Congressional support for VR's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign continues to build strength as TWENTY-THREE U.S. House Members signed on to a letter sent late Friday to the nine major American Voting Machine companies!

The letter, authored by Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. John Conyers (reported here late last week), demands transparency and accountability from the private companies which now run the public function of America's electoral system. The Congressional members outline --- in no uncertain terms --- their position that all government funding should be withheld from companies that do not comply with the standards originally set forth in VR's February 21 letter to the companies.

From the recent Congressional letter:

The letter was signed by the following U.S. House members: John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Sam Farr (D-CA), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rick Boucher (D-VA), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), William D. Delahunt (D-MA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Corrine Brown (D-FL), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Robert Wexler (D-FL), James Oberstar (D-MN), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Donald M. Payne (D-NJ), Barney Frank (D-MA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), George Miller (D-CA), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ).

The members have asked for a reply from the companies no later than April 15, 2005. A copy of the complete signed letter is posted here.

As well, Conyers, sent another letter to me (as co-founder of Velvet Revolution) to inform us of this latest Congressional effort and his continuing commitment to the fight which VR began with our DV4D campaign. That letter is also posted at VR.

Twenty-three signers, we are told, is rather impressive for such a letter. As one congressional aide mentioned on that point via email, twenty-three signatures is "really good for a letter that kicks around a few weeks, let alone one that has circulated in just the last several days. Congrats! Wow!"

We suppose that must be attributed to the notion that supporting democracy in America really shouldn't be all that controversial an issue!

VR's "Divestiture for Democracy" Campaign, allows 60 days for the companies to announce their intentions of adopting the standards or face a massive divestiture effort to be launched against those companies (and their affiliates and clients) who choose to ignore the steps which so many Americans find necessary to restore confidence in America's electoral process. If you have not already done so, please click here to send an email to the companies yourself! It'll take you less than a minute yet means a lot!

Conyers had previously endorsed VR's "DV4D" campaign on March 2nd. And last week, Green Party Presidential Candidate, David Cobb, sent his own letter to America's Voting Machine Company strongly endorsing VR's campaign.

For more information on Velvet Revolution's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign, please write to DV4D@VelvetRevolution.us.

{ed note: We love Tom Tomorrow, but --- though he mentioned them --- none of the above could have been possible without the cooperation of Democrats like Sen. Joe Biden. Any Dem who would sell out the best interests of their constituents, as the Bankrupty Bill does, for a few thousand dollars from the Credit Card industry, deserves to be tied to the railroad tracks as well!}

The beat goes on. We are hated by the world not because of our "freedom", but because of a hypocritical foreign policy that has gone on for decades and --- even in the wake of 9/11 --- continues to this day.

The latest hypocrisy, blaming North Korea for nuclear exports to Libya, when it fact it was our (theoretical) "ally" Pakistan who did the deal.

From today's Washington Post...

Look the other way Bush supporters. Heads back in the sand! And when another 9/11 happens, be sure to tell yourself it's because "they hate our freedom". Not because we look the other way when our "friends" --- the chosen despots and U.S. approved villians --- destabilize the world (see friends and business partners Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein at right) even while we trump up phoney-baloney charges against those regimes which won't play ball and/or don't serve our current economic interests.

It's nothing new. It's just more brazen than ever with this bunch and, in the wake of 9/11, more shamefully obvious and more clearly self-defeating than ever. A very good lesson apparently not learned.

"Freedom" American Style continues on the march...

(Click here for a worldwide celebration of "freedom on the march")

God Bless Media Matters.

In a single day yesterday, they tracked what appears to be an epidemic growing number of lies and disinformation now streaming out of the Rightwing Media and, most specifically Fox "News", in an alarming and every increasing tsunami of governmental propoganda.

With the White House now defending the millions of dollars spent to create their very own fake "news" reports and Arnold doing the same out here in California, is it any wonder that the wingnut media seems to feel no compunction about saying whatever they want, whenever they want, all the facts be damned. After all, who is going to stop them?

And, in the meantime, where is the "real" media? Where are the freedom fighters for reality and truth? Where are the mainstream reporters who ought to be exposing this organized and invidious scheme which has quietly --- yet in plan sight and without repercussion --- layered out-and-out lies, disinformation and propoganda directly into the news "mainstream" where Americans by-and-large haven't a clue that they are being played for fools? The corporate mainstream media has completely abandoned their post and their duties as truth tellers for the American people.

Take a look at a list of a few reports --- just yesterday alone --- from the dedicated heroes at Media Matters...

Guest blogged by Jaime

Hey. Jaime Here. Friend of Freedom Fighter Friedman and occaisional guest blogger and contributor. As you all know, tomorrow, March 19th is the 2nd anniversary of George W. Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq. I just wanted to put out a call for you folks to network and clear up some time to join one of the many protests worldwide this weekend. Here are some of links with vital information of the whats, whens, and wheres.

ANSWER LA
UNITED FOR PEACE
STOP THE WAR
INDYBAY.ORG
NOT IN OUR NAME

Get out there and get active!

The magical mystical media tour continues, but I am otherwise alive and well. Spent the bulk of yesterday being interviewed on camera by some documentary filmmakers. More on that at a later date, but that's just one of the matters that has kept me largely out of Bradville here for the last day or so.

We seem to be doing a decent job of getting the word out about the stories being reported here on The BRAD BLOG and the work on Velvet Revolution. (We hope to have more exciting info soon, btw, concerning VR's DV4D Campaign...and yes, more actual reporting here on BRAD BLOG!)

In the meanwhile, before we can get back up and rolling here at fullspeed, here's a link to Doug Basham's website where he's featuring the radio interview we did this morning during drive-time on his Las Vegas radio show. (Scroll down the page a bit until you see my picture and/or name). The interview is about an hour, but the killer opening that Doug put together at the top of the show rocks! We believe he may be the first person in the broadcast media to actually play clips of Clint Curtis' sworn testimony before members of the U.S. Judiciary Committee on the air! (The full video of that testimony has, of course, been available here at BRAD BLOG for months.)

We'll be back soon. In the meantime, feel free to use this as an open thread and/or chat about the most important issue of our day! No, not the thousands of dead Americans and Iraqi Civilians in Iraq. Not the White House's fake news media operation. Not the daily presence of a hooker within knife throwing distance of an American President. Not the Bankruptcy bill or the gutting of ANWR for six months of oil, or the fake crisis in Social Security, or an electoral system going down the drain...No, it's Congressional hearings on the use of steroids in baseball! Glad to know the Republicans controlling Congress are looking out for the American people...Unbelievable...Have at it.

About an hour or so with Mark Levine of Inside Scoop, D.C. Making noise inside the beltway (Hi Tom!) Some great calls and good discussion of the usual suspects (FeeneyGate, Velvet Revolution, Blogging and the Conservative bias in the Corporate Media, etc).

Mr. Levine is a swell host, and a hell of a nice guy (doesn't hurt that he's a big BRAD BLOG fan either!) Also, we were able to break the news about the David Cobb VR Endorsement live on his show since we received notification via email while we were rolling...

Best of all, he's popping for the bandwidth for today's archived show! Thanks, Mark!

Last week, in his endorsement of Velvet Revolution's "Divestiture for Democracy" Campaign, Congressman John Conyers, the ranking minority member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said: "I applaud Velvet Revolution's actions and recommendations with regard to election machinery firms. I believe it is critical that we take every action we can to encourage these companies to help us restore our people's trust in our elections. I look forward to working with Velvet Revolution on this effort."

Today, Mr. Conyers kept his promise by joining with Congresswoman Maxine Waters in sending a letter to their congressional colleagues asking them to sign onto a letter to all nine of America's Voting Machine companies urging them to immediately implement the recommendations made by VR in the February 21, 2005 letter to the companies.

The letter to the companies, which they are asking colleagues to sign, restates the position that no government funding should be given to companies which do not voluntarily implement these standards!

From the Waters/Conyers letter to colleagues:

In their letter to the voting machine companies they state their position concerning the withholding of HAVA (Help America Vote Act) funding in no uncertain terms:

For the complete text of both the "Dear Colleague" letter and the letter to the Voting Machine Companies, please click here....

Earlier today, Green Party Presidential Candidate, David Cobb endorsed VR's DV4D Campaign with a letter sent to all nine companies, as well as a letter of support to VR.

Green Party Presidential Candidate David Cobb has today sent a letter the voting machine companies of America, urging them to stand with Velvet Revolution's campaign to restore integrity to our country's Electoral Process!

Cobb, along with the Libertarian Party's Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik, was responsible for the demanding a recount of Ohio's Presidential Election after thousands of documented irregularities began to emerge out of the state after the election.

A letter of support was also sent to yours truly as Co-Founder of VR.

Here is the text from Cobb's letter sent today to the leaders of all nine of America's major voting machine companies:

Please see this page for the letter sent to Brad Friedman.

We were on last week, and invited back for regular visits on Don Grady's Louisiana Live. We like Don.

About 18 minutes on the latest DeLay ethics chicanery, Velvet Revolution, and Conservative bias in the media: Streaming RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or MP3 Download.

Tomorrow morning at 10am ET, the honorable John Conyers will issue a Resolution of Inquiry in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee forcing both Republicans and Democrats to go on the record with a vote as to whether they believe the White House should come clean concerning the credentialing of hooker cum fake White House journalist James Guckert (a/k/a Jeff Gannon).

RAW STORY has some inside skinny on the maneuver. AMERICAblog has the details on where you can watch online.

BRAD BLOG has Conyers' statement...

On the money, and out of the ballpark as usual, Congressman.

So much for that quaint old "Rule of Law" thing that Republicans used to care about (when they were out of power). Dirty, dirty, dirty boys. RAW STORY once again has the scoop on the rope pulling down Tom DeLay and now more and more of his friends with him.

We get the feeling this thing is just beginning...

That said, DeLay and friends are attempting to defend the fortress by cooking the rules in the House Ethics Committee. They've gone so far as to attempt to change the rule requiring that a congressman must "...conduct himself at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives." Of course they have.

Dems on the Ethics Committee are, so far, standing tough. But support from the people is paramount! Send an email to demand that legislators don't gut the House Ethics Rules!

UPDATE: Jesse Lee, the blogger of The Stakeholder is helping to up the ante on DeLay's plans for decapitating the ethics rules in order to keep himself out of trouble! See his post at DailyKos right away for more info!

I've been attempting to prepare a few answers (okay, alotta answers) to the many questions posted by readers on the recent story about the mysterious "suicide" case of Raymond Lemme. I've been working on getting further details, speaking with some folks "in the know", and trying to keep up with the now record number of comments left on that article (currently 722 of them as of this posting!) so that I can share with you which points I may be able to help clear up and which points I cannot. Yet.

At the same time, as you'll note at the top of the blog, I've been doing quite a few media appearances concerning both this story and Velvet Revolution's DV4D campaign. (Have you sent your Email to the Voting Machine Companies yet?!)

I'm attempting to wrestle with my personal interest of continuing to investigate and report on the FeeneyGate story and all its remarkable continuing twists and turns, and the need to get the story itself out there.

For the moment, I believe more than enough information has been compiled here over the last three months to merit getting it out there to a wider public. Even if that means my investigation/reporting on new information is a bit slower than I would like. I think the price is worth it, however, to help reach the broadest possible audience with this information.

So this is just a quick note to thank you for your patience at this point in the story, and I will have that promised follow-up to the Lemme piece (and more!) soon. It's just difficult to know how soon for the moment. There are also some other stories brewing...But more on that in due time.

Thanks again for all of your support in all of these matters. You guys make it all very much worth all of the hard work, long hours, lack of sleep and lack of salary! Democracy, as someone mentioned to me of late, is its own reward...

We're delighted that The New York Times has today decided to take notice of Blogcall.org, an organization created by Progressive Bloggers as a way to help see their real stories and real exposés find their way into a corporate media which now consistently slants to the Right.

It is, however, more than a bit disappointing to see that their article on same ends up --- but, of course --- slanting so much to the Right!

We should point out that we are mentioned in the piece by The Times' Jonathan D. Glater, that we were somewhat instrumental in the organization of Blogcall.org and that we were, in fact, the featured guest blogger on last week's call. (We discussed our three-and-a-half month Tom Feeney/Clint Curtis Vote-Rigging investigation and broke the news during the call of the Valdosta, GA police re-opening the related case of the mysterious suicide of Raymond Lemme. That conference call is archived here if you'd like to listen.)

While their online version of the article links to us, it also fails to link to Blogcall.org or even mention it by name.

But far more troubling, however, is that Glater spends well over half his ink discussing and quoting from Rightwing blogs and bloggers in his story!

Undiscussed in the article, the underlying point of Blogcall.org is to bring together the detailed investigative reporting of blogs such as this one with those in the MSM by demonstrating our willingness to take the tough unscreened questions about our work.

Unlike those on the Right, we are more than willing to face those tough questions from all sides concerning the reports which we offer. We don't find it necessary to stack the deck in such a way as to allow only "friendly" questions into the mix as the Right so often does. (Just ask those Americans who aren't allowed into townhall meeting with George W. Bush anymore or those reporters to whom Jeff Gannon/James Guckert simply won't reply or the thousands of Americans who have been permanently banned from posting at repugnant wingnut sites like FreeRepublic.com after simply daring to post a single comment there which doesn't dance in lockstep with "the party line".)

While we admit to having a personal fondness for Glater, having gotten to know him a bit over the last couple of weeks via phone and email interviews, we can't help but point to his article today as an ironic object lesson in how the MSM is simply stacked hard against the Left.

We can do little more than chalk it up to the pervasive reverse "Liberal" bias in the corporate media about which we chatted with Glater on the phone prior to publication of the article. It is clear that the wingnuts have these guys so terrified by their manipulative, cynical (and inaccurate) charges of "Liberal" bias that they are now simply willing to turn back-flips in order to make sure the Right is over-represented in any article that even touches on issues political.

Read the piece for yourself, and let us know what you think. And we more than welcome Mr. Glater's responses as well. Unlike one of the rightwing blogs noted in his article, we actually allow reader comments here. And unlike another rightwing site in the article (FreeRepublic) nobodies comments here are banned or deleted simply because we may not agree with them.

UPDATE: The re-printed, re-edited version of Glater's story over at the International Herald Tribune offers a far more appropriate, far less slanted take on the issue. Had the original Times piece been edited in that way, we likely would have had no problem with it.