RAW STORY's Miriam Raftery unleashes a terrific new piece today based on an interview with the Diebold Insider, dubbed as "DIEB-THROAT", who we originally introduced in our BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE back in September.

Raftery previously delivered the terrific San Diego CityBeat story in October on all manners of electile dysfunction since the November 2004 election mess, right on up to the recent Mayoral boondoggle on Diebold machinery in San Diego. She's covered the Election Reform and Diebold beat in various outlets for some time.

Amongst the revelations reported by Raftery for RAW from her exclusive interview with the anonymous whistleblower who has chosen to keep their identity undisclosed for the time being due to "a continuing sensitive relationship with the company":

Much more and full details in RAW's complete article here...

As former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay received troubling legal news today in Texas where he's been indicted on several charges related to money-laundering campaign contributions for Republican candidates, Fox "News" did their best to buck up the spirits of "The Hammer".

The judge in the case rejected DeLay's motion to drop all charges, though he did toss out one charge for "conspiracy" which hadn't yet been against the law in Texas at the time DeLay allegedly conspired. The decision now paves the way for the criminal trial to begin and for DeLay to be permanently replaced in his House leadership position.

But we hope you "Fair and Balanced" zombies out there will note how it was reported via several different Email Alerts today:

From Yahoo Email Alert...

From CNN Email Alert...

And finally, from "We Report, You Decide" Fox "News" Email Alert...

Sigh...

Meanwhile, on the tube version of the above Alert, John Gibson's plans to mislead are quashed by Judge Andrew Nepalitano who manages to sneak a bit of truth past the Fox police:
-- Fox News Video in Windows Media format...

And yet, despite FNC's failure to inform Americans about what's really going on in their Government (or perhaps more accurately, their demonstrated attempt to misinform them), it seems the message is getting out anyway. More bad news tonight for Tom DeLay, this time from his own home district in Houston, courtesy of Jesse at Stakeholder who also has additional info there on the battle brewing to replace DeLay permanently in the House Leadership...

(A well overdue hat-tip to BRAD BLOG's not-so-secret weapon David Edwards for his "News Alert" info!)

Joseph Cannon has been digging deep and looking under the slimy rock of the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal to take a closer look at the MZM and Wilkes Corp firms and seems to be finding what appears to be millions of tax-payer dollars funnelled through fake "Defense Contractors" (who actually appear to do nothing) and then straight into the pockets and campaigns of scores of Republican politicians.

This seems to be the sort of thing actual journalists used to report, the U.S. Congress used to investigate and the Justice Department used to prosecute. Thank God that bloggers like Joe get the big big bucks for doing all of that (save the prosecute part) even while they have a day job!

So is Cannon onto something big here? I'm busy digging into a few things of my own, but it seems to me that his work deserves a much closer look...

UPDATE: (Upon further reflection on Joe's work, it seems to me that if he's got this right, this could be the mother of all historic scams in this country...For that reason, my natural inclination says that this can't be. The implications here would be so enormous, my initial reaction is that he must have something wrong here. But does he?)

On the Friday edition of The O'Reilly Factor's "Talking Points Memo" segment, self-proclaimed satirical journalist/host Bill O'Reilly used a year-old clip from Comedy Central's The Daily Show in an attempt to make it look as though "Secular Central" (as he referred to them) were out to get Christmas!

The latest chapter in O'Reilly's phony "War on Christmas" or whatever the hell he calls his sad cry for attention --- and/or swell reason to avoid reporting on actual news --- provides more ammunition to the argument that the Fox "News" Channel's #1 personality continues his bizarre slide into bonkerhood/irrelevancy.

Previously, the so-called "Christian" Right had decried the commercialization of Christmas, but having apparently found that tactic not as politically adventageous as they might might have liked, have this year declared "war" on whatever retail outlets don't remind shoppers of their latest reason for the season: The Commercialization of Jesus Christ as a Weapon in a Self-Induced Paranoia-laden Phony Culture War (or, as Tom Delay's one-time aide, the now-indicted Michael Scanlon described it via email: a way to fire up the "Christian wackos" to trick them into voting for Republicans).

O'Reilly introduced a video clip from The Daily Showduring Friday's "Talking Points Segment" by saying "Predictably, the opponents of public displays of Christmas continue to put forth counter arguments." He then referred to Comedy Central as "Secular Central."

Trouble is, the clip appears to be from last year's Daily Show as evidenced by a) We watched every episode this week and didn't see the clip O'Reilly played, b) Daily Show "correspondent" Samantha Bee is standing in front of a 2004 calendar and c) Bee is currently quite noticably pregnant...which she is noticabaly NOT in the clip O'Reilly used.

-- Video in Window Media format...
-- Video in QuickTime format...

UPDATE: 12/6/05 Media Matters picks up on our story. ... A few details added: O'Reilly also played the Samantha Bee clip on the same afternoon's Radio Factor and referred to it as "what happenened there last night" (he dropped the "last night" part when misleading viewers later that evening on his TV show). They also cut the first part of Bee's comment from the TV version, but played it on the radio where she began the joke by saying, "But really, let's face it. All other days bow down to the 25th..."

In related news, O'Reilly and the other GOP shamelessly opportunistic Political Paranoia Peddlers featured stories about the Jewish Rightwing wackos who are also jumping on the Chutzpa Wagon to publicize their own mock outrage about this non-issue.

Former Boston Herald editorial writer and O'Reilly Factor guest Don Feder, tossed his tallis into the hat to try and help trump up O'Reilly's phony pet-project du jour by giving statements to the Cybercast News Service (CNS) on Friday. The statements were given by Feder to CNS --- a Republican propaganda organization created by GOP operative Brent Bozell and edited by Scott Hogenson, a long time director of operations in the RNC Press Office --- under the guise of heading up a Jewish group claiming to be supporting the effort to "save Christmas." In one of his statements, Feder, who is apparently Jewish, is quoted by CNS as stating that "America is a Christian nation."

Feder, a hard-right political consultant, bomb-thrower and smear-merchant (the kind O'Reilly pretends to not like) and the President of a group calling itself "Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation" (JAACD) goes on to inflate his and O'Reilly's own strawman "war" by saying "we think it's good for Christians to be able to celebrate their holiday." As if any American had ever suggested otherwise.

The JAACD, which announced their mission to "Wage Web Warfare Against The Liberal Establishment" on its website, was formed last April. Jewish comedian Jackie Mason, who is also on the board of JAACD, was provided to O'Reilly's show as a guest on Friday. One of the other Republican propaganda "news" services, NewsMax.com ran a similar article in lockstep with their comrades at CNS on that same day. No mention was given in either article about Feder's relationship with O'Reilly.

Incidentally, no mention is given that "America is a Christian nation" in either the U.S. Constitution or the Declaration of Independence declaring America's nationhood.

CNS, NewsMax and O'Reilly have similarly forgotten to mention that as their shameless anti-American crusade for the hearts and minds --- and votes --- of the Rightwing Christian "wackos" continues.

(ADDENDUM: For those unfamiliar with all of this nonsense, see Bob Cesca's hilarious piece at HuffPo which also discusses Crooks & Liars discovery of O'Reilly's own Fox store offering "Holiday Ornaments" for your "Holiday Tree". Since John Amato reported that at C&L, by the way, Fox's store has been ethnically cleansed of the offensive balls, which several of their shows had offered, in favor of biblically accurate "Christmas" balls instead.)

UPDATE: Judging a man by the company he keeps... More on the hate-mongering, possibly psychopathic and self-discrediting Don Feder follows...

MSNBC picks up on Ann Coulter's pathetically infantile attack on BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger Lydia Cornell by naming Coulter in their "Worst Person in the World" segment Friday. She receives this dubious honor for "posting the personal phone number and email of a blogger who was critical of her" and for otherwise referring to to groups who disagree with her as "Nazi block watchers."

-- Video in Windows Media format...
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Indeed it's been nearly a full week since the cowardly hate-mongering "satirist" Coulter posted Cornell's private information on the front page of her website in petulant retaliation for an article Cornell wrote here on BRAD BLOG. Coulter has refused to take it down despite Cornell's polite requests to do so. The Ivy League educated Republican mouthpiece also regaled her readers by adding "Death is sexier than Lydia Cornell" to a post which included a polite private email from the actress/author.

In the bargain Cornell and her family continue to receive harassment and threats via her personal email and phone number which Coulter supplied to her millions of her uncompassionate attack dog sycophants who (predictably) refuse to condemn Coulter's indefensable lapse of simple "netiquette" and common decency. They --- like so many of their fake "conservative" brethren --- would rather attack someone whose message they don't like, rather than condemn one of their own or force them to take person responsibility for abhorrent behavior. Clearly these folks recognize neither "compassion" nor "conservatism" as anything other than a blunt linguistic instrument with which they are to bludgeon their perceived American "enemies".

(More details on the above here if you missed it.)

Debra Bowen, author of the "Bowen Amendment" (SB 370) which mandated "paper trails" for all votes in California, is now running for Secretary of State out here. She blogs about the now-nearly-infamous "Hack Test" that may soon occur on Diebold machines here in California.

She also asks that you sign her email petition demanding current Sec. of State Bruce McPherson thoroughly test such machines before they are certified by the state. I ask you to do so as well!

You don't need to be in California to sign the petition, as far as I know. And since what happens here will soon happen there, I strongly recommend you sign it.

(I recommend this because it's important, not just because she called me her "hero" during a joint appearance earlier today on KRXA 540am. Though that didn't hurt!

UPDATE 12/5/05: Bowen's office sends this information to clarify one of my statements above:

It does indeed, and my thanks to Bowen's office for sending over the clarification!

Washington Post, in a stunning front page splash today, is reporting that political appointees in George W. Bush's Dept. of Justice overruled their own attorneys in the Voting Rights Act unit who had recommended against Texas' state redistricting plan for Congressional districts. That new redistricting plan was key to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R-TX) controversial strategy in the state which eventually resulted in 7 additional Republicans being elected to the U.S. House in 2004.

Eight staffers at the DoJ, including the heads of the Voting Rights Division, advocated against the redistricting in a 73-page memo, but Bush political appointees agreed to allow the changes to go through anyway! The Voting Rights Act requires DoJ pre-approval of changes to electoral law in several states where minority voting rights have historically been an issue.

According to WaPo, "The Justice Department memo recommending rejection of the Texas plan was written by two analysts and five lawyers. In addition, the head of the voting section at the time, Joseph Rich, wrote a concurring opinion."

The disturbing revelation is similar to one reported two weeks ago, based on another yet leaked memo reported by WaPo's Dan Eggen, in which the Bush Attorney General is shown to have overruled 4 of 5 staffers who had recommended against pre-approval of Georgia's new Photo ID requirement at the polls. That law has since been struck down by Federal Courts which described it as a "Jim Crow-era Poll Tax."

The Bush administration has made a mockery of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which celebrated its 40th anniversary over the summer. Several key clauses of the Voting Rights Act will be coming up for renewal authorization by Congress in 2007. It was reported some time ago that George W. Bush was "not familiar" with the VRA when asked about his support for its renewal during a meeting with several minority legislators in the summer prior to the 2004 election.

In 2003, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, had requested review of the documents now revealed by WaPo. He was met with "a cold response" at the time from the DoJ according to a just-issued press release (posted in full below). He is now calling for a full investigation by the Judiciary Committee into both the Texas and Georgia matters.

The following is from an AP summary of the WaPo's report [emphasis added]:

The WaPo report adds:

The full memo is available on the WaPo site here [PDF].

UPDATE: MSNBC Video of WaPo's Dan Eggen discussing story...

Conyers' just-released call for an investigation into the matter follows in full...

RAW STORY's Miriam Raftery opens up on the scam apparently being perpetuated by California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson in what appears to be a last-minute effort to quickly re-certify Diebold's TSx touch-screen voting machines in California as the Jan 1, 2006 deadline for the Help America Vote Act looms.

A recent "Voting Systems Testing Summit" convened last week by McPherson in Sacramento appears to have been purposely rigged by the SoS's office to tilt strongly towards the presentation of information that supports the return of Diebold's buggy and unsecured voting machines to the state.

As reported by Raftery...

A massive public test of the machines held over the summer by Republican McPherson revealed that 20% of the Diebold machines had failed to perform properly (RAW STORY lists the number as 30%). But a subsequent test held privately, using machines specially prepared by Diebold gave only a reported 3% error rate.

Amonst the nuggets uncovered in Raftery's report is this information from Diebold spokesperson, David Bear:

Bear had recently lied in an interview with The BRAD BLOG when he at first claimed that Diebold's Central Vote Tabulator "isn't accessable via modem." When pressed further, he was later forced to admit that it was. He also claimed to be unaware of a "Cyber Security Alert" issued by a branch of the US Dept. of Homeland Security prior to last year's Presidential Election warning about the security vulnerability in Diebold's tabulation software.

Raftery outlines the overwhelming imbalance of the assembled panelist for the event last week where Voting Rights and Election Reform activists were largely shut out. That, despite a conversation The BRAD BLOG had just last Monday live on air with a spokesperson from the SoS office who had denied the allegation. The full audio and text transcript of that live on-air interview on KRXA 540am in Montery, CA is posted here.

Raftery found much evidence suggesting the heavily weighted pro-Electronic Voting factions and the apparent lock-out of Election Reform and Voting Rights advocates at the summit. For example, Raftery reports on several of the panelists who were allowed to attend and speak on the matter:

And more like the above:

Meanwhile, reformers and activists from California Elections Protection Network (CEPN), for example, were entirely shut out from even attending --- much less presenting! --- at the summit:

The letter referred to above, from the SoS's office, as posted on the CEPN website says:

States and counties around the country are keeping a close eye on the decision soon to be made by California which is, as Diebold regards it, the country's largest "voting market." What happens in this state, may well effect the decisions made by countless Boards of Elections around the country as they all face the impending deadline to receive federal funding for upgrades to their election systems.

Be sure to read RAW's full story for much more!

To submit your own comment to the CA Sec. of State, visit http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_vs.htm, call (916) 653-6814 or email votingsystemcomment@ss.ca.gov.

Good lord is this woman a whack-job or what? From the BBC coverage of an upcoming interview with Judith Miller. Her "apologies" for helping lead the drumbeat that resulted in an endless war and thousands dead and wounded for life:

I'm deeply sorry the NY Times decided to destroy their own once-great reputation by giving this loon a paycheck. Ever.

And if the above is not pitiable enough, she reportedly admits that Scooter Libby was one of her sources for the Plame leak (didn't she tell us previously she couldn't remember who told her?) but when asked if Karl Rove was also a source, she tells BBC:

Huh? I'm no legal eagle, but is there some kind of law that prevents a witness to a crime from telling the press what they know about the crime?

Does this woman think that an interview she gives to the BBC won't make it aaaall the way back here across the pond?

She lost her job, and now --- it seems --- she's lost her mind. Or did that happen in the reverse order? Good lord...

{Update from David Edwards: Here's the video and audio of BBC's exclusive interview with Judy Miller.}

Video in Windows Media format...
Video in QuickTime format...
Audio in MP3 format...

Update #2: A transcript of the Miller interview is available at Why Are We Back in Iraq?

Former homosexual male prostitute cum disgraced former White House correspondent, James "Jeff Gannon" Guckert has decided to ring in in support of Ann Coulter's recent posting of private information of a BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger on her website.

It's been three days since Coulter posted a personal email address and phone number of author and actress Lydia Cornell on the front page of her website. The petulant act by the Republican talking head was in apparent retaliation for an article written for BRAD BLOG by Cornell which described her experience in trying to track down a copy of a fundraiser address Coulter had given recently for the Alachua Florida Republican Party in which she called for the repression of free speech by Democrats.

Cornell has received myriad threatening emails and crank callers in the three days since Coulter posted her private information online. She has asked Coulter to remove it and Coulter has so far refused.

In support of Coulter's invasion of Cornell's privacy, Guckert/Gannon, a shill who had worked in the White House for GOPNews.com until his secret background as a prostitute was exposed, attempted to defend the Rightwing polemicist yesterday on his website by claiming:

Gannon/Guckert presented no evidence to back up his assertion. His reported presence at the White House more than two dozen times when no press briefings were scheduled --- as described in Secret Service documents obtained by RAW STORY --- has never been explained. Gannon/Guckert had no previous journalistic experience before being granted access as journalist to the White House.

Of course, The BRAD BLOG has never posted any such information, as claimed by Guckert/Gannon, but we checked in today with John Aravosis who was instrumental in uncovering the Guckert/Gannon scandal when it first appeared on his AMERICAblog website. He was the first to post links to Gannon's several military-themed gay escort websites (including MilitaryStud.com and MaleCorps.com) featuring full frontal nude photos which Guckert/Gannon had posted of himself online.

Aravosis, who followed the story as close as anybody, tells The BRAD BLOG that he's unfamiliar with anybody having ever published Gannon/Guckert's phone number, home address or medical records anywhere on line. Though he says that when he was alerted to a commenter at AMERICAblog having posted what appeared to be Gannon/Guckert's Social Security number in the comments section, he removed it immediately.

Aravosis strongly disagreed with Gannon/Guckert's claim. "We never knew where he lived. We still don't!" Aravosis told us. "We never had his phone number. Nobody did as far as I know. All the top journalists that I know of had to contact him by email since he never gave his phone number to anybody!"

"As to his medical records," he continued, "The only records we tried to find was his military records because he said he was a marine...and it turned out he was lying!"

Aravosis draws the difference between his work uncovering a phony journalist in the White House being "outed" by his own online websites featuring his own nude photos with what Coulter has done to Cornell.

"It's kind of creepy," he said, "posting someone's personal phone number. When I saw his Social Security number come up in comments, I deleted it immediately. But Coulter is purposely posting that information herself on her own website. I've never used anybody's home information...that's just creepy."

On her website today, Coulter claims she will be appearing tonight on Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor.

As Cornell pointed out in her initial public response to all of this, O'Reilly had slammed the Media Matters watchdog organization when he claimed they "violated privacy" by posting someone's email address online. Though the email address posted was a public email address, O'Reilly characterized those who would do such a thing as "zombies."

Thanks to the posters at Democratic Underground for alerting us to the latest chapter in this shameful saga. A discussion on this, and the continued unanswered questions concerning the Gannon/Guckert story is linked here.

O'Reilly will be hosting zombie, Ann Coulter tonight on Fox "News" at 8pm ET.

I'm addressing folks on Election Reform issues tonight at an event organized by Global Exchange/Ventura County. It's a FREE event, so come on by if you're in the 'hood and say hello! It's at 7pm PT with a Q&A after. Here's more info, and there are specific location details as well at the top of the BRAD BLOG Front Page right now.

If I'm available on time, I may be on Trevor Carey's show on KFKA News Radio (1310am in Greeley/Fort Collins, CO) along with Lydia Cornell at 9:30p PT as well. I believe she'll be there either with or without me if you listen online or call in to say hey.

Otherwise, in the meantime, consider this an Open Thread to your heart's desire...

Joe Cannon has some choice words about Ann Coulter in light of her recent indefensible violation of BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger Lydia Cornell's privacy. A spot-on passage or two from some CannonFire worth taking in full:

And while you're there, also check out Cannon's interesting eagle-eyed observation about one overlooked point in the Cunningham/MZM mess and how it might --- like so many other GOP Scandals d'Jour --- eventually find its way into the White House...

Dave Astor of the excellent and respected Editor & Publisher covers two matters we've discussed here recently.

Last night he did a quick item on the Ann Coulter/Lydia Cornell outrage. For the record, Coulter still has Lydia's private information posted publicly on her website some 48 hours after it was posted there. She has been asked politely to remove it. She has chosen not to.

As Cornell pointed out in her response yesterday, that sort of thing helped Bill O'Reilly blow his stack recently when he thought (incorrectly, of course) that a "liberal" group had posted a private email address on their website. Of course, it doesn't take much for the increasingly unstable O'Reilly to blow his stack these days.

As well, Astor covered Robert Koehler's latest Tribune Media Services' "Poll Shock" column that we briefly reported on last week. His coverage gathers additional comments from both the Dispatch Public Affairs Editor Darrel Rowland and Koehler on the "staggeringly impossible" results of Ohio's recent Nov. 8th 2005:

I love that. It's the exact same thing we heard after the '04 Presidential Election: Once someone else finds the "solid evidence" the media will be happy to report on it. Note to Mainstream Media: It's your job to investigate the smoke and find out if there's a fire! Otherwise, what the hell do we need investigative reporters for at all? Oh, yeah. Apparently, we don't. The bloggers will do it for you. (But don't come running to us wondering why it is that your readership is falling over a cliff in the meantime!)

Koehler's reponse to Rowland in E&P:

Go Bob. And thank you, E&P.

UPDATE: And speaking of Koehler, this just in from his latest column which will be published tomorrow and available then to read at this location:

In North Carolina, Diebold had been attempting to get a special court order allowing them to get around NC's law requiring that Voting Machine Companies hand over their source code for their secret software to be kept in escrow in the event of a problem later. North Carolina has had many recently, including the complete loss of some 4500+ votes in Cartaret County during the Nov. '04 Presidential Election which led to a Re-Vote in the county.

Thanks to efforts by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the court has now ruled against Diebold's requested dispensation from state law. Now Diebold claims they are going to have to get out of the state entirely. Glad to hear it. If it's true. Other Voting Machine Companies have complied with the law, apparently, so what's Diebold's problem? Do they have something they wish to hide in that source code?

We may never know...AP reports:

You'll pardon me, but I'm a bit of a computer programmer myself, and I understand the difference between providing source code that one has written versus source code for an entire operating system (like Windows) and/or third-party tools which are used to perform various generic tasks called by the program itself.

If Diebold had nothing to hide or fear, they would simply turn over their full source code to the state to be put into escrow, with the explanation that they do not have the access to (or legal permission to provide, even if they did) the source code to copyrighted third-party software. The state of North Carolina wasn't asking for that as far as I can tell, and an open admission to that --- as allowed by the state law --- should more than have covered Diebold from any liabilities concerning that third-party software.

That said, I'm glad to hear of their apparent threats to pull out of North Carolina entirely. And with that, I hope every other state in the union will immediately apply the same requirement in their state and let Diebold get back to the business of making ATM machines with open software which provides a paper record of every transaction. Apparently, they're quite good at that.

UPDATE: Jamie at IntoxiNation has more along the same lines...