Salon.com Tells Me What Fools We Are

This is why I do not belong to Salon.com. They always tell you that you are an idiot to believe that there was something wrong with the Presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. Shouldn’t we all want to know the truth? How are we to find out the truth, if we don’t question? If we don’t research all available accounts? Isn’t our Republic, our Democracy worth the questions and answers? Their latest is the review of the Rolling Stone’s article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Are they the mouth piece for Mr. Bush and his Administration? Why don’t they want us to look at the elections? Why are questions bad? Why is it a bad thing to have a new voice asking those questions?
From the Salon.com article:

Was the 2004 election stolen? No.
In Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argues that new evidence proves that Bush stole the election. But the evidence he cites isn’t new and his argument is filled with distortions and blatant omissions.
Whatever his aim, RFK Jr. does not appear intent on fixing the problem. He’s more content to take us through a hit parade of the most popular, and the most dismissible, theories purporting to show that John Kerry won Ohio, theories that have been swirling about the blogosphere ever since the race was called. I scoured his Rolling Stone article for some novel story or statistic or theory that would prove, finally, that George W. Bush was not the true victor. But nothing here is new. If you’ve spent time on Democratic Underground or have read Mark Crispin Miller’s “Fooled Again,” you’re already familiar with everything Kennedy has to say.
{Source}

“He’s more content to take us through a hit parade of the most popular, and the most dismissible, theories…….” Dismissible? Salon.com needs to read the Government Accountability Office report on both the 2000 and especially the 2004 elections. Dismissible? Nothing to do with our elections is dismissible. Without a true and honest election, we are no better than all those South-of-the-Border elections we hold in such contempt.
What did they expect? That Mr. Kennedy had some way to get new information? When you write on any subject, you are going to do your research from known and published sources. That does not mean that nothing new is brought forward, just that each of us have a different slant on what we are writing. We write articles to help the dialog along. Hopefully, to help others and ourselves to think. What one writer publishes may not get my attention, but what another one says may. A light bulb may go off in my head, when I read certain words, presented in a different way.
The Government Accountability Office study on this subject makes it very plain that something was very wrong in America. Since the mainstream media has moved on, again, every article that sees the light of day, is of value. Do you really want to live in a country where the peoples will, the peoples vote does not matter? Isn’t that a Dictatorship? Isn’t this what we fought all those wars and “police actions” to keep away from our shores?

In essence, the GAO study makes it clear that no bank, grocery store or mom & pop chop shop would dare operate its business on a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one on which the 2004 election turned.
The Government Accountability Office Report findings on the 2004 elections, are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Far from what election theft skeptics have long asserted, the GAO findings confirm that the electronic network on which 800,000 Ohio votes were cast was vulnerable enough to allow a a tiny handful of operatives — or less — to turn the whole vote count using personal computers operating on relatively simple software.

The exit polls showed Kerry winning in Ohio, until an unexplained last minute shift gave the election to Bush. Similar definitive shifts also occurred in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, a virtual statistical impossibility.

A few weeks prior to the election, an unauthorized former ES&S voting machine company employee, was caught on the ballot-making machine in Auglaize County

Election officials in Mahoning County now concede that at least 18 machines visibly transferred votes for Kerry to Bush. Voters who pushed Kerry’s name saw Bush’s name light up, again and again, all day long. Officials claim the problems were quickly solved, but sworn statements and affidavits say otherwise. They confirm similar problems in Franklin County (Columbus). Kerry’s margins in both counties were suspiciously low.

A voting machine in Mahoning County recorded a negative 25 million votes for Kerry. The problem was allegedly fixed.

In Gahanna Ward 1B, at a fundamentalist church, a so-called “electronic transfer glitch” gave Bush nearly 4000 extra votes when only 638 people voted at that polling place. The tally was allegedly corrected, but remains infamous as the “loaves and fishes” vote count.

In Franklin County, dozens of voters swore under oath that their vote for Kerry faded away on the DRE without a paper trail.

In Miami County, at 1:43am after Election Day, with the county’s central tabulator reporting 100% of the vote - 19,000 more votes mysteriously arrived; 13,000 were for Bush at the same percentage as prior to the additional votes, a virtual statistical impossibility.

In Cleveland, large, entirely implausible vote totals turned up for obscure third party candidates in traditional Democratic African-American wards. Vote counts in neighboring wards showed virtually no votes for those candidates, with 90% going instead for Kerry.

Prior to one of Blackwell’s illegitimate “show recounts,” technicians from Triad voting machine company showed up unannounced at the Hocking County Board of Elections and removed the computer hard drive.

In response to official information requests, Shelby and other counties admit to having discarded key records and equipment before any recount could take place.

In a conference call with Rev. Jackson, Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney Bob Fitrakis and others, John Kerry confirmed that he lost every precinct in New Mexico that had a touchscreen voting machine. The losses had no correlation with ethnicity, social class or traditional party affiliation—only with the fact that touchscreen machines were used. {Source}

So, when Salon.com keeps telling us that we are idiots, that their was no crime, just move on, I say they are doing the work of the White House. That they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. If they were doing their job, they would take the time to really research this subject and write an article which tells the truth. Yes, they can criticize any author, but point out where they are wrong and give credit for where they are right.

Our country is based on all of us talking over all issues and coming to a consensus of what is the truth. We can only do this, if all information is available to us. The media is not doing this. Salon.com is not doing this. I am thankful for all those who are trying to bring this issue to the people. Errors and all. Don’t stifle the dialog, advance it with all the facts.

Shame on you, Salon.com. Shame!

Also read this article. Many good links on the side bar on right of page.