Conspirate ships

We've had more than a few readers forward us the Wayne Madsen-written story about a deep conspiracy behind the election that involves everyone except for the Trilaterial Commission and the Parallax Corporation. It didn't pass our credibility meters -- and look, many stories of irregularities and glitches do -- and I'm glad to see that it doesn't pass Keith Olbermann's bullshit detector, either.

Money quote from Keith:

None of this is written to downplay the disturbing nature of the Warren County incident. Nor is it posited even to dismiss the many who see in the various failures of electronic voting around the country nearly four weeks ago not just incompetence, but malfeasance. Hell, if a shred of Mr. Madsen’s story is true, I’ll pay his expenses when he goes to pick up his Pulitzer Prize.

But in a time when serious investigations of what did or didn’t happen on November 2nd are vital to the sanctity of our voting process, reporting - in the mainstream media and on the internet alike - has to be solid and reasoned.

And we agree. Forwarding Madsen's story around only does harm to the considerable questions and investigations involving the November 2 elections that do have merit. Feeding into the notion of the Reynolds Wrap-hat wearing crazies does us little good. There are legitimate questions that need to be answered, just as some have already been answered and debunked. Let's continue that process, pushing for answers, without immediately assuming that every discrepancy can be explained by a deep, dark conspiracy.

Though, really, what was up with that Warren County lockdown?