I mentioned more than once prior to the election that Cheney's health was fair game. Four heart attacks and quadruple bypass surgery are, uh, nothing to sneeze at. Less than two weeks after Nov. 2nd, Cheney feels shortness of breath, undergoes 3 hours of test (he's fine, apparently).

On a separate note, many groups in Ohio continue to call for a recount there, given widespread news reports of irregularities that have surfaced in many of the counties. Meanwhile, NC has a semi-fiasco brewing, with thousands of votes wiped out due to computer error, and many more missing thanks to "procedural error." Here's a classic quote, "When you shine a brighter light on something, you're going to see problems there that you didn't see before," said Justin Moore, a computer scientist and consultant to N.C. Verified Voting.

That's just great! What a testament to the greatest democracy on earth. Shine some light on its voting system and like roaches, the problems appear and attempt to scurry away. Just lovely. Let's see if GW makes a concerted effort to get his GOP-controlled Congress to move swiftly on this HUGE mess -- hah! And rather than recognize that any problem exists at all, we'll continue to hear from the right-wingers that all is fine and we just need to stop whining.

I suppose that's what Bank of America or Citibank would say to their millions of customers if they from time to time would experience check-clearing problems. Oh sure, these mega-banks could proclaim that they have a 98% success rate and hope that sits fine with people. Well, the truth is I'm fairly certain the success rate is damn near 100% -- it would be an obvious nightmare for them if it wasn't! In fact, Bank Of America airs a TV commercial where they categorically state that of the billions of checks they process each year, they have a zero-tolerance policy for even ONE problem or mistake.

Why is it such banks are able to handle BILLIONS (not millions) of computer-operated transactions without one problem, and yet this same foolproof, never-in-doubt outcome appears to be out of reach for our voting system? Isn't the very essence of our democracy worth insuring that it be as seamlessly accurate as clearing a personal check?