STEALING THE ELECTION

I'm on vacation this week, so no political column. (I wrote this week's Terrell's Tune-up early, so look for that tomorrow.)

However for political junkies like me, there's never a real vacation from politics.

Since the election, probably 14 friends have e-mailed me links to Greg Palast's article that John Kerry actually won the election in Ohio and (gulp!) New Mexico, due to ballot spoilage and Republican dirty tricks.

The one part of Palast's article that struck me was his analysis of New Mexico's Chaves County, with his quaint image of "brown people" who "drive across the desert" to vote." Palast finds it surprising that Kerry lost to Bush by a big margin in Chaves County despite a large Hispanic population. Gee, does that mean that conservative Chaves County Republicans like state Sen. Rod Adair and Rep. Dan Foley have won by voter fraud too? Rise up Roswell liberals, wherever you are!

(And Palast apparently doesn't know -- or believe -- that Bush got about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in this state. Some of those "brown people" apparently drove across the desert to vote Republican.)

I've talked to so many Santa Fe folk who refuse to believe that a majority -- albiet a very slight majority -- of people in this state and the country would actually favor George W. Bush. As one friend, who believes the election was stolen by GOP voting machines, told me, "I just can't believe that so many people are so stupid."

Here's my personal nutball election conspiracy theory: All the lefty whining about the "stolen" election is being fed and orchestrated by none other than Karl Rove. It's his evil plan to forment mistrust and distrust of the election process itself, so in the future they'll just stay at home.

But seriously, for a good sober look at some of the election conspiracy theories, check out this story at Salon.com . (If you're not a subscriber, you'll have to get a "day pass" which involves looking at an advertisement. It won't kill you.)

Of course there are those who will only argue that the liberal Salon.com is now part of the right-wing election-stealing conspiracy. (Excuse me, I have to catch a plane to spray some chemtrails on innocent citizens.)

I'm not saying that the country doesn't need to take a good look and serious study of the very real problems in the election -- the long lines, the whole provisional ballot mess. There are many improvements that must be made.

But waddling in conspiracy theories is a self-defeating waste of time.

(There's a comment button on this blog. Flame on.)