoff to the criminal and attracts public attention, further rewarding the unknown perpetrator with ego gratification.

Perfect crimes like big art heists, large cash thefts from secure facilities, and political assassinations generate publicity, speculation, and sometimes even end up in the folklore. Many perfect crimes fall into the fraud category with various schemes and swindles that enrich the criminal and some even end up memorialized in movies.

Advances in computer technology have given criminals a whole new world to exploit for those technically proficient enough to keep up with the programmers. It is now possible, thanks to electronic voting machines, to steal an election without being caught. Moreso, it is now possible to steal an election without even leaving evidence a crime was committed-the ultimate perfect crime.

In Florida, 18,000 missing votes likely changed the outcome of a Congressional election. A naïve public tries to make excuses for the "undervotes" speculating that maybe the voters decided to boycott the race or were confused by the electronic ballot design on the screen of the electronic voting machines. Some even suggested that innocent "glitches" might be at fault. But a hacker, using self-deleting malicious code to erase votes without detection, gets the satisfaction of altering an election without getting caught or even leaving proof a crime was committed.

Sound farfetched? Not so to the National Institute of Standards and Technology which warns in a just released report, "Potentially, a single programmer could "rig" a major election." Further, the National Institute "does not know how to write testable requirements" to make the paperless voting machines secure.

The alarming report warns of, "the inability, in a practical sense, to test complex systems for errors and intentionally produced fraud." To make it more explicit, the National Institute states, "In principle, a single clever, dishonest programmer in a voting machine company could rig an entire statewide election if the state uses mainly one kind of system."

Never before in the history of crime has such an enormous potential for mischief been present. Think of it. The ability to steal an election, without getting caught or even leaving behind a trace that a crime was committed.

The missing votes in Florida will be blamed on the voters or at most on "glitches" in the voting machines. A forensic analysis will not be able to uncover malicious software code that has already self-deleted. We will never know if the Florida votes were stolen.

Hand counting paper ballots seems like a lot of work and trouble but that is the only way to prevent the Perfect Crime.

[Permission granted to reprint]



Michael Richardson is a freelance writer based in Boston.

New federal guidelines, along with legislation given a strong chance to pass in Congress next year, will probably combine to make the paperless voting machines obsolete, the officials say. States and counties that bought the machines will have to modify them to hook up printers, at federal expense, while others are planning to scrap the machines and buy new ones.

Motivated in part by voting problems during the midterm elections last month, the changes are a result of a growing skepticism among local and state election officials, federal legislators and the scientific community about the reliability and security of the paperless touch-screen machines used by about 30 percent of American voters.

The changes also mean that the various forms of vote-counting software used around the country - most of which are protected by their manufacturers for reasons of trade secrecy - will for the first time be inspected by federal authorities, and the code could be made public. There will also be greater federal oversight on how new machines are tested before they arrive at polling stations.

"In the next two years I think we'll see the kinds of sweeping changes that people expected to see right after the 2000 election," said Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org, a nonpartisan election group. "The difference now is that we have moved from politics down to policies."

Many of the paperless machines were bought in a rush to overhaul the voting system after the disputed presidential election in 2000, which was marred by hanging chads. But concerns have been growing that in a close election those machines give election workers no legitimate way to conduct a recount or to check for malfunctions or fraud.

Several counties around the country are already considering scrapping their voting systems after problems this year, and last week federal technology experts concluded for the first time that paperless touch-screen machines could not be secured from tampering.

Having stalled for over two years, federal legislation requiring a shift to paper trails and other safeguards, proposed by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, has a better chance of passing next session, several members of Congress and election officials say.

They say that fixing the voting system is viewed as a core issue by the new Democratic leaders, and the bill already has the bipartisan support of more than a majority of the current House. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who will be the new chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said she planned to introduce a similar bill in January.

But it is also clear that the changes will not come without a struggle. State and local election officials are still reeling from the last major overhaul of the country's voting system, initiated by the Help America Vote Act in 2002, and some say that the $150 million in federal aid proposed by Mr. Holt would not be enough to pay for the changes.

Advocates for the disabled say they will resist his bill, because the touch-screen machines are the easiest for blind people to use. And the voting machine companies say they will argue against making the software code completely public, partly out of concern about making the system more vulnerable to hackers.

Paul S. DeGregorio, the chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which was created by Congress in 2002 to set voting standards, also cautioned against rushing to make changes, especially since some counties also ran into problems with printers in this year's elections. "All of the implications have to be looked at carefully," Mr. DeGregorio said in an interview.

Still, the changes are rapidly gaining momentum, partly because the Help America Vote Act did not go far enough in establishing clear guidelines for the type of machines that should be used, many critics have said. It took so long for the federal guidelines to be established that many local voting officials bought new equipment without the full benefit of federal research and standards.

"Everyone was getting intense pressure to comply by January 2006, and so they went ahead and bought," said Alysoun McLaughlin, who was a lobbyist for the National Association of Counties at the time.

Now some local and state officials are paying the price as they shelve machines that have problems or that could soon be out of compliance.

In Maryland, legislators say they plan to replace the more than $70 million worth of touch-screen machines the state began buying in 2002 with paper optical scanners, which officials estimate could cost $20 million.

Voters in Sarasota, Fla., where the results of a Congressional race recorded on touch-screen machines are being contested in court, passed a ballot initiative last month to make the same change, at an estimated cost of $3 million. Last year, New Mexico spent $14 million to replace its touch screens. Other states are spending millions more to retrofit the machines to add paper trails.

New York has been slow to replace its old lever voting machines, and the state has required counties to buy screens with printers or optical scanners. New Jersey has passed a law requiring its counties to switch to machines with paper trails by 2008, and Connecticut is buying machines that can scan paper ballots.

This week, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, a federal panel of technical experts that helps set voting standards, adopted a resolution that recommends requiring any new electronic voting systems to have an independent means of verification, a move that could eventually prevent paperless touch-screen machines from being federally certified.

Touch-screen machines with paper trails give voters a chance to check their choices on a small piece of paper before casting their ballots, while large rolls of paper keep a running tally and can be used to check the vote count made by the machine's software. Localities can also use optical-scan systems, in which paper ballots marked by voters are counted by scanning machines and remain available for recounts.

Over the last two years, 27 states have passed laws requiring a shift to machines with paper trails, and 8 others do not have such laws but use the machines statewide. Some counties have attached rolls of paper to touch-screen machines, at a cost of $1,000 to $2,000 for each device, while others have bought optical-scanning devices.

Five states - Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Delaware - still use only the paperless machines, and 10 states have counties that use them and have not made plans to change.

State and local election officials say they have been overwhelmed by the changes since 2002, and they are worried about how much they may have to pay to meet new requirements. Many have already spent millions in state and local money to buy and operate new machines, and Mr. Holt's changes would require retraining poll workers as well as add the recurring costs of buying paper ballots and conducting election audits.

Because some printers malfunctioned last month, election commissioners in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, said last week that they were considering scrapping their new $17 million system of touch-screen machines and starting over with optical scanning devices.

In Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, electronic machines can print a paper tally, but do not give voters a paper record, meaning they would not comply with Mr. Holt's bill. Beverly Kaufman, the county clerk, said she and other election officials elsewhere disliked the paper requirement.

"Every time you introduce something perishable like paper, you inject some uncertainty into the system," Ms. Kaufman said. She said she was skeptical that Congress would come up with enough money for replacements by 2008. "You show me where you can pry the cold, bony fingers off the money in Washington, D.C., that fast," she said.

Another significant change that will affect how votes are counted involves the recording and tallying software embedded in each electronic machine. Under changes approved by the Election Assistance Commission yesterday, voting machine manufacturers would have to make their crucial software code available to federal inspectors. The code is now checked mainly by private testing laboratories paid by the manufacturers. Mr. Holt would go even further, requiring the commission to make the code publicly available.

Computer experts and voting rights groups have long advocated such openness, arguing that the code is too important to be kept secret and would allow programmers to check for bugs and the potential for hacking. But manufacturers are resistant. Michelle Shafer, a vice president at Sequoia Voting Systems, said that while the industry was willing to give the source code to state and federal officials, "we feel that just putting it out there would give it to people with an intent to do something malicious or harmful."

Because election technology is changing so quickly, it is not clear that the new requirements, particularly the demand for a paper trail, will stand the test of time, and advocates for change are already worried about a jury-rigged solution for 2008.

"We're confident that the accuracy and integrity of voting is going to take some big steps forward with the legislation in Congress right now," said Warren Stewart, policy director of VoteTrustUSA, an advocacy group that prefers optical scanners to touch screens. "But our big concern is to avoid replacing old problems with new ones."