By John Gideon Executive Director VotersUnite.Org and Information Manager VoteTrustUSA.Org

When asked by a reporter, "Which is harder to manage, your two children or ES&S?" Marion County, Indiana Clerk Doris Ann Sadler told the Indianapolis Star this week, "Oh, ES&S, definitely. My children are really very easy. In fact, at times I think my children would have done a better job with the voting machines. And they're (ages) 7 and 4."

The Electronic Voting Machine Vendor locomotive is still running away down the track at an alarming speed. However, this week some states and county election officials seem to be beginning to notice and are now sending out signals that they intend to either stop the train or � barring that --- at least ensure that companies such as Election Systems and Software (ES&S) do not profit too much from their arrogance, ineptitude and now epidemic failures.

Legal complaints against the company were filed this week in West Virginia and Indiana to add to the one previously under way in Oregon. Threats have been heard from Texas, Arkansas, Ohio and elsewhere. Election officials have been forced to change voting procedures in many states and counties to accommodate for ES&S' growing array of failures.

Meanwhile no one seems to be talking about the people who will be most affected by this train wreck; the voters�

It looks like The LA Times dropped "The Boondocks" some weeks ago --- we noticed no explanation given --- even while they continue to Fox "News"-ize themselves and add insipid, unfunny, and disinformative "comics" like "Mallard Fillmore" to their line-up. What the hell is up with that?! We guess they prefer to ensure their circulation keeps dropping. (letters@latimes.com)

UPDATE: Several readers have written to let us know that The Boondock's creator Aaron McGruder is on sabbatical. Darrin Bell, Candorville's creator, confirms in an email he just sent us:

That's good news. In the meantime, at least they still carry "Candorville". For now...

Another one follows...

Editor & Publisher has more...

Crooks & Liars has the second half of the video (wherein Bush pats Colbert on the shoulder on the way out without saying a word.) We'll see if we can get the whole thing soon.

UPDATE: Complete text transcript of Colbert's presentation, along with links to the full video both available here...

UPDATE: Colbert's entire presentation as streaming video now available here...

Washington Post is reporting today...

As long as the investigation is widening into Ney's wrongdoing with Abramoff and friends, might we suggest the prosecutors look into this part of it.

Thanks!

Rush Limbaugh today became the latest in a long line of arrested Republicans smiling for their mugshots, though he made a deal to avoid being "sent up" unlike the little people who can't afford the expensive attorneys that he can. From AP...

It's not about the sex drugs, it's about the lying.

Additional coverage:
-- RAW STORY...
-- CBS News...
-- Sun-Sentinel...

It looks like old Rush is gonna have to think about much more than just Florida drug rehab programs at this point! Sounds like he needs to be, to use his words, "convicted" and "sent up". That might be rehab for us all!

Neil Young's new protest album, Livining With War, which includes "Let's Impeach the President" and other anti-war/anti-Bush tunes, is now released for listening online at NeilYoung.com.

It's also available, if you have any problem streaming from Young's site, at Justice Through Music (their version is handy, since it also allows you to pause listening, if needed.)

Jim Cirile provided an exclusive early preview of the album for The BRAD BLOG last weekend. Feel free to leave us your review here in comments!

UPDATE: "LET'S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT" ONLINE HERE
Though we recommend listening the whole album, as you're required to do on the Neil Young site, etc. (we've now done so twice and the whole thing kicks ass), here is a streaming version of "Let's Impeach the President" only...

"Let's Impeach the President" in Streaming Flash format...

Care to sing along?

Let's impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
He's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war...

Complete lyrics here...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Audio in MP3 format...

Earlier this week, a European Parliament committee released a report saying that the CIA had illegally detained people and used secret 'rendition' flights to transport them to other countries or secret CIA prisons where they were expected to be tortured.

Several members of European Parliament met in Macedonia today to investigate the story of Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen, who was abducted by the CIA. After being kidnapped, he was then 'rendered' to a U.S. prison in Afghanistan and held for 5 months.

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

Today the U.S. government released its 2005 report on worldwide terrorism. It reveals that, compared to the 2004 figures, the number of terrorist attacks more than tripled and the number of people killed in those attacks more than doubled. The hard data: last year saw 14,602 killed in 11,111 attacks.

Those are startling increases. Earlier this year, I reported on a different data set, compiled by the RAND Corporation, which showed much lower, but still substantial, increases of 36% in the number of deaths and 51% in the number of attacks.

Why the big differences? Essentially, what the Bush administration has been doing, ever since terrorism numbers started to shoot up after the invasion of Iraq, is try to obfuscate and spin the numbers in order to disguise the increases.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

The ES&S Meltdown around the country which The BRAD BLOG exclusively covered yesterday, as the Texas Sec. of State's office informed Election Officials to "create emergency paper ballots", now continues to widen to other states around the country.

Legal action in two more states against Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), the largest Electronic Voting Machine Company in America, has now commenced.

In Indiana, the a formal complaint has been filed today against ES&S by the Sec. of State for failures to provide working equipment and ballots in several counties in time for early primary voting in the Hoosier State.

In West Virginia, the County Commissioners Association announced they will be filing legal action against the company with the help of the WV Sec. of State and Attorney General's office for similar problems, some of which we reported late last night here at The BRAD BLOG. As well, one county Manager has been told to withhold payment of a $1.2 million check made out to the company until the problems are corrected.

The Associated Press covers the developing situation in Indiana where Sec. of State Todd Rokita has filed his formal complaint against ES&S for violating state law. The Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal covers it this way...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

On top of Brad's earlier report today on the ES&S meltdown in Texas, and loads of other states, we find out that still more problems with ES&S have been encountered in West Virginia.

On Thursday the Associated Press reported that a software "glitch" has delayed testing in 11 counties. The reason?

Though electronic ballots on the ES&S iVotronic Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines are programmed and seem to recorde votes accurately during testing, it's taking six hours or more to tabulate all the results. That is a huge problem for machines sold on the premise of accuracy and speed.

But the larger concern? "Version control". Apparently an ES&S engineer programmed the machines using outdated software. The company seems to not bother to ensure the correct version of software is being used and installed on the machines. And counties are not watching to ensure ES&S is keeping their machines current.

Ben Beakes, the chief of staff for WV Sec. of State Betty Ireland, explained:

That said, was the software version used federally qualified with the hardware and firmware version being used by those 11 counties? Do the states or counties even care? Maybe not but they should because not all versions of software will work with all versions of firmware. That's why there are version numbers.

And that's just one more reason why we're headed for an electoral train wreck.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Audio in MP3 format...

The BRAD BLOG is reporting that Bush signed a bill into law before it passed both houses of Congress:

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark is reported to have said, "Schoolhouse Rock has taught generations of Americans how a bill becomes a law..."

We dug up this video to remind the President of the proper Constitutional procedure for signing a law.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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

Jon Stewart reports on another important decision by the president. Stewart takes his first shots at Tony Snow as Bush's new Press Secretary.

If this first segment is any indication then Mr. Snow may soon become a favorite subject for Daily Show viewers.

"Schoolhouse Rock has taught generations of Americans how a bill becomes a law," says Rep. " said Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee in a press release just issued by 11 U.S. Congressmen.

"As most school children can attest," Stark says, "a bill is just a bill on Capitol Hill until it passes both the House and Senate in identical form and is signed by the President ? or Congress overrides his veto. I'm sorry we've had to resort to this lawsuit, but I am committed to protecting our democracy."

11 ranking Members of the United States House of Representatives will be filing a law suit in U.S. District court on Friday, The BRAD BLOG has learned, seeking a permanent injunction of "Deficit Reduction Act" which George W. Bush signed into law on February 8th of this year, despite its not having passed both houses of Congress.

The BRAD BLOG has obtained an exclusive copy of the suit to be filed tomorrow by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and 10 other Democratic law makers, as well as a timeline of the events in the matter as compiled by the House members.

-- COMPLAINT IN FULL [WORD format].
-- Timeline of the events [WORD format].

"On February, 8 at 3:43 p.m.," the complaint alleges, Bush signed a bill that "never was passed by the United States House of Representatives."

The difference in the language of the House and Senate bills, is a clause requiring Medicare to cover rent for "certain durable medical equipment." The version of the bill pased by the House requires payments for 36 months. The Senate version requires payments for only 13 months.

The difference in the cost of the federal outlays for the two different versions is said to be approximately $2 billion.

The two houses of Congress were never able to pass a joint version of the bill, and yet, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and President Pro Tem of the United States Senate, Ted Stevens (R-AK), "signed a statement attesting that the bill signed by the President had been passed by both the United States House and the United States Senate."

"Once again the Administration is playing fast and loose with the Constitution," Conyers says in a Press Release (posted in full at the end of this article).

"Anyone who has passed the sixth grade knows that before a bill can become a law, both Houses of Congress must approve it. That the Bush Administration is now saying otherwise underscores the Constitutional crisis we are facing in this country."

Several other members were equally clear in the press release which excoriates the Bush Administration for yet another Constitutional transgression.

Says Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee in the release: "Time and time again the President has sought to discard the Constitution as if it were an old shoe."

Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee is quoted as saying, "the Constitution is clear --- legislation signed by the President must be passed by both the House and the Senate. In allowing the President to sign a bill that was not passed by the House, Congressional Republicans made a mockery of the legislative process."

The "FACTS" section of the complaint explains the matter quite clearly...

On Monday, Texas Director of Elections Ann McGeehan sent a letter to all state Election Officials authorizing them to create "emergency paper ballots" in light of statewide failures by Election System & Software, Inc. (ES&S) to provide ballots in time for the state's upcoming May 13 Runoff Elections, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

Early voting begins on Monday for those elections and counties across the state do not yet have ballots and, in many cases, programming for their optical-scan and touch-screen voting machines. ES&S has contracts with more than 140 Texas counties.

McGeehan has instructed officials to create and number their own paper ballots, secure boxes to store them in, and hire additional workers to manually hand count ballots as an emergency procedure to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation.

The letter from McGeehan (posted in full exclusively at the end of this article) --- which does not mention ES&S by name, but refers to the Omaha, Nebraska-based company only as "a certified voting systems vendor" --- was sent in response to complaints from officials around the state that "programming media or, in some cases, your ballots" had not been received yet by officials.

In a statement to the San Antonio's Express-News this morning, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says, "It sure is exasperating...We are looking at avenues to hold them responsible for this." Bexar County is just one of more than 140 in Texas with whom ES&S has contracts.

"They made their priorities," Wolff says, "and I think Texas certainly wasn't one of them."

The BRAD BLOG has also received statements from officials in other states who were still more direct in expressing their frustration with the company's business practices now being described by some as including "coercion" and "threats."

This most recent embarrassment for ES&S, the country's largest Electronic Voting Machine Vendor, is just the latest in what has now become an epidemic string of failures to meet contractual obligations in scores of states and counties across the country. The BRAD BLOG has reported on many of these troubling problems in a long series of articles in hopes of connecting the dots of those failures to illustrate and warn of the rapidly approaching E-Voting train wreck.

So far, both the mainstream corporate media, as well as many elections officials across the country have --- to the delight of ES&S --- failed to notice the remarkably clear pattern of delinquency and failure the company has demonstrated time and again across the nation in recent weeks and months.

Texas was plagued, during their recent March 7th Primary Election, by a host of failures in voting equipment made by both ES&S and Hart InterCivic, another voting machine vendor certified to do business in the state. Those failures on Election Day led to a statewide Election Contest filed by a former Republican Supreme Court Justice after tabulators failed and electronic ballots were misprogrammed and miscounted.

In Jefferson County, TX officials threatened to withhold payment after the debacle until their machines were fixed by ES&S. The company, however, answered by reportedly refusing to program the machines at all for the state's upcoming Runoff Elections unless payment was made in full. The county, in a bind, was forced to comply with the strong-arm tactics.

And now, with new elections just weeks away, officials all over the state are finding themselves --- like many other states across the country --- without the promised ballots from ES&S and scrambling for alternative solutions. Election Director McGeehan describes the situation as "completely unacceptable." Writing in her letter to Election Officials, she says:

In the letter, McGeehan goes on to explain that officials should crate "emergency paper ballots" by either creating their own, or using "PDF format to print copies of the ballot" in cases were "proofs" had been previously supplied by ES&S.

Instructions are included for number and initializing thousands of ballots by hand:

Further, officials are instructed that they may have to manually hand count ballots that would otherwise be counted by either optical-scan systems or recorded by touch-screen voting machines.

They are also told to create boxes for the ballot storage and find people to count them. McGeehan writes...

They're melting down...

Developing...More shortly...