good news

Grit used to brag that it was, "America's hometown newspaper." The mantle, though, is now passing to the Crawford, TX Iconoclast.



Ever since they endorsed Kerry in 2004, they've been living up to their name with kudos. We would like to see more American journalists follow their brave example.

This week, they even take a progressive stand on the Ohio recount.

Personally, I'm considering giving one of my close friends a subscription for Christmas.

Austin Chronicle
Another Texas newspaper that seems to have balls is the Austin Chronicle. They are running an eye-popping column by Lucius Lomax entitled, "Mutual Interests," about Veridian, a Texas defense contractor.

The story concludes thusly:

As we're all becoming aware, this conflict is less about ideology or security than it is about money. In fact, in some ways George W. Bush is best understood as a business himself, a corporation, a conglomerate, with offices in Dallas, Houston, Austin, Washington, suburban Virginia, and now, Baghdad.

In this light, the conquest of Iraq can be simply but accurately viewed as the ultimate hostile takeover.

Wayne Madsen
Meanwhile, Wayne Madsen is back at Online Journal with his most exciting offering yet on Votergate 2004. He's starting to name names and give details that, if they are true, are likely to either get him killed, sued, or both.

As I told Joseph Cannon, there is a revenge motive reported by Madsen, attributable to CIA operatives angered over George W. Bush's purge of the agency non-loyal personnel. Madsen now says,

People may wonder why a group of intelligence insiders would come forward to a non-major media outlet with such tantalizing information at this time. The corporate-beholden media cannot be trusted to report such a news story. A common theme from all the intelligence and ex-intelligence officials with whom I have communicated is that George W. Bush made a major mistake in attacking and purging the clandestine service of the CIA. The "agency," which extends far beyond the confines of Langley, Virginia, is having its revenge. It has willingly exposed a portion of a traditional clandestine CIA money route to expose the vote scam that was used to ensure Bush's election.

What concerns me is that this motive is too perfect. Is the software going to be examined and debunked publicly by Cliff Ahrenbeck and the other Ohio attorneys challenging the election? It's conceivable to me that this story goes nowhere because everybody is afraid to talk. It's going to take a computer software guru to break the story to the mainstream media, otherwise, we'll have to wait until the next election for another chance to blow this cover.

I sure have enjoyed reading these pieces by Madsen. I hope he follows up soon.

Roy Teixeira
This blogger has an exceptionally respectable quality to his work, especially in terms of hard data research, humble self referencing, and an overall tone of integrity and honest hard work to his reasonable words.

He raises an interesting question in this (12/05/04) blog, and he gives credit for ideas and research to this WP article.

As I write, these pieces are one day old already. Blackwell is certifying, Cobb and Alliance for Democracy are challenging, Madsen's newest piece with the "sworn affidavit" is out, and the fringe media are about to run with the Ohio election reprise. Teixeira has nothing to do with that. He is level, traditional, sober in his conclusions. He's no wild-eyed liberal extremist promulgating weekly conspiracy theories.

But Teixeira echoes an important question that the Post raises, and which everybody is going to be asking in the next week: "Where did those extra Bush votes come from?"