We’ve already seen some of the raw bones of the Fourth Estate that many have, for years, claimed was part and parcel of the liberal Democratic Party. Now we’ve seen the media’s Simple Simon approach to a serious subject that we all know something about. And we continue to see its biased reporting the longer the saga continues.

The Florida situation has moved into Act II, the legal battle. Thousands of lawyers have descended into the country’s bilge to add their legal spin to every conceivable angle, interpretation, and fanciful rhetoric or “legalese” regarding Florida law. Opportunists like Jesse Jackson and Allen Dershowitz are starting to show up behind every palm tree. And we all watch to see who the media will feature in its quest to prove that Al Gore’s camp is doing the right thing while the Bush camp is full of evil manipulators and prejudice.

It should also be noted that all of this is happening in a State with Sunshine Law and cameras permitted in court. The “sunshine law” means that all government business will be open to the public. Anyone who wants to attend any meeting may do so. And does the media bring us these meetings? If they do, they usually cut for commercial at crucial points or immediately turn to their interpretations of what we just heard for ourselves.

I can hardly wait for Act III, the psychiatric and psychic phase. A few mystics are already down there helping to divine the “pregnant chad,” but the bulk of real help is yet to come. God knows, the ex-urbanite New Yorkers who trickled down to the East Coast of South Florida after their divorces, business failures and pressures of the rat-race have needed therapy for years.

Mid-Westerners seeking their life in the sun generally take the direct bilge water path to Tampa, Naples and points on the West Coast mosquito country leeward edge of the Everglades. Until they breathe too much DDT, these people tend to be a little healthier than the New York “cawfee” drinkers who run head long into high spirited Cuban refugees and their brand of expresso instant wake-up boiled down thumbnail thimbles of pure caffeine. Refugees who often have more tricks and crimes of passion up their sleeves than the retired New Yorkers ever dreamed of. Meyer Lansky taught them well, and their Americanized children took it from there.

You will not find the Clinton News Network (CNN) sending Bobby Batista into this South Florida mess, but you will find every other up and coming anchor person staying up all hours to bring us the latest opinions, deadlines, interpretations of the obvious and on-the-scene breaking news. I wonder how many of them can hold on to their own sensibilities in the land below the frost line of fantasyland, or even remember their mission.

While we watch intently for some rational direction and sensible resolution of this even-Steven crisis somewhere in the milieu, I’m afraid the Gore camp is up to much more dastardly deeds. I think Paul Fallavollita is right on track when, in his latest Etherzone article, he says that “the government is quicker than the eye.”

Focused as we all are on Florida, what’s to keep the Clinton/Gore “dirty tricks” teams from infiltrating the Electoral College with all sorts of scumbag maneuvers in the fashion of “Primary Colors” or the FBI “filegate” scandal? Stop for a minute and think about it.

If George W. Bush ends up winning Florida, has he really won the Presidency? Seems to me, there’s something in the Constitution about the U.S. Congress having to ratify or certify the Electoral College, and then the College having to vote on December 18th of this year. Throughout our history, there may have been only seven or eight individual members who ever deviated from the rules of their state or the popular vote in their state—but how many would it take for Al Gore to gain the advantage? Is it merely one or two, possibly three of these Electoral College members who would need to swing to Gore or give him the election by voting for Nader or not voting at all?

Given the power and the resources of the oligarchy, how hard is it to find enough dirt on people to pressure them into doing what you want? How much of a surprise would it be in this already unique election? And who’s going to ever prove that anything underhanded happened?

What do you suppose most Americans would do if the stranger sitting next to them suddenly said: “I know what you did last summer” and then told how it could all be kept from the wife or the whole town, and “you’ll get rich besides”?

As the media unravels, we’ve already got Bill Kristol reporting ABC’s attempts to “research” members of the Colorado Electoral College. If they wanted a poll, why didn’t they hire Gallup?

At 3:10PM CST on Friday, November 17th, Fox News interviewed Bob Beckle, Democratic Consultant, who claims to be contacting hundreds of “friends of Republican members” of State Electoral Colleges, and doing so on his own. He claims to be able to prove, by statistical analysis that will be approved by a number of Political Scientists, that George W. Bush “stole” the Florida election. The important thing to understand here is that Mr. Beckle does not have this statistical analysis yet, claiming it will take ten or twelve days to put together, but he’s confident it will show the results he expects and be enough to make members of the Electoral College reconsider their vote and duty. Isn’t that objective?

Is this just the tip of the iceberg? Do you even know who your State’s Electoral College members are? Start by looking at your local political wannabes.

In no time at all, it all gets right down to who you can trust, doesn’t it?