A liberal investigative reporter: Kerry won

Harper's magazine | 11/05/04 | Greg Palast

[L.N. Smithee]

As soon as I saw this headline, I knew who had written this piece. I knew Greg Palast just couldn't stomach a crushing Kerry defeat, and had to write a piece on how the GOP stole the election again or else his head was going to explode.

[eagle11]

I hope they have experts to verify this is not a fraudulent document.

[ch.man]

Humorous at best. Here is the opinion of some other people. (sorry for those of you who dont like to be "observed", but I thought this might interest some Freepers). And this coming from a european social-democrat.....

....and by the way I would like to send my congratulations to President Bush. I would like to thank you fellow Freepers as well as your great country for having the courage to vote as you did. Let me convey to all of you my deepest respect and friendly feelings.


Swiss observer says US elections free and fair The Swiss head of the international mission, which monitored the United States presidential election, says the process was for the most part free and fair.

In an interview with swissinfo, Barbara Haering said the mission did, however, uncover a few irregularities.

Haering led a team of more than 90 observers from 34 states under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The team presented their preliminary findings in Washington on Thursday.

Haering is a Social Democratic member of the Swiss House of Representatives, and vice-president of the parliamentary assembly of the OSCE.

swissinfo: Did the elections proceed in a correct manner, or were there problems similar to those of 2000?

Barbara Haering: These elections met most of the requirements demanded by the OSCE. There were problems and irregularities but not many. However, we are critical of the new law [Help America Vote Act] introduced in 2002 . It leaves a lot of room for interpretation and that has to change.

International observers must also be assured free access to all polling stations in all states.

swissinfo: Was that not the case?

B.H.: The problem was that we were invited by the federal government in Washington, which has a law permitting observer missions. But there is no such law at the state level.

Our observers were not allowed into a few polling stations, but we did have sufficient access to all the information we required to do our work.

swissinfo: Your mission has now ended. What did it accomplish?

B.H.: The US is in the middle of a long-term, exhaustive process to reform its electoral system. It was the first time that a national law was dictated to the state governments. The wording of the law introduced two years ago must become more precise, and I’m sure our recommendations will be considered.

swissinfo: What impressed you most about the elections?>
B.H.: The commitment and passion of the campaigners who went door to door soliciting votes right up to the last minute. We can really learn from them in Switzerland.

It also gave me much more insight into the election process than I would have had watching from Switzerland. We usually follow the elections on CNN.

I was also impressed by the calm after the storm. On voting day, the electorate showed a lot of dedication and patience going to the polls and having to wait. Everyone was aware how important the election was for the country and that it was being monitored by the international community.

swissinfo: You’ve taken part in similar missions in eastern Europe. What are the differences?
B.H.: There is a huge difference in regard to the logistics. The problem isn’t access to information, but the amount of information you have to deal with. The main challenge in many eastern European countries is access to information.

I would also like to say that from an emotional point of view, it has been very impressive to observe people in crucial election situations. You realise that people are aware that their votes count.

swissinfo, Jean-Michel Berthoud (translation: Dale Bechtel)

Copyright © Swissinfo / Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG

[Danno]

There are no "dimpled", "pregnant", or "hanging" chads, unless you are illiterate and incompetent, in which case you have no idea what you are voting for anyway, so you're an idiot who will vote for whatever self-destructive crap that comes down the pike. You should be barred from voting, just as a two-year-old should be barred from handling a sharp knife. That whole recount was complete Nonsense, for the umpteenth time, and it's time for you Moveon.org types to get over it and move on. Being stupid is not something you should proclaim to the world, yet you trumpet it to the highest heavens. "I'm stupid! I'm stupid!"

This is another excellent point. What you are saying is true and should be boldly put forth without fear of not being PC. Pregnant chads, which from memory in 2000, definitely should not be looked at but I remember the Dems fighting to get thiose counted if they were for Gore or if it was in a predom. Dem. precinct.

Hanging chads are another thing but still, a standard has to be determined beforehand and stuck with. Once you start allowing exceptions to this then it will take months and months to ever determine who is the president.

There has to be conventions established and if a voter is so sloppy as to not 'pay attention', then they do it at their own peril. And this is assuming the best case scenario for the Dems, assuming everything they say about racial profiling is true.

[PMCarey]

Roger Ailes made exactly the same point regarding the exits polls in the 2000 election. He said that when the pollsters went up to a Dem, the Dem voter would talk and talk about who he voted for and why; but when the pollster went up to a Republican the answer was, as likely as not, "It's none of your damn business."

[piasa]

How could someone that old be that ignorant? I bet he even punches the wrong numbers on his phone time and time again and blames his wrong numbers on Rove, too.

[L.N. Smithee]

He is really flat out stating that the minority Democrat base is too stupid to know how to use a simple voting mechanism. That is really the only conclusion to draw from his ridiculous, fantastical ravings.

Palast's scenario is like the Muslim conspiracy theories that blame Jews for Arab terrorism. If they really believe the Jews are smart enough to pull these massive hoaxes off, then there's no way any of us with normal brains are going to be able to defeat them. So why not just give up?

[rotundusmaximus]

Election night, Juan Williams told Brit Hume that there were going to be some conspiracy theories after the election because of the exit polls and Brit said you are probably right there will be some theories coming up.

It doesn't surprise me, they are not going to accept that the exit polls were wrong because they want to use the exit polls to try to prove that the election was stolen from them ...again!

They are wasting their time, what we conservatives need to do is start a grass roots movement to really reform the voting system state by state. No more chads anaywhere, pregnant or otherwise!

I read on another thread that some people don't want the electronic system and want paper so there will be a hard copy of the vote, maybe that can be done too, but we need to do something before 2008.

[Lancey Howard]

What now? Kerry won, so hold your victory party.

LOL, yeah, go have a blast, har!!!

[Robert_Paulson2]

good idea...
a rain program that only drops it's drizzel on democrats, and their ever whining dependency class...

rove probably is working on it as we speak...
pssst.

the dUmmies will find out...
rofl.

[Paul R.]

Hey, saw that just as I was about to log off. To use someone else's words:

Nail.
Hammer.
Bang!

I think we should boycott exit polls and do so loudly!

[maryz]

Didn't Harper's used to be respectable, if leftish?

[The Loan Arranger]

"Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state."
There was a third gender, it's called a "Palast", not quite a man, but too much facial hair to be a woman.

[Danno]

To be honest with you, paper is the way to go. When I voted I used a simple 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper to which a computer generated label was affixed and I signed.

Computers are not the end all to everything and I make my living via the 'puter. For goodness sake, paper is cheaper and easier to track and none of this nonsense with computer glictches, hanging chads and the like.

Then again - if the Dems lose that way they will find a way of claiming that it was too easy not to fill in the oval completely...sigh

[Styria]

He's lying about CNN's exit polls.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/OH/P/00/epolls.0.html

According to CNN, Bush won 50% of the female vote and 52% of the male vote. Don't poo-poo this author for his lunacy. Decry him as the blatant liar he is.

[Lancey Howard]

The author of this silly conspiracy theory, Greg Palast, didn't offer a photo of the Ohio Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, so I will. Here's the partisan scoundrel who systematically disenfranchises African-American voters in Ohio:

J. Kenneth Blackwell

[abb]

ROTFLMAO!! Exactly!

[Bellflower]

Is there a link to this article? I would like to challenge, using my last post, Palast's thesis. He needs to defend this to everyone not just his cheerleaders. These are serious charges and the MSM will eventually come out of hiding in a few days/weeks and start trumpeting this line of thinking...

Somebody with the means should take an add out in the New York Times and refute his column line by line, by line. We need to do more than campaign every two years. The Republican Party spends millions of dollars on campaigns. We can afford to and at the same time cannot afford not to wage our battle 24/7. We must educate the populace on a continual basis in the public arena. It is not enough that we just get the truth out among ourselves.

It may seem funny but this stuff is very destructive to the mentality of our country and needs to be checked asap. If the truth gets out there the lies must scatter. If not they will run with this stuff and it will soon be seen as the truth not only in this country but the world. They need their demented ammunition removed in their war to overtake our country with their leftest ideology.

[Trinity_Tx]

Last night I heard on a major network that the final exit poll numbers were close to the actual results. The anchor said that by the time the exit poll numbers that showed Kerry to be losing started trickling in, the networks had given up reporting them and switched to actual precinct results.

If anything, it appeared that there was a concerted effort to hold back on reporting good news for Bush.

I'll see if I can find a link to the final exit poll tally.

As for the rest of the article... lol Only Greg Palast could come up with such a desperate mix of grasping at straws. Even Michael Moore knew better.

[snowsislander]

I used to write a column for the Guardian papers in London. Several friends have asked me if I will again leave the country. In light of the failure—a second time—to count all the votes, that won't be necessary. My country has left me.

After reading that screed, getting to this paragraph was no surprise.

Would it be too much to ask one of these folks to take -- and pass -- perhaps a "critical reasoning" class somewhere along the way before they write for the public on civic matters?