Good news from the Supreme Court for a change. America may be entering into the community of civilized countries...Though it's been a long and slow process, and we've still got a ways to go.

According to The NY Times...

Well, good for us. For once.

And on "International Death Penalty Abolition Day" of all days! Details on that and more at fine organizations here and here.

After an interview with Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL), The New Times Broward-Palm Beach reported:

After another interview with Feeney, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC reported:

Despite the reports above, we've discussed the fact several times that Feeney's Campaign Headquarters is still located in the YEI building, and that the Yangs and their attorney Michael O'Quinn continue to be huge campaign donors to Feeney...

But --- other than that --- no ?connection to Yang Enteprises" since 2002?

Well, that's interesting, because it looks like the truth is --- again --- somewhat different from what Feeney would have folks believe. Look what we seem to have found here (Screencaptured, just in case it disappears from the net like so much else these days.):

There are several more photos of Feeney with Dr. and Mrs. Yang at this YEI-sponsored event in 2003 along with members of ATAYAL on the linked page above.

Feeney's questionable --- and apparently, continuing --- connections with YEI were brought to light in early December when we first reported exclusively on programmer Clint Curtis' sworn affidavit alleging that Feeney had asked him to create a "vote-rigging software prototype" during an October 2000 meeting at YEI in Oviedo, Florida.

The key articles from our series of reports on that matter can be read here.

Our call to Feeney's press spokesperson seeking explanation about the 2003 party thrown for Feeney by YEI has not yet been returned. We have not yet been able to ascertain who actually paid for Feeney's trip to Asia, but, of course, we will continue to look into this story and report any new developments.

Our understanding was that it was supposed to have been Democrats who liked to "scare old people about Social Security". At least according to Rush, Sean, Fox and Friends.

Turns out it's the Rightwingnuts who have actually turned the practice into both an art form, and a cash cow. The shadowy rightwing group, National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) has been quietly sending scare letters to the nation's elderly for years in which they ask recipients to keep the letter a secret, while they terrify them about their Social Security benefits.

And, again, --- surprise! --- House Majority Leader Tom Delay seems to be one of the biggest beneficiaries thereof! Delay is reported today, in a RAW STORY Exclusive, to have received some $130,000 from the NCPPR who has been paying for "posh" Delay vacations!

From RAW STORY's investigative report:

And just when you thought these guys had scraped the bottom of the "Moral Values” barrel. Think again.

We live close enough to the Kodak Theater that the persistent buzz of the Oscars' Goodyear blimp was echoing through our windows all morning. Thankfully, we had a date in Santa Monica at the Election Reform Teach-in sponsored by CitizensAct.org which kept us busy most of the day and night and well out of range of the constant copters, blimps and Joan Rivers.

On the other hand, it also meant that we missed the entire Awards show. Did we actually miss anything? Or did we just not see it? Feel free to blog back in comments and let us know.

We're a bit too tired to blog too much more this evening other than a quick report from Santa Monica and one quick tease for a story coming tomorrow...

The event was tremendous, and packed to the gills. Standing room only. The speakers were all Election Reform All-Stars plus yours truly. Bob Fitrakis of the Columbus Free Press lit the joint on fire as he opened in lieu of Rep. Maxine Waters who was late coming from the airport. She made it, and followed in fine fettle. As did the Green Party's Blair Bobier (spokesman for David Cobb), Bev Harris of BBV, Kevin Spidel of PDA and other illuminaries too numerous to mention before the orchestra plays us off.

We had a great time talking about some of the adventures here on BRAD BLOG and Velvet Revolution's brand-spanking-new "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign which seemed to make a tremendously good impression. (Have you signed the letter there yet?...No worries, it's so brand-spanking-new we've hardly given it a proper introduction here, but we will).

Thanks to those of you who came out to say hello. It was great to put some faces to some of the user names. Even to those of DU'ers

It was also a delight to learn we have so many loyal readers who we didn't know (too shy to post in comments?!), but we're happy to have made some swell new friends and a couple of interesting connections to boot. We even picked up some inside Clint Curtis skinny from a few folks who shall remain nameless for the moment...and for their own safety.

And before we drop off from exhaustion, or you do, we'll just tease briefly that ... on Monday ... only on The BRAD BLOG ... our friend Tom Feeney gets caught once again flashing his Yang in public... This time with pictures to help set the scene. More on that tomorrow...

Until then, please consider this thread now open until further notice...

In re: the Ann Coulter column we mentioned several times as running over at World Net Daily. It turns out the original version of her column was even more appalling than the one which was first edited before being sent out by her syndicator, Universal Press Syndicate (UExpress).

As MoveLeft points out, here is the phrase from the distributed version of her column, as seen at hate publication, World Net Daily (emphasis added):

And here is the phrase as written in Coulter's original version, still posted on her website (emphasis added):

"That old Arab"?...What a disgusting, slimy, little bitch. Feel free to send a note of complaint to Coulter's syndicator here.

We've got some business for much of the day, but perhaps later if time allows we'll try to collect a list of Email addresses for all of the "news" outlets that carry the words of this obnoxious, horrible, hate-filled, racist "woman" so you can let them all know what you think of them carrying her column. This woman is begging to be put out of business.

At the end of a fun read over at Watching the Watchers on "horrible fiendish cackling harpy" Ann Coulter's latest pile of self-serving venomous horsehit slash apology vis a vis the Gannon/Guckert Scandal, the good (though hard to type) ~A! picks up on a subtle shot that Fox "News" seemed to toss at the Right's favorite new whipping boy, Raw Story.

As ~A! noticed...

Why, ~A!? Because Raw is in the business of reporting news and, of late, they are doing it like no other site on or off the net. You'll note that Fox also took the time to link to faux "news" organization GOPUSA in their article as well. We suppose they'd hate for any of their reader/zombies to start noticing the difference between real news and Fox "News".

While you're watching the Watcher Watchers, you may also want to check out what they've uncovered from Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, whose great offering to history will have been his instructions to his GOP clients to use such words as "Death Tax" instead of "Inheritance/Estate Tax" when hypnotizing their zombies. Well, it worked. And the "Death Tax", along with many other clever turns of lexicographical trickery has made its way into the daily GOP parlance. Yes, language does matter. Especially to zombies.

And as our own aside, by way of reminder, we'll be panelling tomorrow (Sunday) at the Election Reform Teach-in in Santa Monica, with an esteemed group including Congresswoman Maxine Waters and a bunch of other Election Reform All-Stars. If you're local to So-Cal, and the rain has still stopped, come on out and say hey!

We'll be talking, amongst other things, about VR's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign the creation of which is just one of the too-many reasons we've had less time than usual to blog of late. We've quietly launched the VR DV4D campaign this morning and plan to plan to make quite a bit of noise about it this coming week.

But you, dear BRAD BLOGGERS, have heard about it before just about anybody else! So check it out, and send the bad guys a letter while you're there! You'll be glad you did!

More...as ever...later.

We caught the excellent new documentary, Inside Deep Throat, yesterday afternoon while on “gf bday duty" and found it to be simply fascinating on innumerable levels.

The most notable of which, at least for BRAD BLOG readers, will be the remarkable parallels pointed up --- no accident, we'd think --- between the oppressive political atmosphere of 1972 and that of 2005.

The film covers the emergence and subsequent legacy of hairdress-cum-director Gerard Damiano ‘s Deep Throat in the early 70's as it rose out of the back alleys to become "Porno Chic" after it was described as such by a New York Times article.

Then, as now, one NY Times article officially declares something as "newsworthy", and then, as now, we had a politically damaged President who managed to get himself re-elected and then, as now, felt himself the holder of a mandate to be the personal guardian of all that is moral for the American people.

As Harry Reems, the male star of Throat was told at the time when he was chosen to be made an example of and put on trial under newly created obsenity laws --- specifically brought about by agents of the Nixon Administration in a futile attempt to stuff the genie back into the exploding bottle --- "If the Republicans win the next election, you're going to jail. If the Democrats win, you'll walk.”

Why is it that Republicans, for decades, have always claimed (with a straight face, mind you) that they want to get the Federal Government off the backs of American citizens, yet whenever they manage to come to power they are invariably the most intrusive with their use of that Government which they claim to hate?

Anway, there was much more to discuss about the film which kept us yackin' and ponderin' all throughout dinner afters. It's an incredibly thought-provoking and timely film, filled with a host of fascinating and often hilarious characters! It's well-worth your time should be lucky enough to live in a town with a theater willing to exhibit NC-17 films. Even one created by mainstream Universal Pictures.

Sadly, we have a feeling there are not many towns like that left in "the land of the free", so we have a feeling most of you out there in “Bush Country” may just have to wait for it to show up on HBO or at your local DVD store. (That is, if even they are willing to help spread the "liberty" that Dubya acts as if he's so interested in.)

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us." -George W. Bush, Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University Oct 11, 2000

Welcome to Russia, Mr. Bush...

(Hat tip to regular BRAD BLOG linking commenter, Cheryl!)

Our previous Toon of the Moment item, recalled a “conversation" we had in BRAD BLOG comments a week or two ago with Chuck Noles, owner of The Oviedo Voice, a small weekly paper in Tom Feeney's (R-FL) U.S. Congressional district down in Florida. The Voice had pretended they were going to investigate and give --- as they said --- "balanced coverage" to the Tom Feeney/Clint Curtis/Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) Vote-Rigging Scandal, but then went on for several weeks to give the Feeney/YEI side of the story almost exclusively.

His paper even went so far one week as to print YEI's official web statement in full in their paper --- without comment, weeks after it had been published and subsequently debunked --- even though we had been in touch with Noles long before and had given him our complete reply to that statement which had included a point-by-point rebuttal demonstrating that they were lying in several areas.

Nonetheless, Noles chose to run YEI's press release as is. Choosing to repeat rather than to report. (And, indeed, one of YEI's statements about convicted Chinese spy and illegal alien, Hai Lin "Henry" Nee, never having worked for them, has since been proven wrong yet again. This time, by Federal agents and the Florida's own Inspector General's office. We don't believe that The Voice has covered that recently published fact in their pages either. We don't suspect they will.)

The following week they ran the YEI statement yet again, but this time, with a comment by Curtis after each point. Fair enough? Apparently not. They followed each statement by Curtis with a closing rebuttal --- each time --- by YEI attorney (and longtime friend, law-partner and contributor to Feeney), Michael O'Quinn. We suppose that counts for the "balanced coverage" that they, in a previous front page item, had faulted cross-town rival The Seminole Chronicle for not offering. They insinuated the Chronicle (or we?) had featured "supermarket tabloid" journalism.

The next week we were out of town. But we were told that The Voice ran an interview exclusively with Curtis. However, as The Voice doesn't post their paper on their website, and Noles did not email the interview to us, as he had the previous articles, we have only his word to go on.

For a bit more background, Noles is in friendly close contact with Feeney himself and his nearby office in Florida. Despite his protestations in the following "conversation", Chuck answers all email sent to Editor@TheOviedoVoice.com. He also seemed like a nice enough fellow, despite his strong rightward political leanings, when we first got to know him prior to his string of hit pieces on Curtis. He even went so far as to call us at 11:15pm (ET) on New Year's Eve from his Yacht Club, apparently to wish us a Happy New Year...and to find out how we'd be spending it.

The paper was started by his father Randy who began it years ago and still apparently serves as Chief Editor. From our one phone conversation with Randy, we found him to be first-rate, a delight, and a long-time avowed Democrat. The apple, however, doesn't fall as close to the tree as the saying goes. At least when it comes to politics and intellectual honesty.

Since the "conversation" between Chuck and ourselves took place in the comments section of an item that ran a while ago, you may have missed it. The item upon which Chuck was commenting was on the The New Times Broward-Palm Beach's article on the Feeney/Curtis/Yang affair, in which Feeney had claimed that he hadn't been in contact with YEI and the Yangs since he ceased being their corporate counsel and registered lobbyist upon leaving his job as Florida Speaker of the House to go to the U.S. Congress in 2002. That, despite the fact that Feeney's own website --- to this day --- shows that his 2004 headquarters (for a campaign during which he ran unopposed, and received thousands of dollars from the Yangs and their attorney, O'Quinn) remains in the YEI Building in Oviedo. Our article showed photographs from the YEI and Feeney websites showing they both had the same address. As they still do today.

Chuck seemed concerned throughout the exchange that he would be banned for his comments or would have them deleted or, at best, that they would never be read by most of you. So, as it's our girlfriend's birthday, and it's our duty to spend most of the day and night with her, we thought today we'd do Chuck the courtesy of reposting that thread here in its entirety so that Chuck's insightful thoughts would not be overlooked by BRAD BLOG readers. He is, of course, more than welcome to comment again in this thread on any of the above...or anything else he wishes. Chuck's comments are always fun, most welcome and enlightening (especially, as we say, in light of our previous Toon of the Moment) as you'll soon read.

The “conservation" between us is reposted here, completely unedited, included typos and misspelings by both of us. Enjoy...

"Ohio's provisional balloting was not a model for the nation to follow," understated Michael Vu, the Democratic election head of Cuyahoga County, Ohio's biggest, to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in their first hearing since the brilliantly run 2004 election.

"I didn't think it should have been the forum for Mr. Vu to vent his frustration," snipped Keith Cunningham, the Republican election board head of Allen County, and also the head of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials.

"We've had tremendous success with provisional votes in Ohio and we did with this election," said J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's Sec. of State (and Co-Chair of the Committee to Re-Elect Bush) clearing up the confusion once and for all.

Wow, it seems there's some sort of disagreement. But we had read in all the papers that the 2004 elections went off with nary a hitch! How odd.

AP has the nearly useless coverage of the mostly useless spat at the hearings of the completely useless U.S. Elections Assistance Commission.

As mentioned in yesterday's only post, there are a number of items that are keeping me from blogging here as usual. The good news is, I'm making good progress, so hope to be back on the blog job soon. The bad news is, I'm still up against it for the moment, so blogging may continue to be slow-ish here for a bit longer.

So feel free to consider this another open thread...but I'll toss in a few of the latest notable Gannon/Guckert items:

Over. Out. And hopefully back soon...Oh, good luck to Dr. and Mrs. Yang who are being deposed today and tomorrow down in Florida! Anyone wanna go listen in and report back with notes? It's open to the public! Mrs. Yang is on at 9am tomorrow (Friday) morning!

Once again, I beg your indulgence as I find myself at the epicenter of a number of important actions and responsibilities which all seem to be coming due, to a certain extent, this week!

To give you a brief idea of just some of those items...

That's some explanation of all the balls I'm attempting to juggle at once. So while I'm doing that, please feel free to consider this an Open Thread with, as always, much more to come as soon as time allows...

We believe a BRAD BLOG commenter first brought it to our attention (apologies that we can't remember who), but DailyKos now has picked this up as well...

...It's an ad, reported to be from the Swiftees (experts that they are in all things political, not just John Kerry! Who knew?!) that was running on the wingnut American Spectator site and about which Kos said, "Funny thing is, you click on the ad, and it just goes to the USA Next homepage. No effort to even argue the case that the AARP is anti-troop and pro-gay marriage."

Are you offended by that sort of ad, Mr. Joseph Farah of the hate publication, World Net Daily? We await for your next indignant op/ed.

If this so-called "conservativism" gets any more so-called "compassionate" we may have to go into so-called hiding.

It looks like the Baltimore Chronicle also picked up our original CNN "Dupe Nuke 'em" story a few days ago and we just caught it.

Their piece on the matter was one item in an article from their "Media Criticism" section discussing a number of troubling concerns of-late at the once-great cable news channel.

Our original story on CNN's use of photos of the same purported nuclear site described as being both in Iran and North Korea is right here. With a follow-up on the U.S. government funded ?news? site who did the same thing, with the same nuke site a year ago, but used it for Iraq as well as the N. Korea and Iran, here, and finally a follow-up to that piece here.

For the record, it's officially been over week since the CNN press rep said she'd get back to us with an answer to our queries on the matter. We've made follow-up calls nearly every day since then. They've not been returned. If CNN is hoping to feed more speculation that they have something to cover up, they are doing a swell job of it.

Speaking of cover-ups, the Chronicle article mentioned above was written by Margie Burns, who also put together some Clint Curtis follow-up on her own blog in mid-January. We were out of town when we discovered her piece on that, so didn't get the opportunity to properly link up at the time. She discusses a few of the Raymond Lemme-related issues (on which we also hope to have more ourselves, as previously promised, in the coming week or two!)

We're happy to see there are still a few folks out there with access to good old fashioned print papers who are actually paying attention and getting some work done! Well, one anyway! Thanks, Margie!

...CONTACT...
Margie Burns