CNN are reporting that an International team will monitor the US presidential election (via TJAW). Seemingly they were requested (via the UN) because of some concerns about the 2000 election.
I find this incredible in three ways. Firstly, that any self-proclaimed civil state (and "the land of the free", after all!) should ever need to be observed. Secondly, it's one of those things that you can't really say no to, although there seems to be some concen that these pesky foreigners should be taking such liberties. Thirdly, it's amazing that an ammendment was passed to specificically take any US funding away from the observers if they came to the US.
This all seems to be one of two things. Either a public verification of US "democracy" (but why remove the funding aspect, if that's the case?), or it's a genuine look into problems with Diebold (and other) voting machines, the vote counting, the voting papers, chads and all the other flannel.
What ever happens, if the observers don't like what they see, it'll be disregarded as "foreign interference" and "unamerican". Only true patriots can observe elections properly, and true patriots wouldn't dare to critcise them ;-)
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