BushWorld "Reality", meet Tipping Point.
As we head into the holidays (just past O'Reilly's "nine days of Hanukkah"), the wheels continue to come off, if still maddeningly slower than they should, in one case of White House/RNC corruption and/or fraud after another. We used to be able to keep up with the bulk of it. But no more. We throw in the towel, as developments and new cases are now coming faster than Executive Branch officials can declare a suddenly-discovered need to 'spend more time with their families'.
In matters of Election Fraud, a particular specialty of The BRAD BLOG, the under-reported pickings, from which we previously had to choose, were mighty, but slim enough that we could at least touch (if not a great deal more) on most of them.
But no more. And thankfully, of course. Even if it's a bit frustrating not to be able to bring you every step, in every case, as they are now coming fast and furious across the nation.
Several such cases, of what clearly are of enormous import, of late, have received some good coverage elsewhere --- for a welcome change. So we take some solace in that, at least, even if we don't have the resources to keep up with all of them, much less advance them a few steps ourselves, as we always prefer.
But we should at least touch on a couple of them, a bit, for the historical record, here at America's Election Fraud Authority, The BRAD BLOG. Please read on for some pointers to two emerging and mind-blowing stories of apparently rigged elections, that you may, or may not, have read about yet.
Seriously, read on...
Once such under-reported case here is that of former Alabama Governor, Don Siegelman, who sits in jail to this day, in what seems to have been a Karl Rove-run hit-job, according to one of the Republicans involved in matter, and a successful conspiracy to steal the 2002 election in that state. RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna has been all over it, in a three part investigative series here, here and here.
Siegelman still sits in jail, as we write, disallowed from speaking to the media, after the Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney brought an apparently trumped-up case against him.
Mark Crispin Miller, this week, has unearthed a startling video interview with Siegelman, taped in 2004, in which the former governor focused on allegations of the out-and-out theft of his 2002 contest. He describes having gone to bed on Election Night after having been declared the victor by 6,000 votes following the publicly-counted results. But then, he was then awoken at about 4:30am with the shocking news that the numbers had magically been flipped after the all-Republican Election Board in Baldwin County had "re-counted" the results, illegally, by themselves, after midnight.
Siegelman's only guess about what could have happened: "Somebody electronically manipulated the election results."
The results were then certified immediately by the Republican AG who denied a legally requested hand-count, and the votes were then immediately sealed and locked away beyond reach.
"This election was stolen," Siegelman alleges in the video, "There is no other kind, or sugar-coated way to say it."
Watch these videos!...
Alexandrovna reported late this week that 60 Minutes may be covering the story in January. This is a very hot potato.
UPDATE: Glynn Wilson, a former NY Times reporter, has more inside details on the chicanery in Alabama. She also notes, perhaps in inadvertently, one of the major failings of the corporate mainstream media when it comes to detailing with issues of election fraud: "I suspected fraud and was prepared to work my sources at that time and investigate. But since Siegelman basically conceded, I was pulled out of Bay Minette by the Times and sent back home to New Orleans."
Once again, a candidates concession is reason for the CMSM, somehow, to give up investigation/reporting on a potentially stolen election. While that's ridiculous, and seemingly counter to the mission of the media, it also underscores once again the need to "get it right on election night" and for candidates to stop conceding before every vote is counted and counted accurately!!!
Another extremely notable case of election rigging to see fresh light, concerns the 2002 New Hampshire Election Day phone-jamming by the Republican Party in that state, along with what appears to be the complicity of (almost certainly) the Republican National Party, in cahoots with (nearly as certainly) both the White House and Justice Department which slow-walked the investigation so that indictments would not be filed until after the 2004 election. That would be called a cover-up to add to the initial crime in which several Republicans have already pled guilty and been sent to jail.
One of the Republican officials who pled guilty in that case, Allen Raymond, is set to tell all in a new book to be released next month (the cover of which is at top-right) called How to Win Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
Greg Gordon of McClatchy offers details on the book, while Paul Kiel of TPM Muck offers the latest developments in the cover-up case, including John Conyers' letter yesterday to AG Michael Mukasey asking him what the hell is the hold up in investigating the matter, or even in responding to his previous letter of inquiry two months ago. That last is an excellent primer. Go read it!
That all ought to afford you plenty of holiday reading this weekend, and much to talk about with family throughout the rest of the thirteen days of Christmas.