Brad,

I have been following your succinct coverage of this saga for a long time.

I think what you are showing is that republican Hearne is suffering, like the rest of his neoFascist cohorts, from "drug overdose". Bullshit is known to be a powerful drug.

Check this out:

“I believe it is a harbinger of things to come in November,’’ Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said of Childers’ victory.

“Americans want change and recognize Democrats are the ones to give them that,’’ Hoyer said. “That’s not spin. That’s three election results.’’

Hoyer noted that the new GOP slogan is also the slogan for Effexor, a prescription anti-depressant drug. He listed the side effects associated with the drug — nausea, headache, drowsiness — and tied those to policies of what Hoyer now calls the “Bush-Boehner administration.’’

(CQ Politics, emphasis added). Yes, Hearne looks like, talks like, and seems to be in a "bullshit drug induced" state of denial (one of the three states of Bullshitistan).

Keep up the good work. You could be the "bullshit drug Czar" some day, and you got my vote. We have been taking down a lot of bullshit peddlers over the years, and Hearn is one of them.

Nothin wurse than a Hearneated Bush Boner IMO

Hi Brad,

This story and you are mentioned over at HuffPo:

http://www.huffingtonpos...e-action-n_b_101830.html

Brad, maybe you should post more often over there.

- Tom

Thanks, Tom. I'd like to. But they don't make it real easy for me unfortunately. So glad that Art is doing a fine job of it over there of late!

TomR and BRAD!~

Interesting this should come up! I was on a COURAGE CAMPAIGN CONFERENCE CALL last night w/ Arianna, and although MY question re: how she could direct her readers to abstain from PRE/POST ELECTION POLLING just after the questionable NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY RESULTS went unanswered, she received TWO questions from other EI activists re: what she intends to do to educate her readers about our failed, flawed voting systems.

Her answers were SUB-PAR, as you might expect, but she admitted this needed to be addressed/ even mentioned BRAD on the call/ asked those of us with more info to please contact her so she can start a SPECIAL BLOG just for ELECTION RELATED ISSUES.

I wanted to follow up with: WHY NOT BRAD FRIEDMAN/ and BEV HARRIS? Made me think this might've been a lot of lip service from her, but I'm wondering if BRAD can follow-up on this? Can we get her to finally give this issue it's DUE? If so, I just might forgive her UNBELIEVABLE dictate re: EXIT POLLS...

It was encouraging to even hear her have to answer this question TWICE in one hour...how can we make enough noise to get her PRO-ACTIVE attention?

If you can't even get a FREE state ID, then you most likely won't even bother to vote. Not a lot of disenfranchisement there.

I love it, I think everyone should always have to show valid ID to vote.

{ED NOTE: Tell it to this woman (see below), "Jenn". And thanks for hating your country, its democratic and Constitutional values, and all they stood for until folks like you showed up}

97-year-old Shirley Freeda Preiss. She was born at home in Clinton, Kentucky in 1910, before women had the right to vote, and never had a birth certificate. Shirley has voted in every presidential election since FDR first ran in 1932, and proudly describes herself as a "died-in-the-wool Democrat." After living in Arizona for two years, she was eagerly looking forward to casting her ballot in the February primary for the first major woman candidate for President, Hillary Clinton. But lacking a birth certificate or even elementary school records to prove she's a native-born American citizen, the state of Arizona's bureaucrats determined that this former school-teacher who taught generations of Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote.

"I have a constitutional right to vote, don't I?" she asks with her soft Southern drawl. "I didn't get to vote because of a birth certificate. What am I going to do now?"

Her strong-willed 78-year-old son, Nathan "Joey" Nemnich, a World War II veteran, is infuriated. "I'm pissed. She's an American citizen who worked her whole life and I want her to vote," he says. He went down to the local Motor Vehicle Division to get her an Arizona ID and register her to vote, armed with copies of his mother's three drivers' licenses from her previous home in Texas, along with copies of her Social Security and Medicare cards. All that wasn't good enough for the state of Arizona. "The sons of bitches are taking away our Constitution," Nemnich says.

#5 Jeannie, Great work on getting her to respond to your questions. I understood from reading Huffpo that she was not against Exit polling but the regular polls where people are called? Hopefully she will get Brad to post again. He did post there quite often at one time.

:-) Floridiot #2 ( I am always afraid I am going to spell your handle incorrectly and call you an "idiot")

Jeannie Dean and Brad,

I took a shot at communicating about EI with Arianna at the FDL book salon a couple weeks ago:

http://firedoglake.com/2...s-wrong/#comment-1424461

What's weird is this comment was held in a moderation queue, and then later appeared after the chat was over. I doubt Arianna even saw it. Note: my previous non-EI comments during the chat appeared right away. This was the only one held for a while.

Anyway, maybe one of Arianna's people saw it later and brought it to her attention, who knows?

- Tom

Jenn, are you kidding?

Tom! Wow! I think it's VERY LIKELY that she saw it...your comments/ links/ questions were EXACTLY the ones she mentioned last night on the call, including ref's to BRAD and Mark Crispin Miller/ voter disenfranchisement--the works!

Way to go! Let's try her some more:
arianna@huffingtonpost.com
scoop@huffingtonpost.com
fearless@huffingtonpost.com

The inspid DEMOCRATIC/ PROGRESSIVE OUTLETs hard-line response for NOT airing our dirty EI laundry/acting to collectively improve it/ inform their readership has been the riDICK-U-lous argument that DEM VOTERS will be LESS LIKELY to VOTE if they are told about the problems we face.

I find the OPPOSITE to be true. People who find out about this get MAD, get ACTIVE, and are MORE INCLINED to vote smart/ learn what they can/ ask what can be done about it and then JUST DO IT.
Maybe that's what HUFFPO needs to hear...?

GWN (#7)~

Oh. Really? OOPS. I'll look into that again. I've been furious about that for MONTHS...better check my rage and my links--make sure they're product placed. Thanks!

#9 --- I rather think not, Chris....

I'm glad to see people other than "conspiracy nutters" like me complaining about Huffington's censorship.

As for BradBlog, please consider minimizing showing that Thor guy's mug. It's giving me the willies.

Why don't you bring this up with that Viguerie guy when you're talking to him?

If you haven't signed it yet, here's a petition to protect the right to vote:

http://democracyforameri...a.com/action/righttovote

Brad, I don't know if you're able to attend this event, but this discussion panel would seem to be up your alley:

http://freepress.net/node/39004

- Tom

Jeannie # 7. I did some digging and found the post where Arianna explains that her protest is not aimed at exit polls. (Exhale now )
[snip]
"2) What about exit polls? Without exit polls, what kind of oversight will the public have on our elections? If we do away with exit polls, what will keep political dirty tricksters from stealing elections?

This campaign isn't directed at exit polls (although it is always troubling how exit polls are misinterpreted by analysts looking for a hot angle or explanation..."

(I don't agree with the petition and according to the map it looks like it wasn't that successful)
Huffpo

It hugely wasn't that successful, and when she ran it, there was not the caveat about exit polls... in fact... as I recall... she had been explicitly dissing them right along with the rest... or seeming to. I flipped. I often flip too fast and so after I recovered myself a little I went back and checked, and yep, the way it originally read, without caveat, was definitely throwing the baby out with the bath water. So I'm glad she took the hint, and clarified and developed her position a bit later. I'm usually the first one screaming about statistical analysis not cutting it for dealing with human being, but on that score, exit polls, it is about as close to impeccable as it is possible to get.

Jenn's #6 link up there says it all. She's not about being productive about anything. She's got an axe to grind. Pathetic.

GWN/99~

Okay...very interesting! Thank you both for the clarification/ links. 99--YES!That's exactly what I THOUGHT I saw and read, and NH was still on my mind (still is)and that was the day I disowned HUFFPO, and not without some careful thought. Very glad to hear she's done some re-writes.

She seems so damn reasonable, and I LIKE her so much--which is why I just can't understand how she makes a career out of fighting for the LEFT without ever LEARNING about our BOTCHED election processes that UNDERMINE everything she works so hard for.

Oh, and TOMR! Once again, we're on the same page.
ANCIENT and I made a bunch of phone calls to FREEPRESS/ trying to get BRAD and BEV (and some other fine luminaries) on the bill--they were quite open to it the first time I talked with them, but then no one returned my phone calls. I doubt Brad or Bev has received that call, and now it's too late...

Too bad. I would've FOUND a way to attend if they were going to give the E.I. groups a full planery panel session...would've paid full price, even chipped in some cash from my private TWINKIE/ MERLOT funds.

(And I don't recognize ANY of the names on that panel! I'm sure they're all fine speakers, but why not ask to hear from ANY of the wonderful experts we have to choose from right here at BRADBLOG? Also wondering if that's the ONLY ELECTION RELATED forum they're doing?!)

Stealing the 2008 election, one vote at a time