DUMMERSTON, Vt. — Ever since the somewhat murky outcome of 2004 presidential election in Ohio, there have been numerous reports of how Republicans engaged in widespread and intentional cheating and fraud to ensure that George W. Bush would win.
Unfortunately, the story has never gained traction in the mainstream press. Just like it is considered impolite to say that the Bush administration repeatedly lied to gin up a war with Iraq, it is considered equally impolite to say that Bush stole both the 2000 and 2004 elections.
Maybe that might change with the publication of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s story in latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Kennedy put together a lengthy and well documented summation of the extent of the vote manipulation in Ohio. There was very little new in the Rolling Stone piece, but it is the most complete examination of voting fraud to appear so far in a major American publication.
The mainstream press, particularly in Ohio, pooh-poohed Kennedy's story.
"I read it and there really was nothing new," Carl Weiser, government and public affairs editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer, told Editor & Publisher magazine last week.
"They were things we already reported on and issues we did not see to have much substance," Eva Parziale, Ohio bureau chief for the Associated Press, told E & P.
"In the end, there were problems, but they were not of the magnitude that would have made any difference," Doug Clifton, editor of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, told E & P.
In other words, it's old news and not really a story worth talking about.
Except that it is. Kennedy's story is this summer's Downing Street Memos.
Remember them? The documents leaked in the British press last year that confirmed that the Bush administration settled upon an invasion of Iraq early in 2002 and was manipulating intelligence data to support that desire?
The Washington press corps pretty much ignored them. It took nearly a month before the AP ran a story acknowledging their existence, and it consisted mostly of official denials.
Few in the press have the courage to say the Bush administration intentionally lied to the American people on Iraq. Likewise, few have the courage to say that Bush supporters in Ohio, and other states, did everything they could to ensure a Bush victory.
Here's some of what the Ohio press corps believes is old news that's totally irrelevant and not worth further investigation:
• Nearly 240,000 votes went uncounted in Ohio, enough to give Bush the margin of victory he needed to win the state, and ultimately the election.
• In all, about 3.6 million votes nationwide were uncounted. If you were a black voter, you were nine times more like to see your vote discarded than if you were a white voter.
• There were about 1.4 million "spoiled" votes nationwide — punch cards with too few or too many punches, paper ballots that were improperly scanned or touch screens that never registered a result.
Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than 25 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He can be reached at randyholhut@yahoo.com.
Suppose you get mugged in the street and a guy is holding a knife on your throat. Would you mention he was doing something illegal? Would you stand up for your rights? Or would you simply hand him the cash?
Exactly the same thing is happening with journalists. If they'd dare to write something about the fraud their editor would cancel the piece and have them fired, and if an editor would not cancel the piece he'd await severe countermeasures.
I'll tell you why there is no outrage: The USA is no longer a democracy, which you just confirmed in your own article.
The question is not why there is no outrage, the question is what you are going to do about it, knowing you will be `suicided' if you really start making waves.
Come on, you have been tought from your early childhood that it's better to die trying to be free than to live enslaved. Why is everybody so afraid all of the sudden? This is your chance to be a hero!
by
Han (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 195 comments)
on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at 2:56:52 PM
Where are all the comments? The same place the outrage is.
Han say's this is no longer a Democracy, he is right.
The corporations own the press and the politicians.
This country stopped being for the people after WWll.
We were warned by Eisenhower about the Military Industrial Complex.
When Kennedy was assassinated we did nothing after the Warren Commission told us about the magic bullet, again no outrage.
The 9/11 commission reported all there findings, again no outrage.
We as Americans' like the status quo so we keep our mouth shut....it has not always been like this I remember the Gas Shortage of the 1970's people got the prices down to something acceptable.
When Viet Nam was going on and Nixon resigned I lived in ignorance, in my twentys I could care less about the government and what they did I thought that if someone pushed the red button, at least we would all die together,
today Ignorance is not bliss, the Paul Reveare of today has not yet arrived. And in my cynical way I doubt that he will come, but I still hope some great politician will arrive on the seine and put people in jail. Maybe another McCarthy but a good guy that respects the Constitution of the United States.
by
anthny (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 39 comments)
on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at 5:57:36 PM
I understand Holhut's frustration. I started an oped piece on Kennedy's article in RollingStone only to encounter the sorry web of lies in the Ohio voting scandal. It seems that Tom Noe of coingate fame and Gov. Bob Taft along with Blackwell, were all involved with a Bush fundraising scheme in 2004.
Tom Noe was one of Bush's "Pioneer" donors funneling money to other principles to avoid detection. For his efforts, his wife and himself attended the Whitehouse Inaugural Ball.
Sad for Noe last week he was convicted of 4 counts of bribery, money laundering and one count of the RICO act for organized crime.
Writes columnist Bob Herbert in the Monday's edition of The New York Times on 06/12/2006:
"Republicans, and even a surprising number of Democrats, have been anxious to leave the 2004 Ohio election debacle behind. But Kennedy, in his long, heavily footnoted article ("Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"), leaves no doubt that the democratic process was trampled and left for dead in the Buckeye State. Kerry almost certainly would have won Ohio if all of his votes had been counted, and if all of the eligible voters who tried to vote for him had been allowed to cast their ballots.
No one has been able to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked. But whenever it is closely scrutinized, the range of problems and dirty tricks that come to light is shocking. What's not shocking, of course, is that every glitch and every foul-up in Ohio, every arbitrary new rule and regulation, somehow favored Bush."
This is like the Karl Rove indictment story, more will be revealed as we near the 2006 midterm election.
Be patient and wait. It is coming.
by
Sherry Gee (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments)
on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at 7:00:25 PM
THERE WILL BE NO OUTRAGE WITHOUT PUBLIC DISCLOSURE!
Before there can be public outrage for any type of election fraud, the public needs to be fully informed and educated. For whatever reason, subjects relating to election fraud, the clergy sex abuse crisis, and controversial wiretapping practices have their own type of "twist" nowadays. Outrage only follows full public disclosure -- and in my opinion, that hasn't happened yet!
Debby Bodkin, Founder
www.catholics4justice.com
by
Debby Bodkin (42 articles, 0 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 44 comments)
on Friday, June 23, 2006 at 8:07:27 PM
