Vince K wasn’t able to vote today. He had made a deal with himself that he wouldn’t pull the lever for any candidate whose supporters blocked the subway entrance to hand him propaganda on his way to work. That left no one.

I voted. I drive to work, and I managed to avoid the entire corps of campaign workers handing out all the wasted paper for the duration. I do share his cosmic gratitude that the whoring is over for awhile, though.

The Museum of Online Museums: “Here, you will find links from our archives to online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of interests and obsessions: Start with a review of classic art and architecture, and graduate to the study of mundane (and sometimes bizarre) objects elevated to art by their numbers, juxtaposition, or passion of the collector.”

A problem that marred the 2000 ballot is back:

One of the most intriguing mysteries of the whole Election 2000 debacle is this: How many Florida voters improperly lost their voting rights because of a statewide effort to scrub felons from voter rolls? This question was at the heart of a post-election lawsuit filed against the Department of State and others. The lead plaintiff, the NAACP, brought the class-action suit because more than half of those on the scrub list were black.

The good news is, all of those lawsuits are now settled. The private company contracted to perform the purge, Atlanta-based ChoicePoint (which in 2001 merged with the original contractor, West Palm Beach’s Database Technologies, or DBT) has agreed to more closely scrutinize the names on the lists it sent out before November 2000 and identify those voters who should never have been removed in the first place. The supervisors of elections who wrongfully removed these voters from the rolls will then reinstate them.

The bad news? This unknown number of nonfelons (dozens? hundreds? thousands?) won’t be back on the rolls in time to vote Tuesday. Some of them might already have been reinstated, and those who show up at the polls can cast a provisional ballot. But the original wrong — the improper removal of their franchise — has yet to be righted. New Times Broward-Palm Beach

FBI has bugged our public libraries: “Some reports say the FBI is snooping in the libraries. Is that really happening?

Yes. I have uncovered information that persuades me that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has bugged the computers at the Hartford Public Library. And it’s probable that other libraries around the state have also been bugged. It’s an effort by the FBI to obtain leads that it believes may lead them to terrorists.” Hartford Courant

Violent threat from South African white right: Recent bombings give the lie to the view that violence by right-wing extremists is a thing of the past, just on the heels of the court appearance of a group of elite Afrikaner right-wingers accused of plotting to carry out armed attacks against the South African government to set up a secessionist Afrikaner homeland. Events indicate a high level of planning and organization, probably by people with military training. Fears of a pro-apartheid military insurrrection haunted the 1994 election that brought black rule to South Africa but it had been generally agreed that the extremists had lost momentum thereafter. It is not clear if these new secessionists have links to the pre-1994 right-wing groups, although some commentators believe there is evidence that they do. Personally, I have always found it naive to feel reassured that the virulence of apartheid-think had appeared to melt away in the afterglow of post-1994 “truth and reconciliation”.

Tim du Plessis, editor of the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport, told BBC News Online that they are part “of a lunatic right-wing fringe” which included serving and former defence force officers.

Their ideas are “very weird”, he said, and some have been known to call themselves Israel Vision and to have their own version of the Bible, which depicts black people as sub-humans.

They do not seriously threaten the government or the security of South Africa, but Mr du Plessis believes that they could cause serious loss of life and damage and sow distrust in what is still a fragile society. BBC

Some blacks have reportedly threatened reprisals against whites, especially farmers, for the recent bombings.

“An American missile fired from an unmanned CIA drone killed six al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The missile strike, which killed a top associate of Osama bin Laden and five underlings, expands U.S. President George W. Bush’s war on terror and is the first overt strike outside Afghanistan.” canada.com

Sultan of skiffle dies at 71: ‘Lonnie Donegan, father of skiffle, first global superstar of British pop and the first to popularise black music, has died on tour aged 71, it was announced yesterday.

His out-of-the blue hits in 1955 with versions of John Henry and Leadbelly’s Rock Island Line at the age of 24 began a revolution in the charts and in the taste of the young.

He remains admired by generations of younger artists, including Mark Knopfler, Brian May and Van Morrison. A spokeswoman for Donegan said: “In a career that covered over 50 years, he inspired nearly every major musician alive today.” ‘ Guardian UK

See if you can beg, borrow or steal a copy of The Skiffle Sessions — Van Morrison, Donegan, and Chris Barber recorded live in Belfast some years ago. It defines joyful and infectious…