OK folks it is time to end all this eating our own.... Bev is not Satan

althecat

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Thu Dec-16-04 01:54 AM
Original message

OK folks it is time to end all this eating our own.... Bev is not Satan

Dear everybody,

Ok after reading several of the threads around here - and listening to the Randi vs Bev MP3 I am starting to get seriously pissed off. I therefore propose we all bring an end to all this shit now.

If people agree with what I say here then perhaps when they run into the many Bev is Satan posters out there - and god knows there is enough of them - they can refer them back here and everybody can breathe through their noses, chill out and calm down.

Can I especially advise those DUers who are new to this issue to be particularly careful about what you beleive - and equally importantly what you choose to pass on to others. Unless you know the background to all of this (and beleive me you probably don't want to) then much of what is going on here is very easy to misconstrue. There is an awful lot of heat and light and emotional intensity... and in reality very little fire.

I am not suggesting Bev is a saint nor that she has not been deserving of some criticism nor that what happened to Andy is allright. She has been deserving of some criticism and what happened to Andy isn't allright.

But what is currently going on here is doing no credit either to the Vote Fraud movement or to DU. Frankly it is getting a bit sickening - and it is achieving nothing. If I was Skinner I would be seriously tempted to make discussion of anything bev related off limits.

To keep this as brief as possible I will put the rest of what I have to say in bullet points.

1. Bev is not the enemy. Never has been. She is on the same side as us.

2. I am not a victim of Bev as several posters have suggested (David Allen is and so his views are understandably a bit more strident than mine). Bev is pissed off at me and I made a bit of a screw up about the Cleanup Crew which arguably led to a lot of the bad feeling around here. Frankly however I do not really care anymore, I apologised for my mistake and sought to right it. Meantime I will continue to support Bev in the work that she does. In fact rather than being a victim of Bev I have hugely benefitted professionally from being able to work with her. Though I am disappointed in some of the things she has done it does not stop me admiring her for the amazing things she has achieved.

3. There is absolutely no evidence that Bev is stealing donors money to make herself famous. If you actually listen to the Randi IV she does explain what the money that was raised is being spent on.. it is being spent on securing FOIA requests. I too have donated to BBV and relatively recently and I do not want my money back.

4. & MOST IMPORTANTLY - without Bev none of what is presently happening around your nation in terms of Vote Fraid 2004 would simply not be happening. The simple undeniable truth is that (with the help of some folks around here) Bev made some startling discoveries in 2003 that propelled this issue into the mainstream. She did not do this alone there were lots of other people involved too... but she did play a central and extremely significant role at great personal cost.

5. Keith Olbermann and Randi Rhodes are not god. And it is not a simple matter of beleiving them or Bev. Sometimes communications screwups happen. My stationary printer claims he left three messages on my answerphone in the last week... they are not there... do I know why? No. Shit happens and even if it doesn't it still doesn't ammount to anything worth getting your knickers in knots over.

6. & FINALLY Bev is not here to defend herself. There is no point in litigating the where's and whyfore's of why this is so. It just is. And in these circumstances what is happening here is rude, impolite and lacking in human compassion.

Alastair