corrente

Here's a curious little item from the Times letters column. It reinforces what we already know about the Boy in the Bubble, but there's more:

To the Editor:

"Before Friendly Audiences on the Trail, a Looser, Livelier Bush Appears" (White House Letter, Sept. 13) mentions the policing of dissent at events, but does not mention the campaign's pre-emptive invitation process.

Through a misplaced phone call, we were invited to pick up tickets for a convention-week appearance in Michigan. The invitation was nearly rescinded when we said we were neither registered Republicans nor likely supporters of the president. We were granted nontransferable tickets only after a campaign supervisor sensed that her colleague's "grilling" (his word) might appear, well, undemocratic. This grilling session sought a loyalty oath.

We're still on the presidential guest list; President Bush himself calls to urge us to use the absentee ballot his campaign secured, and we're invited to attend events 200 miles away. These "rapturous" crowds are not only vetted but, apparently, willing to travel.

Jennifer Wenzel
Joseph Slaughter
Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept. 16, 2004
(via Times)

As we've been pointing out (back):

The voting machine manufacturers are Republicans...

The voting machine testers are Republicans...

The testing process is entirely secret....

The voting machine software is entirely secret...

Swing states Ohio (home of Diebold) and Florida (fraud in 2000, already) are using electronic voting machines that are manufactured, tested, and run by Republican firms...

And now we have Bush recommending that Republicans bypass the system they own and run, and use absentee ballots. I wonder why? Could it be—and I know this would be winger projection run amok—that in the case of a close election that Bush loses, He plans to cry fraud Himself?