Florida back in the headlines
It just wouldn't be a US presidential election without some controversy in Florida would it? The state is back in the headlines as a senior Republican-appointed official has ordered the radical campaigner Ralph Nader's name reinstated on the ballot for the crucial presidential vote. The Telegraph reports that after Ralph Nader was ruled out of the Florida ballot last Thursday by a state circuit court judge, "Mrs Hood, who was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush, the president's brother, said she was obliged to overrule a judge's preliminary court ruling because Hurricane Ivan might prevent the judge from holding a final hearing."

The great thing is, that Hurricane that Ivan is not even due to strike the state capital, Tallahassee, where the judge sits! We've all heard the reasoning, whether it's a Democratic crutch or not, that Bush won by 500 votes in Florida in the 2000 election, where independent Nader won more that 100 000 votes. Naturally then, the Democrats are incensed, with Florida Democratic chairman, Scott Maddox, saying the decision was "blatant political manoeuvring by Jeb Bush to give his brother a leg up on election day" in November.

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