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Latest Featured Reports | Wednesday, November 20, 2024
'Bullet Ballot' Claims, Other Arguments for Hand-Counting 2024 Battleground Votes: 'BradCast' 11/19/24
Also: PA Supremes order votes tossed before Senate recount; Gaetz files reportedly hacked...
'Green News Report' 11/19/24
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Trump nominates fracking CEO and climate denier to head up Dept. of Energy; ; Winters warming quick in U.S.; PLUS: Biden heads to the Amazon Rainforest to offer hope...
Previous GNRs: 11/14/24 - 11/12/24 - Archives...
Trump Already Violating Law (He Signed!) During Transition: 'BradCast' 11/18/24
Guest: Former Dep. Asst. A.G. Lisa Graves; Also: Flood of unqualified, corrupt Trump nominees for top cabinet posts continues...
Sunday 'Into the Gaetz of Hell' Toons
THIS WEEK: Pyrrhic Victories ... Cabinet Clowns ... Blame Games ... Sharpie Shooters ... And more! In our latest collection of the week's sleaziest toons...
'Green News Report' 11/14/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
NY, NJ drought, wildfires; GOP wins House, power to overturn Biden climate action; PLUS: Very high stakes as United Nation climate summit kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan...
Previous GNRs: 11/12/24 - 11/7/24 - Archives...
Trump Criminal Cases Fade After Election as GOP 'Does Not Believe in Rule of Law': 'BradCast' 11/13/24
Guest: Marcy Wheeler; Also: Gaetz, Musk, Fox dude, other stooges tapped for Trump Admin...
Climate Advocates Brace for Fight With Trump 2.0: 'BradCast' 11/12/24
Guest: Jean Su of Center for BioDiversity; Also: Senate results; Key posts for Trump lackeys...
'Green News Report' 11/12/24
Trump taps anti-environment Rep. Zelden to head EPA; U.N. finds 2024 hottest year ever recorded; PLUS: Good news for state climate initiatives on last week's ballots...
Let It All Out: 'BradCast' 11/11/24
Callers ring in after Trump's re-election; Also: U.S. Senate result updates; Voting system concerns in several states; How nat'l media failed American democracy...
Sunday 'Like it or Not' Toons
THIS WEEK: The Cancer Returns ... The Glass Ceilings ... The Consequences ... And too much more, in our latest collection of the week's best, very much-needed, toons...
Not All Bad: Abortion Rights Won Big (Almost) Everywhere: 'BradCast' 11/7/24
Guest: Politico's Alice Ollstein; Also: L.A. wildfires; Newsom readies CA for Trump; Biden vows 'peaceful transition'; WA voters back climate law...
'Green News Report' 11/7/24
Trump re-election's worldwide implications for climate; Enviro groups vow to press forward; PLUS: Rafael hits Cuba; Wildfires in L.A....
BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
(All times listed as PACIFIC TIME unless noted)
Media Appearance Archives...
'Special Coverage' Archives
GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

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...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

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...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
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
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

COLORADO FOLLOWS FLORIDA WITH GOP CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Repub Sec. of State Gessler ignores expanding GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, rants about evidence-free 'Dem Voter Fraud' at Tea Party event...

CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
FL Dept. of Law Enforcement confirms 'enough evidence to warrant full-blown investigation'; Election officials told fraudulent forms 'may become evidence in court'...

Brad Breaks PA Photo ID & GOP Registration Fraud Scandal News on Hartmann TV
Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

CAUGHT ON TAPE: COORDINATED NATIONWIDE GOP VOTER REG SCAM
The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

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...

VIDEO: Brad Breaks GOP Reg Fraud Scandal on Hartmann TV
Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...

EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
State GOP fires Romney-tied registration firm after fraudulent forms found in Palm Beach; Firm hired 'at request of RNC' in FL, NC, VA, NV & CO...
The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

Taking the Media to Task for their Delinquency in reporting on 'Biggest Crime in History of the Nation'!
By Brad Friedman on 5/26/2005 11:43am PT  

In a follow-up posted yesterday by Jim Lampley at HuffingtonPost.com, Lampley discusses his original blog item which set off a firestorm when he claimed that Election 2004 was "the biggest crime in the history of the nation".

His latest item suggests what we have been saying here for months: "a mountain of evidence suggests the 2004 Presidential election was decisively tampered with and general media are doing nothing about it."

He also answers back directly to his critics and once again compares the gaming of Election 2004 to Watergate and even links to a BRAD BLOG story in the bargain...

Among the most interesting observations were those of the large number of conservative critics who defined my position as "liberal". One website headquartered in Philadelphia called me "somewhere to the left of Leon Trotsky". That's fascinating. I had never realized the belief in free, full and fair elections was a socialist or communist tenet. I had thought it was a fundamental element of democracy.
...
I'll remind you again that the truth of Watergate was still well-submerged at this point in 1973. But the New York Times and the Washington Post ultimately did their jobs back then. The Post showed its colors yesterday, moving a story about the vast disparity between pre-Iraq war military assessments and what the Bush Administration chose to tell the public from its original placing on page one to a main edition spot on page twenty-six. I don't think we can count on Katherine Graham to shepherd the truth anymore, and Ben Bradlee's gone. As for the Times, it is of course the constant target of the right-wing media conspiracy which labors so hard to cover the crimes of this Administration up. The Times will try, but it needs our help.
...
The cretins in the Bush Administration are no doubt thrilled to have made Amnesty International's select list of human rights abusers. They're actually being cited there for some of their smaller crimes. The biggest one was domestic, not international. It's the one you are reading about, if you care. I pray to all the traditions of democracy that you do.

Jim Lampley appeared for an exclusive interview on our radio program, The BRAD SHOW, recently. You may listen to an .MP3 archive of our interview with him, in which he goes into great detail on this matter, at that page.

UPDATE: HuffPost has now added COMMENTS for each blog item! Go put in a good word for Lampley over there! Looks like the Freepers are trying to (surprise, surprise) avoid, distract and deflect over there. Go get 'em! Tell 'em the truth!

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As Previously Reported in Miami-Herald and Eerily Similar to Recent Report from Arizona!
By Brad Friedman on 5/26/2005 11:20am PT  

After reading the item posted here last night about what seems to have happened in Arizona, please take a look at what AP is now reporting as having happened in Miami-Dade...

A report released by the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition said during the elections there were "serious problems with policies and procedures that are supposed to protect the integrity of the ballot."

In many precincts, the number of people who signed in to cast votes was not tracked carefully, or in some cases was not compared with the actual number of ballots cast at those precincts.

The group also said there was a touchscreen machine malfunction; when votes were tallied the results from one machine had been counted three times, creating a discrepancy of 171 votes that became part of the certified canvass, the group said.

"It slid right through and nobody caught it," said Martha Mahoney, a professor at University of Miami and a group member.

Fifteen of Florida's 67 counties used touchscreen machines, including most of the heavily populated ones.

Election officials welcomed the criticism and said the machine that gave a 3-for-1 tally has been sent for testing.

The item above, run this morning by AP seems to be a report on the same news item run by Miami-Herald almost three weeks ago which includes many more details on just how out of line the final results were from the information in the poll books.

All of this is a pattern that most of us --- who have being paying attention --- saw months ago. Will the MSM see it now that these various reports are being confirmed in various segments of the "legit" media?

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John Brakey Makes the Case for Fraud in His Home Precinct
By Brad Friedman on 5/25/2005 11:02pm PT  

We look forward to digging into this one a bit, hopefully in the morning or at least after some elusive but much needed rest.

In any case, this template for a stolen national election, as presented by one man who's been diligently compiling his case since Election Day, is certainly compelling. We urge you to give it a look.

The Tuscon Weekly is to be lauded for their fine coverage of this story.

The rest of the media can largely go to hell for not doing same in every damn town and precinct across this country.

"No way was this gross error," he insists. "The only way you screw things up this bad is you have to plan. It was methodically planned out. But if it was gross error, we have a pretty bad system, and your vote is a joke."

More on the story of John Brakey as we can find the time to look into it a bit more. But please do give the full article a read and let us know your thoughts.

(Thanks to our friend David Edwards for the tip!)

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Conyers Interview Describes 'Serious Abuses of Power', and Impeachment 'Being Discussed'
"We’re moving into a different kind of country under different kind of law," says the Ranking Minority Member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
By Brad Friedman on 5/25/2005 7:48pm PT  

Not that we enjoy being "All-Conyers-All-The-Time" around here, but he is the man out in front of nearly everything these days, demonstrating what an actual opposition party is supposed to look and sound and act like.

As well, it should not go unnoticed that in the case of a Democratic Majority returning to the U.S. House of Representatives in '06 (yeah, we know the possibilities for that, given who owns the voting machines, but still...), Congressman John Conyers would be the Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. That is the House Committee which would begin Impeachment Hearings were George W. Bush ever to have done anything that could possibly be considered an Impeachable Offense (as impossible as such as thing is to imagine!)

All of that said, Conyers made a few fairly remarkable comments in his recent interview with RAW STORY which we've only today been able to read in full.

We recommend a read of the entire transcript. The following few grafs, amongst many, certainly caught our attention...

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

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By Brad Friedman on 5/25/2005 1:43pm PT  

I've received word from Johns Hopkins where our friend Andy Stephenson, who has been tireless for years in his efforts to fight Election Fraud in this country, has just completed 7.5 hours of surgery.

He has come through the surgery successfully and his tumor was removed. He is currently in Recovery and on his way to Intensive Care shortly.

I have been asked to keep further details of the surgery and his further prognosis private as of now. It has been requested, however, that I pass along the news above for those who are concerned about him, and, as well, to ask everyone to say their prayers for Andy at this time.

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Even Pro-War Republicans Begin to Turn Against Bush's War.
By Brad Friedman on 5/25/2005 1:11pm PT  

Interesting catch via RAW STORY from today's Guardian:

It was a culinary rebuke that echoed around the world, heightening the sense of tension between Washington and Paris in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. But now the US politician who led the campaign to change the name of french fries to "freedom fries" has turned against the war.

Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina who was also the brains behind french toast becoming freedom toast in Capitol Hill restaurants, told a local newspaper the US went to war "with no justification".
...
Asked by a reporter for the North Carolina News and Observer about the name-change campaign - an idea Mr Jones said at the time came to him by a combination of God's hand and a constituent's request - he replied: "I wish it had never happened."

Although he voted for the war, he has since become one of its most vociferous opponents on Capitol Hill, where the hallway outside his office is lined with photographs of the "faces of the fallen".

"If we were given misinformation intentionally by people in this administration, to commit the authority to send boys, and in some instances girls, to go into Iraq, that is wrong," he told the newspaper. "Congress must be told the truth."

Fancy that. Even once pro-war Republicans are turning against this bogus war and beginning to face the facts.

NOTE TO TROLLS: Please begin your character assassination of Congressman Jones now. Thank you.

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Claims of 'Bi-Partisan' Election Boards Demonstrated as Disingenous while an OH Whistleblower is Punished...
And sanctions againsts the Ohio Election Challengers are thrown out by Supreme Court.
By Brad Friedman on 5/24/2005 7:17pm PT  

Various obligations have made us slow on both the draw and analysis of this one, so we'll let the always excellent work of the Columbus Free Press' mighty Bob Fritakis speak for itself.

Suffice to say the infamous Hocking Country "Triad Whistleblower" is being fired for her patriotic efforts, Blackwell has taken a blow in his attempt to punish those who would challenge his Election Reign Supreme in the Buckeye State, and there is no such thing as "Bi-Partisan Boards of Election" in Ohio. Just another myth employeed by cheaters willing to shamefully disenfranchise American Citizens in order to hang desperately onto power.

See Fitrakis and Wasserman's latest here.

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Republicans Can't Let It Go, Move On...
By Brad Friedman on 5/24/2005 6:55pm PT  

While we wish to see Election Fraud ferreted out and destroyed wherever it rears its ugly head, the GOP was dealt a setback in the current trial in Washington state where GOP sore losers are attempting to unseat Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire after a razor-thin margin last November. The Judge in the case has ruled --- to the chagrin of the crybaby GOP conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hat wearers --- that fraud is not at issue in the current case.

Nonetheless, beyond that, two things strike us of interest in this case.

1) The unmitigated determination displayed by the GOP to fight for the accurate counting and accounting of every vote. We only wish the DNC showed as much moxie in fighting for what was likely theirs (the Presidency). And...

2) The following strangely familiar argument (as described in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer) being cynically employeed by the partisan GOP hyporcits in Washington state, yet being ignored by same everywhere else in the country.

The county's records show at least 875 more absentee ballots were counted than voters were credited with casting, [GOP Attorney] Foreman said. But while many precincts reported more ballots than voters, others reported more voters than ballots.

Those discrepancies should have been distributed randomly among the candidates, but two of the three most strongly pro-Rossi precincts lost votes, while the two most strongly pro-Gregoire precincts gained votes, Foreman said.

The GOP will establish in the trial how that pattern defies probability, Foreman said.

"The evidence will show partisan bias," he said. "And partisan bias is a very politically correct way of saying, 'Somebody stuffed the ballot box.'"

Sound familiar?

Of course, if that attempted legal argument was employed in Ohio and the other swing states, all of which went to Bush despite astronomically impossible statistical odds against it, the GOP's illegitimate "President" would not currently be occupying the White House.

Too bad Democrats don't fight for what's rightfully theirs as ardently as Republicans do. And, unlike Republicans, they wouldn't even have to lie and make stuff up to do it! Merely showing up for the game would likely suffice!

UPDATE: Joseph Cannon has some great details on what really went on in WA and explanations of the absurdity of the GOP Conspiracy Theorists claims in court.

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Says Mainstream Media Unwilling to Accurately Report on Admin, Scapegoated, Facing Retribution if They Do
Opening Statement cites alt media sources BRAD BLOG, DailyKos, RAW STORY & Air America in 'forefront' of those 'willing to be speak truth to power'.
By Brad Friedman on 5/24/2005 12:49pm PT  

Though John Conyers Forum on "Media Bias and Freedom of the Press" today on Capitol Hill continues, live broadcasting via Air America has concluded for the time being. C-SPAN's cameras were there and will hopefully be broadcasting in full sooner, rather than later. We hope to shout out when a time is scheduled on C-SPAN for the broadcast or when it is made available for streaming via their website.

In the meantime, Conyers' office issued his opening statement this morning via a Press Release. He decried the current assault on the Mainstream Media, their lack of willingness to report stories critical of the Administration in power, posited how different things would be if it was the Clinton administration who had lied the world into war, and cited The BRAD BLOG, DailyKos, RAW STORY and Air America as alternative media sources in the "forefront" of those "willing to speak truth to power".

He went on to say, that "these voices are too few and too diffuse to overcome the blatant biases of our cable channels and the negligence and neglect of our major newspapers."

Here is his prepared opening statement in full:

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

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Though New Excuses For Not Posting It Available Every Day!
By Brad Friedman on 5/23/2005 5:04pm PT  

As we previously reported, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee has made the testimony of all witnesses from last week's hearings on the U.N. Oil-for-Food "scandal" available on their website.

All witnesses, that is, except for the stunning testimony given by British MP George Galloway, who tore Senator Norm Coleman (and the Bush Administration in general) a new one for their McCarthy-like witch hunt to distract from the Administration's devastatingly failed and dishonest Iraq policy. Galloway called the hearings and the trumped-up scandal "the mother of all smoke-screens".

As we reported originally, Coleman's office passed the buck for the absense of Galloway's testimony on the website by telling The BRAD BLOG that, "Senator Coleman is the chairman, but the committee makes their own decisions about what goes on the website."

Our calls to "the committee" have yet to be returned, yet the website has now been updated at least twice with pathetic explanations.

The first update, just after our original article on the missing Galloway testimony, informed us that: "Mr Galloway did not submit a statement".

A later update, currently available on the site, explains that (emphasis ours): "Mr Galloway did not submit a written statement".

As a public service to the U.S. Senate subcommittee on Investigations whose transcribers are either very slow, or very inept when it comes to copying and pasting, and to the future ex-Senator Norm Coleman who has no say about what goes on his own committee's website...Galloway's Testimony has been available on this London Times page for nearly a week.

Video from portions of that testimony is available via this previous article.

Norm Coleman's office can be reached at 202-224-5641 if you have any questions or wish to leave a message for "the committee" since there is no phone number online for "the committee". Hopefully the chairman of that "committee" can help you.

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Not LIVE...But Will Be There Nonetheless.
(And Saturday Night's BRAD SHOW Archives Now Available...)
By Brad Friedman on 5/23/2005 2:48pm PT  

A source inside Congressman John Conyers' office has informed The BRAD BLOG that C-SPAN will indeed be covering his forum tomorrow in D.C. on "MEDIA BIAS AND THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS".

So it looks like the "6 or 7" of you who have written to C-SPAN requesting they do so have been successful! Well done!

Since both the House and Senate are in session tomorrow (NUKULAR DAY and all!) the forum, unfortunately, will not be carried live but will instead run later at a later time still to be determined.

UPDATE: Air America will be broadcasting the Forum live beginning at 1pm ET tomorrow (Tuesday). You can listen online via this link.

And speaking of the future of the Freedom of the Press, last Saturday night's BRAD SHOW on the Air! broadcast is now available for your archival listening pleasure! Including the complete interviews with HBO/NBC's Jim Lampley, Editor & Publisher's Dave Astor, USMC 1st Lt. Andrew Borene, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and much much more! The archives are here as always...

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Original Headline Softened as Story Quietly Moved Overnight!
Incident Adds Yet More Questions About WaPo's Timid Coverage of News Critical to Bush Administration.
By Brad Friedman on 5/23/2005 2:05pm PT  

A Washington Post article exposing the specific details of several pre-war doubts by Bush Administration aides and anlaysts in the lead-up to war ran on page A1 in the early Saturday editions of WaPo's Sunday paper. By Sunday morning, however, the story had its headlined softened and was subsequently buried on page A26.

The story, by WaPo staff writer Walter Pincus, details the doubts of the administration's own intelligence analysts concerning WMD, Munitions Plants and Saddam Hussein's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles program, all of which were widely trumpeted as justifications for going to war by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and others within the administration during the build-up to the War on Iraq.

Pincus' Page 1 item, which originally ran in Saturday afternoon editions of the Sunday paper and on the front page of the WaPo website was headlined "More Evidence of Bush Aide's Doubts on Iraq --- Analysts Questioned Most Intelligence".

By Sunday, however, the article had been pushed back to page 26 with the softer headline, "Prewar Findings Worried Analysts".

The Washington Post has come under fire lately by critics decrying the lack of news coverage critical to the Bush Administraton. It was nearly two weeks before WaPo even mentioned the appearance of the "Downing Street Memo" which some have cited as a "smoking gun" demonstrating that George W. Bush lied to the American People and Congress during the build-up to war in Iraq. Several sources have called the information included in the memo as evidence of "an impeachable offense".

That memo, written in July 2002 --- a full eight months before going to war --- describes the Administration as already having decided to topple Hussein through military means and that the intelligence was being "fixed around the policy". Several days after 89 U.S. Congressmen sent an inquiry to Bush asking about the information in the memo, WaPo finally ran their first news item to mention the memo. On page 18.

A source at the Washington Post has commented that it's not unusual for stories to move off of page 1 between the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Sunday paper. Yet the move all the way back to page 26 and the softened headline certainly raises questions.

The Page 1 version of the story, originally linked to by the Internet news site RAW STORY early Saturday evening, retained the same URL on the WaPo website as the move was made and the headline and page number changed. The bulk of the article was unchanged as the move was made, though there were a couple of minor changes made to the text with little effect on the story itself.

The BRAD BLOG has contacted both Walter Pincus and his WaPo editor, Scott Vance, for comment and/or explanation for the move. We will update this item with additional information if and when we hear back from them.

(Thanks to Emailer David Griscom for the tip on this story!)

UPDATE: Looks like our friend Jesselee over at The Stakeholder was getting a similar scent on this story last night as we were looking into it as well. He has additional information on WaPo's burying of various Pincus articles as well as an admission/apology for same by WaPo editors last summer. Despite that self-flagellation nearly a year ago, it would seem that WaPo is still in the business of going easy on the Bush Administration.

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'Military, Administration let Tillman down'!
Father calls episode and use of son's memory 'Disgusting'!
By Brad Friedman on 5/23/2005 1:18pm PT  

In a Page 1 Washington Post article this morning (one that seems to be staying on Page 1 versus another story from over the weekend which we will be reporting on shortly!), the parents of Pro Footbal Player turned U.S. Army Soldier, Pat Tillman, have blasted both the Army and George W. Bush for their "lies" concerning the death of their son via "friendly fire" in Afghanistan in 2004.

Some of the extraordinary details from the WaPo story which likely won't make it onto the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly programs, unless the plan to call Tillman's parents America Haters as well (wouldn't be a surprise at this point)...

Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss.

More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army's "lies" about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.

"Pat had high ideals about the country; that's why he did what he did," Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son's death. "The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting."
...
Patrick Tillman Sr., a San Jose lawyer, said he is furious about what he found in the volumes of witness statements and investigative documents the Army has given to the family. He decried what he calls a "botched homicide investigation" and blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.

"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," Patrick Tillman said. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."
...
"It makes you feel like you're losing your mind in a way," she said. "You imagine things. When you don't know the truth, certain details can be blown out of proportion. The truth may be painful, but it's the truth. You start to contrive all these scenarios that could have taken place because they just kept lying. If you feel you're being lied to, you can never put it to rest."

Patrick Tillman Sr. believes he will never get the truth, and he says he is resigned to that now. But he wants everyone in the chain of command, from Tillman's direct supervisors to the one-star general who conducted the latest investigation, to face discipline for "dishonorable acts." He also said the soldiers who killed his son have not been adequately punished.

"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore," he said. "Pat's dead, and this isn't going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has."

That their son was famous opened up the situation to problems, the Tillmans say, in part because of the devastating public relations loss his death represented for the military. Mary Tillman says the government used her son for weeks after his death, perpetuating an untrue story to capitalize on his altruism --- just as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was erupting publicly. She said she was particularly offended when President Bush offered a taped memorial message to Tillman at a Cardinals football game shortly before the presidential election last fall. She again felt as though her son was being used, something he never would have wanted.
...
"This lie was to cover their image. I think there's a lot more yet that we don't even know, or they wouldn't still be covering their tails."

"If this is what happens when someone high profile dies, I can only imagine what happens with everyone else."

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Being the Media...Cuz Someone's Got to!
Open Show Thread...
By Winter Patriot on 5/21/2005 3:47pm PT  

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The Brad Show returns this week with an excellent guest list --- and it promises to be a great show, if the mysterious Radio Gods will permit it.

Brad's guests will include:
Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story on the judges at the heart of the so-called "nuclear option"
Dave Astor, Senior Editor of Editor & Publisher, on the state of the mainstream media
Andrew Borene of Operation Truth speaking about Friday's stand-down of military recruitment
John Byrne of The Raw Story to share and discuss his recent interview with Senator Dick Durbin
Jim Lampley, HBO/NBC sportscaster and Huffington Post blogger

Listen LIVE via the Web! Saturday from 7p-11p ET (4p-8p PT)!
Repeating Sunday 12noon-4p ET (9a-1p PT)
Quick and easy access to LIVE listening links, archives, upcoming guests,
donation links and ad info (it's not to late to advertise!)
and more via www.BradShow.com!

More links...

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LIVE! Saturday Night 7p - 11p ET (4p - 8p PT)
By Brad Friedman on 5/20/2005 4:15pm PT  

This week's BRAD SHOW via RAW RADIO is scheduled to feature...

  • Part 2 of our exclusive interview with HBO/NBC's JIM LAMPLEY on his statement that Election 2004 was "the biggest crime in the history of the nation"
  • Sr. Editor of Editor & Publisher, DAVE ASTOR on the state of the Mainstream Media.
  • Raw Story's LARISA ALEXANDROVNA on the judges at the center of the "nuclear option"
  • USMC 1st Lt. ANDREW BORENE on Friday's U.S. Army Recruitment "stand down".
  • Raw Story Mng. Editor, John Byrne's exclusive interview with SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL)!
  • And much more to come soon!...As always, subject to change as events warrant!

    Call-in # to be posted during tomorrow's show!
    Join us for the LIVE OPEN THREAD right here at The BRAD BLOG during the show!

    Thanks for helping us out here in the early days to get up and on the air!

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