As if things aren't weird enough these days, it seems that the one million dollar audit of the Florida presidential vote that the major news services paid will not be picked up.

If you don't remember, last November, there was a dispute over the ballot counting in Florida, which ended up before the Supreme Count of the United States. And in a 5-4 party line ruling that severely tarnished its reputation, the Supremes selected George W. Bush as the 43rd President after halting the vote count and then ruling that that vote count was halted.

Needless to say, that decision along with the enormous amount of shenanigans that occurred before, during and after the election cast a serious pall over the newly (s)elected Bush Administration. Several major news organizations, well all of them actually, pooled their money and paid for a complete hand audit of the disputed ballots. That audit was finished on or about September 11, a day that probably has significant meaning to most people.

However, with the U.S. at war, the news agencies are no longer interested in picking up and reading the audit, which is apparently all done and just sitting there waiting for them to pop over and grab it. How convenient for the Bush Administration. How absolutely fucking convenient.

All of which is very similar to Wag the Dog, a 1997 movie starring screen legends Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro about a Hollywood producer starting a fake war to cover up a presidential sex scandal just before election day. The theory being that the country will rally around the President during a time of national crisis and not worry about a little old sex scandal.

Like in the movie, our reality has a limited war with little direct news involvement and hence little ability to verify the facts. Just lots and lots of plane flying off into the blue and a few dead heroes popping up every once in a while to keep the kettle boiling here at home.

Further, this war appears to be a vehicle to push all sorts for popular conservative programs like more oil drilling, more snooping, more defense spending and more "security" measures.

Another piece of serendipity for Bush - The War on Terrorism is expected to go on for years and years. So more then likely, the audit will never be read, its results never made public. His legitimacy never challenged.

Not that whatever is contained in the audit will have any effect on who is running the country. Nor am I claiming that the Bush Administration is directly responsible for the tragedy on 9/11, but this whole thing stinks to high heaven and if the news agencies don't want to report on the audit, then audit should be made public so that those that are interested can read it.

But it won't happen. Which is exactly why you should find a source of news other then corporate America. Then maybe there wouldn't be so much fucking wagging going on.

Check it out yourself

punchbowl@pigdog.org