Some quick stuff

* Academia seems to be ever-so-slowly wading into the 2004 electoral mess. First, Steven F. Freeman of UPenn looked at the odd pattern of exit polling. Now a UC Berkeley team has found evidence of funny business in Florida.

* If you're looking for inspirational reading, check out recent offerings from Arundhati Roy and Howard Zinn.

* Recent shake-ups in the Bush administration are strengthening the neocons.

* Who killed Margaret Hassan? Rory McCarthy and Robert Fisk weigh in.

* Don't look now, but history seems to be repeating itself.

* Robert Parry: "Reality was on the ballot on Nov. 2. It seems to have lost."

* Edward Ericson Jr. of the Baltimore City Paper looks back at how the Lancet survey of Iraq war fatalities was shoved down the memory hole prior to the election.