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It's Up to You, New York: 'BradCast' 3/21/24
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Corporations 'Taking a Bazooka' to NLRB, Hoping to Declare it 'Unconstitutional': 'BradCast' 3/18/24
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Press quietly resets weeks of misreporting on Biden; Suggestions for NYT; Stephanopoulos v. Mace; Also: Buck quits; RNC 'bloodbath'; WI's MAGA Speaker Recall...
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Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

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Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

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So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
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CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
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Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

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CRIMINAL ELECTION FRAUD COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST GOP 'FRAUD' FIRM
Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

Conyers: 'There can be no doubt that today we are in a constitutional crisis'
Constitutional Attorney Jonathon Turley: 'What the President committed was a crime'; Admission to Re-Authorizing Illegal NSA taps 30 times was 'most extraordinary thing I've ever ever heard'
By Brad Friedman on 1/20/2006 8:40am PT  

The Democratic led hearings on the illegal, warrantless spying of Americans on U.S. soil by the Bush Administration's NSA is currently being aired LIVE on C-SPAN 1!

Despite the House of Representatives being currently in recess, once again the Republicans have refused to give Chairman John Conyers, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and his distinguished panel, a formal hearing room. So, as with their hearings on the "Downing Street Documents" last year, they're back in the basement this morning.

RAW STORY has Conyers' opening statement.

C-SPAN's online streaming seems to be down, however, the live audio of the hearings is available via Pacifica radio.

(We'll try to update this item if possible, despite a very busy schedule this morning! Those who are listening/watching, feel free to "Live Blog" anything you like in Comments!)




Paul Craig Roberts Discusses Election 2004, 'Power-Mad Republicans' and the Dangers of their Electronic Voting Machines
By Brad Friedman on 1/19/2006 8:49pm PT  

Republican and true Conservative (as opposed to today's majority of phony "conservatives"), Paul Craig Roberts, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and National Review, as well Ronald Reagan's one-time Assistant Sec. of the U.S. Treasury, discusses "Evidence of a Stolen Election" in his latest column out today.

Unlike the bulk of his media and political brethren, clearly Roberts "gets it" as he writes, in review of Mark Crispin Miller's landmark election theft tome, FOOLED AGAIN, "now that Republicans have learned that they can use the electronic machines to control election outcomes, the disenfranchisement of Democrats is likely to be a permanent feature of American 'democracy.'"

Along with an appropriate indictment of the media's overall failure to adequately investigate and report on the crumbling of the most essential, very core of our democracy, ("a free press has proven to be inconsistent with the recently permitted highly concentrated corporate ownership of the US media," says Roberts) he pens the obvious point which the rest of the media, and America along with them, just can't bring themselves to admit outloud:

The outcome of the 2004 presidential election has always struck me as strange. Although Kerry was a poor candidate and evaded the issue most on the public's mind, by November of 2004 a majority of Americans were aware that Bush had led the country into a gratuitous war on the basis either of incompetence or deception. By November 2004 it was completely clear that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and that Bush had rushed to war. People were concerned by the changing rationales that Bush was offering for going to war. Moreover, the needless war was going badly and the results bore no relationship to the rosy scenario painted at the time of the invasion. It seems contrary to American common sense for voters to have reelected a president who had failed in such a dramatic way.

It does, indeed.

And, in closing, he hits the ball way over the fence:

If electronic voting machines programmed by private Republican firms remain in our future, dissent will become pointless unless it boils over into revolution. Power-mad Republicans need to consider the result when democracy loses its legitimacy and only the rich have anything to lose.

Homerun, Mr. Roberts.




Grow a Spine Dems, The Time for Playing it Safe is Over!
(And, by the way, it's been over for a very long time!)
By Brad Friedman on 1/19/2006 5:26pm PT  

Arianna is right. If the Dems tap someone like Virginia's newly elected Gov. Kaine to respond to Bush's State of the Union Address --- simply because he was able to win in a supposed "Red State" and sounds a helluva like Bush on the Iraq War --- instead of someone who represents the mainstream views of America like Rep. John Murtha, then they deserve every just dessert that will come to them.

The same is true in regard to any Senate Dem who refuses to filibuster Alito. They will have lost his/her right to be supported by anybody in this country. An illegitmate Presidency only lasts eight years (maximum). The Supreme Court is for a life time.

If Alito is worth voting against for confirmation (and he is), then he is worth doing everything in ones power to keep off of the Supreme Court. To that end, anything short of a filibuster to keep someone like Alito, nominated by a criminal like Bush --- who has lost all credibility, every "benefit of the doubt", along with a supposed "right" to appoint anybody to the Highest Court in our land --- is spineless, pathetic, fruitlessly pandering, and ultimately providing of a perfectly justifiable reason for any voter to refuse to support any such Dem ever again.

If Dems would begin Impeachment Hearings on George W. Bush immediately, if only they had the numbers in Congress to do so, then why, in the wildest stretches of anyone's imagination, would they defer to him the singular power to shift the balance of the court for decades beyond his shameful, criminal, and illegitimate reign?

There are many reasons to filibuster Alito. No matter what the Conservative Media tells you repeatedly. Those are the same folks, after all, who also told you that "John Kerry would be much tougher than Dean to defeat as a Presidential Nominee." And you believed them. While there are few reasons not to fillibuster Alito, aside from what those very same Wingnuts have hypnotized you Dems (again) into believing.

For the moment, however, I'll point to just one reason, as described in this study of Alito's prevarications about and claims of "Unitary Powers of the Executive" as compiled by the good folks of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition. They, correctly, conclude thusly:

Further, many clouds currently surround President Bush and the Executive Branch relating to the legal and constitutional authority by which they claim to have for several questionable actions and policies. The Oregon VRC therefore questions the wisdom of the U.S. Senate considering any candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court nominated by President Bush at this time. We insist, as the Senate Judiciary Committee's (Republican) Chair originally suggested, that the confirmation process of a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court be deferred until a criminal investigation is completed on President Bush. Only if and when the President is cleared of any and all criminal actions can the people feel confident in his choice(s) for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Amen.

I've been out of town for a bit, and on and off line in the bargain, so haven't compiled an authoritative list of actions for folks to take if they agree that Dems should filibuster Alito. Come what may. So I'll leave it to folks in comments here to offer links to email petitions, phone numbers, and other such campaigns to help get the message to Senate Dems that the time for "playing it safe" is over. The time for stepping up courageously to do the right thing for this country...for our country --- fallaciously perceived political costs be damned --- is now here.

Do it Dems, and you will deserve every kudos. Do not, and you deserve every bit of disdain that will come your way from those who might have otherwise supported you to the ends of the earth. Either way, I promise, you will receive very same the slings and arrows from the Right. That's what they do for a living. But if you attempt to pander to the non-existant "middle" yet again --- as the Wingnuts have tricked you into believing actually exists --- I hope you'll not wonder why your base may justifiably turn their backs on you when you may need them most.

Fool you a dozen or so times...shame on you.

UPDATE 1/20/06: Dick Durbin says 'Filibuster now possible'! Details here...

UPDATE 1/22/06: Guest Blogger Pokey Anderson builds the case for filibuster...




By John Gideon on 1/19/2006 5:09pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Exciting news today as Yolo Co., CA announces they are purchasing the Vote-PAD as their accessible voting device. Other CA counties are very concerned about whether they are going to have any voting system for their June primary. Tucson, AZ has announced that they are looking into using Vote-by-mail as their voting system. A judge in NM has released county elections officials from the lawsuit against the state's use of error prone Sequoia voting machines. The suit stays against the state so it looks like this suit will end up in court....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




By David Edwards on 1/19/2006 4:15pm PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano says that the new Bin Laden tape is no excuse to subvert the constitution and conduct illegal wiretaps on Americans as the Bush Administration has been doing since before 9/11.

Of course, John "freedom hater" Gibson called the new Bin Laden tape the "trump card" in the argument for allowing unconstitutional spying and the Patriot Act.

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...




Deadline Looms for Kidnapped Journalist Jill Carroll
By David Edwards on 1/19/2006 11:37am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

PBS Newshour invited several journalists with experience reporting in Iraq to comment on the kidnapping of Jill Carroll. Carroll is a freelance reporter that was working on a story for the Christian Science Monitor when she was abducted and her translator was killed on January 7th.

CBS journalist Lara Logan was asked how the lack of security in Iraq effected the ability to gather news. Logan responded to a complaint, often made by the Bush Administion, that positive stories are not reported as often as negative news.

The big complaint about this war coming from the American military and the Bush Administration is that the media aren't telling the "real story". They don't talk about the good things that are happening and I frequently say to American Military officers and soldiers on the ground:

"Look, you want us to risk the lives of all our team to come and film the opening of a bridge that was intact before it was bombed in this war anyway or a school that's had new windows being put in and has been painted. I mean, those are just not reasons to risk the lives of all the people that are involved in trying to tell the story."

Until journalists have the freedom of movement, not just around Baghdad but around the country... We used to be able to drive to Fallujah. I want to go down to Najaf and interview Mohammed al-Sadr. I can't do that anymore.

It has a huge impact on our ability to tell the story.

Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, 39 journalists have been kidnapped and 60 journalists have been killed. About 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in total.

Jill Carroll's kidnappers have given authorities 72 hours to release the 8 women that have been detained by security forces in Iraq. The deadline expires Friday night.

In the meantime, the security situation in Iraq is not improving. Just this morning, bombings in Baghdad have left 23 people dead.

See Lara Logan's comments about the dangers of reporting in Iraq in the following PBS Newshour video.


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By David Edwards on 1/18/2006 5:56pm PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards




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Earlier today, Democrats in Congress unveiled the "Honest Leadership, Open Government Act" which they hope will restore a measure of honesty, integrity and transparency to government.

While a number of Democrats spoke with high aspirations, Louise Slaughter's speech may have presented the strongest indictment of Republican ethics:

But today we're suffering the consequences of what may be the worst corruption in the nation's history. As everybody has mentioned before, we all know about the majority leader. We know about the man who left the White House in handcuffs. We know about the Republican congressman who pled guilty, and there are many more coming. Every day we pick up the paper and yet there is even more.

What we're up against isn't just the shameful work of individuals like these. It's a much broader problem. It's a problem that is rooted in the Republican establishment that has held power in this nation's capital for far too long.

Sadly, their legacy has been the fundamental degradation of our democratic institutions and the abandonment of core principles.

...
And under Republican guidance, America has truly been put up for sale to the highest bidders.

Here is the full transcript of Representative Slaughter's speech.




By John Gideon on 1/18/2006 5:09pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Some California counties are becoming a bit nervous about whether they will be able to use their voting machines in upcoming elections. At the same time, the talk in Northern California is about Vote-By-Mail. Meanwhile in Bucks County, PA activists have brought suit against the county to stop them from going to paperless voting. ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




May He Finally Rest in Peace.
By Brad Friedman on 1/18/2006 11:22am PT  

Yesterday, I wrote about the suicide of Specialist Douglas Barber, an Iraq War vet who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) upon returning home from fighting on behalf of this country. A man who put his life on the line for this country, but who was unable to receive adequate help from the Veteran's Administration as run (and facing deep cutbacks) by George W. "Support the Troops" Bush.

Here is an email posted on SCOOP, from Barber, as written in January of 2005.

He had a difficult time getting people to listen to him while he was alive. Perhaps some of us can try to listen to him now that he's dead, so that perhaps his death will not be in vain.

In his email, Barber describes what many families go through when they witness their sons and daughters coming home in flag-draped coffins, hidden from view by the Bush Administration. And, even more telling in this case, some of the horrors veterans suffering from PTSD face once back on the homefront. Here's a few grafs...

All is not okay or right for those of us who return home alive and supposedly well. What looks like normalcy and readjustment is only an illusion to be revealed by time and torment. Some soldiers come home missing limbs and other parts of their bodies. Still others will live with permanent scars from horrific events that no one other than those who served will ever understand.

We come home from war trying to put our lives back together but some cannot stand the memories and decide that death is better. They kill themselves because they are so haunted by seeing children killed and whole families wiped out.
...
Still others come home to nothing, families have abandoned them: husbands and wives have left these soldiers, and so have parents as well. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has become the norm amongst these soldiers because they don't know how to cope with returning to a society that will never understand what they have had to endure to liberate another country.

PTSD comes in many forms not understood by many: but yet if a soldier has it, America thinks the soldiers are crazy. PTSD comes in the form of depression, anger, regret, being confrontational, anxiety, chronic pain, compulsion, delusions, grief, guilt, dependence, loneliness, sleep disorders, suspiciousness/paranoia, low self-esteem and so many other things.

See his full post for some of the specific personal issues that Barber faced as he wrestled with his PTSD demons.

But then, he goes on to finish with some words for all of the Wingnuts out there who make this sort of disaster possible. Those who, from the comfort of their million dollar homes and multi-million media contracts, distort the cost of this war to sell it as "a noble cause," as if it's a Made-in-America product we can all be proud of and ought to promote to every corner of the earth. Those who bang on a political drum to give the death and destruction of others a "positive" spin for their own personal benefit. Those who gain from the nameless, faceless deaths of real heroes who --- unlike the media-politico scoundrels --- will never benefit by having their contracts renewed, their books promoted to the Best-Seller lists, or see offers for multi-thousand dollar speaking fees. Those who haven't the first clue of what heroes like Barber faced in order to make the lives of such Chickenhawks so cozy and swell. Those like Rush and Sean and O'Reilly who, in Barber's own words are "nothing but dirt under every soldier's boots!"

All of that, even as Barber's death, along with countless others, won't even rate to make the Pentagon's ever-growing list of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or even seem themselves added to the scores of thousands listed on the Injured Lists.

I'll let Barber finish out this post...

Talk show hosts like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and so many others act like they know all about war; then they refuse to give any credence to soldiers like me who have been to war and seen the brutality of war. These guys are nothing but WEAK SPINELESS COWARDS hiding behind microphones while soldiers come home and are losing everything they have.

I ask every American who reads this e-mail to stand up for the soldier who has given their everything for this country to stand up to these guys in the media; ask them why they don't pick up a weapon and follow in the steps of a soldier. Send this e-mail to as many people on your e-mail lists and ask them to do the same.

There needs to be a National awareness for every Veteran who has ever served in any war. Send e-mails to the Big Mouths on TV and ask them to have soldiers like me on their programs. I am asking you as Americans to BOYCOTT every TV show or host/journalist that refuses to tell the real truth.

THIS IS A PERSONAL CHALLENGE TO BILL,SEAN AND RUSH TO HAVE ME ON YOUR PROGRAM TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. Otherwise you are nothing but dirt under every soldier's boots!

SPC. Douglas Barber

(Please consider supporting Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), formerly OpTruth.org --- Unlike Rush and Sean and O'Reilly, these guys were actually there...and they actually give a damn.)




By David Edwards on 1/18/2006 10:41am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Last November, The Daily Mirror published details of a "top secret" U.K. memo revealing that President Bush wanted to bomb headquarters for the al-Jazeera news network. At the time, The Mirror quoted its' source saying:

"He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.

"There's no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it."

While the story has gone largely unnoticed in the U.S., British media and al-Jazeera have continued investigating. Check out this earlier Brad Blog report for more backstory.

Political pressure to release the memo increased this week when British lawyers retained by the al-Jazeera network announced a lawsuit filed against the U.K. that requests the leaked memo be made public. Soon after, Downing Street officially denied that the memo has anything to do with the bombing of al-Jazeera. But the Downing Street spokesperson would not reveal what the memo did say.

In the following video, Sky News reports on the new lawsuit and the mounting political pressure.


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By John Gideon on 1/17/2006 5:12pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The rhetoric is escalating in Arizona and a hearing will follow soon. Maricopa County may be the 'poster child' for election fraud and it's not something that will be fixed by voter ID cards. The California SoS seems to have taken a hard-line against the Registrars as he has told them that he won't just certify voting systems to make them happy. And to keep with today's emphasis on the Southwest corner of the country, New Mexico's governor has pledged $11M for a new, paper-based voting system....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




Says Bush AG's Reply to Speech Underscores Need for Special Counsel, Rather Than 'Political Response' by DoJ
By Brad Friedman on 1/17/2006 3:21pm PT  

RAW STORY has an early release of Gore's full statement replying to the attempted obfuscation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in reply to Gore's speech yesterday.

Letting you know here, since the Mainstream Media will likely ignore it --- as they did with Gore's speech yesterday. Or misrepresent it and twist its facts. As they did with Gore's speech yesterday.

I'll leave others to embarass the Trolls when they try to retread the Gorelick "Blackbag" physical search nonsense (not covered by FISA!) here in comments. I'm taking a few hours off...




May America 'Never Forget' What Has Gone on Here...
By Brad Friedman on 1/17/2006 2:34pm PT  

I'm on the road for a few days, currently near Palm Springs (or, as I like to call it, the Hollywood Old Folks Home), so unable to blog as around-the-clock as normal. But a couple of points today have really got me upset.

One is the spin-meister Bill O'Reilly's unpardonable apologies for the criminal George W. Bush administration. His remarkable rationalizations and attempts to excuse what noted constitutional attorney Jonathon Turley just called "an open and shut criminal case" against Bush (at the bottom of the first hour of O'Reilly's radio show today), are simply appalling.

O'Reilly's reasons why none of these broken rules of law or corruption of the U.S. Constitution rises to impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors? Because the American people don't support the impeachment of Bush. (Never mind the new Zogby poll showing that 52% of Americans would support such action for illegal, warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens. And never mind that no more than 30% of Americans ever supported the impeachment of Clinton!). But more on that, hopefully, later or tomorrow as my stomach, and time-away allows it.

For the moment however, a very disturbing story...just another one of far too many similar ones, I'm afraid...pointing up why this son-of-a-bitch who sits in the White House needs to be held accountable for the horrific actions of which I don't believe he actually has a clue. Or, at least, has insulated and lied to himself so much, that he can't even conceive anymore of the pain he has caused the citizenry of this country which he once swore to protect and defend. That, on top of the cynical claims of looking after the armed forces which he (fallaciously) claims at every opportunity to support.

I received some very disturbing email messages this morning, which have, by now, become all too familiar...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




By David Edwards on 1/17/2006 9:31am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

NBC's Today Show reports that the president is demanding that critics "disagree responsibly" about Iraq. Bush says that criticism of the Iraq war is "defeatism" that is hurting the troops morale.

Paul Hackett is a veteran of the Iraq war who is running for the Senate in Ohio. Hackett disagrees with the president's accusations. Hackett says that the troops debate the war just like other patriotic Americans. The troop morale in Iraq remains high.


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By David Edwards on 1/17/2006 7:58am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards


We've put together this video clip of highlights from
Al Gore's excellent speech on the abuse of executive powers.
Text highlights were posted yesterday here... And an exclusive response by FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was posted here...



Video in Streaming Flash format
Audio in MP3 format
(Playing time: 39 min.)

C-SPAN has the entire video up in Real Media format.

Crooks and Liars may post our extended highlights clip in other video formats later today.




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