Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com
Video in Streaming Flash format…
Video in Windows Media format…
Wolf Blitzer hosted a “debate”/ambush on CNN’s Situation Room between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Bush/Cheney ’04 spokesman, Terry Holt. In his Rolling Stone article Kennedy shows that Republicans prevented 350,000 voters from voting or having their votes counted.
Blitzer allowed a more civil discussion than did Tucker Carlson in another recent interview with Kennedy. CNN must have decided that an interview with Kennedy — which would be entirely warranted — would have appeared partisan. Republicans don’t need someone who is uniquely qualified to defend their illegal electioneering in Ohio. Terry Holt can parrot the same tired GOP lies talking points and unsubstantiated, evidence-free charges as well as any talking head.
Holt said he would turn Kennedy’s charges of Republic election rigging “on it’s head”. His first line of defense was that “an exhaustive bipartisan study of all 88 counties in Ohio was conducted after the election and Republicans and Democrats… have agreed that there was no significant or insignificant fraud.” Kennedy is quick with a strong response, saying that, “there has no been no bipartisan commission… It’s simply wrong to say that.”
Holt wasted no time in blaming the voter. The true threat to America’s democracy are the statistically insignificant fake voter registrations. Especially dangerous are those voters that attempt to “stuff the ballot box” registering with fake names like “Mickey Mouse” and “Michael Jordan”. Holt’s second talking point is a favorite in the Republican’s long term strategy to restrict voting rights. They use this argument for everything from establishing voter Ids to purging Democrat voters from the rolls.
Robert Kennedy found his voice and easily defeated Holt’s weak attempt to divert attention from the real issues. A few “Mickey Mouse” registrations hardly compare to the fact that Republicans stole the 2004 Presidential election by subverting the will of 350,000 voters in Ohio.
UPDATE FROM BRAD: Allow me to add to David’s analysis here that there is not one known instance of phony “Mickey Mouse” or “Michael Jordan” registrations actually recorded as having voted. Holt spent no time speaking to the serious charges made by Kennedy in Rolling Stone but rather made up his own phony, unsupported nonsense. All the while Blitzer charged Kennedy didn’t present evidence to support his charges (apparently, only if RJK Jr. had brought forward someone admitting they personally rigged the election would that have been evidence of anything). In the meantime, Blitzer allowed Holt to spread his unsubstantiated garbage without being challenged even once.
The complete text transcript from the video interview from Friday, June 2nd’s edition of The Situation Room on CNN follows…
Tonight, explosive allegations are being made about the 2004 presidential election, and they’re coming from a member of one of America’s most famous and prominent Democratic families, the Kennedys.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Robert Kennedy junior charges that a concerted effort was made by high-level Republicans to steal the presidential vote in Ohio.
It’s new fuel in an already combustible partisan environment, with Republicans on the defensive and Democrats hoping to reclaim control of Congress this fall. In a lengthy article in the new edition of “Rolling Stone,” Kennedy accuses Republicans of preventing more than 350,000 voters, most of them Democrats, from casting ballots or having their votes counted.
President Bush won Ohio by a little more than 100,000 votes over Senator John Kerry, putting him over the top in electoral votes and sealing his reelection. Kennedy accuses Republicans of getting that margin of victory by, among other things, purging tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, creating long lines to keep Democrats from voting, and rigging the Ohio recount.
To back up his charges, Kennedy cites the early exit polls showing Kerry was winning Ohio. Kennedy contends exit polls are an exact science and essentially never wrong. But even pollsters dispute that.
Kennedy lays much of the blame on Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who’s now running for governor. Blackwell refused to respond to Kennedy’s allegations, and he declined our offer to be interviewed. He’s previously denied similar allegations, saying election glitches shouldn’t cause the outcome to be questioned.
And there’s a noteworthy skeptic about allegations that the Ohio vote was stolen. Senator John Kerry has cited irregularities in the Ohio vote, but he says, if he had firm evidence the election was rigged or stolen, he would have taken legal action.
(on camera): And a Democratic National Committee study of the Ohio vote found significant problems but concluded they did not constitute fraud.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Joining us now from New York to talk about these allegations is the author of the article, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and here in Washington is Terry Holt. He was the press secretary for the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign.
Thanks to both of you for joining us.
Why are you reviving these allegations, Robert Kennedy, right now, given the fact that they’ve been so thoroughly reviewed over the past two-and-a-half years and people have concluded that there’s no hard evidence of fraud?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, “ROLLING STONE” CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, there hasn’t been that conclusion.
Second of all, there’s a lot of new evidence. There’s the analysis that was done, not just of the 350,000 votes — Democratic voters — mainly Democratic voters that were denied the opportunity to vote or whose votes weren’t counted, but also the 80,000 votes from 12 rural counties in Ohio that were shifted from John Kerry to George Bush, which by themselves would have given Kerry the margin of victory in Ohio.
Plus, there’s six other counties where there are high indications of ballot box, that thousands of people lost their votes.
BLITZER: Let me interrupt for a second. I read your long piece in “Rolling Stone”. It was very, very long and detailed. I didn’t see one individual, though, who says, “You know what? I participated in a massive conspiracy of fraud.”
I didn’t see any hard evidence that there was someone, and if you’re going to talk about a massive fraud, you have to have somebody, presumably, that’s going to come forward and say, “You know what? I was involved in this campaign.”
KENNEDY: Well, that’s not true, Wolf. The people from — the executives from the Triad Company, which is the vendor for one of the — for the big voting machine that tabulated more than half the votes in Ohio, has admitted that they fixed the recount. And that they fixed it with county boards of elections in half a dozen counties, at least.
Every single county where Triad — and you know, there’s an example of a high-level official who participated in a massive fraud, that prevented the recount that would have given Kerry the victory in Ohio.
BLITZER: Let me let Terry Holt respond to that — Terry.
TERRY HOLT, FORMER BUSH-CHENEY PRESS SECY.: Well, first, let’s establish, Wolf, that an exhaustive, bipartisan study of all 88 counties in Ohio was conducted after the election. And Republicans and Democrats in Ohio, those people most directly affected by this controversy, have agreed that there was no significant or even insignificant fraud that occurred in the election.
I think that, in fact, I’m going to stand Mr. Kennedy’s story on its head a little bit because I think what was engaged in the last election, a massive effort to flood the polls with new voter registrations, with new absentee ballots, with new ballots of the provisional variety, that the Democratic Party was such a sour and poisonous taste in its mouth after the Florida election really engaged in an extensive effort to really flood the ballot box, to stuff the ballot box.
And so all over the country, not just in Ohio, but in Las Vegas, and in Miami, and other states, there were new voter registrations coming in with the names like Freddy Krueger. Michael Jordan and George Foreman, in fact, were registered to vote in Ohio and they prevented that from occurring.
BLITZER: All right — let’s let Robert Kennedy — what Terry Holt is saying is just the opposite of what you’re saying, is that the Democrats were participating in some phony business in Ohio and other states.
KENNEDY: Well, you know, that’s a strong — and the people that the Republican Party — and I want to say this. This should not be a partisan issue, Wolf. This should be — people should be outraged about this.
Read the facts in my article. There has been no bipartisan commission, but — including Democrats, that have said there was no hanky-panky or shenanigans in Ohio. That’s simply wrong to say that.
There’s been complaints. There’s been a congressional committee that’s been out in Ohio and found massive evidence of fraud. The fraud is not something that’s been secret. It’s been exposed to the press for the long time.
There’s two issues here. Number one, why hasn’t the national press covered this event? There’s no legitimate dispute that there was a massive, concerted, deliberate effort by high level-Republican Party officials to fix the election in Ohio. And the press has not covered this issue.
BLITZER: All right. I’m going — I’m going to let …
KENNEDY: All my article does…
BLITZER: Hold on one second. Hold on. We did cover John Conyers, Congressman John Conyers’ report on this. Christopher Hitchens article in “Vanity Fair,” all that was covered.
Senator John Kerry himself says in your article in “Rolling Stone”, he says this: “Can I tell you to a certainty that it made the difference in the election?” Referring to the fraud, “I can’t. There’s no way for me to do that. If I could have done that, then obviously I would have found some legal recourse.”
And the Democratic Party has been relatively silent on this issue, as well, Robert Kennedy.
KENNEDY: Well, you know what, Wolf? You’re right about that. And I think that that’s a big problem, that the Democrats backed down too easy on this.
John Kerry has said to me that at the — at — during the time — during the narrow window of time when he had an opportunity to protest this election, he didn’t do it, because his attorneys told him that at that point, they didn’t have the facts that they needed to make the case.
John has looked at the facts that I produced in this article and particularly the issue about the 12 counties, rural counties where the votes were shifted from Kerry, where 80,000 votes were shifted from Kerry to Bush, and said that his opinion has changed as a result of that.
BLITZER: All right. Terry — let me let Terry Holt weigh in, as well. Go ahead and respond.
HOLT: Well, I would just say that there was a very smart observation that was made in the very beginning of the article. And that is that American elections are a messy patchwork, county by county, state by state rules and regulations.
And as an example in Florida, in the 2000 election, 66 out of 67 counties in Florida were controlled by the Democratic Party and it resulted in a messy recount, 37 days.
And so our votes are involved in a complex process. But by flooding the ballot box with new invalid registrations, if any political entity is diluting the value of the honest vote that takes place. And so, our system needs to protect the legal votes from the illegal votes so that those votes count real and like they should.
BLITZER: We have to leave it there. “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?” That’s the provocative title of the article. You can read it in “Rolling Stone”. Robert Kennedy, Terry Holt, thanks very much for coming in. (END VIDEOTAPE)
Well at least old "Mush Head" Blitzer said that Porky Fatwell would’nt come forward to answer the allegations and gave Kennedy’s story a good plug, I credit Mush for that
By him constantly interupting Robert when he’s trying to finish making his point plays right into the cover up, I like that part, that will make more people head to the Rolling Stone article to see for themselves
It is truly a shame that Jr. doesn’t have his father’s voice. But I give him credit. He has his father’s chutzpah.
Once again, I say, notice that everything in the MSM now is about "balance." Put Bobby K. on to assert that 160000 votes were flipped to Bush from Kerry, and there must be a Bush spokesman to say that they were all registered as Freddy Kruger and Mickey Mouse.
Cyteria, The Freddie and Mickey registrations were put their by the RNC hacks to try and cover up the rigging right from the start, right after they threw all the Dem registrations they had collected in the trash IMO
BALANCE is the tool for the new right-wing-dominated, corporate-controlled media spin machine.
I swear, if they had somebody talking about how we have to fight racism, they would want to counter it with a statement from the KKK. "Well, yes, it does seem very un-American to lynch those Ni$$ers from trees without trial. Now, down to Susie Qtpie down in Georgia with a member of the KKK who has a different point of view on what they call ‘states rights locally enforced justice’ down there."
SHOOT YOUR TELEVISION FIRST. The Republicans second.
Charlie L
Speaking of the pathetic nature of the NYT, Buzzflash did a great piece of "disection" work on a NYT "news" story:
http://www.buzzflash.com/analys.../ana06038.html
SHOOT YOUR TELEVISION FIRST. Republicans second.
Charlie L
Charlie, I don’t shoot inanimate objects : )
I like em moving
SAW ROBERTS INTERVIEW. TICKED OVER NOT GIVING HIM THE TIME ALONE. HE DESERVED BETTER THAN SHARED TIME WITH HOLT. NO ONE MENTIONS THAT THIS NOV ALL 2004 BALLOTS GET TOSSED OUT. THEY INDITED 3 HIGH UP ELECTION WORKERS HERE IN OHIO FOR "FUDGING" ON THE 2004 RECOUNT. SO WHY INDITE PEOPLE AND NOT HOLD A NEW "UNFUDGED" RECOUNT ? NO ONES MENTIONED THIS. OR DID I MISS IT?
Dance to the Republican old slick shoe if you will — there isn’t enough sand to keep you standing.
They are attempting to portray it as "voter fraud".
NOT! It is ‘ELECTION FRAUD’! There’s a big difference.
WOLF BLITZER’S (WB) "QUESTIONS"
There’s potentially A significant new ruling in the CIA leak case that involves Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to the vice president, Dick Cheney.
Let’s go straight to Brian Todd. He’s in the newsroom going through all the latest documents.
What are we getting, Brian? ….
===
WB: Brian, it — I think it says something also about the general attitude of this judge, which could be very detrimental to Scooter Libby’s defense or at least how his lawyers are preparing for that defense.
===
WB: Brian, thank you very much. Brian Todd following the story closely for us.
===
WB: And a Democratic National Committee study of the Ohio vote found significant problems but concluded they did not, repeat NOT, constitute fraud.
From New York to talk about these allegations is the author of the article, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and here in Washington is Terry Holt. He was the press secretary for the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign.
Thanks to both of you for joining us.
Why are you reviving these allegations, Robert Kennedy, right now, given the fact that they’ve been so thoroughly reviewed over the past 2 1/2 years and people have concluded that there’s no hard evidence of fraud?
===
WB: Let me interrupt for a second. I read your long piece in "Rolling Stone". It was very, very long and detailed. I didn’t see one individual, though, who says, "You know what? I participated in a massive conspiracy of fraud."
I didn’t see any hard evidence that there was someone, and if you’re going to talk about a massive fraud, you have to have somebody, presumably, that’s going to come forward and say, "You know what? I was involved in this campaign."
===
WB: Let me let Terry Holt respond to that — Terry.
===
WB: All right — let’s let Robert Kennedy — What Terry Holt is saying is just the opposite of what you’re saying, is that the Democrats were participating in some phony business in Ohio and other states.
===
WB: All right. I’m going — I’m going to let —
===
WB: Hold on. We did cover John Conyers, Congressman John Conyers’ report on this. Christopher Hitchens article in "Vanity Fair". All that was covered.
Senator John Kerry himself says in your article in "Rolling Stone", he says this: "Can I tell you to a certainty that it made the difference in the election? I can’t. There’s no way for me to do that. If I could have done that, then obviously I would have found some legal recourse."
And the Democratic Party has been relatively silent on this issue, as well, Robert Kennedy.
===
WB: All right. Terry — let me let Terry Holt weigh in, as well. Go ahead and respond.
===
WB: We have to leave it there. "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" That’s the provocative title of the article. You can read it in "Rolling Stone". Robert Kennedy, Terry Holt, thanks very much for coming in.
***
KENNEDY’S (RFK, JR.) ANSWERS:
RFK, JR., Well, first of all, there hasn’t been that conclusion.
Second of all, there’s a lot of new evidence. There’s the analysis that was done, not just of the 350,000 votes — Democratic voters — mainly Democratic voters that were denied the opportunity to vote, or whose votes weren’t counted. But also the 80,000 votes from 12 rural counties in Ohio that were shifted from John Kerry to George Bush, which by themselves would have given Kerry the margin of victory in Ohio.
Plus, there’s six other counties where there are high indications of ballot box, that thousands of people lost their votes.
===
RFK, JR., Well, that’s not true, Wolf. The people from — the executives from the Triad Company, which is the vendor for one of the — for the big voting machine that tabulated more than half the votes in Ohio, has admitted that they fixed the recount. And that they fixed it with county boards of elections in half a dozen counties, at least.
Every single county where Triad — and you know, there’s an example of a — of a high-level official who participated in a massive fraud, that prevented the recount that would have given Kerry the victory in Ohio.
===
RFK, JR., Well, that’s a strong — and the people that the Republican Party — I want to say this. This should not be a partisan issue, Wolf. This should be — people should be outraged about this.
Read the facts in my article. There has been no bipartisan commission, but — including Democrats that have said there was no hanky-panky or shenanigans in Ohio. That’s simply wrong to say that.
There’s been complaints. There’s been a congressional committee that’s been out in Ohio and found massive — found massive evidence of fraud. The fraud is not something that’s been secret. It’s been — it’s been exposed to the press for the long time.
There’s two issues here. No. 1, why hasn’t the national press covered this event? There’s no — there is no legitimate dispute. That there was a massive concerted deliberate effort by high level Republican Party officials to fix the election in Ohio. And the press has not covered this issue.
====
RFK, JR., All my article does…
===
RFK, JR., Well, you know what, Wolf? You’re right about that. And I think that’s a big problem, that the Democrats backed down too easy on this.
John Kerry has said to me that at the, during the time during the narrow window of time when he had an opportunity to protest this election, he didn’t do it, because his attorneys told him that at that point, they didn’t have the facts that they needed to make the case.
John has looked at the facts that I produced in this article and particularly the issue about the 12 counties, rural counties where the votes were shifted from Kerry, where 80,000 votes were shifted from Kerry to Bush, and said that his opinion has changed as a result of that.
===
AS TERRY HOLT WAS BUSH’S PRESS SEC AND DID MOST OF THE TALKING, I shan’t dignify his "remarks" with the honor of trying to transcribe them.
————————-
It was strange to hear WB calling RFK JR, by both his given and surname most of the time.
I have entered my notes here to show WB’s attacks vs. how little chance a dem. guest has to say anything, let alone make a point. It has become an increasingly hostile place for a lone democrat no matter who he/she is to be occasion to be ripped at by the host and perhaps one or more opposition political hacks.
Every one should read the article, RFK JR. is being attacked big time from other MSM as well = they don’t want him to come across as the brilliant honest man that he is. More than that, they are trying to suppress his truth. (truth to power, truthiness, if you will.)
Blitzer = right-wing (CIA plant?) douche-bag. His interuptions & mis-characterization(s) eg "belives exit polls are an exact science" blah blah.
What a schmuck!
I hope this blows up enough to drag Kerry into it – . Not that I’m a Kerry fan (though he’s WAAY better than the chimp), but because it might help what should be a non-patisan isse gain traction.
Don’t look now, but gay marriage is suddenly important (again). Gotta get those approval ratings back up… time to appeal to ‘the base’.
What won’t this administration do to distract & obfuscate? Anyone worry that Iran’s gonna see a few bombs later this month/early next? The other part of ‘the base’ needs feeding.
One of the big problems with this story as presented on CNN by Blitzer is one that plagues any real news story: TIME.
How long did that "interview" if it can be called such, last? Five minutes? Six? How the hell can you have serious coverage of such a deep-rooted and complex incident, allowing Kennedy adequate time and space to present his case? Especially when Holt is invited along to eat up half of that time.
This interview was a joke, pure and simple, orchestrated to downplay and defuse any impact that Kennedy might have.
Personally, I have more respect for Tucker Carlson (tool that he is) than Wolf Blitzer based on those two interviews. Wolf is (tool)^2.
NOOB: right you are on the gay-marriage. My thoughts exactly as this issue rears its head again after a period of dormancy in the MSM.
God, Guns, Gays.
CNN is just "covering" this story enough to say that they did. If they covered election fraud the way they covered missing white girls or alligators in the swamps or such, we would have a very different situation. And WB is a schmuck, plain and simple.
SHOOT YOUR TELEVISION FIRST. (Floridiot, you can throw yours in the air and THEN shoot it if you really need it "moving."). Then Republicans next.(Floridiot, don’t worry, they will be moving VERY fast.)
None of the MSM can be trusted at this point. Find and read internet news sites and blogs and KNOW THE TRUTH.
BUY lots of copies of ROLLING STONE and spread them around.
BUY lots of copies of Marc Crisipin Miller, Greg Palast, and the others and SPREAD THEM AROUND.
Print out a few select articles and SPREAD THEM AROUND.
WE MUST BE THE MEDIA!!! There are 20% of the people in this country we will NEVER reach, but the other 80% are mostly just brainwashed or too busy trying to survive to care — THEY CAN BE REACHED.
4 days later, and not a thing in the local newspaper, nor have I seen anything on NBC or CBS nightly news or the local news shows.
But today they are already all over Rep. Patrick Kennedy being released from rehab.
Woo Hoo – something that really matters!
Just saw it..
Notice how noone talks about "the shifted 80,000 votes"? I mean, Holt tries to push several times "stuffing the box", but doesn’t touch "shifted 80,000 votes".. ???
I guess, if you ignore the bomb in the middle of the room and talk about the curtain rod being slightly off level you don’t have to worry about getting blown up..?
EIGHTY THOUSAND shifted, 160,000 "total" in that case, and Shrubby won by "less than that". Um.. Ok.. then there’s the 350,000 "removed".. Is it Holt’s contention that the Dems in the state added "350,000 Michael Jordans and Freddie Krugers"? I DOUBT IT.. But, the impression that "some" were added counter the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of LEGITIMATE voters that were removed "just to be safe"?
I also like how they (Wolf and Holt) ignored that Triad has admitted fixing it so there was no recount. TWO huge elephants in the room making boom boom! and ignored..
And I agree, we don’t have "debates" about such things in this country anymore. We have "30 second sound bites", along the lines of comercials.. That’s what Americans have been trained to form opinions on. And, it’s Wolf’s job to have Holt counter a POINT, not "spew some misdirections", yet Wolf (and all the rest of the ‘mediators’) don’t do shit to keep people on point.
This country is descending into joke.. People can’t be bothered to think, discussion is looked down upon, life is made in 30 second chunks designed to pull at your hormones or "happy centers". If it doesn’t fall in either of those catagories, people ignore it.
Is there any way to improve RFK Jr’s voice? He articulates the issue of Ohio very well! It sounds like he’s going to choke or something! I hope he continues to shout it out along with writing columns and essays! He states his case well! I’m just sorry about his voice! Go RFK Go!
Jerry O’Riordan, it’s called Spasmodic Dyshonia.. his vocal cords get all cranky when he talks and makes his voice waiver.
Another problem in our "image based" society (not directed to you, Jerry).. We put too much on "image", and in this case, "voice". We want to make the association that if his voice is not "perfect" then his thinking must be broke too. Perhaps it’s tied to the same premise that has so many people disliking homosexuals.. anything that is different is dismissed in emotion instead of looked at with a logical eye.
dys·pho·ni·a n.
Difficulty in speaking, usually evidenced by hoarseness.
Thank you Brad AND Bradbloggers.I have been so disappointed at so called progressive websites trying to ignore this positive news for democracy. We are now number 24 in freedom of information getting out to the citizens of this country. 24! That is a pretty sizeable number. Why not call a spade a spade. The reason the news doesn’t get out is the media is supressed and intimidated. I am sure there are thousands of good journalists who would like to do their job right now. Esp. since the train seems to be coming off the tracks. When we blame the corporate media we are playing into their hands. Destroy every institution that we hold dear…blame the victim…destroy trust and the budget. Then we are ripe for takeover. Why wait. Didn’t all the mercenaries with guns in NoLa tell you something? While people were dying? Gov. Blanco refused martial law so she was punished. The fascists are itching to call for martial law for something. They are trying to do the same thing in Canada. New PM Harper, as soon as he got in office, said journalists should be jailed. Canadians didn’t believe he meant it. When I see a Canadian write about how Americans should wake up…I think,"Just don’t let them put in THEIR voting machines. Quite a few of us are awake…but it is hard to get a country back after it has been taken over. We’ll do it though. love and peace to Brad and Bradbloggers.
It sounded like Holt was trying to say the problem was the Dems registered TOO MANY voters. They overwhelmed the SOE’s and they couldn’t process all the applications. (Of course Repug registered Dem Applications were found in the dumptsters.) This fact is why the numbers have never added up. Dems registered 250% more voters to the Repugs 25% so–don’t do the data entry! Problem solved.
Adding to Wiley Posts’ comment above:
The GALL of Holt to indicate that registering large numbers of new voters is a problem – as if the system couldn’t handle people exercising their constitutional rights. Regardless of the Mickey Mouse and George Foreman registers, isn’t there something inherently wrong with Holt saying "people registering to vote was the problem." And, if the system can’t handle large numbers of new voters , doesn’t the goddamn thing need to be overhauled anyway so that it can handle them?? And shouldn’t Holt’s admittance (faulty though it was) actually support claims of serious problems (aside from criminality issues – start with friggin incompetence, perhaps?) and warrant further investigations?
Holt seems to be implying that citizens voting is actually the problem.
Ex-Clerk At Center Of Voting Machine Politics In Utah
I’ve got to read the article and hear some serious debate. I know I lean toward believing, even without knowing what he says, simply because the administration is so dishonest and deceitful. But at the same time, I want to believe that the election process is honest in this country.
I’ll decide when the evidence has been read and heard.
Well, now. RFK, Jr. says Kerry has changed his mind about Ohio. But Kerry hasn’t told us he’s changed his mind about Ohio. So either that makes RFK, Jr. a liar, or Kerry something else (judgment reserved to give him a chance to confirm or deny).
We’ve been through this before. Mark Crispin Miller said Kerry agreed with him when Miller said to Kerry, "You were screwed." Then the next day Kerry’s press aide denied the story.
It looks as if Kerry’s efforts to remain viable for 2008 (by avoiding the 2004 election fraud issue) are reaching a watershed moment. He can contradict RFK, Jr., which will destroy his chances because too many Democrats will resent him for it, or he can confirm that he’s changed his mind about Ohio. Depending on how he makes the case, and how he explains away his failure to come forward before now, it could be a blockbuster. Either way, RFK, Jr. has raised the ante. It’s now table stakes.
Holt and Blitzer did exactly what they were paid and told to do. The GOPig operating proceedure is to muddy the waters, so as to dilute actual facts into an apparent point/counter point. Lying, dirty, traitorous whores. They make me sick.
Molly: Get DISH TV and watch Free Speech TV and LINK-TV, or DirecTV has LINK-TV. They both have Democracy NOW! news. We HAVE an alternative on TV. Cable TV doesn’t carry these 2 channels, at least Adelphia doesn’t. So, just get everyone you know to watch those 2 channels. We here, know all about the corporate-controlled TV MSM. If RFK, Jr, gets on Democracy NOW!, Amy Goodman will let him speak for 30 minutes, and ask serious, intelligent questions. With NO crazy hacks blurting him out. I hope he gets on Democracy NOW!
JUST TURN YOUR DIAL!!!!!!!!!!!! No one’s forcing anyone to watch this crap called CNN. No commercials, either, on FSTV & LINK-TV.
It IS, important, though, for Brad & others like MediaMatters, to continue monitoring the spin, even if we stop watching it.
Why doesn’t Kennedy say, "You’re distorting the issue as usual! There were no documented cased of illegal voters in 2004, But there were thousands of documented cases of election fraud, all favoring Dubya!"
Why doesn’t he say, "Kerry was telling the truth! There is no documented fraud, merely circumstantial evidence, which is plenty enough evidence to call for an investigation. Computers were involved. How many of you can prosecute the hacker that steals your ID online; or sends a virus in that wipes out your computer or merely sends you unwanted porn or advertising? All against the law, and all violations that are utterly unenforceable; because we can’t see who does such things. And we can’t see who stole the vote either; but we can see that it happened!”
Almost half of Americans don’t believe their votes were counted fairly. That in itself is a travesty!
That should be said by Mr. Kennedy.
Why can’t he say that what we need is to investigate the circumstantial evidence and change the way we vote to voter verified paper ballots, so that we will never have such questions again?
What kind of party, what kind of people, argue against the facts that the vote is obviously being hijacked?
shw
Why are they even bothering to discuss the 2004 elections?It’s not like making one expose after another about the shenanigans of the Bush dynasty and its minions would undo all the crap Americans all over the world had to contend with because of America’s "War on Terror" or whatever the hell it is they call it now.
An exercise in futility, if you ask me. After all, two more years and Dubya’s done. Unless Jeb steps up to the plate, and hits a homerun right into our foreheads…
Steve Yanis #28 writes: Why are they even bothering to discuss the 2004 elections?
Exposing the election fraud cannot undo the past, but it can absolutely protect the future. If this effort by Kennedy can come to fruition, as most of us who read, lurk, and post here at here at BradBlog believe it should, then the Republicans may have cooked their geese for a very long time. The American people may take a long time to "come round" but I think that once they realize that they have been made fools of for the last five years with this fraudulent administration who never should have had the command of the nation to begin with, that there will be hell to pay.
That is why this is worth bothering about. It is the essence of democracy that we are trying to protect, and the best way to do that is to show definitively how it has been breached.
In Kennedy RS article, he references Professor Freeman (and colleagues) report on the contradictory nature of Edison-Mitofsky’s analysis of faulty exit polling. It is a great report, I have had it since it came out in March – I am actually part of a Statistics list-serve where one of the report’s authors posts regularly (Paul Velleman of Cornell). I would encourage everyone to read it, even if you don’t have an understanding of the methodology, because the written analysis is spectacular. These "kooks", PhDs from the Ivy League, liberal elites…well, they just know what the hell they’re talking about. Freeman’s (et al) report should have been national news the day it was released.
Here is a link to the .pdf
http://electionarchive.org/ucvA...sky-Edison.pdf
“And a Democratic National Committee study of the Ohio vote found significant problems but
concluded they did not, repeat NOT, constitute fraud.”
That may have been true at some point in time but they did not have proof of fraud uncovered at that time.
I posted a link to a NEDA pdf, which you can read if you click on my name, several weeks ago that I labeled as “The Footprints of Fraud” before, as far as I know at least, Ron Baiman himself had referred to his findings as fraud. Although I never took a statistic class my background in probability theory told me that what I was looking at in that NEDA report was the footprints of fraud. Those footprints surely led Ron to finding the 80,000 switched votes in Ohio that RFK Jr. based the RS story on. The data that Ron used to uncover those footprints was recently released so this really is new news no matter how WB tries to spin it. The data they used is supposed to be available to the public but it is not willing released. Could somebody have something to hide? Read the RS article if you still haven’t found out the correct answer to that question yet. You likely still have plenty of time to find that answer before the MSM finally begins to shed any light whatsoever on the subject. What a bunch of nonsense WB used to try to discredit this article. Both his headings and his words were simply not facts. Should we call WB’s words spin doctoring or just flat out call it lying for a change?
“And a Democratic National Committee study of the Ohio vote found significant problems but
concluded they did not, repeat NOT, constitute fraud.”
That may have been true at some point in time but they did not have proof of fraud uncovered at that time.
I posted a link to a NEDA pdf, which you can read if you click on my name, several weeks ago that I labeled as “The Footprints of Fraud” before, as far as I know at least, Ron Baiman himself had referred to his findings as fraud. Although I never took a statistic class my background in probability theory told me that what I was looking at in that NEDA report was the footprints of fraud. Those footprints surely led Ron to finding the 80,000 switched votes in Ohio that RFK Jr. based the RS story on. The data that Ron used to uncover those footprints was recently released so this really is new news no matter how WB tries to spin it. The data they used is supposed to be available to the public but it is not willing released. Could somebody have something to hide? Read the RS article if you still haven’t found out the correct answer to that question yet. You likely still have plenty of time to find that answer before the MSM finally begins to shed any light whatsoever on the subject. What a bunch of nonsense WB used to try to discredit this article. Both his headings and his words were simply not facts. Should we call WB’s words spin doctoring or just flat out call it lying for a change?
I remember being so excited about the Freeman report. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve thought "My God! THIS will be the last straw…"
I read RFK’s article & here’s my question, the same question I had when I read the Conyers report:
they both mention incidents that were clearly illegal..things that were clearly crimes…why are people not being prosecuted?
In this interview holt actually equates massive numbers of people voting—what proponents of a healthy democracy should WANT to happen!—he calls this ‘stuffing the ballot box’!
Nice job just letting that go by, wolfman.
One day when we are all old & gray (ok, in my case, older & grayer) this whole insane, disgraceful episode will be one helluva movie.
I wonder what they’ll call it.
Joan
It seems in most cases, the complaints/allegations are submitted to the Republican officials in charge of overseeing such things, and they do nothing. How moral of them.
Examples:
Ken Blackwell
All the Repubtards in Ohio
Congress
Jeb Bush
This is the party the was going to bring integrity back.
Hey, Shannon Williford! Are ya there, Tennessee man? Are you going to the Bonnaroo Festival?
Blitzer is scum. He’s had his head buried so far up the Chimperor’s ass that nobody in the real world gives any credence to anything he says anymore.
CNN-The Cheerleading Network of Neuters.
Joan – You said:
"One day when we are all old & gray (ok, in my case, older & grayer) this whole insane, disgraceful episode will be one helluva movie. I wonder what they’ll call it."
The title won’t make any sense to Americans because it will be in Chinese.