****OFFICIAL HERO NOMINATION THREAD****

[PCIntern]

During the past eight years, we have been living in a Twilight Zone of Orwell-inspired Mein Kampf-fueled crypto-fascism. During the early years following 9/11 only a few prominent individuals were brave enough to publish editorials within the MSM or who took public stands which were at odds with the Bush Administration's memes which were operative during a supposed 90%+ approval rating. Many of us felt that these people were in professional and personal danger at that time.

I would personally nominate:

Paul Krugman
Valerie Plame
Joseph Wilson
Keith Olbermann

I know there are others. Would anyone wish to contribute names?

[Uzybone]

1. Not a name but an editorial board

Its reporting has been suspect, but the NYTimes editorials were a voice of reason during these 8 years.

I would also add Bill Maher but there was a 6 month period when he seemed to waver on opposition to the Iraq War.

[FLAprogressive]

2. Some:

Dennis Kucinich
Marcy Kaptur
Phil Donahue

[babylonsister]

3. Knight-Ridder reporting team...

The Reporting Team That Got Iraq Right

March 17, 2008 06:29 PM


As the war in Iraq completes its fifth year this week, The Huffington Post is featuring interviews with and essays by those journalists, elected officials, policymakers and former military officials who spoke out early and boldly against what they saw as an inevitable disaster. They join our Iraq Honor Roll.

In the months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the reporters in the Knight Ridder Newspapers Washington D.C. bureau were virtually alone in their questioning of the Bush Administration's allegations of links between Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism. The team of Knight Ridder reporters, led by Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel, John Walcott and Joe Galloway, produced stories that now read like a prescient accounting of how the Bush Administration sought to sell the war to the American people. Walcott and Landay spoke with The Huffington Post about the fifth anniversary of the war. Knight Ridder Newspapers has since merged with McClatchy Newspapers. You can read the entire Knight Ridder and McClatchy archives of their Iraq intelligence reporting by clicking here.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/17/the-reporting-team-that-g_n_91981.html

[blm]

28. Jonathan landay, Warren Strobel at Knight-Ridder. Kerry attacking Bush publicly on ToraBora

in Jan2002 and straight thru to after the 2004 election and even with most Dems AND media siding with Bush. In early 2005 some CIA operatives IN Afghanistan at the time finally came forward and corroborated Kerry's story.

[liberalmuse]

4. Sen. Jim Jeffords...

I remember when he turned 'Independent' in the middle of Bush trying to push through some truly atrocious shit, so the Republicans didn't have a clear majority anymore. He will always be a hero to me, and was one of the first during this long 8 years of hell.

Cindy Sheehan. Before her protests, most Americans didn't care all that much about the war. She gave it attention and pushed it into many Americans consciousness.

Nancy Pelosi used to be my hero. She was one of the few prominent speakers I saw when I went to San Francisco in May 2001 to protest against the USSC 'Bush vs Gore' decision. I don't know what has happened to her since then.

[BeFree]

5. No names

But the 10% of Americans who opposed bushco on September 12th, should take a bow.

[moodforaday]

12. Bravo!

And a tip of the hat to those 10%.

[Corgigal]

6. Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court

No one else comes close.

[hlthe2b]

8. Stevens is synomous with "stamina"...

Bless him, for sure...

[hlthe2b]

7. Seymore Hersch & Helen Thomas, always.. top ACLU lawyers

definitely Plame and Joe Wilson, agree on Phil DOnohue and KO, Knight Ridder (now McClatchy), Vincent Bugliosi, Dennis Kucinich, the troop who blew the whistle on Abu Gharaib (so sad, I don't know his name), many others....

[eleny]

9. Sibel Edmonds

[riverwalker]

10. Scott Ritter n/t

[FLAprogressive]

11. A few more:

Jim McDermott
Lincoln Chafee
Russ Feingold
Robert Byrd

[seasat]

13. The bloggers: Josh Marshall, Markos, DU and others

After the 2000 election and 9/11 our view was drowned out by the media machine that the wing nuts had built up. The resurgence was started by the bloggers. They were behind Dean's campaign in 2004. They did investigative journalism that the traditional media ignored. They reported on the US attorney firing scandal. They pointed out Bush's crimes. They were the only voices hold Shrub Inc accountable for years. They laid the foundation for some of the liberal reporting that we have now like Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

My other nominee is John Stewart and the Daily Show cast. They helped reach out to the youth that were disenchanted with politics. They pointed out the hypocrisy of the wing nuts through humor. One of John Stewart's biggest contribution is that he pointed out the absurdity of the "fair and balanced" approach to journalism.

[Are_grits_groceries]

14. The Dixie Chicks nt

[PCIntern]

15. Good one!

Remember all the CD burning? Good for them...

[Renegade08]

16. Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, David Letterman,

Erwin Chemerinsky, Keith Olbermann, the View hosts. There are more.

[booksenkatz]

17. The Congressional Black Caucus. NT

[Vinca]

18. Bernie Sanders and everyone from Code Pink. nt

[Capt. America]

19. Cindy Sheehan

[helderheid]

20. Helen Thomas

[rurallib]

21. Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Keith Olbermann

Rachel Maddow and other gutsy real reporters.
Also Mark Crispin Miller and Brad-blog on the election front.

[fortyfeetunder]

22. The late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones

I wish she could have been here on Election Day.

:cry:

[Dj13Francis]

23. Dennis Kucinich

My first choice for President at the start. In all deference to SNL's skit last night on Biden, the only difference between Kucinich and a pit bull is that sometimes a pit bull shuts up. Kucinich is always speaking out. HERO of the finest sort.

[AlCzervik]

24. Lara Logan for unspinning pentagon reports from the ground in Iraq.

[rucky]

25. Steven Colbert

[TheDoorbellRang]

29. and Jon Stewart

I'd like to see just how much influence these two had on 18-29 y.o. voters. I would guess quite a bit. In addition to pointing out the idiocies of the current administration, they were able to delineate the propagandizing rampant in the M$M. Consequently, young people never got snookered by FOX et al as much as older Americans did because of these guys.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

26. Al Gore

:patriot:

[Fearless]

27. Keith Olbermann, Dennis Kucinich, and Teddy Kennedy.

And anyone who has stood in the way of BushCo.

[fortyfeetunder]

30. Tina Fey

For hilariously showing us what we could have had -- if we had not voted Obama-Biden...

[Uzybone]

31. Jimmy Breslin

[flvegan]

32. Dennis Kucinich and the Beastie Boys.

I've always wanted a thread where my post would contain both names.

Kucinich, of course, way way way ahead of the BBoys, but again wanted both in one post.

[Bonobo]

33. Ehren Watada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehren_Watada


Ehren Watada (born 1978) is a First Lieutenant of the United States Army who in June, 2006, refused to deploy to Iraq for his unit's assigned rotation to Operation Iraqi Freedom.<1><2> Watada said he believed the war to be illegal and that, under the doctrine of command responsibility, it would make him party to war crimes. At the time, he was assigned to duty with the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, as a Fire Support Officer. Watada is the first commissioned officer in the U.S. armed forces to refuse to deploy to Iraq.<3>

Watada's February 2007 court-martial ended in a mistrial when he argued that his orders were unlawful, because Military Judge John Head ruled that question can not be resolved within the military justice system, saying the argument was thus reduced to an admission of guilt. A second court-martial was scheduled but was stayed in October 2007 by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle, who issued an order stating that Watada's "double jeopardy claim is meritorious" and no evidence that it lacks merit was presented.<4> The Army challenged the injunction, and Judge Settle ruled on October 21, 2008, that Watada cannot be retried on three of the five counts, but abstained from deciding whether the remaining two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer may go forward.<5>

[LeftishBrit]

34. Robin Cook

And my personal heroes, the schoolchildren of Oxford, who were among the first people in England to go on the streets and protest against the preemptive war, when most of the grownups were either too shocked or too apathetic to act, and our 'Labour' government were rolling over like poodles.

[Condem]

35. Springsteen

[road2000]

36. Here are three.

Al Gore, for his speech on the war at the Commonwelath Club in September of 2002.

Garrison Keillor, for some of the more daring comments on his show, which include publicly calling Bushco "monsters."

And Molly Ivins, for everything she wrote.

[parasim]

37. Barack Obama

Starting with his stance against the Iraq war when he was running for state senate...

[Danger Mouse]

38. The American people, for finally tossing out the scum, even if years too late.

[cherokeeprogressive]

39. The firefighters who time and time again come to the aid of Southern Californians.

When needed, they come from near and far. They risk their lives doing what they do. The outpouring of appreciation from our communities is evidence that we think they're heroes, each and every one.