U.S. Voting Machines Belong to Venezuelan Dictator

Venezuela's ties to voting machine vendors:

Meanwhile, Congress is reviewing separate reforms to sharpen scrutiny of voting equipment companies after the March 2005 sale of Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., one of the largest U.S. voting equipment companies, to Florida-based Smartmatic Inc.

Smartmatic operates voting machines throughout Venezuela, and CEO Antonio Mugica has said the Venezuelan government has no stake in the company. But Smartmatic's ties to Venezuela - a nation whose president, Hugo Chavez, recently called President Bush "the devil" - has raised eyebrows.

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GOP Candidates are running from the pariah Bush:

The White House did not hide its irritation Monday at Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist for ducking President Bush at a campaign rally in the Republican-friendly Panhandle.

Crist said he considered the Pensacola area so firmly in his camp that it made more sense to campaign elsewhere in the state as the race to replace outgoing Gov. Jeb Bush tightened.

On a tarmac in Texas where the president boarded Air Force One for the trip east, Bush political strategist Karl Rove mockingly questioned what kind of alternate rally Crist could put together that would rival the expected 10,000-person crowd that Bush was expected to draw at the Pensacola Civic Center.

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Even FOX polls show the Republicans are in trouble:

Nearly half of likely voters — 49 percent — favor the Democratic candidate in their House district and 36 percent the Republican, with 15 percent still undecided in a FOX News poll conducted the final weekend before the midterm elections.