Investigative journalist and best-selling author, Greg Palast has given The BRAD BLOG a few exclusive audio clips from the studio sessions of the audio version of his new book (to be released June 6), ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf? China Floats, Bush Sinks, The Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left, and Other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War.

Last month we wrote about our amusing and completely factual experience in the recording studio laying down one of the chapters for the audio version ourselves (and a few additional characters for elsewhere in the book) along with Ed Asner and Janeane Garafalo. If you missed it, you may want to check out our scandalous reporting from that crazy afternoon.

At right, you'll note the distinguished bunch of folks (plus us) listed on the cover as reading for the book (we're smartly placed in the middle between Larry David and Janeane.)

The exclusive clips Palast has provided to The BRAD BLOG for your listening pleasure including passages by both yours truly and the great Ed Asner.

Asner's a master, of course, and reads about what Palast describes as "The Network" in this clip:

(NOTE: The references to "Mr. Friedman" in Asner's clip is to Thomas of The New York Times as opposed to Brad of The BRAD BLOG, just for clarity sake

For our part, we get to rant a bit about electronic voting machines and other ways of gaming the system in Florida by Gov. Jeb, Katherine Harris and friends. As well, in the reading Palast pokes some fun at guys like me, and lauds "Lord of the Voting Universe, Ion Sancho" (about whom you may learn some things you didn't previously know!):

Please enjoy the clips, and then go and buy the book! You can pre-order either the text or the abridged audio versions here.

Audio Excerpts from...

Chapter 3: "THE NETWORK" - The World as a Company Town
As read by Greg Palast & Ed Asner
-- Streaming Audio Version...
-- MP3 Version...

Chapter 4: "THE CON" - Kerry Won. Now Get Over It...
As read by Greg Palast & Brad Friedman
-- Streaming Audio Version...
-- MP3 Version...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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The Special Prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA officer, Valerie Plame-Wilson, has indicated in a court filing that Vice President Cheney is likely to be a witness in the Libby trial.

The New York Times quotes Fitzgerald writing, "Contrary to defendant's assertion, the government has not represented that it does not intend to call the vice president as a witness at trial." (see: Muckraker). Cheney's testimony is expected to reflect the state of mind in the Office of the Vice President during the organized attack on Joe Wilson's credibility and the outing of Plame-Wilson. The testimony will likely show that Libby had motive to leak selective information to reporters to smear Wilson and bolster the Administration's justification for war on Iraq.

Fingering Cheney as a possible witness may lead to questions about a conspiracy secret illegal scheme planned and executed within the Vice President's office.

As controversy swirls again around House Speaker Dennis Hastert and whether he is or isn't under investigation by the DoJ on bribery related charges as ABC News is reporting (and standing by), now might be a good time to remind of you this earlier exclusive which The BRAD BLOG reported in February concerning FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds' charges that Hastert may be involved with yet another bribery scandal.

In light of today's new story, it may well be worth taking a look back at that previous piece including a detailed statement from Edmonds wherein she calls on Hastert to "come clean" in regard to $500k in un-itemized campaign donations and his relationships with various Turkish interest groups.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, with Brad Friedman

Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) has finally shown us why they should not be in the elections business. The disgraceful primary election in Arkansas yesterday is a prime example. It was, and continues to be, an utter disaster today. The day after.

Brad and I both have been overwhelmed all day with the number of reports coming in on the complete failures by ES&S in the state yesterday. So much so, that it's difficult to even know where to begin. Thus, tonight's late report --- with general details and enough links to set you on your way to inform yourself about what the hell is going on here.

In our best (if fruitless) attempt at brevity, however...

The Young Turks had NEWSWEEK's Steven Levy as a guest on their show yesterday to discuss his article on the Diebold disaster from this week's issue. (See our item discussing his article here, including an update with a response from Levy concerning our coverage.)

Says host Cenk Uyger during the interview: "The bloggers have apparently been right about this all along."

Other items that jumped out at us: When asked how many states have "reliable systems", Levy said, "26 states have instituted some sort of paper trail."

We'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he understands that a "paper trail" law, particularly when it's never actually counted, and it almost never is, means nothing (as we pointed out in our piece covering his article a few days ago.)

And this from Levy, who does, I think, generally "get it" --- even if he may somewhat underestimate the full gravity that this issue deserves, as it underscores our entire democracy: "The big thing would be to take the election system out of the private sector, and put it into the public sector."

On that score, of course, he's right on the money.

One more note: They discuss the "blogosphere" several times in several ways in relation to this issue. No names mentioned (can't imagine who they may be referring to.) And co-host Ben Mankiewicz --- who I've sat in for once or twice while he was gone, so haven't gotten to speak with him much on this --- seems to be the most skeptical of the bunch. I've told Cenk this morning that I'd be delighted to go back on the show to answer any and all of Ben's (or his) questions, skepticisms, concerns or anything else on this matter. Hopefully, we'll be able to arrange something along those lines soon.

-- Watch/Listen to the complete interview with Steven Levy here...

(Thanks for the heads up, Cenk!)

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Yesterday, The New York Daily News reported that two top CIA officials discussed Valerie plame with Cheney's former Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. If true, the CIA officials' testimony will show that Libby knew of Valerie Plame's status at the CIA at least a month prior to Robert Novak's column which first publicly exposed Valerie Plame's undercover status. The testimony of the two top CIA officials is expected to bolster the charge of perjury against Libby. Libby has previously testified that he first learned about Plame from a reporter.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann takes notice that this story had been originally reported 2 months earlier by Jason Leopold, an internet journalist writing for Truthout. On May 13th, Leopold reported that Karl Rove, like Libby, had been served with an indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice. This report has not been confirmed by other media sources, triggering a fierce debate on the internet about the accuracy Leopold's report that Rove has been served with an indictment. Truthout editor, Marc Ash, is defending the accuracy of the report.

Another Primary Election Day. Another E-Voting Mess. This time in Arkansas.

Mind you, this comes on the heels of earlier announcements that several major counties in Arkansas would be forced to use paper ballots instead of electronic machines after ES&S failed to deliver ballots and programming on time for the start of elections (something like the 10th state in which this has happened with ES&S so far this year, as regular BRAD BLOG readers know. But shhh...don't tell anyone!)

On Monday, the day before the election, at least one county election director in Arkansas pleaded with voters to choose paper on Election Day. "Grab a paper ballot, vote it and put it in the ballot box. It will go smoother," Benton County's election coordinator told voters on Monday.

Well, now it looks like ES&S has failed even further (we're shocked, shocked!) as tabulators in some counties failed to work at all, so ballots can't be counted until tomorrow at the earliest. And now the AR Secretary of State wants some answers about all of it.

From AP tonight...

So much for those vaunted claims by California's Sec. of State Bruce McPherson and his partners at Diebold, Inc. about increased security surrounding the physical access to electronic voting machines in light of newly revealed vulnerabilities to easy tampering.

A tip received by The BRAD BLOG on Monday reveals that Temp Workers are currently being sought in San Francisco for California's upcoming primary election to "assist in dropping off election voting machines and picking these machines up when voting is complete," as the says.

A classified ad seeking the workers is currently posted on the Internet at Monster.com by Kelly Services. (A screenshot of the complete ad is posted at the end of this article.) The salary offered to temp workers hired for the job --- who will have private unsupervised access to the state's voting machines before and after election day --- is $11.99/hour according to the posting.

A litany of recent studies and independent scientific analyses of electronic voting machines, in California and elsewhere --- and reportedly widely in the mainstream media of late --- have warned that such systems and the data they contain are easily alterable via such physical access.

State and voting machine company officials have now admitted as much, but claim that stringent security procedures ensure that the danger posed by such access can be mitigated.

The ad, however, seeking temp workers for three weeks beginning on May 31, the week prior to California's June 6th primary election, would seem to belie official claims, while serving to underscore the extraordinarily precarious and dangerously vulnerable state of our current electoral system...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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George Stephanopoulos interviewed 2004 Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards on Sunday's edition of ABC ThisWeek.

Edwards repeated his charge that President Bush is "the worst President of our lifetime." He also condemned Bush and Cheney for doing serious damage to the country. From foreign policy to domestic policy, Edwards said that it "will take us forever to recover" from the Bush Administration. The former V.P candidate also blasted breaking the law and ignoring the Constitution to spy on Americans.

From this week's issue of New York magazine...

(Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG reader Sarah M.)

New pre-trial filings by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the Scooter Libby perjury trial related to the outting of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, seem to draw Dick Cheney still closer to the center of the scandal, MSNBC's David Schuster is now reporting.

In the newly released documents, defendant Libby denies having seen Cheney's handwritten notes on the margins of a 2003 NY Times op/ed, in which Cheney raises questions about Plame's involvement in former Ambassador Joe Wilson's fact-finding trip to Niger. In the op/ed, Wilson exposes what he didn't find on that trip --- evidence that Saddam was attempting to purchase uranium from Niger.

(See BRAD BLOG's report, as filed last week by David Edwards, with video and other details as the NY Times marginalia was disclosed.)

From Schuster's report this evening:

RAW STORY has the text transcript and reports that Rove's legal team expects a decision on his indictment "at any time".

Here's the video, just out from MSNBC's Hardball, including the new details as reported by Schuster...

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High-larious. From last Saturday's SNL. Courtesy of Crooks & Liars...

Go, Ion, go!...