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She gives special praise to:
• Keith Olbermann*** -- the anchor for MSNBC's Countdown • Lou Dobbs -- the anchor for CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight • Sy Hersh -- investigative journalist for the New Yorker • Helen Thomas -- senior White House correspondent for Hearst Newspapers • Michael Smith -- defense and intelligence reporter for the London Sunday Times: (Downing Street Memos) • Laura Rozen -- intelligence and national security correspondent for American Prospect • Robert Dreyfuss -- national security freelance reporter and contributing editor for the Nation • Mike Wilkinson, James Drew, et al, on Coingate -- Toledo Blade reporters • James Meek, Ken Bazinet and Thomas DeFrank -- New York Daily News (national political stories; better than NYT) • Ken Silverstein -- Washington editor for Harpers (Riggs Bank, ExxonMobile, CIA stories) • Charlie Savage -- Homeland Security and Supreme Court reporter for the Boston Globe: (stories on unitary executive, broke 750 signing statements story)
Honorable mention:
• Walter Pincus and Dana Priest at the Washington Post, • Warren Strobel at Knight Ridder & Jim Bamford (expert on NSA dealings) • Dahr Jamail, • Robert Fisk, • Christopher Delisio, • Justin Raimondo, • Naomi Klein, • Peter Arnett, • Andrew Gilligan, • Dan Rather • Max Blumenthal, • Jim Moore, • Paul Krugman, • Maureen Dowd, • Molly Ivins, • Bob Scheer, • Bob Kohler***, • Brad Friedman***, • Rich Sale, • Greg Palast***, • Josh Micah Marshall, • Danny Schechter.
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***What strikes me about this list--and something that I am furious at our best reporters about--is this: Look at all this brain power, and all this investigative power, and there are ONLY FOUR names on this list (as far as I know--correct me if I'm wrong) who have had anything to say about THE most important story in the history of our country--the takeover of our election system during the 2002-2004 period by Bushite electronic voting corporations, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code to "count" all our votes, with virtually no audit/recount controls--a deliberate coup, engineered by the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, now indicted or resigned in bribery scandals. The so-called "Help America Vote Act"--a nearly $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle for Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S--was passing over Bob Ney's desk at the same time as the Abramoff bribes--and it was equally filthy, and far, far, FAR more destructive. It destroyed all TRANSPARENCY in our election system. This gigantic scandal has furthermore been marked by the MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE of the Democratic Party leadership as Bushite corporations gained SECRET control over election results! And they are...
DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and
ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; they are run by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich.
These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy.
And not one peep out of most of these big-time reporters! Not to pick on Paul Krugman--a brilliant writer--but I remember in particular that he went on vacation just after the 2004 election. Where WERE all these big brains as the Bush junta instigated a fascist coup in this country in 2004?
56% of the American people opposed the War on Iraq way back in Feb. '03, before the invasion. Around 70% oppose Bush and his war today. And a whopping 84% (in one recent poll) oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war. How do you shove a war down the throats of the majority of the people, in a democracy? You have to rig the elections. And that's what they did. If they had WANTED to have a transparent vote count in 2004, we would have had one. Transparent vote counting is a no-brainer. People vote, and you count the votes in public view. They DIDN'T WANT a transparent election in 2004 FOR A REASON. The reason was the war--and its massive looting opportunities.
Non-transparent elections are tyranny. There is no other word for it. The 2004 election was a fraud GOING IN--and it produced a tyrant who remains in power on the basis of an illegitimate election, concerning which there is overwhelming inferential evidence that it was stolen.
Silence. Everywhere--among our Democratic leadership, throughout the war profiteering corporate news monopoly press, throughout the leftist press, and from 34 out of 38 of our best reporters! No warning about Diebold and ES&S. No follow-up. Didn't give a crap. So concerned about the high-end subjects of the NSA, and the Pentagon, and the war, and Bushonomics (grand theft), that they couldn't be bothered about the humble American voter and what SHE thought, and what Diebold was doing with her vote behind their "Wizard of Oz" curtain.
The Toleda Blade might have been a whistleblower on Diebold. I'm not familiar enough with the paper to know. Somebody did blow the whistle on Wally O'Dell--but it didn't go very far. Most Americans went into the 2004 election IGNORANT of what had been done to our election system--the complete non-transparency in vote "tabulation" that had been fast-tracked by the billions in HAVA funding, and millions in unregulated lavish lobbying of election officials and legislators.
Our country has been in a state of shock ever since. We, the people, KNOW that we didn't vote for this crazed bomber Bush and his master thief cabalists. How did they stay in power?
This is how--by thoroughly corrupting and de-legitimizing our voting system with corporate secrecy. And so I read all these brilliant people now with a jaundiced eye. Their work is important and often VERY important and courageous, no question about it. They have uncovered unbelievable illegality and horror. But they missed the big one--HOW all this illegality and horror could continue.
And I cannot heap praise high enough on those who smelled out the truth. Of the four on Alexandrovna's list, Brad Friedman has been the most persistent and devoted to the subject. Bob Koehler has written some stunning columns on it. And Olbermann and Palast have both been somewhat off point at times, and not terribly persistent--but they have both reported on aspects of the problem and that something's terribly wrong with how Bush retained power, when no one else was doing so. And there are unsung heroes NOT on Alexandrovna's list, such as our own TruthIsAll here at DU--and also Autorank (Michael Collins, now writing about it for Scoop.com), and LandShark (Paul Lehto, an election reform attorney), Steven Freeman and the statistical crew (UScountvotes.org), as well as Bob Fitrakis (freepress.org), and some other heroes at DU and a few other blogs/web sites.
The subject was black-holed. A great "Iron Curtain" came down upon it right after the 2004 election, which is only very slightly lifted now, as we face Stolen Election III. And I can't help it, I blame all the people on this list who did not cover this incredible assault on our democracy--an assault so serious that it very nearly amounts to the END of our democracy. It may be that the future--if there is one--will look back at the 2004 election as the turning point, beyond which the great American Experiment was so mired in fascism and illegitimate government that American democracy essentially ended that day: November 2, 2004.
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