It's 5:40am as I type this in Crawford, Texas. I've got radio interviews beginning in about an hour, and then I'll be heading back to Camp Casey for our first LIVE BRAD SHOW via RAW RADIO from on the ground in the center of the action!

Come hell or high water, after driving all the way across the country, we hope to get on the air! (My money is on "hell" but either way...)

Join us for this historic simulcast on several different radio networks! Find out how I do a LIVE show from the middle of nowhere with no sleep! Even as I find out!

Spread the word! And yes...we still very much need your DONATIONS to pull off this radio miracle!

I'll try to explain how it all came to this once we're on the show. If you like your radio RAW, don't miss this very first daily BRADcast from deep in the heart of Texas! CLICK HERE FOR LIVE LISTENING LINKS!

LATE UPDATE: We are very happy to announce that JOAN BAEZ will be a guest on today's historic BRAD SHOW. Don't miss it!!

Guest blogged by David Edwards

The host of CNN's Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz, interviewed Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post this morning. Kurtz questioned Huffington on articles she has recently written on Cindy Sheehan, Judith Miller and the coverage of the Iraq war...

Here is a video of the entire exchange between Huffington and Kurtz. (streaming Windows media)

A transcript is also available from CNN.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, is investigating the outing CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. Suspicions have been solidly cast upon Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. There is no doubt that the crime wasn't committed alone or without the help of others.

An article published today in the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail, suggests that Patrick Fitzgerald's instincts are to root out corruption at the highest levels:

Take a look at this August 8th video clip from PBS NewsHour for more background on Patrick Fitzgerald. (Windows Media format)

We've finally made it to Texas! We hope to roll into Crawford at some point this afternoon!

If all goes well (and why would it?) we'll be up and on the air with a Special DAILY Edition of The BRAD SHOW on the ground LIVE at High Noon in Crawford (1p ET, 12p CT, 11a CT, 10a PT) each day for the duration!

We've still got many mountains to climb as we've been trying to make the whole thing happen even as we've been barreling across the country by car. Pulling this off will be a Radio Miracle...but it's time for a miracle or two!

We hope to be simulcasting these special LIVE broadcasts over several networks. Details on all of that to come as things come together (if they continue to come together!)...Stay tuned here and at www.BradShow.com for more info as soon as we can get it to ya!

And thanks for ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO HELP PAY FOR THIS EFFORT to try and make this necessary national discussion possible! The discussion we should have had in this country three years and thousands of dead bodies ago! (If you'd like to sponsor or advertise on this broadcast in some way, please contact our producer Kat ASAP!)

See this previous post for details of how we decided to interrupt our previously planned vacation to try and make this all possible!

Thanks to the BRAD BLOG Guest Bloggers for allowing me the time to pull all of this off! As well to indefatigable BRAD SHOW Producer, the infamous Kat L'Estrange for the various miracles she's already made happen, along with dozens of folks who have jumped in to try and help as well! More on all of them, and much more on all of this soon...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

A great old BRAD SHOW is almost ready to hit the airwaves. Again. It was broadcast LIVE two weels ago, had a great lineup and was fantastic show. And if the folks at the network pull up the right files, you can hear it again via the Web! Saturday from 7p-11p ET (4p-8p PT) and Sunday 12noon-4p ET (9a-1p PT)

Here's the guest list:

PLUS! If the Radio & Democracy Gods are with us...

Also...

It's free speech at its best, but it's not free! Brad pays for the studio rental --- out of his own pocket --- at $500 per week! He doesn't need to rent a studio this weekend but he still needs donations, so please donate here to help defray costs! Every little bit helps, friends.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

It's always an extreme pleasure --- and a severe challenge --- to post an item based on a column by Robert Parry. His excellent piece of August 17, 2005, is called Iraq & the Logic of Withdrawal. It's compelling reading, and it should be mandatory for all who say "we have to stay in Iraq until the Iraqis can provide their own security".

I am not in either camp, as regular readers of this space probably know. And I've been saying at every opportunity. So it's good to see that a very wise observer agrees with me. His take on the issue is a bit different than mine, but we reach the same conclusions. I find that comforting. It's like a math problem --- when you've solved it, you go back and check your work by doing the same problem in a different way. If you get the same answer the second time, you can be fairly sure that your answer is correct.

More harm than good to Iraq? Or to the USA? I would say "both!"

And the rest of the column goes like this.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Speaking of Comcast...

AP has more on that, and someone by the name of "Jeffery Scrotum Bag Barnes"...

(Hat tip to BRAD BLOG Emailer GGilpatrick)

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Hot on the heels of a recent item about Comcast [and other ISPs] blocking email containing the address of Cindy Sheehan's website, I have received a report from US Count Votes saying that that they are no longer able to reach AOL customers via email.

UPDATE: Since this item has been posted I have received more specific information. The email that is being blocked comes from the Announcements List at US Count Votes, a.k.a. election@uscountvotes.org. According to our source,

If this report is true, then it should not be too hard to fix. I can think of a few useful things you might consider doing.

Fast Symptomatic Relief:
If you are an AOL subscriber, you want to set up an additional email account. Hotmail and gmail come to mind; both are free and both allow you to access your account easily from any browser. No doubt there are other options, perhaps better options. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment for us below. Once you have your account set up, you can visit US Count Votes and ask to have your new address added to their mailing list.

Treating The Cause Rather Than The Symptoms:
Then there's the tried and tested method: Make Some Noise. We've already seen the sort of impact 6 or 7 people can make. If you are an AOL user, and if you are on the US Count Votes mailing list, and if you haven't heard from US Count Votes in a while, then AOL definitely needs to hear from you. As always, please remember to be polite; nobody wants to help an abusive caller. But please also be firm and persistent: we all know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I regret that I haven't more time to spend investigating this issue. Please use the comments thread below to post any relevant information you happen to have. I will update this post with AOL contact info as soon as I can find some. It you have such info and wish to share it, please do so via the comments, or send me e-mail here: wp112263 at hotmail dot com.

Ah, the old 6-or-7 routine! Thanks to you, the blogosphere is working ... for all of us.

Guest blogged by jaime

Cat Killer. Flip-Flopper. Transparent panderer.
And now... convenient Creationist

Congratulations, Senator Frist...You're an A-1 jack-ass!

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Brad is on the way to Camp Casey in Crawford to amplify the voices of the anti-war movement and provide us with extended daily broadcasts of The BRAD SHOW. We need your donations to make this mission successful so, please, take a moment and donate what you can.

In the meantime, there is more news coming out of Crawford than we can keep up with. Cindy has had to return to California to tend to her mother who had a stroke. The protestors have vowed to increase their numbers and continue calling for President Bush to answer Cindy's questions.

Protestors marched to the Bush 1600 acre palatial estate ranch to deliver letters to the First Lady. Emily Sharpe of Crawford Update reports...

(Be sure to click the following link to view all of the Camp Casey updates!)

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Regular readers of this space will recall that The BRAD BLOG is not a big fan of way the New York Times "covers" the news. But regular readers also know that we do our best to be fair, and to give credit where it's due. Therefore it behooves me to point out three excellent columns in recent editions of the NYT, and to report that two of them are at the top of the NYT's list of "most e-mailed stories".

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Sometimes this job is too easy. What to read? What to post? Some of these questions answer themselves. For instance, if it's Friday morning, then it must be time to visit Common Wonders and have a look at Bob Koehler's newest column. It starts this way:

Slick and insidious is right, Bob. Slick like oil on the water. And "insidious" is a perfect word to describe the practice of spending $350 million of our money to lure our kids into a raging man-made disaster. Well, maybe there are some other words. And maybe it's not even our money. It's our kids' money, or our grandkids. Some day the bill for all this insanity is going to come due. And even if the current crop of White House madmen are not around to pay it, somebody is going to have to pay. Guess who? Who always pays? But I digress.

The entire column is worth a read --- as always --- one passage is worthy of particular attention. Koehler quotes the famous line, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", as many writers have done in the past. Refreshingly, rather than assuming that all readers know what it means and where it comes from, he provides not only a translation but also a context.

Thanks again to Bob Koehler, whose care-packages of truth and sanity are always welcome after another week of craziness and vicious lies. Here's the permanent link to this week's column: Hiding from Cindy: The world is watching, George — will you look her in the eye?.

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

You have probably never heard of Makram Chams. It's time you met him.

Actually, you can't physically meet him --- he disappeared on September 11, 2001. I bring him to your attention for two reasons:

1. He knew, and apparently aided, Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists.

2. He owned a casino ship in Florida.

Yes, a casino ship --- just like the SunCruz ships owned by Jack Abramoff, the recently-indicted Republican money-man and wheeler-dealer. According to Associated Press, the terrorists took a mysterious trip on a SunCruz ship on September 5, 2001. And that trip is of great interest for three reasons:

1. SunCruz ships were under investigation for involvement in money laundering and other unsavory activities.

2. Al Qaeda operatives made a number of mysterious casino jaunts in that era; few believe that they were hard-core gamblers.

3. Al Qaeda was funded by drug money. Drug money must needs be laundered. Casinos have been known to be used for that purpose. Casino ships are unregulated.

Perhaps we should tentatively add a fourth reason for concern: Intelligence agents who had identified Atta in the United States and who knew of his ties to Osama Bin Laden were told to steer clear of him. They literally covered up his picture on their charts of Al Qaeda agents. (See my latest piece on Able Danger.)

So with that background in mind, let's learn more about the mysterious Makram Chams (whose first name is sometimes transliterated as Meekram).

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

I just received a note from someone with special understanding of the Able Danger sitch. (Suddenly, everyone on the net has only one or two degrees of separation from Tony Shaffer.) The correspondent asked not to be quoted or identified, so I'll speak only in very general terms.

Basically, you'll receive much the same info if you go to Intel Dump, which relays a message from Shaffer himself.

The bottom line: The identification of Atta was squelched by SOCOM lawyers. As Shaffer tells it:

Do I buy this? Well...