This will be my first ever diary on Daily Kos, but I don't expect anyone to go easy on me.

This afternoon I read with great interest Farhad Manjoo's rebuttal in Salon of Robert Kennedy Jr.'s article in Rolling Stone. I would ask you to believe me when I state that although I have been of the opinion since Nov 2 2004 that it was very likely that the election was fraudulent, I approach articles such as Mr. Manjoo's with a strange hope that this time I can have it explained to me in a way that allows me to finally get a good night's sleep, secure in the knowledge that nothing overtly untoward was going on, that the process of democracy in the United States is still hobbling along, flawed but basically intact. Despite my huge admiration for RFK Jr., and my lasting dream that he will one day soon be the most effective and honorable head of the EPA that this nation has ever had, deep inside I harbored a hope that he was wrong on this, and that Salon and Mr. Manjoo were going to show me the way.

Sorry to say, I'm just not there yet.