Reply #38: BRADBLOG IS OFF AND RUNNING WITH THIS STORY

[Wiley50]

Many excellent LTTE's being sent out from there

bradblog.com

A sample:

COMMENT #19
...Steve said on 4/28/2005 @ 9:49pm PT...

My letter to Wycliff:

Dear Mr. Wycliff,

RE: When winning isn't everything, April 28

Any truly nonpartisan person looking at ALL the facts regarding the past Presidential election (really, the past two) would say that there was something rotten in Ohio and in many other parts of the US. Let me refer you to a far more insightful journalist than yourself, a conservative by the name of Christopher Hitchens, who was actually willing to look at all of the peculiarities in Ohio and came to a more learned and very different conclusion than yours).

You use some ridiculous, anecdotal testimony from your apparent guru, Tim Jones, who himself relays anecdotal reports from UNNAMED "nonpartisan, unbiased" individuals and that is supposed to satisfy us that there were "no irregularities" despite all the evidence to the contrary??!! I would certainly put more faith in "The Conyers Report: What Went Wrong in Ohio" than your conclusions based on another person's anecdotal conclusions based on some other people's anecdotal conclusions.

What Nixon did or didn't do is irrelevant to ANYONE who cares about our democracy. In case you didn't realize it, we are now using closed-code, non-verifiable vote counting machines, produced by a small group of highly partisan Republicans to tabulate a large percentage of votes in this country. In addition, 100,000 votes can be switched in a minute by a relatively unsophisticated hacker while leaving NO TRACE of the act (see Bev Harris AND Chuck Herrin).

The implications go FAR beyond a question of crying over spilt milk. You say winning isn't the sole end of politics- maybe not (although the Republicans aren't acting that way) but honest elections that answer to the true will of the people should (MUST) be. It is never sufficient to say that maybe a previous election was stolen, so what's another stolen election here or there. The ability to steal elections and thwart our democracy was NEVER greater than it is now and it will only get greater if we continue to turn a blind eye.

You point to "one very powerful point" that Mr. Koehler's article makes- "the duty of the news media, as watchdogs of our democracy, to study, identify and shine a spotlight on weaknesses and abuses in our most fundamental democratic activity--elections". Indeed, that is what it is all about. Regrettably, that spotlight is not being shined and it won't be if the so-called mainstream media continues to put out pablum like your article. Amazingly, your column was run by the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Koehler's far more insightful and well-written column, which you slight, was not picked up by any of the flagship Tribune newspapers. Nothing could be more telling.