[Sussex] Linux is capitalism, Microsoft is communism?

[Stephen Williams]

On Mon, 2004-10-25 at 18:32, Geoffrey John Teale wrote:
> > Rubbish. A close election result != a coup. It's a hard truth, live with
> > it.
> 
> Steve, I would, except that Gore won Florida (even if you count all the
> illegal votes by proxy the republicans got in that state) and thus had
> the electoroal college votes to win the presidency, coup by abuse of the
> legal system is just as undemocratic as military coup.  Thats a hard
> truth, live with it... ;-P
> 

I can't imagine that the US Supreme Court would have tolerated any kind
of electoral fraud. Both sides argued their respective cases at great
length, and the result was upheld. The US Supreme Court judges are
politically appointed it is true, but it is worth bearing in mind that
there had been a Democrat administration for the previous 8 years.
Consequently I suspect that the Supreme Court would have tended to
incline towards the Democrats, if at all.

It is very frustrating for the loser to miss out by a tiny margin, but
it happens. I've seen local election results determined by a single
vote; this usually results in a number of recounts until both parties
are satisfied - hard on the loser, but there we go.

When it comes to conspiracy theories'r us versus the US Supreme Court, I
put my faith in the latter.

> > Not unless you're American - and there's a good chance you'd be voting
> > Bush anyway.
> 
> Sadly so...  
>