The  Kangaroos Stayed

What an historic day.  I had become somewhat resigned to the fact that Americans were going to be treated to another joyful weekend of Floridians hunting for votes, dimples, indentations, anything that could turn the mess to Mr. Gore's favor -- this time with even fewer standards than the last -- when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the Kangaroo Kourt's order, granted the Bush team cert, and perhaps tipped its hand with the highly unusual inclusion of majority and minority opinions with their stay.

It was certainly brazen of the Kangaroos simply to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's strong instructions in its per curiam ruling.  That just is not done!  Now, I would expect the U.S. Supreme Court to make its position crystal clear to the Kangaroos, who have shown that a strong hint is not enough.

Here is some news that wasn't quite as exciting to the major media, and was either misreported or not reported at all yesterday:  1) the 11th Circuit was widely reported to have denied the Bush stay request.  That was indeed the case, but that Court DID enjoin the State of Florida from certifying ANY results of hand recounts until the Supreme Court could decide on certiorari; within minutes, the U.S. Supreme Court unexpectedly issued a stay itself, rendering this order moot, but the order represented a significant curtailment of the Kangaroos; 2) a Federal district judge in Florida ruled that those military absentee ballots targeted by the Gore lawyers and thrown out by local officials WERE THROWN OUT ILLEGALLY and must be counted.  While the media and some Republicans have argued those ballots were thrown out on technicalities, in actuality those ballots were thrown out illegally because the Gore team urged local officials to follow Florida statutes ONLY, when in reality a General Consent Agreement between the state of Florida and the U.S. Government (bringing Florida into line with Federal requirements on military absentee ballots -- which trump state requirements) superseded Florida statutes, and required those ballots to be counted.  

The mess is slowly coming to an end.

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