The Ohio fraudsters have made something of a cottage industry in bitching about the front-page posters' lack of Ohio coverage.
Let me return the favor.
- Since when was I appointed king of the liberal agenda? If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve. You know what's amazing about open source politics, about the growing netroots revolution? That everyone has the power to take matters into their own hands.
To name three examples -- the Sinclair Boycott people, the Buy Blue people, and Operation Fool Me Once where all built by Kosmopolitans who didn't whine about an issue getting covered or not covered, they took action on their own. And while all these efforts have experienced a great deal of attention and success, none of them whined about me covering an issue or not covering an issue.
I'll write about whatever I find interesting or compelling. If people don't like what I write, it's a big blogosphere -- they can find a more receptive home. And if what they're looking for doesn't exist, it's a user-friendly internet -- people can build their own homes.
- So why didn't I find the Ohio stuff compelling? Because the wacked out conspiracy theories hijacked the issue, taking it away from the obvious travesties -- the long lines in Democratic precincts, attempted voter intimidation, etc., to the realm of fantasy.
Us liberal bloggers like to brag that we live in the "reality-based community". It's kind of hard to be reality-based when people are claiming that Kerry won with no hard evidence to the contrary. Was there fraud? Sure. There always has been. Was the GOP ready to steal the election if necessary? No doubt. But they didn't have to steal this one. This wasn't 2000. Bush rode his fucked up war to victory, whether we like it or not. History will judge us right, but until then, we're stuck with the results.
Now, I was open minded at first, letting the fraudsters do the analysis, ready to pounce if the smoking gun was found. But after myriad diaries crying wolf, claiming that this was the evidence to seal the deal, well, it got old. Then it got counterproductive, then it got embarrassing.
- All the crying wolf is hurting the cause for electoral reform. This has been painted as a partisan issue pushed forth by wacko liberals who think Kerry won the election when Bush won. What do we need?
- Extend election day to at least a week. Keep ALL polls open during that time, not just a few at county HQ.
- Get rid of partisan election officials. A more ridiculous and inherently unfair system can never exist. It is the King of Conflicts of Interests.
- Implement a national standard for voting and fund it.
- Get rid of touch screen voting machines. A paper trail is useless, as a machine could easily be programmed to cast the vote for candidate A, while printing a receipt with candidate B's name on it.
- Select optical scan machines. The technology allows for quick tabulation of the votes, while retaining a paper trail for random audits and full recounts.
- All precincts that reported lines longer than one hour should be required to add voting machines before the next election.
- The pitiful state of voting infrastructure in poor and minority areas is literally criminal, and redress should be sought both in the legislatures and in the courts.
- Ditch the electoral college.
And so on. That's just stuff off the top of my head. These are all non-partisan issues. But the Ohio Fraudsters have not just made the issue highly partisan, but they have cried wolf so many times that it's easy for opponents to dismiss ALL of these issues.
I will continue to write about whatever I want to write about. And I would like the diaries to remain a free flow of discussion, unimpeded by me or anyone else. But I don't want the increasingly shrill and wacked out fraudster noise harming this site's reputation for reality-based commentary. All it takes is 30 recommendations, sometimes less, to push the latest conspiracy theory into the recommended diaries. And to be frank, it makes us all look bad.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I do think the fraudsters have had two months to make the case that Kerry won the election and have failed to do so.
If we want to talk fraud, then by all means, do so. Reform? The system obviously needs it. But "Kerry won" nonsense? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of Bev Harris, clearly a headcase who has burned every bridge that paved her way to prominance. I'm tired of people trumpetting Madsen's worthless crap (heck, even Bev Harris has disassociated herself from Madsen's drivel).
George Bush won. It may not have been "fair and square", not when you run a campaign based on lying about your opponent's record, but he did get more votes than our guy, both in the popular column, and in the Electoral College. We hate it. it sucks. But it's reality. You disagree, see point number 1 above -- do something about it, but do it somewhere else.
Update: To be clear, this isn't meant to pass judgment on Georgia10's comprehensive report on voting irregularities in Ohio, which as she admits, doesn't prove Kerry won, but proves that the election was f'ed up. We all know it was f'ed up, and identifying the problems is critical to developing a cure. Eugene has a good response to Georgia10's report.