Is it good for the Bushies or bad for the Bushies?

There are many aspects of Bush White House "logic" that would be comical except for the fact these guys are, like, in charge of stuff. The latest of countless examples is their position on the fairness of electoral processes. One might try to parody their position as "we'll tell you what we think about the process when we know whether we like the outcome or not." But that's not a parody -- that is their position.

To see the contortions this produces, begin by checking out the blog GUBU's link to a State Department press briefing -- a masterpiece of weasel acknowledgment that Hugo Chavez won the Venezuela recall referendum. Now, one of the opposition claims is that the new electronic voting machines were tampered with, although they lack any independent evidence of this and there are paper trails that can be used for an audit that support the government's position -- but of course the US can't really back them in this line of argument since domestically, they are in favour of electronic voting and against paper audits.

And then there's another election: Pakistan, key ally in the War on Terror, needed to find a parliamentary seat for Shaukat Aziz so that they could make him Prime Minister. The resulting by-elections cooperated nicely with this desire, but:

...opposition parties have castigated Mr. Aziz, 55, who lived in the West for 30 of the last 35 years, calling him an American stooge who has no real popular following in Pakistan. They also accused the government of gerrymandering the election districts and harassing the opposition.

We await...NOT the State Department demand for an international audit.