Greg Palast: Kerry Won in '04

Journalist Greg Palast first caught my interest when he was a guest on The Randi Rhodes Show. Impressed by that and other appearances, I read Armed Madhouse, his book dealing with election theft and general government corruption. I was alarmed by what I read, but didn't have a blog at the time to use as a forum.

In the past week, my interest was re-sparked by another appearance on the radio, very shortly followed by the Andrew Meyer tasering the other day (Meyer was quoting Armed Madhouse right before he got into trouble). So, I've been checking out his blog.

I've posted a couple of items on Palast over the last couple of months, in fact two in the last couple of days. But this story is important, so we're triple-dosing.

Palast has recently excerpted a chunk of his book, which really captures the gist of what really happened in 2004. This saves me a lot of time trying to recap it myself! So, please do go check it out. If this interests you, and you want to learn more, check out Armed Madhouse, all righty? OK then.

[Excerpt]

Cranks and Kooks: Kerry Won in ‘04

THE CON

Kerry Won. Now Get Over It . . .

. . .because they’re putting ‘08 in their pocket. Republicans just seem to have that winning spirit. They also have caging lists, felons of the future, rotting ballots, snuffed canaries, and a lock on the votes of Kissinger-Americans and the undead.

WARNING! There are cranks and kooks and crazies out there on the Internet who say that George Bush lost the 2004 election, like one titled, “Kerry Won” published on the TomPaine.com web site two days after the election. I wrote it.

On November 11, a week after TomPaine.com published it, I received an e-mail from The New York Times Washington Bureau. Hot on the investigation of the veracity of the vote, The Times reporter asked me pointed questions:

Question #1: Are you a “sore loser”? Question #2: Are you a “conspiracy nut”?

There was no third question. . .

Read the rest (it's good): GregPalast.com

Andrew Meyer, Tased Student: A Better View

Just one more post about this story, because I found a video that shows the incident in a far more revealing light. Andrew Meyer may hold extreme views. He may not have presented himself in the best light.

But as this version of the video shows, he did nothing to warrant this behavior by the campus police. There is simply no reason to arrest someone and put them in handcuffs for being an activist. He did not have a gun, he did not threaten to club Kerry with his copy of Armed Madhouse.

This was a colossal overreaction, and while certainly not in scale with Kent State, it did give me that vibe, and made me wonder if another Kent State could happen if a large group of people behaved as Andrew did.

You may have already made up your mind that this kid got what was coming to him. Watch this video, and see if you still feel that way.

UPDATE: I've been hearing that Meyer is something of a prankster, and at least in part was hoping for a confrontation. That may be, but I'm not sure it changes my opinion about the police reaction. They sure did seem to be enjoying themselves, and overly eager to zap the guy.