DISMAYED!

I am a regular listener to the early morning "Washington Journal" on C-SPAN (Daily 7:00AM - 10:00AM EST.) Today, the announcement of the good news that al-Zarqawi has been killed by a US air strike in Iraq has prompted a dismaying response from the public. Most disturbing has been the vitriol expressed against Democrats, liberals and progressives by the callers on the Republican call-in line.

It is no secret that I was against going to war in Iraq before the vote was taken in the Congress to give President Bush the power to do so. I believe that it has been definitively shown that the Bush Administration mislead the nation into this war. In addition I have been a severe critic of how the war has been prosecuted. The incompetence of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld is staggering.

However, the overturn of Saddam is would be a plus if Iraq can stabilize, the actuality of having a free and democratic state in the mid-east, if it could be achieved, might do much for future world peace, and certrainly the elimination of al-Zarqawi is a positive event.

Why all the expressed hatred for the liberals? The discussion of opposing views is supposed to be one of the backbones of our democracy. Free speech is embedded in our Bill of Rights, and civil discourse should be the rule of the day. I believe that this nation is in peril from the expressed hatred of others as was Nazi Germany from Hitler's hate campaign against the Jews, Gypsies, and other non Aryans.

Why Now?

Some of you have asked about my last post, "Why now?" Why do I write about the "Stolen Election - 2004"????? It is over and done with. Let's move on!

I do so because it is relevant and it is important. Relevant because the 2006 mid-term elections are upon us; important because we can expect the same in 2006 from the Republicans.

The vote is the essence of our Democratic process. Without honest elections, we become as a third world dictatorship, ruled by those who control the election process, and powerless to have any say in our personal future and our future as a nation.

If you have not yet read the article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., do so now so that you will have an idea of the evidence that the election was stolen. (I miscalculated the page count in my previous post. It should read that out of 26 pages there are over 10 pages of references in the article.)

The evidence is overwhelming that millions of Americans were disenfranchised from their right to vote by the Republican political machine in 2000, and 2004. And when those who suspected it from the events but had no firm proof at the time spoke up, the Republicans did not address the complaints but rather attacked and ridiculed the messengers, and falsely claimed that the Democrats did as much election manipulation as "the few" Republicans did.

They continue to do that. In the TV interviews that I have seen with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. by Tucker Carlson (MSNBC) and Wolf Blitzer (CNN), not one substantive challenge was made against the evidence presented in his article.

Stolen Election - 2004

Just published yesterday, June 1, 2006, an article in Rolling Stone magazine by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.:

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

This article presents a well documented case for the argument that the Republicans stole the 2004 presidential election.  It focuses mainly on election fraud in the state of Ohio.

I printed out the article and it is 8 pages long. Of the 8 pages, there are 3½ pages of references.

I heard Kennedy being interviewed on TV. Tucker Carlson did the interview and challenged the findings using 4 major arguments:

1. How could such a large conspiracy be covered up?
2. If the election was stolen, why did (and does) John Kerry not contest it?
3. Why isn't the story on the front pages in every newspaper?
4. Why hasn't Congress followed up on this issue.

For answers to those questions and for a more detailed analysis of the fraudulent 2004 election, I would refer the reader to a recent book, "Fooled Again" (Mark Crispin Miller, Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Basic Books, 2005), 364 pages of which 57 pages are references).

For those not familiar with what Robert F. Kennedy has been doing in the arena of public service, he is an outspoken leader in the environmental movement and can be heard regularly on "Air America Radio". Here is a link to his biography as it appears on the Air America Radio web site:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Biography

Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University and a critic and author of journal articles, newspaper articles, and several books  on film, television, propaganda, advertising, and the culture industries.

For more information on Mark Crispin Miller and the book, "Fooled Again" go to the following link:

C-SPAN Book TV - Fooled Again

--  Michael My Blog: http://myweb-blog.blogspot.com  "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties  of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" Abraham Lincoln  "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Benjamin Franklin