HOUR 2 GUEST: Former U.S. Congressman, Chris Bell, the man who filed ethics complaints against Tom Delay last year, before such a thing became so very popular.

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HOUR 1: Election Reform-apalooza! This week in the Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission (and on The BRAD BLOG)! What happened, and what didn't!

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 (not to late to advertise!) and more via www.BradShow.com!

More links...
Direct streaming links via RAW STORY!
Donate here to help defray costs!

Discuss this hour of the show and our guest via the comments button...

Another intellectually-honest Republican is found!

Just in from AP...

So while we're on a roll...it seems that Clint Curtis' name and story (even briefly) are popping up in papers all around the country, and even around the world. Good folks (no doubt fine BRAD BLOG readers and patriots all!) seem to be contacting their local papers with letters to the editor to discuss the Election 2004 debacle, and tossing in the relevance of Curtis' story along with it! (See this page for more on Curtis if you need...and if so, where in the hell have you been for the last six months!?!

So while we spend some hours working on some important things today, please feel free to take the time to jot a letter or two to your local papers. As we hope you've realized, "6 or 7" letters can make a difference.

Some recent examples... Chicago's Northwest Herald in a letter headlined "Election thieves":

From Nashville's City Paper, in a letter headlined "The most important issue":

Then in the Ireland's Irish Times last Saturday earlier this week, they ran an article (paid subscription required) which included the following:

And finally, our new friend, Robert Koehler of the Tribune Syndicate, follows up his courageous and frank "Silent Scream of Numbers" piece --- the first that we know of from the "mainstream" to out and out charge that "Election 2004 was stolen" --- with another triumphant home run in his latest column. Titled, "Democracy's Abu Ghraib" the piece asks "If they can disable an election, what's coming next?" Just one of the many worthwhile money quotes:

Read on. Then write on! The march of the "6 or 7" must continue and will prevail! Keep making noise!

Coming together...who knows what you'll get...But amongst the currently scheduled stuff on this week's hall-of-fame, seat-of-our-pants broadcast (everything subject to change as events warrant!):

Quick and easy access to LIVE listening links, archives, upcoming guests, donation links and ad info (not to late to advertise!) and more via www.BradShow.com!

The BRAD BLOG has just received a personal phone call from Congressman John Conyers (not from his staff, but from the good Congressman himself), thanking us for the work that everyone has done on behalf of the nation to get the message through to the Baker/Carter National "Election Reform" Commission that their current make-up and apparent direction is wholly unacceptable.

Conyers has just finished meeting with Dr. Robert A. Pastor, the executive director of the commission, and has been told that he will be able to continue working and meeting with the commission and it's various members over the coming weeks and months.

He plans on meeting with former Jimmy Carter personally to discuss some of his concerns.

As a good faith measure, Conyers has told Pastor that for the time being he would ask us (and you) to direct all Email with concerns or information for the commission to CDEM@american.edu. We will shortly change the Email to the Commission page at Velvet Revolution to reflect that address change in similar good faith. We would only do that at the request of Mr. Conyers, and so it will be done. For the time being.

He will be issuing a full statement concerning his meeting and the commission shortly at ConyersBlog.

...DEVELOPING...

The BRAD BLOG has just received a personal phone call from Congressman John Conyers (not from his staff, but from the good Congressman himself!), thanking us for the work that everyone has done on behalf of the nation to monitor the Baker/Carter "election reform" commission and to seek fairness from it.

Conyers has just finished meeting with Dr. Robert A. Pastor, the executive director of the commission, and has been promised that the commission and its members will continue to work and meet with him about his concerns over the commission, its make-up and its current direction over the coming weeks and months.

He plans on meeting with former President Jimmy Carter personally to discuss some of these serious concerns.

As a good faith measure, Conyers has told Pastor that he would ask us (and you) to direct all Email with concerns or information for the commission to CDEM@american.edu. We will shortly change the Email to the Commission page at Velvet Revolution to reflect that address change in similar good faith. We would only do that at the request of Mr. Conyers, and so it will be done. For the time being.

Conyers will be issuing a full statement concerning his meeting and the commission shortly at ConyersBlog.

UPDATE: Conyers' full statement is now online.

Much going on today...So for now, Open Thread! Let the voices of the mighty 6 or 7 be heard!...

QUICK UPDATE: A bit of news...just booked Congressman Chris Bell, the man who filed the ethics complaints against Tom Delay last year --- the ones that led to his sanctions --- for this weekend's radio show! More info on guests etc. soon...

The hard-right Washington Times running a fair piece on Velvet Revolution's demands that James Baker leave the National Election Reform Commission? What's their game?...Either way, we're happy to see it...

The piece above ran on March 31, but we only caught it today thanks to BRAD BLOG commenter, Bushw@cker. Now waiting for the other shoe to drop...

Earlier this evening, we received a phone call from Dr. Robert A. Pastor, the Executive Director of the Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission.

It was an interesting conversation.

Apparently, he was irate at us because Americans are sending Email to him and the commissioners complaining about the fact that James A. Baker, III is co-chairing the Commission. Baker, of course, is the long-time Bush Family loyalist and Bush/Cheney trial law attorney who architected the strategy to ensure that Americans' votes would not be counted in the 2000 election.

Pastor made it clear that he felt those Emails, sent by individual American citizens to the commission, actually constituted "harassment" and he charged that the thousands of Emails that he and the commissioners were receiving was, in actuality, being sent by "about 6 or 7 people"!

Velvet Revolution is a coalition of some 100 Election Reform and Voting Rights organizations, none of whom were invited to participate in this commission in any way, nor even knew anything about its creation. VR is co-founded by BRAD BLOG and has created a page where Americans can send Email to Jimmy Carter and the commissioners to let them know how they feel about Baker sitting as Co-Chair and some of his other cronies being seated on this commission.

If you are not one of the "6 or 7 people" who have already sent Email via that page, feel free to do so now.

If you are one of the "6 or 7 people" that have sent email via that page, you can let Bob Pastor know that it was really you who sent the email hoping to make your voice heard, by sending him another email to that effect at his email address, rpastor@american.edu (Ed Note: Please write to Pastor for now at CDEM@american.edu - See this later article for an explanation as to why), which is posted on his public webpage at the American University, Center for Democracy & Election Management site. His phone number is also listed on that page if you'd like to chat with him, but we will do him the courtesy of not reposting it here.

We did our best to make notes of the extraordinary conversation that took place during the phone call as it unfolded...These are some of the highlights...or lowlights as the case may be...

A not too bad article on yesterday's Election Reform Commission hearing buried on page 17 of today's Washington Post. Amongst the quotes used from Carter and Baker --- seemingly taken from their unbroadcast press conference held after the hearing --- is this one from Carter:

"[W]e want to make sure that the electoral process has integrity --- that it is not shot through with fraud."

...Well, that's somewhat encouraging to hear. Though a pity that more such discussion did not actually occur in yesterday's hearings (Live Blogged here).

We've also heard from a reliable source that Carter spoke about "paper ballots" a number of times at that same press conference, and of using them as the counted ballot of record as they are overseas. That's also encouraging...if true...and if he can climb over the mountain of hard-right Bush/Cheney/GOP partisans and voting machine representatives who comprise and stack the commission against such real reform.

Also of note from the WaPo article was this little turn o' phrase:

We're not sure who "many" refers to in the above, nor which "hard evidence" was lacking. We do know that the mountains of existing hard evidence of Election Irregularities from '04 was not presented at all in yesterday's hearings, and that John Conyers --- who presented 102 pages of same --- was not invited to share that evidence with this commission.

The evidence that was presented, specifically on the strawman argument of "Voter Fraud" and "Voter Registration Fraud" and even "Provisional Voting Fraud" was indeed anectodal, and yet that was the "evidence" that was allowed to be presented to the commission yesterday. We hope that things will change in the next (and presumably last) meeting of the commission, but we are dubious at best.

The WaPo piece, however, did manage to offer add small bit of refreshing light to the mainstream media blackout on this issue. A few notable passages from the article:

Hmmm...It's almost as if the WaPo is suggesting that the '04 Election didn't go quite as smoothly as they, and the other corporate media outlets, have led Americans to believe up until now. Who knew?

Perhaps they'd like to begin investigating and reporting to the American people on some of the items in that "dizzying list of electoral problems"? America is still waiting...Perhaps we can bump it up to page 15 when that happens. As we like to say, it's only democracy at stake.

Just posted by AP...

Understatement of the Year Award goes to Carter!

Other than that, however, what's interesting about the article is that the AP got the tenor of the hearing all wrong! But this time, the lazy, inaccuracy of the MSM works out nicely, thank you!

They didn't cover (for the most part) the continuous drumbeat all day that morphed Election Irregularities/Fraud into Voter Registration Fraud and thus a call for Jim Crow-style Photo ID rules!

So three cheers --- in this case --- for a lousy, lazy, MSM who seem to have written their report before the event actually took place! Looks like the phoney-baloney "Election Reform" commission may not have gotten their money's worth! At least so far. We're certain the Cybercast News Service and the other fake GOP News Services will shortly lend a hand.

See BRAD BLOG's Live Bloging of today's Commitee Hearings here...

UPDATE Bloomberg's take...

The office of Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), ranking minority member of U.S. House Judiciary Committee and longtime Election Reform champion tells The BRAD BLOG that Conyers has expressed outrage at the tenor of today's hearings and the morphing of election irregularities/fraud issues into voter registration/fraud issues!

We'll note that, despite having compiled 102 pages of evidence on Election Irregularities in OH, Conyers was not invited to participate in these hearings though he has recently written a letter to Carter [PDF] volunteering to help in any way while expressing disappointment about Baker's position as co-chair.

UPDATE: Conyers' full no-holds-barred statement, condemning today's hearing in no uncertain terms has now been released! A few highlights here, but the whole thing is well worth the read!...

BRAD BLOG's LIVE BLOGGING of today's hearings can be read in this previous item...