When Farhad Manjoo states his claim that . . . "it is far more accurate to see their actions as part of a larger picture of incompetence in the midst of massive changes in election procedures -- especially changes in voting technology -- than as part of a GOP plot," therein lies the crux in my opinion. The changes in voting technology are the very reason the election could have been stolen--whether it was carefully constructed incompetence or another carefully constructed way to steal an election--there is so much indisputable confusion . . . because logic and order don't even enter into the picture when the actual way the votes are made and counted can be called into question. Being from Georgia, one of the first states to "embrace" the Diebold voting scam, I voted with a paper absentee ballot in the last election (which would have been entered into the same corrupt electronic system). My vote for Kerry didn't matter because I live in a Red state and was very likely not counted at all (because of the electoral college system we have in place). In states where the vote was closely contested, it was easy to make changes in Bush's favor without there being any solid proof that it actually happened . . . that's all I need to know in "claiming or perceiving" that it could have happened. And does it really doesn't matter whether Bush won the 2004 election when he didn't "win" the 2000 election to begin with? Our Supreme Court put him in office.

What we operate on here is that "this is America and nothing like this could ever happen here." Wasn't it incompetence in the midst of massive changes in governmental procedures that let 9/11 "happen here" in the first place? This gave Bush an in for the next election in 2004. Wasn't it a false patriotism that gave him any momentum at all? Or wasn't a complacent media? Or a very sophisticated manipulation of the media that is beholden to corporate interests? The list goes on and on.

It will all come out in the wash . . . I just hope this country doesn't continue down the road it has been on with the Bush administration and we regain some sort of resiliancy within our system of checks and balances--from the most fundamental aspects to holding the media accountable for really doing their jobs as journalists. With Bush in office and the Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate (therefore controlling corporate media), we have none.

Whether it's "Claim vs Reality" or "Perception vs Reality" (like the Rolling Stone ad series years back), there is no real justice under the current administration. We live under totalitarian rule. How are we supposed to affect change if we can't even get a sane, verifiable voting system in place? We have to examine it from all sides--from getting a verifiable way to count our votes to eliminating as much voter apathy as possible. It's hard to care when you don't think it even matters if you vote or not (I certainly don't think that because I'm an eternal optimist, but so many people I know who are more pragmatic about things, do think that way).

Darryl Moland

Atlanta, Georgia

Mr. Blumenthal's headline replaces the word "fear" with "queer" and that about sums it up, doesn't it? On all levels. While I understand why he interchanged the words (headlines need to have great effect and be snappy lures for the reader), I don't understand how it got past the editors, unless homophobia (read: fear) is so embedded in our collective psyche that it takes a repressed queer to bring down the curtain on the GOP--can anyone say McCarthy? Now that we have had a sublime opportunity to "bitchslap" (and in the queer community, the term is used for both genders) the GOP, let's remember the real reasons we're in a quagmire as a nation and capitalize on them, so to speak.

Darryl L. Moland

Atlanta, Georgia