Olbermann Blog Post (11.19): Talks about all the academic reports

[Kralizec]

I really like the way he thinks, and writes. Enjoy!


"All I know is what I don't read in the papers"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

[cybildisobedience]

1. Just read it

I think he's starting to realize that there is a media "lock-down" after all.

Thanks for posting.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. Vladimir lives!

The truth that shall not be spoken...

[UL_Approved]

2. It gets to the point

Our efforts are not in vain as long as one reporter in a major news network is on the ball. Keep it kicked, and watch for posts from the DUer TruthIsAll. That poster is keeping up on all of the election fraud.

[blue neen]

3. So the rest of the media ignores this because it's damn hard work!

Shame on them! They would actually be required to READ something!

[rockedthevoteinMA]

4. I loved that line...can't you hear *'s whining voice from the debates?

"But it's hard work!" I shouted at the TV - "Then quit *sshole!!

[Shopaholic]

5. Keith just sounds discouraged to me in this article

I don't blame him-he's been doing ALL the heavy lifting on this for the media. It is very depressing to realize that no one seems to give a crap about any of this except us.

[bmoney07]

6. Can't wait for him to get back

Man I wish he was on TV instead stuck here in our world.

KEEP DIGGING PEOPLE - DON'T GIVE UP

OUR VOTES/DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE

:D

[Clark2008]

34. Yeah... but think how much of a wrecking machine

he will be when he's rested.

Go, Keith.
Go, Keith.
Go, Keith...
It's your birthday (not really - his birthday, like all cool people's, is in January. ;) )

[smartvoter]

15. It IS discouraging.

If virtually no one is even willing to attend and report on a press conference detailing the work of a university that has studied the matter, it does not bode well for the outcome. The reason we cannot build momentum is almost no one knows these problems are real and not the imaginings of "conspiracy nuts on the web."

I know there are plenty of people here who defend Kerry on this, but the truth is that, without the candidate contesting the results, it it hard to gain any credibility. Logic suggests that no one would have more reason to contest the results than him and he had an army of election watchers who found nothing, and democratic leaders are saying there's no evidence of fraud. The bottom line is we can try to interpret some cryptic message from Kerry's statements but he very clearly said the numbers aren't there. As far as this effort goes, it was a nail-in-the-coffin statement.

All the post-election stories are on what the Dems did wrong. Carville busted an egg on his face, Brazille said there's no evidence of fraud, Kerry said the numbers aren't there, pundits say the Democratic Party needs to be reworked from the ground up. The momentum isn't just against us, the country has blown right past us.

Unless Kerry steps forward, the outcome of this election is dead in the water. Whatever progress we make will be toward prevention in future elections.

[heyokabear]

18. on future elections...

"Unless Kerry steps forward, the outcome of this election is dead in the water. Whatever progress we make will be toward prevention in future elections."

If our elections are meaningless, and we cannot make them meaningful by examining THIS election, why would we spend time and energy on future elections (that would be similarly fixed)?

If we cannot make progress on this election, and assure ourselves that elections will be free from corruption in the future, we have no democracy. We will have witnessed the end of it ourselves over the past 4 years.

If that is the case, the question becomes not the next election, but how do we deal with a totalitarian system of government that is established and runs the legislative, executive, judicial branches of government and owns the press.

bear

[smartvoter]

19. We hound and expose until the problems are fixed.

We can't throw in the towel -- the problems have to be fixed. I just don't see how we can affect this election without Kerry coming forward.

[a new day]

9. They're following the lead of the President of the U. S., it seems n/t

[RageKage]

7. Are Ohio's touchscreens different from Florida's?

Is it true that Ohio's touchscreens have a paper trail, but that Florida's do not?

[mzmolly]

12. From what I gather "Opti-Scan" Counties in both states are questionable.

So they both have paper trails in some cases.

However some counties in Florida do NOT have a paper trail ... so essentially your correct.

Welcome! :toast:

[Mike Nelson]

8. KEITH RULES! (nt)

*

[IndyPriest]

10. Money quote from ES&S

I LOVE this kind of diversion from a (potential) perp: "Friedman-Wilson of the touch-screen manufacturer Election Systems & Software (their machines were in use in Broward and Miami-Dade) : 'If you consider real-world experience, we know that ES&S’ touch-screen voting system has been proven in thousands of elections throughout the country.'”

Reminds me of the diversion from Firestone about it's tires: "In real-world experience - as opposed to these tests being run by tin foil types - our tires have performed flawlessly, BILLIONS of miles served, MILLIONS of people carried safely to their homes and work...!". Or a similar diversion from the Catholic church about sex abuse among its clergy: "How dare these money-grubbing lawyers accuse our clergy! Our priests have honorably served THOUSANDS of parishes all across this great country!" Or a similar diversion from the American Dental Association about amalgam fillings: "We've been putting mercury in peoples' mouthes for more than a century. Don't believe those conspiracy nutcases. By God, if there was anything wrong with our fine fillings, people would be getting sick!"

Is there a "School of Diversionary Comment" these people attend to learn this particular brand of bullshit??

[WiseFawn]

11. newspapers

I don't know where to post these. I keep track of newspaper stories. Here are two new ones.

http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_3339868,00.html

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2578803&nav=0RceTEfz

[anamandujano]

20. Exactly--the sentence that says nothing

". . . . ES&S’ touch-screen voting system has been proven in thousands of elections throughout the country" begging the question,

"WHAT has been proven?"

[heyokabear]

13. the silence of the media lambs

From Joni Mitchell's album Night Ride Home, the song "Come in from the Cold" (1991):

We really thought we had a purpose
We were so anxious to achieve
We had hope
The world held promise
For a slave to liberty
Freely I slaved away for something better
And I was bought and sold
And all I ever wanted
Was to come in from the cold

That's what many of us feel now. We don't *want* to believe the elections are rigged. We don't *want* to believe the media is on lockdown. We just want to "come in from the cold." And that can only happen when the truth comes out on all of this... mess. Because we can't just pretend its ok. Its clearly NOT ok anymore.

The UC Berkeley study is another serious red flag, that by all that's sane and sacred should have made every American stop and think "maybe it IS getting colder in here." Yet few in the media even *mentioned* it.

Is the game over, and we just didn't realize? Is our democracy already lost, and we're out here in the cold banging on a locked door? FOR GOD'S SAKE SOMEONE LET US IN!!

Is this where we look at each other and acknowledge, like so many did in Germany as Hitler was consolidating power, that we've already lost our country and we need to escape while we can? It doesn't have to be this way - if people would have the courage to do one simple thing - pull their heads out of the sand and look for the truth.

Only the truth will set all of us free. Anything less is ... uncivilized.

bear

[Action Jackson]

14. if keith really cared he would've cancelled his vacation

to cover this story.
Is he back on Monday?

[anamandujano]

21. looks like it's been a working vacation

He's been doing a lot of reading and researching. He'll be up to speed on just about everything.

I think I read here that the vacation was just a week, so back on Monday.

[Straight Shooter]

23. You're assuming he's not doing anything to follow the story

He clearly is.

People who don't take vacations become nonproductive and prone to make errors in judgment.

He deserves a vacation any time he wants one.

[Action Jackson]

25. of course. we all need vacations.

but its the timing of it. he's working on what potentially could be the biggest story in years. not the right time for a vacation especially considering the lack of coverage in the MSM.

[txindy]

30. Vacation means more time to research the story

Vacation means not having to work on all of the other stories that he broadcasts five nights a week, concentrating on the election story, instead. In this case, vacation is a very good thing.

[nashville_brook]

16. best phrase:

one-armed bandits

we should start using this phrase to refer to blackbox voting machines

[99Pancakes]

17. Better than nothing, I suppose

I don't understand the skittishness of the media. It's like they are sleep-walking.

[pacalo]

24. I keep thinking about Bev Harris.

She has only one team working; by the time she's done investigating one county, the next county on her list will have had enough time to hide their dirty work.

Where are the teams of investigative reporters who should be doing what Bev is doing -- the ones who chose journalism as a career?! This could be the "scoop" of a lifetime.

I'll tell you where they are: waiting for the next Scott Peterson trial -- that's much more important than our democracy.

[Blue in the face]

26. Bev Harris

All's been very quiet on that front since she broke the Volusia story a few days ago. But I read somewhere that she had people all over Fla digging through the trash.

Even DU's own Hedda_foil pointed out that they would like to keep this hush hush for a while.

By the way, whatever happened to Ken Clark, the Diebold executive that helped break the CA case? http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00106.htm Is he around anywhere, can he be persuaded/subpoenad to testify?

[pacalo]

33. Thanks for the info!

[SittingInTheMiddle]

27. Good to see problems being aired....

however, exaggeration and mis-statement doesn't help.

Keith (and several DUers) have said multiple times that the Berkeley report shows that Bush got "130,000 to 260,000 or more" extra votes.

That's not quite what it says.

In the authors' opinions, Bush got 130,000 or so "extra votes". They plainly state that they don't know whether these are "phantom" votes or votes skimmed from Kerry. What this really means, all else being equal:

Vote as it stands (rounded to nearest 1,000)
3,912,000 Bush
3,535,000 Kerry

If the 130,000 were "phantom" votes:
3,782,000 B
3,535,000 K

If the 130,000 were skimmed
3,782,000 B
3,665,000 K

The 130,000 is disturbing...infuriating even...but not enough to flip the results.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

35. The point is not the result. The point is that there may have been fraud

in some precincts. it also calls into question the whole process and the fact that African-American voters were intimidated performing a fundamental right guaranteed them under the law.

Don't get bogged down in numbers. It deflects attention from the real horror.

[proudtobeadem]

28. If this is true shouldn't we

be asking for a recount in florida instead of Ohio? I think Ohio was a red Herring

[newyawker99]

31. Hi proudtobeadem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[proudtobeadem]

32. Hi newyawker99 Thanks for the welcome

I'm a newbie. Hey I'm from NY too (Queens) have you noticed if anyone is talking about the "election" on the street? Yesterday I went to the city and I didn't hear or see anything.
Believe it or not I had to go to the CBS building for an appointment and on the elevator there was a guy wearing a CBS ID talking to a lady and I wanted soooo badly to just scream THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN WHY ARE YOU NOT COVERING IT YOU S**T!!! (I know he might not even work for the news -but at the moment I didn't care) but I didn't want to get thron out -I was going for a job interview) arrrgh!!

[JD Lau]

29. Thanks for this post. I agree...I like the way he thinks and writes too!

He has a real good sense of timing. Not too many "journalists"
have that...and he leaves some air between his statements; also he includes the reader so well.


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