My response to the Monkey Mailer:

I was surprised to hear that you were unaware of the unrequested, unauthorized manual recounts that occurred in six counties (mostly republican-controlled) that produced the margin that George W. Bush now enjoys.  I thought you might find the transcribed press conference remarks of James Baker an enlightening read:

Transcribed Remarks of James Baker Press Conference, November 15, 2000
Source:  AP Online
Date:  11/15/2000 19:01
While he tried to parse words, claiming that the Bush campaign had requested no recounts, he was forced to admit that manual examination and re-tabulation of ballots did occur.  We can thank a conscientious media representative for clarifying his remarks.

We are living in historic times:

"Never before November 2000 has a major political party contended that computers' vote counts are more accurate than those of people looking at the ballots and at each other looking at the ballots." -- Ronnie Dugger, Elections Historian and Author, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2000

As I am sure you also know, on June 20, 1997, Governor George W. Bush signed into law the Texas Statute (HB331) asserting the primacy of hand recounts over all electronic forms of recounts.  You may have also noticed that since the Bush campaign federal (not state) suit to stop the hand recounts in Florida, Governor Bush has been curiously absent from any forum where he might be questioned on this apparent inconsistency in his attitude about the rights of Texas voters and those of the voters in Florida.

Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing.  Those who count the votes decide everything."

I have never been a fan of Stalin, so I have no trouble seeing the truth:

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.  Those who count the votes decide nothing.  Those who can prevent votes from being counted decide everything." -The Diva