RAW STORY first reported this morning that Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee will deliver a formal request shortly to the Deptartment of Justice asking them to begin a criminal investigation into the activities of Ohio Sec. of State and Co-Chair of the State's Bush/Cheney Re-Elect Committee, J. Kenneth Blackwell!

That request has now been made, and is available to read [PDF] via the Democrat's U.S. House Judiciary Committee website.

In addition to the criminal investigation, they are asking that Justice Department Head John Aschcroft assign a special prosecutor in the matter of the Blackwell's apparently illegal use of the Great Seal of the United States as first reported by The BRAD BLOG on Wednesday!

According to RAW STORY's report...

Here is U.S. Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 33, § 713 on the "Use of likenesses of the great seal of the United States, the seals of the President and Vice President, the seal of the United States Senate, the seal of the United States House of Representatives, and the seal of the United States Congress".

Cannot vouch for the reality of this photo sequence, but it certainly is amusing! And a fine reminder that no matter how bad things seem now, they could always be worse (which may, or may not, be comforting to you depending on whether you happen to be a glass half-full or half-empty person).

Just a quick personal note to beg your indulgence during the less-than-usual blogging I have been able to do on BRAD BLOG of late due to necessary work getting the Velvet Revolution under way.

There is much to get done --- and in fact getting done --- behind the scenes, both on the website itself and concerning policy matters and organization. As usual, everything takes more time than I would hope, and revolutions are no exception.

So, I beg your indulgence in the meantime if I am taken away from BRAD BLOG a bit more than I would like for the moment. If that's the case, I hope it won't be for long as we are quickly gathering resources and folks are jumping in to handle much of the work that there are still only a few of us handling at the moment.

I trust you will understand it is for a good cause.

To that end, my apologies to those still awaiting Email or Comment replies from me. I'm doing the best I can to climb the mountain. As usual, I will attempt to get to everything, and please forgive if I am unable to answer in a timely matter (or occassionally at all!)

For those who have asked, yes the Clint Curtis investigation continues, and there should be much to report on in that regard in the near future. The events of the last week or two have taken much of my time for the moment, but not my focus. There will be more...much more hopefully...to report on the matter coming up! So continue to stay tuned!...

(BTW, I have been invited to interview Curtis on-stage in a Live Event currently being scheduled to close the Freedom Cinema Festival which takes place in Park City, Utah during this year's Sundance Film Festival. The FCF is a BRAD BLOG advertiser! So please click their ad on the left to check 'em out!

Their "Clint Curtis/Brad Friedman" event is currently scheduled to take place on Saturday, Jan. 29th, and I am hoping to be able to get there for it, but still working out a few details. If you are near the area, or planning to go to Sundance this year, please be sure and stop by! It will be the first time Curtis and I will have met in person, and I'd be thrilled to say hello to many of you guys there as well! I'll make an announcement in a separate item when I can confirm for certain that I will be able to make it...Which will, of course, keep me away from BRAD BLOG even more in the process!... But again, hopefully you will understand...)

BRAD BLOG's 2004 Man of the Year, Rep. John Conyers (Ranking Minority Member of the House Judiciary Committee) is not letting go.

Yesterday he, and Rep. Henry Waxman (Ranking Minority Member of the House Gov. Reform Committee) requested a new GAO Investigation of the long voting lines, and other related issues that kept Americans from voting as should be their right on November 2nd of last year. His letter to the GAO is here [PDF]. An AP story on same is here.

And today, Conyers sent a new letter to his best-friend and reported two-time (at least) lawbreaker Ohio Sec. of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell (who also served as Ohio's Bush/Cheney Re-Elect Committee Co-Chairman while studiously assuring a "free, fair and transparent" election in the Buckeye State).

Conyers asked for Blackwell's help in reforming our flawed election system.

Conyers goes on to spell out supportive statements from both Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Republican Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH).

In a related item, and perhaps the biggest "No Duh!" issue to be discussed this year, the Associated Press is reporting that Secretaries of State will be gathering to discuss whether their roles as state election overseers might be a conflict of interest with their partisan roles in campaigning for nominees on the same ballot they are overseeing:

We realize this is a very radical and conspiracy-theorist idea to hope that those overseeing elections would not have a personal or professional stake in them.

But whadduweknow? We're just dissidents, we guess.

UPDATE: Just minutes after posting the above item, RAW STORY reported that they were finally able to get a response from Blackwell's office on all of the above. It was just one line: "I think Rep. Conyers' inquiry and motivation speaks for itself." More than one line on this at RAW STORY...

It appears that Ohio Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (who served as both the state's Election chief and Co-Chair of the state's Bush/Cheney Re-Elect Committee) may not only have violated Ohio state law by asking for illegal corporate contributions in a recent fundraising letter for his gubernatorial bid, but it appears that he may have broken the federal Rule of Law as well!

Blackwell's use of a facsimile of The Great Seal of the United States in his constituent fundraising letterhead and on its envelope (both shown in the graphic at the bottom of this article) is in apparent violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code which states, according to an official U.S. State Department publication [PDF] available on its website, that "all* uses of the Great Seal and the design...are official"

The State Dept. document discusses the Great Seal, its history, and is quite clear on its illegal uses according to United States Code:

Though the version of the seal used by Blackwell, is modified in the slightest of ways from the official version of the seal (there is a solid ring around the official version, instead of ring of stars for example), the use of its "likeness" or "facsimile" clearly seems intended to endow his fundraising letter with the appearance of an official notice.

The seal, in its proper and legal use, is meant to convey the authority of the President of the United States, a fact which may raise the eyebrows of those who have suggested that alleged malfeasance in the Ohio elections by Blackwell was done in favor of his candidate and President, George W. Bush.

However, the official State Dept. document states, "The seal can be affixed only by an officer of the Department of State, under the authority of its custodian, the Secretary of State."

We will presume that refers to the United States Secretary of State, as opposed to the one from Ohio.

Further the State Department document discusses requests for uses of the seal for nonofficial business (which would seem to exclude candidates seeking funds for quixotic gubernatorial bids):

The sorts of documents on which the seal may be used by the U.S. Secretary of State after countersigning along with the President of the United States include:

Our work load of late has kept us from being able to contact Blackwell's office for comment on this second apparent disregard for the Rule of Law in a single fundraising letter. We hope, however, that other media outlets may be able to do so shortly, and The BRAD BLOG will report on any explanation Blackwell's office may have when and if they do.

It should be noted that it was AP who originally reported on the letter's illegal request for corporate funds in violation of Ohio state law. Blackwell's campaign office attributed the illegal request to "a printers mistake." In that same article, Blackwell is quoted as saying, "I have an obligation to follow the law."

It was, however, the Internet-only RAW STORY who exposed the letter originally even though AP failed to give them credit for their exclusive.

An original scan of the controversial Blackwell letter, composed while the Ohio recount was still underway, can be seen at RAW STORY with both uses of the Great Seal facsimile.

A text-only version of the full letter can be read in our earlier story on the matter.

Ken Blackwell's conscience and regard for the Rule of Law are still elusive at this time.

UPDATE: Confirming our report, Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) office says use of Great Seal in campaign letter is illegal. RAW STORY has the story. Natch. Also, Stephen Koff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer seems to have been working on the same issue concurrently as The BRAD BLOG and they published their story on it this morning, which was in turn picked up by the Subscription-Only newsletter National Journal.

A Blackwell representative is quoted in the reports as explaining that the seal is "official-enough looking to grab the letter recipient's attention" but "different enough to be legal."

The Dept. of Justice would seem to disagree with that since they gave warnings about using the seal in this way to several Democrats and Republicans as many as 21 years ago according to the above reports. We'd urge you to read them both.

As well, The BRAD BLOG has learned that that DoJ warning doesn't seem to have stopped the campaigns and PACS of J.C. Watts, Bob Barr and several others from using the fake seal recently on their own fundraising letters.

One reporter with whom we spoke about this issue, when asked about the triviality of this apparently breach of Federal law has told us, "I have three words for you: 80-Pound Paper."

UPDATE 1/14/05: HOUSE DEMS REQUEST DOJ CRIMINAL PROBE OF BLACKWELL! Requesting Special Prosecutor for Illegal Use of Great Seal as Originally Reported by BRAD BLOG! Click here for details!

Too funny...(and we could all use a laugh lately. Well me anyway.)

Please see the Amazon.com reviews for The Family Circus before someone takes them down. Here's one such sample amongst many brilliant reviews...

(Hat tip Corey K. for the link!)

Howard Dean announces his intention to run for head of the DNC, and The BRAD BLOG heartily and without hesitation endorses him for the job!

The reasons for our support are well described in these paragraphs from the announcement just posted to his Democracy for America website. (But we will have a bit more to on the matter say below it)...

We couldn't have put it any better than he just did.

But in order to cut off either the Democratic naysayers or the Wingnut trolls out there in Bradville, who may wish to pull the old "He's too far to the left...The Republicans will eat him up!" argument from the primaries out of mothballs, we would say what we said back then. Namely, that old "don't throw me in the briar patch" nonsense was bunk back then --- when the Dems foolishly chose Kerry --- and it's as much bunk now.

Don't play into that strawman scenario. It's a bought and paid for scheme straight out of the Republican playbook, and Dems who fell for it last time are now...well, out of a job.

If there is any question about that, we would point you to the statement of "President" Bush himself..."Fool me once, shame on you...Fool me twice... (pause) (pause)... You can't fool me again!"

Dean was the man then for the Democrats. Dean is the man now for the Democrats.

Anyone who says differently, does not have the best interests of either the DNC or America in mind.

UPDATE: It looks as if the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) also concur with our Dean endorsement, expressing their interests in helping "'the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party' to take a giant step forward by electing former Vermont Governor Howard Dean as the new Chair of the Democratic National Committee next month." Their complete essay gives more good reasons for their endorsement...which we endorse.

From AP:

We imagine they would.

(For this, and other such Election 2004 related headlines as they happen...be sure to check out VelvetRevolution.us for more of the latest, up-to-date headlines than I am usually able to offer here on The BRAD BLOG! Of course, I will always attempt to post the most notable here. More often when I may have additional specific analysis to offer to the raw news reports!)

UPDATE: A report via a Yahoo Newsgroup on this issue reports that Susan Truitt, one of the attorney plaintiffs who brought the case, has said the decision to drop the case was based on a number of issues (which the AP story interestingly failed to mention). Amongst them, the report says they plan instead to file a Federal civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging civil rights violations and election fraud. That, instead of the Ohio action, which, they plaintiffs had come to discover, was being heard by the Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice who had shown a lack of impartiality in the case (e.g. He refused to recuse himself from it, despite being a a candidate on the ballot in question).

The point seems to have some merit, especially since the original hope they had of overturning the election in Ohio is essentially a Constitutional impossibility once the Electors have been ratified by Congress as they were on January 6th.

The post, from a usual reliable source, also says that Truitt "was concerned the biased, Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court would assess huge fines and penalties against the plaintiffs/attorneys filing the suit, in order to attempt to "deter" any further legal action." And concludes with, "Susan is working hard toward the federal civil action which will be filed very soon."

We'll be watching...

While I have been too busy since last Thursday getting the Velvet Revolution underway, I have been unable to adequately express my thanks to the members of Congress who didn't fail us last Thursday.

While Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Sen. Barbara Boxer received the lion's share of the notice and thanks last week, the Herculean efforts of Rep. John Conyers and his staff in ferreting out Election Irregularities and Malfeasance in Ohio and elsewhere cannot be understated.

They have been true to their promise --- made to me by a staffer back in November --- to "not let this one go".

To promise such a thing, and then actually do it seems to be a rare thing indeed in Washington these days. From Republicans and Democrats alike! Yet, Conyers and his staff have stayed true to their words. And for that, they have won our greatest respects and enternal thanks.

And this morning, in an open letter posted on John Conyers' website he continues that same promise; To stay on this until the job is done. There are very few politicians on either side of the aisle we can say this about, but we have come to believe that he means what he says.

Hoping to let us all know where he intends to go from here, Conyers' letter starts with a gracious thank you to all of us who helped make so much happen...

We do. And behalf of so many of us, you are tremendously welcome.

He then goes on to outline his intentions for today looking forward...

If there was any doubt before, there is certainly none left, that --- in a year marked by the heroic deeds of many great Americans (too numerous to list here) on behalf of our democracy --- John Conyers has truly, hands-down, deserved the high-honor of being our very first "BRAD BLOG Man of the Year".

As regular readers may have noticed by now, there are very few politicians these days that The BRAD BLOG is particularly fond of. So this is no small honor, as many of you would likely attest.

Thank you, Mr. Conyers. And we look forward to more historic and heroics efforts in the near future! (If you haven't sent him thanks yourself, feel free to do so via email here. For the other 31+1, BuzzFlash has put all of their names and addresses together here if you'd like to drop them a note as well.)

We will do whatever we can to support his efforts both here at The BRAD BLOG and over at Velvet Revolution where we exist to support such efforts and such great American heroes!

And onward we go...We'd hate to be nice for too long...gotta reputation to keep!

UPDATE 2/4/05: Looks like while I was gone The BRAD BLOG received another (our fourth) Koufax Award nomination. This time for Best Series (Clint Curtis: Whistleblower Affidavit). And I admit to being quite proud of that particular recognition! So we'll move this item back up to the top for a short while and again ask for your support by casting a vote for our "Clint Curtis" series by a leaving a comment in support of same at the aforementioned link. Looks like this nomination was announced well over a week ago while I was gone, so BRADBLOGGERS will have some voting/catching-up to do! Please drop by and give us a vote! For that one, and the others --- see below --- if you haven't already! (Yes, I'm finally back in town as of this morning, but have so much catch up work now to do, I probably won't be able to begin blogging again until Monday...unless I just can't help myself. Also...I'm not sure, but these votes may be just the semi-finalist voting, so I may have to debase myself yet again in the future to beg for your votes if we make it to the "finals". But we've long ago cast off all illusions of self-respect, so why worry about such things now?) - BF

UPDATE 1/12/05: Wow, embarrassment of riches. BRAD BLOG just nominated for yet another Koufax award category! This time, "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition". If you are inclined to vote for us (and thanks to those who already have in the other categories!) you may do so via the just added link to the third category in the list below. Bumping this item temporarily back up to the top, long enough to catch your attention! And thanks for all the exceedingly nice words in many of your votes! - BF

Looks like The BRAD BLOG has been nominated in (so far) two three different categories for The Koufax Awards!

Please feel free to put a vote for us by leaving a comment with "BRAD BLOG" in it, at the following nomination page links!:

• Best Overall Blog (by a non-professional)
• Best New Blog
• Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
• [JUST ADDED!] Best Series (Clint Curtis: Whistleblower Affidavit)

More nominations for other categories are still to come. Keep an eye out at the Wampum blog (Home of the Koufax Awards), and feel free to shout out if you notice that we have been nominated in any other categories as they continue to announce them!

It is, as they say, an honor just to be nominated!

We've been working hard to get things in order to help put much of your discussion here, into action over at Velvet Revolution!

We've still got much work to do over there, but now we need you on board to help!

Grab your pitchfork and light your torches! We are officially open for business!

Stop on by, sign-up as a founding Velvet Revolutionary, jump into the Discussion forums, and let's take all of the energy, patriotism, civic-mindedness and hope for a better America and turn it into action and mobilization for the cause!

It was Velvet Revolutions that so effectively overturned despotic regimes through peaceful civil disobedience in places like the former Soviet Union, East Germany, Czchekoslovakia, Poland, South Africa, and of course...most recently...Ukraine.

In all of those places, the citizenry rose up to take matters into their own hands to demand that their governments be held responsible. Now it is our turn to learn from those countries what it really means to have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people!

I've posted more information over there about why we feel that Velvet Revolution has become necessary in the United States. And there will be more information and mobilization of a hopefully great citizen's brigade in the days, weeks, months and even years ahead!

Join us! It's your Velvet Revolution! We've just made it possible for everyone to come together in one place! But without you...we're nothing! Please lend a hand, volunteer, organize, share your ideas and thoughts, and come on board in every way possible!

For a start, we need you to spread the word high and low about VR and take it upon yourself to make things happen there! We have several more affilliate groups coming on board shortly, and our hope is to bring all such groups together for our common goals.

Velvet Revolution is Issue Based not Party Based and we hope to focus like a laser on a few issues of great importance to our democracy while lending our support and strengths to smaller groups who are working on aspects of those same issues. See the "ABOUT" link at VR for more details...

And as an added plus...If you guys help take this ball and run with it, perhaps I'll soon be freed up a bit more here so that I'll have more time again on The BRAD BLOG to keep causing trouble for the bad guys...I can't do all the heavy-lifting you know!

I expect there to be many bumps in the road ahead. We'll do our best to smooth them out as we move forward. Revolutions can be messy.

Let the Velvet Revolution begin...

More dirt from Florida Elections...This from AP (includes an alleged Democrat wrongdoer as well, so little wonder it makes it to the wires):

How filthy is the "Sunshine State", anyway?! Doesn't anybody down there just run for office and when/if more voters vote for them than the other guy/gal they can be the winner?

Or is my naiveté showing again?

And of course...we wonder if Mr. Thomas may have also worked with any other less-than-forthright, less-than-upstanding Republican Florida Politicians who we've been keeping our eye on of late...

Too tired, too busy...too exhausted for proper analysis. So I point you to someone with a better brain than I for the moment.

From The Editors at The Poor Man...a few days ago...when there were a dozen or so more living U.S. Troops in Iraq.

The entire article seems particularly germaine given some of the appalling discussion I've seen from the wingnuts in BRAD BLOG comments of late...The insurgency continues to grow in Iraq...

In other related news that you probably haven't heard much about...

Which brings us nicely back once again to the final graf from The Poor Man article...With apologies to anyone who may have been offended by the language around here of late, the final graf hits the nail on it's head...

(Hat tip BRAD BLOG buddy Maz for the tip on The Poor Man piece!)

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports...

A pencil and a piece of paper hardly ever malfunction.

Not to be a luddite or anything.

UPDATE 1/9/05: From an emailer...for whatever you may decide it's worth...

What is it about "The Rule of Law" that these Republicans just can't seem to keep straight?

The letter which Ohio's Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell (supervisor of fair and free elections in Ohio, as well as Ohio Co-Chair of the Bush/Cheney Re-Elect Committee) apparently asked supporters for illegal corporate donations, according to AP:

As we reported earlier in the week, the letter in which Blackwell takes credit for "helping deliver the great Buckeye State for George W. Bush" along with hitting every Christopublican Hotbutton Phrase in the Karl Rove "How to Win Elections and Influence Gullible Americans" handbook, was created to raise funds for Blackwell's gubernatorial bid even while recounts in Ohio were still ongoing. (We have recently updated that original report to include the text of the entire letter, by the way).

Then there is the matter of the official-looking letterhead used in the fundraising letter (the outside envelope refers to him, apparently without irony, as "The Honorable Ken Blackwell"):

While we're fairly certain that the use of official letterhead to raise funds for an upcoming campaign would be a no-no, we're not certain about the use of this official-ish letterhead, and the official-ish looking version of the Great Seal of the United States along with it.

We had hoped to look into the requirements for the legal use of the Great Seal this week until several items distracted us. Amongst them, live coverage of only the second time in well over one-hundred years that an arcane Constitutional provisional had to be invoked in Congress, thanks to Mr. Honorable's Ohio Election calamity, and, of course, the business of final preparations for America's Velvet Revolution which we hope to officially get underway on Monday.

In the meantime, we welcome any thoughts, research or other contributions via comments here on the letterhead matter from any of you crime-hating freedom-lovers out there on the Internets. Crime-justifying, GOP-apologists need not apply.

UPDATE: It should be noted that the letter reported on by AP, included in the Democratic House Judiciary Committee's 102-Page report of evidence suggesting fraud and/or malfeasance in Ohio's election, and blown up for use behind Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) during his speech last Thursday in the historic Congressional debate on the Ohio Electoral challenge was originally discovered and reported by RAW STORY.

AP chose not to give the Internet-only News Source the proper credit for their excellent original reporting. The reasons for that we will leave to the reader to discern. We don't wish to make the same mistake ourselves, however. We linked to them in our original story on the matter several times, but should have credited their hard work in this report as well!

UPDATE: 1/12/05 "Blackwell Ignores Rule of Law! Twice in Same Letter!"