The BRAD BLOG

By Brad Friedman on 11/7/2005 1:25pm PT

Catching up on a few items from over the weekend that I didn't get to as I took the opportunity to take a few hours off here and there... (what was I thinking?!)...

Here's a smartly done text transcript (with photos) of the on-stage interview I recently did with Clint Curtis at the "Summit to Save Our Elections" in Portland, OR. The audio is available there as well. (Thanks to the Oregon Voting Rights Coalition both for organizing the summit, and for making this transcript available online!) If you don't know who Clint Curtis is, here's a quick summary of his amazing story.

In re: my recent rants both here and over at HuffPo about the complete mainstream media blackout on any reporting of the recent GAO Report confirming the security problems et al with Electronic Voting Machines and the accompanying bi-partisan press release --- I failed to notice and mention a very good early piece on it all over at HuffPo by Michelle Pilecki. As well, Editor & Publisher's Dave Astor covered my call for coverage --- any coverage --- by the MSM. While I'm pleased that E&P picked up that much, it would still be much more useful if they took it upon themselves to do some actual reporting on the matter to find out what explanation every single wire service and every single mainstream American newspaper has for not devoting even a paragraph to a report so vital to the most basic element of our American democracy. Their email address is still Letters@EditorAndPublish.com.

HuffPo is now running my latest rant at the NY Times for Richard W. Stevenson's shitty article Sunday on TreasonGate, in which the "paper of record" continues to help George W. Bush distance himself from any wrong-doing in the affair.

Read the incredible tale here of how Republicans are pulling out all stops all over the country to try and disenfranchise Democratic-leaning American voters. It's their latest strategy (I can't imagine who might be behind it) and in this one instance, in Seattle at least, it seems they got caught red-handed. Much more detail on this story from a diarist at DailyKos.

Much more to come this week, of course. Especially with elections set for tomorrow in various states around the country, including a "Special Election" that Arnold has called out here to push through a bunch of initiatives to consolidate his power, and by-pass the Democratic state house in California...

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Bush Avoids Questions About CIA Leak and Secret Prisons

President refuses to support torture ban

By David Edwards on 11/7/2005 8:42am PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

President Bush took a few questions while speaking today in Panama.

While campaigning in October of 2000, Bush said "We will ask not only what is legal but what is right. Not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves." Today Bush was asked if he had upheld this promise to the American people. Instead of offering a straightforward answer, the president stonewalled with the familiar "We are cooperating with the investigation..." deflection.

Bush was also asked if the Red Cross would be allowed to inspect the "secret prisons" which have been recently reported in the Washington Post and other publications. While the president didn't answer this question directly, he took the opportunity to strongly imply that he supported torture as long as it was conducted via legal methods and loopholes. He seemed to give the impression that torture was necessary tool when used to protect the American people.

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VIDEO - Senator Bullworth Debates The Terminator

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening crash Schwarzenegger rally

By David Edwards on 11/7/2005 7:42am PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Over the weekend, Warren Beatty and his wife, Annette Bening, followed Gov. Schwarzenegger to several rallies. It was an attempt to bring attention to some negative aspects of the Governor's "reform" agenda.

Warren Beatty is troubled that the Governor will not debate anyone on the issues. Beatty says, "As near as I can tell, the broken system that he wants to change is called 'democracy'".

Since Schwarzenegger is not willing to debate anyone on his "reform" agenda, CNN put together a short virtual debate between Warren Beatty and the Governor.

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Democracy Toon of the Moment...

By Brad Friedman on 11/6/2005 9:23am PT

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Daily Show: Has Gay Marriage Ruined Massachusetts?

By David Edwards on 11/5/2005 12:34pm PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

A year after the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, Ed Helms investigates to find out if the critics' worst fears have come true. Has gay marriage ruined Massachusetts?

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Article Categories: Massachusetts, Rights And Freedoms, U.S. Constitution, Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, Marriage Equality, LGBTQ

Uniting-Not-Dividing the World Over!

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 6:01pm PT

"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

10,000 Argentinians would like to welcome you to Argentina, Mr. Bush...

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DoJ Subpoenas Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) for Docs in Abramoff Case

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 4:10pm PT

The Hill has today's story. The BRAD BLOG reported on Ney up to his eyeballs in the Abramoff investigation recently, and last May when it was reported that he was under investigation by the DoJ.

But we found the following phrase, in today's report, had a somewhat familiar ring to it...

Ney said he could not comment on the specifics of the DOJ investigation.

"I believe�that although the government's investigation of Mr. Abramoff has been well-publicized through other sources, it is inappropriate for my office to comment in any detail about an ongoing investigation," he said.

...Hmmm... Now where have we heard that same phrase recently? These guys are getting a lot of use out of those words lately!

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AUTHOR: 'Kerry Said Election Was Stolen!' KERRY: 'No I Didn't!'

ALSO: Senator Claims to Know Nothing About Recent GAO Report Confirming Problems with Electronic Voting Machines...

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 3:39pm PT

On today's Democracy Now, Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), claimed that he was personally told by John Kerry last Friday that Kerry felt 2004 Presidential Election had been stolen.

RAW STORY reports on a denial by Team Kerry of Crispin's report...

Miller told Democracy Now Kerry "told me he now thinks the election was stolen. He says he doesn't believe he is the person that can be out in front because of the sour grapes question. But he said he believes it was stolen. He says he argues with his democratic colleagues on the hill. He said he had a fight with Christopher Dodd because he said there's questions about the voting machines and Dodd was angry."

Miller was shocked to hear of Kerry's denial.

"I call that contemptible," Miller told RAW STORY. "That's completely false."

Indeed, Miller carried the RAW STORY report on his blog today with the headline "Contemptible".

Miller had previously blogged about his meeting with Kerry last Friday:

So I spoke briefly with him just as he arrived, and handed him the book, saying, "You were robbed, Senator." He said, "I know!" with a clear gesture of extreme frustration, and then said that he can't get any of his colleagues on the Hill to face the issue. Said that he had lately had an argument about it with Chris Dodd, who didn't want to hear about it. Kerry tried to tell him about all the problems with the electronic touch-screen machines, but Dodd refused to listen, saying that he had looked into it, and that "there's nothing there." (In bringing the subject up with Dodd, Kerry was not influenced by the GAO report, which he didn't even know about until I mentioned it to him. Indeed, he seemed mightily impressed that the GAO had come out with a strong report.)

That Kerry was unaware of the GAO report [PDF] is no great surprise. We first broke the news of the non-partisan GAO report and it's accompanying bi-partisan joint news release originally here at BRAD BLOG a full two weeks ago. Since then, we've opined about a complete failure to even mention the report at all, by any of the Mainstream Corporate Media (all wire services, all mainstream newspapers, all cable news channels failed to even mention it) both here at BRAD BLOG and late last night at HuffPo (where the item is currently a featured blog and has more comments than any other featured blog item listed on the front page!)

Miller gives more details, in his blog item, on his conversation with Kerry:

I urged him to spearhead a major senatorial investigation into what went down last year, in the spirit of his best work in that chamber, when he led inquiries into Iran/contra and BCCI. He said that, given his position, he doubts that he can be the one to go out front about the issue, because of the "sour grapes" factor. I appreciate his dilemma, but still think that he must embrace the issue of electoral reform, for the country's sake. (I also think that it would be the only way in which he might redeem himself for his deplorable concession just a year ago.)

Now, however, Senator "Never Surrender" completely denies the conversation ever took place. You may remember that he also claimed he would ensure that "every vote was counted" last year. You decide.

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New Poll: 53% of Americans Support Bush Impeachment!

Margin of Support Grows 19% Since June!

Mainstream Media Continue to Avoid Coverage...

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 1:44pm PT

Last June, 42% of Americans in a Zogby poll felt that Bush should be impeached if he lied about the War on Iraq while 50% opposed.

Earlier this month, in a new poll by Ipsos, a majority of 50% were in favor of impeachment, while just 44% were opposed.

And today, the latest poll from Zogby asking the same question, says 53% support impeachment of Bush while just 42% oppose.

In the meantime, even while the Mainstream Media were relentlessly discussing impeachment every day, wall-to-wall, about Bill Clinton back in September and August of 1998 (while hardly mentioning it today in relation to Bush) "only 36% supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported actual impeachment and removal" according to a study of 16 major polls which asked the question back then (versus the 3 major polls now, 2 of them which had to be funded by American citizens donating to AfterDowningStreet.org.)

ImpeachPAC.org, a new organization from the AfterDowningStreet.org folks (of which The BRAD BLOG is an affiliate) have begun raising money for Congressional candidates who support impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. They have much more on all of the above.

UPDATE: Two commenters have taken us to task for what they consider to be a misleading headline on this item, noting that the 53% who "support Bush Impeachment," as the headline states were answering whether or not they would do so "if President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq."

Though we did make that point clear in the first sentence of the article, the commenters (one of them an habitual troll here at BRAD BLOG, but we do not discriminate) still had a problem with the headline.

When we posted this article, what we didn't delve into (mostly due to lack of time) was what the sponsors of the poll --- who similarly headlined their article announcing the results as "53% of Americans Support Impeachment," by the way --- also discussed how many Americans feel already that "Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq."

From their article:

Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact lie about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll found 52% of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately misled the public before the war," and 57% say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons." Support for the war has dropped significantly since June, which suggests that the percentage of Americans who believe Bush lied about the war has increased.

Thus, 53% of Americans support impeachment "if Bush did not tell the truth" and anywhere from 52% to 57% believe he did not tell the truth.

Do the math. We stand by the original headline. (And still hope Bush gets a blowjob so impeachment proceedings may begin.)

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Article Categories: Iraq War, Impeachment, Mainstream Media Failure, Accountability

Dear Wingnuts and Christian Conservatives...

How Does It Feel To Be Played For Chumps?

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 1:10pm PT

From testimony by Republican fundraiser Michael Scanlon at Wednesday's Republican-run Senate hearings:

In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it.

Do you people get it yet? You're the "wackos" according to your own people.

You've been played.

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Favorability Rating of the Moment...

PLUS: American Don't Care About TreasonGate? Think Again...

By Brad Friedman on 11/3/2005 6:24pm PT

Incidentally, from the same poll (and especially for all those wingnut radio hosts who have told me that they don't talk TreasonGate because "Americans don't care about the issue"), here's the numbers of those who found the following scandals to be of either "Great Importance" or "Some Importance" and, parenthetically, the dates on which the polls were taken:

Watergate (5/73): 78%
Iran-Contra (2/87): 81%
Whitewater (3/94): 49%
Clinton-Lewinsky (1/98): 62%
CIA Leak (now): 86%

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We Are 'The Media' Now...

Rolling Stone: 'Politcal bloggers scoop the mainstream media on Plamegate'

By Brad Friedman on 11/3/2005 2:20pm PT

From Rolling Stone:

Clearly, it was the wrong moment to declare war on the blogosphere. Barely a week before the New York Times went public with its baffling account of ex-star reporter Judith Miller's unholy entanglement with vice-presidential aide "Scooter" Libby, the paper's executive editor, Bill Keller, proclaimed that Weblogs do nothing more than "recycle and chew on the news." Pride, as ever, goeth before the fall.

Caught flat-footed on the CIA-leak story, the Times saw its lunch handed to it by the new blogging elite. Leading the charge were the upstart gumshoes of RawStory.com, the pundits of the Huffington Post and a rear guard of Internet editorialists, all taking the Gray Lady to task for failing to practice the very "journalism of verification" that Keller claimed set the Times apart.

Bloggers now routinely break the major stories of the day. And their reports are getting sucked into the twenty-four-hour news cycle.

See the full story for several swell quotes from our friends John Byrne of RAW STORY and Arianna of HuffPo.

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The Cronyism Continues...

Team Bush: 'Friends First, National Security...Later...Maybe'

By Brad Friedman on 11/3/2005 12:28pm PT

From Newsweek...

President Bush last week appointed nine campaign contributors, including three longtime fund-raisers, to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a 16-member panel of individuals from the private sector who advise the president on the quality and effectiveness of U.S. intelligence efforts.

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Libby Pleads 'Not Guilty' as White House Debates Rove's Future

Rove still in legal jeopardy --- indictments could come 'within weeks'

Cheney may be forced to give sworn testimony in open court

By David Edwards on 11/3/2005 9:59am PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Libby pleaded 'not guilty' at his arraignment earlier this morning. It looks like Cheney will have to testify. While he might be allowed to submit pre-recorded video testimony, Chris Matthews said "It looks like he's going to have to sit in the chair." This White House will strongly oppose the idea of Cheney testifying under oath in open court.

The following video clip has the statement of Libby's lawyer as they left court. Chris Matthews analyzes the risk for Cheney, Rove and The White House.

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Newsweek and The Washington Post are reporting an uncertain future for Karl Rove. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek postulates that Rove could lose his security clearance:

According to last week's indictment of Scooter Libby, a person identified as �Official A� held conversations with reporters about Plame's identity as an undercover CIA operative, information that was classified. News accounts subsequently confirmed that that official was Rove. Under Executive Order 12958, signed by President Clinton in 1995, such a disclosure is grounds for, at a minimum, losing access to classified information.

The Washington Post has learned that some White House aids and top Republicans are expressing doubts about Karl Rove's future:

If Rove stays, which colleagues say remains his intention, he may at a minimum have to issue a formal apology for misleading colleagues and the public about his role in conversations that led to the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to senior Republican sources familiar with White House deliberations.

...
Fitzgerald is considering charging Rove with making false statements in the course of the 22-month probe, and sources close to Rove --- who holds the titles of senior adviser and White House deputy chief of staff --- said they expect to know within weeks whether the most powerful aide in the White House will be accused of a crime.

But some top Republicans said yesterday that Rove's problems may not end there. Bush's top advisers are considering whether it is tenable for Rove to remain on the staff, given that Fitzgerald has already documented something that Rove and White House official spokesmen once emphatically denied --- that he played a central role in discussions with journalists about Plame's role at the CIA and her marriage to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a critic of the Iraq war.

The Raw Story has obtained a letter from Democratic Senators calling for a "thorough housecleaning" in Cheney's office.

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Approval Rating of the Moment...

By Brad Friedman on 11/2/2005 7:04pm PT

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