Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

A Denver teacher, Jay Bennish, was suspended after he made a loose comparison between Bush's and Hilter's foreign policies. A student made an audio recording of the teacher's comments. The same student may have been attempting to draw provocative comments from the teacher by asking specific questions.

Instead of contacting the teacher or the school, the parents "shopped" the audio tape around to different right-wing radio shows. Both the teacher and the student have now been suspended.

NBC Today had the first exclusive interview with Bennish. He says that he has had a great deal of support from his students and community. The parents of the student that made the audio tape still have not contacted him.

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ADDITIONAL THOUGHT FROM BRAD: While the Wingnut Media has spent hours upon hours trashing this obscure, previously unknown high-school teacher from a small town in Colorado for the answers he gave to the recording-student in front of a few dozen classmates, to date, we're unaware of any of those same Wingnuts having aired Ann Coulter's recent "Raghead Speech".

Her speech was given as the keynote address, to a packed house of thousands and a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held a couple of weeks ago in D.C. The CPAC is the nation's largest and most important "Conservative" annual gathering and featured other speakers such as Dick Cheney and Bill Frist etc. Coulter also discussed the assassination of Bill Clinton and the bombing of the Supreme Court in her speech. The entire speech can be heard here on BRAD BLOG (if not on Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity et al, where you can hear the high-school teacher's lecture to a few dozen students over and over again.)

ALSO...: Newshounds has great coverage of how Hannity et al, are taking Bennish's comments out of context and mis-quoting him, etc. to fit their own agenda and to fool their gullible, captive audiences who seem to be less educated than the high schoolers Bennish was speaking to.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Tom DeLay faces three Republican challengers in today's Sugerland Primary Election but he isn't sticking around for the results. DeLay is on his way back to Washington for a fund-raiser.

In related news, President Bush is flying to Texas today to vote. It has been reported that an aide made a mistake with his absentee ballot.

Wow. We've made it through the first rounds with 9 nominations in 6 different categories of Wampum's "Koufax 2005 Blog Awards!" And we didn't even need to call in Harri Hursti! Thanks to all for getting us there!

And now, the next round of voting begins. Please vote BRAD BLOG into the Semi-Finals if you're so inclined!

There are links to all of the categories on this post. Otherwise, hit any or all of the following links where you are inclined to vote for us, and leave a vote in the Comments section at the bottom!

I'll try to keep this at the top when I can, as a reminder to vote while it's still allowed for the next few days in this round. Be sure to check out some of the other superb nominated blogs while you're there!

What's with AP? We thought all of this stuff was "conspiracy theory"?

It looks like Diebold's other "showcase state" who, along with Maryland, were the first to move to un-auditable paperles touch-screen voting machines is beginning to face the music. Reports AP...

We should point out that what the GA Senate is talking about is not actually "paper ballots" as the AP story seems to erroneously suggest, but "paper trails". There's a difference, of course. More on that in a second.

For additional context here, we'll note (with a hat-tip to John Gideon) that Cox, a Democrat, is running for Governor now in the state. She, along with her counterpart in Marlyand, Linda Lamone had been huge supporters of paperless Diebold voting originally, going so far as to allowing herself to be featured on Diebold's brochures (see photo below).

Apparently Cox sees the writing on the wall, while the tone-deaf Lamone is still fighting to ensure nobody can ever actually count how her state's constituents actually voted (see this previous article.)

Also worth noting, unfortunately, is that what they seem to be calling for down in Georgia is "paper trails". The worthless, uncounted little "voter-verifiable" toilet-paper roll tapes which are almost never counted at all and, in the case of Diebold machines, have turned up completely blank on the busiest voting machines during the most recent Ohio election.

Well, it's a step in the right direction, anyway. If the state of Georgia wants to create new legislation for these "paper trails" now, only to have to face the music once again later to spend still another round of money in order to ensure full paper ballots that's up to them, of course. Though we might recommend skipping the middle step, and going right now to something that is actually countable.

Maryland's Republican Governor Ehrlich continues to face the music about the Diebold voting machines that his state bought into hook, line and sinker (emphasis on sinker). He's been had by Diebold's use of the state as a "showcase", but at least he now seems brave enough to admit it, even while the Diebold dead-enders (like State Elections Board Chairman Gilles W. Burger and Democratic Election Administrator Linda H. Lamone who brokered the deal) are trying to hang on to the very last.

Ehrlich has sent a new letter to Burger today, demanding that Maryland's paperless touch-screen Diebold voting machines be sent back to federal authorities for further testing in light of recent discoveries of the vulnerability of the machines to hacking and tampering. Ehrlich writes, "We are spending too much time protecting the status quo instead of evaluating Maryland's current election system from an objective and unbiased perspective."

-- The complete new letter from Ehrlich to Berger is now available in full right here [PDF].

Washington Post picks up on the Governor's letter today and reports:

It should be pointed out that Ehrlich's motives may not be entirely pure. He is up for re-election himself this November, and the Democratic legislature has approved a measure to allow for early voting and other measures to help increase voter turnout. As Republican's do, Ehrlich opposed the measure to make it easier to vote by vetoing the bill, but the Dems in the legislature were able to muster enough votes to override that veto. Again from WaPo...

Nonetheless, Ehrlich is now joining the Dem run House Ways and Means Committee who, as we reported last night, voted 20 to 3 last Friday to support a measure calling for paper ballots...

Signs are good in Maryland --- Diebold's original "showcase state" --- that the legislature there is finally wising up to the democracy undermining problem that is Diebold.

According to AP --- yes, again AP --- the Democratic chaired House Ways and Means Committee "voted 20-3 on Friday to scrap the Diebold touchscreen machines for at least this year and use paper ballots with an optical-scan system for the primary and general elections."

The measure still has to move through the Senate, though the Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich has previously called for something very similar. So if the Senate moves, chances are the Guv will sign on.

Yes, there are problems, as you know, with optical-scan machines (just ask democracy's hero Ion Sancho in Leon County, FL), but at least the move away from Democratic Election Administrator Linda Lamone's fateful deal with the devil to use (and continue apologizing for) Diebold's unrecountable paperless touch-screen machines across the state may finally be coming to an end.

Also of note; The media, this time in the form of Associated Press, is finally beginning to understand the importance of the story that they've ignored for years. From Tom Stuckey of AP...

The article also points out that Lamone --- who, as of this article, still has a job --- is certain everything will be fine due to the legendarily watertight security that American election officials are recognized for world-wide:

Fraud and manipulation is "impossible" says Lamone! I know I'll sleep better at night...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Most Americans believe that John McCain's anti-torture bill clearly protects prisoners in U.S. custody from abuse. Most Americans also believe that the conditions for detainees have improved since the Abu Ghraib scandal and some initial problems at the U.S. detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Republican PR efforts to change American's perceptions of detainee treatment have been have been successful. The truth is that the Bush Administration has used the McCain anti-torture bill to codify a policy of torture that is now embedded in our legal system for perpetuity.

Professor Alfred McCoy is the author of a new book, "A Question of Torture", in which he gives a history of US torture from the CIA's development of torture techniques through the latest generation of systematic torture in the Bush Administration's "war on terror".

McCoy explains how the Bush Administration has purposefully crafted a strategy of torture. They have claimed executive powers and have had laws re-interpreted by Administration lawyers to give the government the power to continue the practice. Loopholes slipped into the McCain bill now ensure an enduring policy of torture.

Democracy Now interviewed Professor McCoy several weeks ago. We've taken about 9 minutes of clips frmo the 23 minute interview and provided them here. The entire interview and transcript are available from Democracy Now.

Due to the focus on detainees' human rights at Guantánamo, the U.S. is quietly expanding a detention center at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. In the past few years, the population has increased by 5 times. While there has been significant legal action over Gitmo, little has been done for the detainees at Bagram. Many say the conditions at Bagram are far worse than even during the height of the Abu Ghraib abuse.

With the constant buzz of helicopters and blimps overhead since dawn this morning (No, not "Black Helicopters"...I'm about two blocks from the Kodak Theater where the Academy Awards were tonight) and two old schoolmates of mine nominated (Hoffman and Huffman - nice going guys!), granted I may have a touch of the Oscar Fever.

But the winner of the best song tonight, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp", couldn't help but remind me, to remind you --- in case you missed it --- of our new Special Guest Diebold Comment Troll/Pimp calling himself "Wally O'Diebold".

While he may be too cowardly to give his real name publicly --- even while sliming folks like myself, Bev Harris, Jim March, Avi Rubin, Sen. Debra Bowen and others who are not afraid to put our real names on our work and behind our beliefs --- he's a Diebold insider with a lot of knowledge of the systems, and (WARNING) a lot of mis/disinformation he's suddenly very eager to spread.

He also seems to be, as he referred to Rubin, "a self-serving tool". And I don't mean that in the pejorative sense in which he meant it.

Interestingly, while the Diebold "company line" has always reportedly been to dismiss Election Integrity Advocates like myself, and March and Harris et al as "conspiracy theorists," it's the faceless "Wally O'Diebold" who now cowers in the shadows of anonymity because BRAD BLOG readers, according to "Wally" in comment #56, "would not hesitate to stalk me to my home and possibly try to kill me."

Watch out for them Black Helicopters, "Wally"! Unless you're also near the Kodak Theater, eh?

But forthrightness, honesty and openness has never been much of a hallmark for the Diebold corporation. At least during their Voting Machine Years of Shame. Their latest spokesperson/mac daddy/anonymous slimer is no exception. Secrecy, disinformation and cowardly scurrilous attacks on those who have nothing to gain but the free and fair democracy their country once promised...ah, yes, that's Diebold all over. They never rest.

The desperation displayed by "Mr. O'Diebold" is entertaining sure, but not particularly becoming...especially when it's accompanied by ad hominem attacks and knowing disinformation --- lots of it, very cleverly drawn, I might add --- all launched from behind the veil of secrecy. But that's his company's business model after all, so who are we to quibble now that he's willing to offer us a reminder.

If they would only call me back when I call them for comment, they'd be able to actually put such comments on the record under their own names for a bit of credibility. But I guess it's easier to talk to journalists who don't ask follow-up questions, and who are easily fooled by the company spin. Which is to say, most of the non-BRAD BLOG media out there.

So if you're in the mood and have the stomach for it (and before I lose my patience, and remove this guy's feeding tube all together) pull up a chair, grab some popcorn and enjoy the BRAD BLOG nominee for Best Original Comment Thread Hijacked by a Diebold Pimp Based on Stuff That Sounds Like Fact, But Actually Isn't.

And the Oscar goes to...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The February 28 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

(P.S. - Don't tell anyone this was in today's Sunday comics page.)

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Ex-CIA Officer Paul Pillar was in charge of providing intelligence about Iraq to the White House prior to the beginning of the war.

In a recently released paper, Pillar wrote,

In short, the Bush team misrepresented, misused, mislead and completely lied to the American people about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Pillar provides more evidence of what most of us already know...

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Picking up in the tradition of California's Sec. of State Bruce McPherson, who seems to have a fondness for Friday night releases of important information which he hopes nobody will notice, Florida's Division of Elections Director, Dawn K. Roberts, issued a "Technical Advisory" memorandum calling for "enhancements to voting system security procedures that each supervisor of elections must address immediately." The memo was issued late this evening at the end of the work week.

Roberts' memo (posted in full below) would be the first official acknowledgment, to our awareness, by the state of Florida of the security concerns raised by the recent Leon County, FL "hack test" conducted by Election Supervisor Ion Sancho. That now-infamous test --- in which computer security professional Harri Hursti had managed to access and change information on the Diebold optical-scan voting machine memory cards --- resulted in the results of the test election being completely flipped, without a trace being left behind.

In her "Technical Advisory", Roberts fails to mention that "hack test" or the equipment it occurred on --- or even Diebold themselves --- by name. Rather, the alert alludes to McPherson's recent --- and stunning --- "conditional re-certification" of Diebold voting equipment in the state, in light of confirmation of the newly discovered "interpreted code" used by the machines. That type of software source code is specifically banned by the federal Help America Vote Act guidelines. During his re-certification of Diebold --- after the company's equipment had previously been de-certified in the state for use of illegal software patches, and subsequently found to have failed atleast 20% of the time in a massive test held last summer --- McPherson mandated specific security procedures to be used with Diebold equipment in the state of California.

"This technical advisory therefore applies to all voting systems deployed in Florida," writes Roberts in the memo issued this evening...

She's fought her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the very same day that the facade cracked on the front of the building and a chunk of marble --- just above an allegorical statue representing "Order" and just below the words "Equal Justice" --- came crashing to the ground. The highest court in the land refused to hear her case.

Along the way, the Dept. of Justice has done everything in their power (and then some) to keep her quiet. They invoked the rarely used "State Secrets Privilege" to shut her up --- going so far as to use it, without explanation, to remove her and her own attorneys from the courtroom when arguing their case against her.

In at least two unclassified Senate briefings, FBI officials confirmed the validity of her reports, but the information from those briefings was then retroactively classified by the DoJ --- which served to gag the Congress from further investigation on the matter. The DoJ even retroactively classified a 60 Minutes profile on her --- after it had already aired!

All of that, even after the DoJ's own Inspector General's report found Sibel Edmonds' allegations to be "credible" and "serious" and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI." The unclassified version of that report was only released by the DoJ after prodding from Congressional members and the 9/11 Commission.

Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Members Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Pat Leahy (D-VT) both publicly support her case and would like to allow the Congress and the American public to hear more.

Want to know what it is that she knows? What it is that she feels we the people ought to know about? And what it is that has led her to form the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition to support other patriots like herself who are trying to expose crimes and corruption from within our own government? We do. And we hope you do too.

Therefore, The BRAD BLOG is pleased to support a new petition calling on Congress to hold a joint Senate and House Judiciary Committee investigation, with open hearings into all of these matters.

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. You all remember that, right? Let's make this happen. Please sign her petition right now.

And please spread the word to other blogs and bloggers (and perhaps even the MSM may want to get in on the act --- it is their country too, after all), and ask them to do the same. This one's important.

We've reported over the last few months about various aspects of Edmonds' case. However, for those unfamiliar with the larger pictures of Edmonds' allegations and what she would like to testify about before the Congress and the American people --- all based on what she heard and saw first-hand while working as an FBI translator just after 9/11 --- please see the following bullet point summary of just a few of her explosive whistleblowing allegations...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Known for her role in the 2000 Presidential debacle, Katherine Harris has been linked to illegal campaign contributions funneled from a defense contractor who has also been convicted for bribing former Representative Cunningham.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Harris tried to secure a $10-million Federal deal for the convicted defense contractor. At about the same time, one of Harris' aides, Mona Yost, was hired by the same contractor.

Katherine Harris denies knowledge of the illegal campaign contributions. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is being sentenced today for accepting bribes in exchange for securing Federal contracts and other favors.

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Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Recent court filings by Patrick Fitzgerald indicate that Bob Woodward may have audio tapes that of who leaked information about CIA operative Valerie Plame to him. Woodward's source may also be Novak's second source. Novak's first source is already known to be Karl Rove.

Novak's second source has always been a matter of great speculation. Up to this time, Novak described his second source as "no partisan gunslinger". Jeralyn at TalkLeft guesses that Novak's second source may be Stephen Hadley or Richard Armitage.

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