Abramoff, DeLay, Cunningham, Enron, Tyco, Jones Day, Sun Cruz...What more could you want in a Parody Music Video?! (Well, Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia maybe? We'll go ahead and give 'em credit for all of the above due to their inclusion of Jones Day. It's the least we can do.)

(Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG commenters --- and perhaps video brain-children? --- Bill Stark and Renu Parker)

We've just added a new text-only "BRAD BLOG Classified" adstrip on the left (below the "Premium Ads") for individuals who might like to advertise, make noise, or otherwise get their message out for less than half the price of a normal BlogAd here at The BRAD BLOG!

In addition to getting your message out to hundreds of thousands of readers each week, it also happens to be a great way to support our work here since donations continue to be very few and far between.

-- Click here to create your own BRAD BLOG Classified Ad now!

On the other hand, if you'd like to make a regular old donation, we certainly welcome that as well! Why not put some of that great tax break Bush gave some of you to a cause that he'd be thrilled to see you support! Us! Here's a form to make it easy for you to make a one-time only, monthly subscription or snail mail donation. And thank you for all the continued support!

David Swanson updates the sitch in Crawford, TX this morning where, as we reported yesterday, 14 anti-war protestors who are part of Cindy Sheehan's "Camp Casey" Easter protest were arrested last night...

Lonestar Iconoclast has more coverage and a bunch of fresh photos from yesterday.

Still more details, video of the arrests, and our LIVE audio interview last night with Cindy Sheehan after the arrests are all here...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Tavis Smiley interviews former White House Council for the Nixon Administration John Dean. Dean focuses on the moral and legal failings of the current Administration.

Dean recalls his experiences as an insider during a Watergate and is amazed that Bush Administration has ignored those lessons. Dean expands on his March 31, 2006 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee censure hearing where he said,

Dean says that the Bush inner-circle has had a policy of expanding presidential powers from "the day they took office." Secrecy was one of the symptoms of a now obvious campaign to create a presidency unchecked by government or the people. Dean says the actions of the Bush Administration have gone far beyond Nixon's "Imperial Presidency".

Dean goes on to give an ominous warning about slipping into a dictatorship:

This clip plays for about 10 minutes and was originally broadcast on Wednesday, April 10, 2006.

As David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet.org reported minutes ago, there have been 14 arrests in Crawford, TX where Cindy Sheehan and supporters are again camping out in the original location where they took up camp last Summer.

Though Cindy's sister and Daniel Ellsberg were amongst those arrested, Cindy and ersatz Camp Casey organizer U.S. Army Col. Ann Wright have chosen to not be amonst those arrested this time around so they can continue to run the camp.

I've just spoken with Wright, and have arranged for Cindy to appear with us in person on The Peter B. Collins show on KRXA 540am, in Monterey, CA and elswhere, during my normal weekly Friday guest appearance on his show.

I'll be on tonight beginning at 5pm PT (7pm Crawford time, 8pm ET) and Cindy should be joining us at the bottom of the hour for a live update with the latest.

===

UPDATE: Just completed the live interview with Cindy, straight from Crawford, TX... Here are the MP3's in your choice of length...

-- Peter B. Collins Show: Segment with Cindy & Brad [MP3]
-- Peter B. Collins Show: Complete Hour with Brad on Election Stuff and more, includes live Cindy interview. [MP3]

FURTHER UPDATE: "Crawford is now our home too," says Ann Wright after the arrest, along with a promise to dog Bush wherever he goes. As Cindy pointed out in the interview above, and the Lone-Star Iconoclast ably reports, the folk arrested in Crawford on Thanksgiving last year still have not been formally charged. It seems the folks of McLellan County, TX would rather not have their new, unconstitutional ordinance disallowing protestors from camping on the side of the road, get tested in court.

See Scott Galindez' video coverage of the arrest at TruthOut.

Before I register my complaint here with Matt Taibbi's otherwise excellent article on the background of "Mr. Republican" Jack Abramoff and "The secret history of the most corrupt man in Washington," as published in the April 6th edition of Rolling Stone, I'll point to this smart graf amongst many such smart grafs in a very well-researched and informative piece:

Taibbi's piece covers in detail some of the many scams that Abramoff and the rest of the nationwide Republican Network of dishonest, opportunistic players who now comprise the power structure of the Republican party --- or the "vast rightwing conspiracy" as Hillary correctly described it. It's an ugly, but accurate portrait of those who have hijacked all that America was supposed to have stood for while an otherwise distracted and/or media-whipped public was trained to look the other way --- or otherwise give the benefit of the doubt to some very very bad guys who have earned no such benefit.

Those bad guys now run the country, its government, its corporations and its media virtually in its entirety. And more shamefull still, they've got goons played for suckers who are so daft and gullible that, to this day, they run around and play apologist for these people who --- I guess they don't realize it --- are fucking them hard up their own asses with their own hard-earned money and blindly offered good-will. You'll find many of those dopes repeating Fox "News" and Limbaugh-isms over Thanksgiving dinners everywhere, and otherwise plying their foolish and self-destructive trade wherever they can. A stroll through some of the most trollish comments left here at The BRAD BLOG reveals these people have left only the dimmest of connections to Reality as it exists in 2006 on the planet Earth.

With those accolades for Taibbi's work now out of the way, allow me to point to this earlier graf in his piece (emphasis added)...

"Lurking in the background" must be MSM code for: Reported by BRAD BLOG but otherwise ignored.

We're glad to see Taibbi pick up on some of our reporting as he writes...

...But it would certainly help to keep such bad guys from affecting so much corruption and damage for so many years before they actually get busted, if Taibbi would be kind enough to point out some of the sources --- independent, alternative, "blog" or otherwise --- who have been trying to blow such whistles for so long.

With appropriate credit and recognition from the mainstream, as we opined a several weeks ago, reporting such as ours and many others would likely have the effect of stopping the bad guys before they manage to wreak quite as much havoc on our once-great American democracy.

We'd hope that even the usually independent-minded Rolling Stone would keep such important points in mind by choosing to give appropriate attribution where possible in their future reporting. As we've said before: It matters.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

The BRAD BLOG has received a copy of the 'Complaint For Declaratory and Injunctive Relief', as filed earlier this week in Allegheny County, PA, by several disabled voters. The complete suit is now available here [WORD format].

As the suit itself is some 43 pages, we will distill it for you a bit, and cover the most notable aspects. The BRAD BLOG is just thoughtful that way.

As we reported on Wednesday, the complaint was filed against the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, other state and county officials, an Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the US Dept. of Justice, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The complaint asserts that the state certified Electronic Voting Machines made by Elections Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) are not accessible by voters with disabilities --- contrary to the requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Nonetheless, Allegheny County has selected their machines for use in upcoming elections. That, after previously hoping to go with Diebold, and then with Sequoia Voting Systems, until finally settling on ES&S after the first two choices fell apart either due to the politics of the companies involved and/or due to the discovery their Electronic Voting Systems were found to be hackable.

As mentioned, the choice to not use Diebold in Allegheny occurred, in no small part, because of the company's known hard-right partisan leanings. The lawsuit, however, points out the irony of finally choosing to go with ES&S --- considering their own dubious partisan background...

The E-Voting Train Wreck continues...

This from a statement released today by the Indiana Secretary of State (to get just a tiny idea of what this statement is in reference to see the "Train Wreck" article linked above...and just about every other damn thing we've been running here at BRAD BLOG for the last God-knows-how-many weeks/months/years)...

The Indianapolis Star begins their coverage this way:

NOTE TO NATIONAL MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Please pay no attention whatsoever to any of the above. It's just a small local story. Nothing of interest. No pattern here here that effects our country as a whole in any way. All is well. Please enjoy your Easter Holiday break! Thank you.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Most people have little doubt that Americans were mislead into supporting an invasion of Iraq. As the war has continue, so have the lies. Here are a few of the latest...

ABC News Report on False Claims about Bio-Weapons Trailers

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The Bush Administration made claims that mobile biological weapons labs had been found in Iraq for at least a year after a several reports determined that the trailers were used for making weather balloons. The Washington Post first broke the story on Wednesday morning.

The White House would not say if the President or others had read the report before continuing to use the trailers as case for justifying their war on Iraq.

MSNBC Countdown Interview with Journalist Who Broke Phony Bio-lab Story

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Countdown provides another great report on the Bush Administration's misrepresentation of Saddam era weather balloon trailers as mobile bio-weapons labs.

Keith Olbermann interview Washington Post writer Joby Warrick who broke the story. Warrick responds to the charge of irresponsible reporting from the White House.

ARAB TV - Iraqis Angry Over U.S. Military's Al-Zarqawi Propaganda

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Al-Alam TV reports on a Washington Post article exposing a U.S. Military plan to inflate the role of Al-Zarqawi as a source of terrorism in Iraq. As the deceptions continue, Iraqis are becoming increasingly angry with the American occupation.

The Washington Post article begins saying, "The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks"

Mike Rogers at PageOneQ, a gay online news site, has an interesting and amusing exclusive today based on our own exclusive last Tuesday featuring Ann Coulter's Felonious Florida Voter Registration Application.

The particular angle that PageOneQ focuses on today, came up briefly during a short appearance I made on The Stephanie Miller Show yesterday morning. The three-minute MP3 can be downloaded here or listened to below...

This part of the story is largely an amusing curiosity, of course. Not unlike Coulter herself. Though in truth, she is far more dangerous to America and it's values than a mere "amusing curiosity". Which is just one of the reasons why we follow her destructive antics from time to time here at The BRAD BLOG. To that end, I may have more substantive news and/or opinion on her alleged Voter Fraud Felony soon.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Yesterday, Senator Barbara Boxer delivered a letter to President George W. Bush demanding that he apologize for his role in using NIE intelligence for political purposes. Boxer's letter begins, "I am writing to request that you apologize to the American people for your role in declassifying information for political reasons and authorizing its dissemination."

Senator Boxer appeared on MSNBC Hardball to explain her reason for writing Bush. Boxer also spoke in support of Senator Feingold's censure resolution.

From the MSNBC transcript:

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Just announced by KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the news that a group of citizens and People For The American Way have filed suit against the Secretary of State; Dan Onorato, Allegheny County Chief Executive; James Flynn, County Manager; and senior officials at the federal Department of Justice. The citizen group includes members of the disabilities community who want to make sure the County purchases machines that are accessible to all individuals with disabilities.

KDKA reports:

These machines are sold and serviced by Elections Systems and Software, the same company that has played a major role in failures of memory cards and is a large reason why this nation is headed for a "Train Wreck" in our primary elections and, if no action is taken, in November.

That's the oath next to the signature of Ann Coulter, who, on 6/15/05 filled out her Florida Voter Registration Application Form --- as obtained Exclusively by The BRAD BLOG (posted in full at the bottom of this article) --- after purchasing her new $1.8 million house at 242 Seabreeze Ave. in Palm Beach County, Florida in March of 2005. The "Warranty Deed" (also obtained by The BRAD BLOG) for the house was signed over to Coulter on March 30th, 2005 by the previous owners, Eric Stonestrom and his wife, Lucinda Pascale Stonestrom.

In February of this year, Jose Lambiet of the Palm-Beach Post reported that Coulter, the extremist Republican columnist and author, seems to have committed Voter Fraud by registering and then voting in a Palm Beach, Florida precinct in which she does not live. She registered to the vote, for reasons which still remain unclear, at the address of her realtor Suzanne Frisbie.

Coulter has maintained, when asked about the incident during recent public appearances, that the report is a lie and that she doesn't even live in Palm Beach.

Lambiet has since characterized those denials by Coulter as "absolutely a bold-faced lie."

Various information obtained by The BRAD BLOG, however, would seem to back up Lambiet's account which shows that the liar in the matter is, in fact, Coulter.

The radical darling of the GOP speaking/fundraising circuit did, in fact, purchase a house at 242 Seabreeze Dr. in Palm Beach, Florida as reported publicly by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's website and confirmed by several different sources including the "Warranty Deed" signed on March 30th, 2005.

Meanwhile, Coulter's official Florida Voter Registration Application Form received from the office of the Palm Beach County Election Supervisor confirms that she specified "999 Indian Rd" as her "Legal Residence" --- despite never having lived there.

The Indian Road address is that of Coulter's Real Estate agent and her husband David.

Coulter's signature on the form is next to an "oath" affirming the information on the form is true, and acknowledging that she understood she could face a third-degree felony conviction, a $5,000 fine and/or five-years imprisonment for providing false information on the form.

"She never lived here," Lambiet reported Frisbie as confirming about the address Coulter used on her registration form. "I'm Ann's Realtor, and she used this address to forward mail when she moved from New York," said Frisbie.

The BRAD BLOG was unable to reach Frisbie for additional comment for this article since obtaining Coulter's actual Voter Registration form. We were told during a call to Frisbie's residence (where Ann Coulter does not live) that the real estate agent was on vacation until April 20th.

While Republicans have been going to great efforts since the 2004 Election to suggest there is some sort of Voter Fraud epidemic in this country (as distinct from Election Fraud via electronic machines, registration database purges, corrupt Secretaries of State in Ohio, etc.,) very few such cases of Voter Fraud are actually known or documented. Nonetheless, phony GOP-run front groups, such as the tax-exempt "American Center for Voting Rights", have been distributing propaganda around the country to suggest such an epidemic in order to force state legislation to require Photo ID at the polls. As well as to smoke-screen from the very real problem of Election Fraud which has succeeded in disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters in recent elections. Critics have charged that the type of Photo ID legislation being pushed through statehouses around the country, at the behest of the national GOP, would disproportionately disenfranchise millions of Democratic-leaning voters and --- as a two Federal courts and the majority of the U.S. Dept. of Justice's Voting Rights Act unit have recently affirmed concerning such a law in the state of Georgia --- would amount to little more than a modern-day poll tax.

White House political operative Karl Rove played along with the misleading meme of a Voter Fraud epidemic over the weekend by lauding Republican attorneys for their "work on clean elections" in 2000, 2002 and 2004. He charged that "We have...an enormous and growing problem with elections in certain parts of America today," in reference to "ballot integrity" --- a code word used to suggest a problem with Voter Fraud in the country.

We certainly do have "an enormous and growing problem" with our elections, but, as John Gideon discussed in a must-read BRAD BLOG Guest Editorial on Sunday, it's not due to Voter Fraud. Nonetheless, that hasn't apparently stopped Coulter from committing same, or anti-democracy GOP operatives across the country from reportedly running Voter Registration schemes where Democratic voter registrations are changed to Republican or destroyed all together or simply never turned in to county officials. The state of California announced one such investigation into GOP Voter Registration Fraud late last week. Also, three GOP officials have been indicted so far in a "phone-jamming scandal" to hamper DNC get-out-the-vote efforts in 2002, and that investigation now seems to be reaching into the White House as reported by AP yesterday.

But back to Coulter who was recently given 30 days by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Arthur Anderson, to explain her reasons for committing an apparent third-degree Vote Fraud felony. If a satisfactory explanation is not given, Anderson has said the case will be referred to the state attorney for possible prosecution.

Clint Curtis, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress in Florida's 24th District is no stranger to the matter of Voting Fraud in the Sunshine State. As originally reported by The BRAD BLOG in December of 2004, Curtis has alleged his opponent, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), asked him to create vote-rigging software in 2000 when they both worked for a software firm in Oviedo, Florida while Feeney was also speaker of the Florida House.

In a statement released recently, Curtis commended Supervisor Anderson for taking action in the Coulter matter. Curtis noted the irony of the situation that "many Floridians...still recall Ms. Coulter calling our elderly voters 'hapless' and our statutory recount process 'a subterfuge for fraud, error and outright theft' during the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election."

The Palm Beach County appraiser's record shows that Coulter purchased her swanky Palm Beach crib in March of 2005 and then filled out her Florida Voter Registration Application shortly thereafter. The form is dated "6/15/05" next to the signature and is stamped as having been "RECEIVED JUN 23 2005."

It should also be noted that according to the Connecticut Voter Registration records available via Lexis/Nexis, Coulter's voter registration in that state, where she has previously lived, is still listed as "Active". The "Voting History" section of that listing, however, shows that she last voted in CT in 1996. Both the CT and FL voter registrations list her birthdate as 12/8/1961.

Here is Ann Coulter's complete Florida Voter Registration Application Form in full, along with her Palm Beach County "Voter History" record, as received from the office of Palm Beach County Election Supervisor Arthur Anderson via a public records request...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Yesterday, The President said that he "declassified the NIE" because he wanted people "to see the truth" about intelligence used to bolster the case for war on Iraq.

The corporate media dutifully reported The President's misleading remarks without correcting his misinformation. The Bush Administration is built on lies and, yesterday, Bush added another lie.

MSNBC's Countdown correctly points out that only specific parts of the NIE were leaked to a few sympathetic reporters. The leaked information provided a defense for statements the President made that exaggerated Iraq's desire to acquire nuclear weapons. Other parts of the same NIE that was not given to reporters, show that the leaked information was false.

In fact, the President had been informed multiple times that the information leaked from the NIE to defend his statements about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were "baseless". In short, the President knew that false information was being used to discredit Joe Wilson.

Yesterday, Bush knew that he was misleading Americans by saying that he released the discredited NIE intel because he wanted people "to see the truth." The same lie is being told over and over again and the corporate media refuses to call the President on it.

In this video, Keith Olbermann, Joe Wilson and David Shuster do not hesitate to point out the twisted intelligence, misinformation and outright lies of the Bush Administration. Playing time is about 10 minutes.

Read this if you're not up to date on the story so far. More coming on Tuesday...

In the meantime, we're happy to point to Clint Curtis' recent statement lauding Palm Beach County Florida Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson for taking action so far in this matter. Said Curtis, noting the irony of it all, "many Floridians...still recall Ms. Coulter calling our elderly voters 'hapless' and our statutory recount process 'a subterfuge for fraud, error and outright theft' during the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election."

(And if you're not up to date on the Clint Curtis story either...where have you been? Please read this. Thank you.)

UPDATE: Complete Exclusive, including Ann Coulter's Florida Voter Registration Application --- on which she lied about her "Legal Residence" is now here...