Liberal Values Post on Kerry picked up by Reuters

[Dr Ron]

http://today.reuters.com/News/ArticleBlog.aspx?type=politicsNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B7tmRCRJt2YFzDsa7MJ1CblL&src=blogBurst_politicsNews&bbPostId=Cz1VeFnrO5fmhCz7sNEgkr6eaqB33FY5p4VBK5CzEHD3kTT3XuX


I'm sure glad I added the update with the favorable comments about Kerry.

[MH1]

1. Great job and great post!

The update really ends it nicely.

:toast:

[Dr Ron]

2. Thanks

I subsequently checked the Blogburst site (which is responsible for distributing blog posts to the media). I found that Reuters and an Austen newspaper also picked up my post yesterday after Kerry's announcement, and my post on Hillary getting in the race (which had a subtle knock on her compared to Kerry in it).

[kerrygoddess]

5. Blogburst is useful

to get stuff seen. The Dem Daily has done well with their service.

[wisteria]

3. Good. n/t

[ginnyinWI]

4. congrats, Ron. n/t

[k j]

6. woohoo! n/t

[MarjorieG]

7. Kudos, but an exception.

Wonderful that the blog was picked up. Your rational voice and seeing all sides has long been appreciated. On JK.com from late summer 2003, in the uphill fight that it was, with the smaller blog presence, you were absolutely invaluable. You and Mark from Iowa.

My concern is your focusing on every instance that might prove the election was fairly won by Bush, by inference, and that nothing untoward happened in Ohio. That it wasn't stolen. For me, lack of prosecutorial proof doesn't totally end it. Those stories that he didn't win, posts of yours, are the ones that get picked up. One more media nail that their irresponsibility to this issue was correct. One more nail to drive Kerry away, and I'm not exaggerating.

One Dem lawyer on board, for whatever recount effort was possible, said it was a death by a thousand cuts, and we have to know what is coming before the election. Though we did catch a lot. The Dem party, and frankly, McAuliffe, didn't do their homework. Ohio was impossible to counter, to get the proof, but most of what was done there was traditional disenfranchisement and impossible to reclaim, to put back.

Tying that case to Blackwell, as I clearly think happened, would not have gotten the guilty judgment. That would havebeen overreach. As much as I believe election staff always want to go home, and that closure and stability are what election boards are about, there were other instances of working around the not so random spot check. The Triad computer guy went to various areas showing how the counts could be made similar.

This Ohio election was carefully controlled for the result they got. I've looked at hard evidence, legal cases, and I know what I'm saying. Go to votetrust and votersunite for daily media and efforts. Any change or move to the truth of the election vulnerabilities is difficult.

Overreaching on our side does not help get improvements in the system, or people to do the hard work of having boards work harder, get better laws, and do away with the paperless, black box voting. Inertia, money, and federal not mandating to states, make change very difficult.

When a Greg Palast shouts totals of votes lost that can't substantiated, and even admits at the bottom of his stories, he undermines serious discussion on where we have to go to improve verifiable voting.

[Dr Ron]

8. Not saying nothing untoward happened

"My concern is your focusing on every instance that might prove the election was fairly won by Bush, by inference, and that nothing untoward happened in Ohio."

I'm not saying nothing ontoward happened. This post is on one particular case. In this situation something untoward happened, but it's significance has been greatly exaggerated. Some liberal blogs such as Brilliant at Breakfast and BradBLog used this to bash Kerry with accusations of not fighting to have all the votes counted. Citing this case as such evidence against Kerry doesn't hold up.

Glad to see you agree that there are people making unsubstantiaed claims such as with your comment on Greg Palast. Unfortuantely it is people like him who scream the loudest, ultimately making any true election reform more difficult.

[kerrygoddess]

9. Like most bloggers

Brad spins things his way to make his point. Journalists do it. Bloggers do it on all sides, left, right and center - but that said, I'll repeat what I have said before, Brad does respect JK, though it may not reflect in his posts all the time, he and I have discussed this at length many times including Wednesday when he emailed me to ask if I was okay after the news broke. He was deeply grateful when JK sponsored the legislation for emergency paper ballots before the '06 election and that gratitude reflected in his posts about that.

Making election reform difficult works both ways as Marjorie noted. Those who deny anything happened make it just as difficult as those who over exaggerate.