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Latest Featured Reports | Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Silent Nights, Holy Hell
A holiday message from The BRAD BLOG...
Sunday 'Happyish Holidays' Toons
THIS WEEK: Lots of Santa ... Lots of Naughty ... (And a Little of Bit Nice) ... Hark! The tooning angels sing! Glory to this year's collection of the best Hanuchristmaka toons!...
Trump Gets Trumped in Our Musky Year-End Roundtable: 'BradCast' 12/19/24
Guests: Heather Digby Parton of Salon, 'Driftglass' of 'Pro Left Podcast'...
'Green News Report' 12/17/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
Biden EPA grants CA waiver to phase out all-gasoline cars; Microplastics linked to cancer; PLUS: GOP plan to expand natural gas exports would drive up prices for Americans...
Previous GNRs: 12/17/24 - 12/12/24 - Archives...
About Some of Trump's 'Day One' Threats: 'BradCast' 12/18/24
Guest: Joshua A. Douglas on voting laws, Presidential powers; Also: House panel to release Gaetz report; Trump plans for reversing Biden climate, energy initiatives...
Trump Family Corruption Cometh...So Does Our Opposition: 'BradCast' 12/17/24
Immunity denied to felon Trump in NY; The Family's crypto-corruption on display in UAE; On overcoming 'militant pessimism'...
'Green News Report' 12/17/24
'Apocalyptic' cyclone slams Indian Ocean island; Malaria on the rise; Swiss ski resort gives in to climate change; PLUS: Biden EPA finally bans cancer-causing chemicals...
Mistallied Contests Found in OH County, as Oligarchy Rises in D.C.: 'BradCast' 12/16
Also: FBI informant 'guilty' to lies about Ukraine 'bribes' to Bidens; Trump Cabinet donated millions; Tech/media billionaires pay tribute...
Sunday 'Barrel Bottom' Toons
THIS WEEK: Kashing In ... Billionaire Broligarchy ... Slow Learners ... Exiting Autocrats ... and more! In our latest collection of the week's best toons...
Trump Admits He Can't Lower Grocery Prices (Biden Just Did): 'BradCast' 12/12/24
Also: 1,500 commutations; I.G. on FBI & 1/6; NC GOP power grab; Dick Van Dyke sends us home smiling...
'Green News Report' 12/12/24
Firefighters struggle to contain Malibu wildfire; Planet getting drier, new study finds; PLUS: Arctic has shifted to a source of climate pollution, NOAA reports...
BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
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GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

COLORADO FOLLOWS FLORIDA WITH GOP CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Repub Sec. of State Gessler ignores expanding GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, rants about evidence-free 'Dem Voter Fraud' at Tea Party event...

CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
FL Dept. of Law Enforcement confirms 'enough evidence to warrant full-blown investigation'; Election officials told fraudulent forms 'may become evidence in court'...

Brad Breaks PA Photo ID & GOP Registration Fraud Scandal News on Hartmann TV
Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

CAUGHT ON TAPE: COORDINATED NATIONWIDE GOP VOTER REG SCAM
The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

CRIMINAL ELECTION FRAUD COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST GOP 'FRAUD' FIRM
Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

VIDEO: Brad Breaks GOP Reg Fraud Scandal on Hartmann TV
Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...

EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
State GOP fires Romney-tied registration firm after fraudulent forms found in Palm Beach; Firm hired 'at request of RNC' in FL, NC, VA, NV & CO...
The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

By Brad Friedman on 6/29/2005 4:49pm PT  

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (for whom we readily admit having a crush since having met her at the National Election Reform Conference in Nashville - see swooning photo of both of us at right) discussed the latest chililng Diebold hack conducted several weeks ago by BlackBoxVoting.org in a BuzzFlash article by Matthew Cardinale published today.

The hack they performed was very important, and raised some serious hackles from the friendly folks of Diebold Inc. They of the promise to "deliver Ohio" for George W. Bush, and coincidentally, the world's largest Voting Machine Company.

If you're not familiar with the Diebold hack done by BBV (and you may be, since we've be woefully remiss in reporting on it here) or the angry response that Diebold sent to the election supervisor who allowed the experiement, you'll want to read the whole article...

"The bottom line is we can't trust the machines, and we can't trust the results being told to the American people," U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) said in a phone interview for the progressive news community, adding "we are planning some as-yet-undefined events in [our] district" around the issue.

The problem, the Congresswoman said, is that the machines "haven't been provided with appropriate software and safeguards. If they had the appropriate software and safeguards, then the machines wouldn't be a problem. So either [provide] that, or go back to paper ballots," she advised.

Rep. McKinney, along with Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL), had been on hand for a hack demonstration in the Leon County Elections Office, in Florida, in May 2005. The demo was one of three meetings that had been organized by Bev Harris and the team at Black Box Voting. Diebold has since issued a vitriolic letter to Mr. Ion Sancho, Leon County Elections Supervisor, for allowing Black Box Voting to conduct the hack demo on site.
...
As Black Box Voting announced in recent weeks, two computer science experts have been able to hack into Leon County's Diebold central tabulator as well as individual optical scan machines.
...
"Granted the same access as an employee of our office, it was possible to enter the computer, alter election results, and exit the system without leaving any physical record of this action," said a formal statement posted by Mr. Ion Sancho on the Leon County Election's Office official website.

The statement is available here.

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More from the Phony 'Conservative' Agenda of George W. Bush
By Brad Friedman on 6/29/2005 2:13pm PT  

This is from a Reuters article we'd missed last week. It seems that there are still George W. Bush supporters who are gullible enough to believe he actually gives a damn about their tax burden and the way in which their money is spent. Apparently such folks will believe anything.

Yet since Bush didn't feel it important enough to broach this subject last night in his report to the American People on how well things are going in Iraq, we suspect this news --- even a week old --- is still notable enough that we should help get out the word about what's actually happening in Iraq...

A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York.

One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion --- the largest movement of cash in the bank's history, said Waxman.
...
Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.

The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed.
...
An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds and the United States had not provided adequate controls for this money.
...
Contractors were told to turn up with big duffel bags to pick up their payments and some were paid from the back of pick-up trucks.

One picture shows grinning CPA officials standing in front of a pile of cash said to be worth $2 million to be paid to a security contractor.
...
In total, more than 281 million individual bills, including more than 107 million $100 bills, were shipped to Iraq on giant pallets loaded onto C-130 planes, the report said.

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And other thoughts on funding the Media Revolution...
By Brad Friedman on 6/29/2005 11:58am PT  

Not sure where they picked it up, but yesterday Editor & Publisher covered the planned Guest Blogging duties here of Tribune Media Services' Bob Koehler for the upcoming BRAD BLOGathon. Their quickie item on it is right here.

This one is difficult for me to write about as I'm the main beneficiary of the effort and yet have not been in on much of the actual planning of the event (see this latest guest blog from Winter Patriot with more details including other notable Guest Bloggers scheduled for the event), but I'm glad that E&P picked up on the matter since I think the effort is actually newsworthy. Not so much the actual coverage of a fundraiser for this blog, but the general idea of readers organizing to raise funds for the Independent/Alternate Voices they appreciate as a counter to the Corporate Media.

I know that Dr. Steve Viele (one of the main ringleaders in the effort) has mentioned to me that he hopes this will serve as a model for other blogs out there, and I hope that he's right. Advertising and donations throughout the course of normal daily blogging here only go so far to cover the costs for the time and effort this gig now takes. Very few, if any, of us bloggers have major corporate sponsorship, and that's probably a good thing. But then how do we continue to do the important work that needs to be done without regular sponsorship or subscriptions if we can't pay our bills?

Don't know if Dr. Steve's model will work or not (the Blogathon is scheduled for the weekend of July 9, 10 & 11) but I think it's worth watching, and I hope that other blogs and blog readers keep an eye on it if only to see if they may be able to organize similar efforts for those other bloggers out there who find themselves in the same position/predicament that I do.

It seems there are a lot of folks --- political players with lots of access to money --- who complain about the bias and laziness of the Corporate Media. Many of them are more than willing to toss tons of bucks to Political Candidates every two or four years. But when it comes to opening their pocketbooks to support the work of the folks who are actually in the trenches every day trying to counter the Corporate Media Bias on a daily basis, those big money players are nowhere to be found.

If those monied folks who toss $50/month or more to their Cable Company without batting an eye realized how important even half of that amount would on a monthly basis to folks like the bloggers on the ground, there would be a lot more of us, and we'd have the resources to do alot more of this work...Anyway, sorry to natter on...I just hope the effort makes a difference. For me, yes, but even more so for so many others out there like me who are trying, against all odds, to do similar work. To that end, don't forget our friends at RAW STORY continue their ongoing fundraiser through tomorrow, and yes, our own PayPay Link is always open.

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Doesn't Play 9/11 Card
Calls for 'Honest answers, not pep rallies' from Bush
By Brad Friedman on 6/28/2005 8:39pm PT  

American Hero, Paul Rieckhoff, founder of OpTruth.org who quit his job on Wall Street after 9/11 to go fight in Afghanistan, (here's a link to our first-ever blog item on him from May of '04) responds to Bush's speech tonight.

Here are just a few of the highlights....

Tonight at Fort Bragg, in front of a backdrop of American service members, President Bush told the nation that victory is at hand, as long as we stay the course. Add a banner praising a job well-done and an aircraft carrier, and this all begins to seem eerily familiar.
...
Mr. President, we don't need to be told that the insurgents intend to shake our will, because we've sifted through the havoc wreaked by even the crudest weapons, then watched our friends sent home, changed forever. We don't need to be told that your administration is committed to taking care of the Troops, because we've already gotten the bill you sent us for the meals we ate while recovering at Walter Reed.

We don't need to be told that flak jackets and safer Humvees are on the way, because we've already learned that a phone-call home and a few hundred bucks is probably the quickest way to get body armor. Hundreds of Troops have been wounded or killed because of faulty vehicles or missing armor, but who has been held accountable?
...
Mr. President, we need honest answers, not pep rallies.

As they say at OpTruth, "Really support the Troops! Listen to them!"

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Repeating Yes, Reporting No.
By Brad Friedman on 6/28/2005 2:29pm PT  

Apparently the AP received the same couple of paragraphs from the White House about Bush's speech tonight that we did. However, we didn't bother to use their Press Release to write an article about a speech that hasn't yet occured. And to write it as if it already did occur! The AP, however, has done exactly that.

And they say we're too tough on the Mainstream Corporate Media for merely repeating instead of reporting...Give us a break!

UPDATE: The complete White House Press Release, from earlier today, is below so you can compare it to the article as run by AP...

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

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ElectionAssessment.org to Hold Alternate Election Reform Hearings!
VR Webletter Campaign Launched to inform Baker/Carter Members to Attend!
By Brad Friedman on 6/28/2005 1:05pm PT  

Tomorrow, in Houston, the day prior to the Baker/Carter Commission's 2nd and Final hearing on Election Reform, ElectionAssessment.org is holding their own alternate hearings featuring many of the Experts and Advocates that the Baker/Carter Commission should have asked to testify at their own hearings!

Velvet Revolution has created a webletter allowing you to inform the Baker/Carter Commission about these alternate hearings!

Unfortunately, the Baker/Carter Commission has now irrevocably discredited themselves by stacking the deck with Partisan Operatives and Voting Machine Company Representatives as we have reported here many times. So it's up to groups like ElectionAssessment.org to present the honest testimony required for any commission to make real recommendations for Election Reform in the United States of America!

Please click here to send an Email Immediately to Baker/Carter Commission Members about ElectionAssessment.org's Hearings...

As time is now short, please use the "Email it to Someone" link at the bottom of this item to let your frirends know about this!!!

The superb set of real witnesses and experts scheduled to give testimony tomorrow include the following...

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

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Forums to Mark Third Anniversary of Original 'Downing Street Minutes'!
*** A BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE! ***
By Brad Friedman on 6/28/2005 11:56am PT  

The BRAD BLOG has learned that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and a number of other Congressional Members will announce their intention to hold open Town Hall Meetings across the country on July 23rd to discuss the "Downing Street Documents" with constituents.

The meetings, to be held on the same day around the country in the members' various Congressional Districts, will mark the third year anniversary of the creation of the original Downing Street Minutes document. That document, released nearly two months ago, revealed that the Bush Administration had determined at least eight months prior to the War on Iraq that they intended to topple Saddam Hussein through military means, and planned to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy.

Earlier this month, a letter was delivered to the White House signed by 122 Congressional Members and more than 560,000 American Citizens asking George W. Bush to answer a number of questions concerning the information contained in the minutes written by the head of British Intelligence, Richard Dearlove. The White House has still refused the courtesy of a reply to that letter.

MORE: We are told that "at least" 10 U.S. Congressional Members will be holding these Town Hall Meetings, and that --- unlike Bush and Cheney's phony Town Hall Meetings --- the forums will actually be open to the public for discussion. No loyalty pledges to be required before attending. The number of Congressmen and women to hold hearings is expected to increase in the days and weeks ahead prior to the July 23rd date.

AND MORE... AfterDowningStreet.org is helping to organize the Town Hall Meetings, and offers quite a few links on how you can help from your home town!

AND STILL MORE... Conyers has now released further details on his blog, including a link to sign up for information, help with hosting house parties on the day of the Town Hall meetings and an email address to send questions and suggestions for the event.

He goes on to say, in his blog item, that this event is a "follow up to our hugely successful hearing we held in the basement of the Capitol Building on June 16." Perhaps it should be suggested that all such July 23rd House Parties be held in basements or storage closets just to get into the spirit of things!

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Way to go Ohio!
By Brad Friedman on 6/27/2005 11:21pm PT  

Since Ohio seems to be doing a fine job collapsing on itself politically, we haven't waded too much into the entire mess. Suffice to say, the Buckeye State seems to be imploding without much help from us, so far be it for us to get in its way.

We're fairly certain that the evil J. Kenneth Blackwell (OH Sec. of State and, by complete fluke of nature, Co-Chair for Bush/Cheney '04) will be sucked irrevocably into the vortex of criminal political corruption now unravelling in Ohio. Hubris has its way. The only unclear question is whether the entire national Republican Party will be sucked in as well.

Either way, we congratulate Ohio on overtaking Florida --- for the moment --- as the filthiest political state in the union! It seems a sure bet that any state responsible for delivering George W. Bush a "victory", is most likely corrupt from top to bottom. Ohio has yet to disappoint in that regard!

We also have a feeling, as Jolson used to say, we ain't seen nothin' yet!

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By Brad Friedman on 6/27/2005 4:49pm PT  

As reported today by AfterDowningStreet.org...

Congressman John Conyers, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee are asking their colleagues in the House of Representatives to join them on the evening of June 28 to discuss the Downing Street Minutes on the floor of the House.

They need our help. Please contact your Congress Member right away and ask them to contact the Judiciary Committee staff and commit to taking part.
Phone: 1-877-762-8762
Email: http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/39

The letter to colleagues from Conyers, Waters and Lee is here...

UPDATE 6/28/05: Plan for speeches on the floor rescheduled for Thursday...

The handful of members were forced to delay their plans after the Republican leadership scheduled several late-night votes, Conyers press secretary Dena Graziano told RAW STORY. They now plan speeches Thursday evening, though they could be thwarted again if votes are scheduled or Congress is adjourned.
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Personal Stuff, Late-Breaking Downing Street Stuff and a Belated Sunday Toon of the Moment...
By Brad Friedman on 6/27/2005 3:51pm PT  

As usual, on Monday morning, after taking a few hours off yesterday, I'm beseiged with stuff that I must catch up on. I'm doing my best to do so, and hope to be making some noise here soon. In the meantime, a couple of personal mop-up items from the weekend...


  • Yesterday's hour in-studio at KRLA with Barry Gordon (and friends) was a lot of fun. We had some time --- in a bit of a round-table format --- to talk about how I started blogging, a bit of BRAD BLOG history, as well as Election Reform, DSM matters and, of course, some shots at the Mainstream Corporate Media. On that note, it shouldn't be mentioned that KRLA, a major Los Angeles Talk Radio station, home to Dennis Prager, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved and other despicables and liars from the Right devotes precisely one-hour per week to the Left. And that would be Barry's show. If that isn't an argument to re-instate the Fairness Doctrine on the airwaves, I don't know what is.

    I had hoped to add on air, but time didn't allow, that Barry was very helpful when I was speeding back to Los Angeles from my time on the road a month or so ago, when I was trying to find a homebase studio for The BRAD SHOW. I can't thank him enough for that simple act of kindness, support and generosity. So I'll simply thank him here and now.

    Barry, himself, is a tremendously interesting guy. If you're not familiar with his name, please allow me to embarrass him a bit, by suggesting that you check out his Bio. I'm quite sure that it will trigger precisely who Barry is to most of you folks. I suspect everybody reading this blog has likely both seen and heard Barry at some point in your lives.

    The archive from yesterday's hour, if you missed it, is right here in MP3 format courtesy, as usual, of our friend DonM.

  • The full audio archives of last Saturday's BRAD SHOW are now available here. All of the techincal errors that occurred during the live broadcast are nowhere to be found. And there is some terrific interviews there for your listening pleasure if you missed anything. So enjoy.
  • We've received word from HuffingtonPost that the removal of this blog from their blogroll was an unintentional error. Apparently, their Blogroll reverted to an old pre-launch version at some point last week. They've informed us that BRAD BLOG will soon be restored to it's proud position at HuffPost. Thanks to all of you who let them know about the problem.
  • Finally, Larisa Alexandrovna's latest breaking Downing Street story is now up on RAW STORY as we first alluded to as the news broke during the show on Saturday when the latest Sunday London Times article by Mike Smith (the Brit journalist who broke the original 'Downing Street Memo' story) dropped. Smith gave an appropriate nod to Larisa in his story, stating that "The bloggers may have found their own smoking gun." Indeed. It's about time someone noticed.

    Larisa's latest story, with John Byrne, tracks how the Bush Administration had started the War on Iraq months before they received the official go-ahead from Congress, by attempting to taunt Saddam into a fighting back at a massive aerial assault. Her story includes this useful graph of the aerial bombardment prior to the "official" start of war.

  • And lastly...since I didn't post it in time, here's a belated Sunday Toon of the Moment for ya...
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    By Brad Friedman on 6/26/2005 4:13pm PT  

    Not sure what happened, but somehow GreyMatter (the software we use here) overwrote a short entry from Friday pointing to my weekly guest appearance that day on Tony Trupiano's swell show. We had a few fun wing nut callers, always fun, with guest host that day Sean (Tony shows up near the end of the show after returning from a gig on Fox "News"). Here's a link to the MP3 once again, since the first one disappeared for reasons unknown.

    This evening, I'll be in-studio at 6pm PT with Barry Gordon for his show on LA's News Talk KRLA 870am, so those of you in town can listen on your actual radios, if you're so inclined. Otherwise, it'll be streaming live for the hour. If you're so inclined. (UPDATE: See this item for some post-Barry Gordon Show thoughts, and a link to the archive of the hour.)

    We were able to get a clean copy of last night's fine BRAD SHOW over to the network so that this mornings "Re-BRADcast" was clean and without the technical glitches and drop-outs that occurred LIVE last night. Very frustrating, but such is the way of the technical world in these matters from time to time. We believe we know what caused it, and should be able to avoid the problem again in the future.

    We now have clean versions of all of last night's interviews and ther mayhem on the BRAD SHOW ARCHIVES page soon in case you missed anything, or want to hear anything that dropped out due to the technical probs.

    I thought the interview with Vincent Fry of the DNC Voting Rights institute was enlightening, the one with John Amato of Crooks & Liars hilarious, with Green Party Presidential Candidate David Cobb energizing and uplifting, and with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz fascinating and encouraging! They're all now up in the archives for your listening pleasure.

    Thanks again for all of your support!

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    Meanwhile, Cheney says Gitmo Prisoners 'Well Fed', 'Living in the Tropics'
    By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2005 2:27pm PT  

    It must be Friday. Just breaking from the AFP...

    Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the UN that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistand and Iraq, a UN source said.

    The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity.

    The US mission to the UN institutions in Geneva was unavailable for comment on the report late Friday..

    UN sources said it was the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities.

    Meanwhile...Dick Cheney remains in Fantasy Land and wants us to know that there's nothing to worry about, since Gitmo prisoners are "well fed" and "living in the tropics"...

    We can only hope that Mr. Cheney finds himself taking advantage of such enjoyable digs himself some day.

    (Hat tip Desi for the usual keen Friday eye!)

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    By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2005 1:59pm PT  

    Senator John Kerry (D-MA) has written a letter, signed by nine other Senate Democrats, asking Senators Roberts (R-KA) and Rockefeller (D-WV) of the Senate Intelligence Committee to deliver their promised investigation on the political use (or misuse) of pre-war intelligence in light of a "new urgency" due to revelations in the Downing Street Documents. Roberts had promised that investigation would occur after the election, but so far, he hasn't delivered a damn thing.

    RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna, who has been one of the major driving forces in verifying and reporting on the Downing Street Documents in America, has an exclusive on the leaked letter from Kerry et al.

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    The Mainstream Media Continues to Fail America...
    By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2005 1:40pm PT  

    Another notable item from HuffingtonPost this week (where they've recently removed BRAD BLOG from their blogroll for reasons unknown to us, but probably known to Scoop@HuffingtonPost.com), this time from Alex Keyssar, a Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

    Keyssar was in Chicago a week or so ago for a Rainbow/PUSH conference where Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) spoke about his Right to Vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as H.R. 28 and currently co-sponsored by 55 other House Members. That's right, you have no constitutional right to vote in this country...just in case you didn't realize it.

    In covering the event where Jackson and Howard Dean spoke on the proposed constitutional amendment, Keyssar had the following observation pinpointing precisely where it is that the Mainstream Corporate Media in this country is failing America...

    The point here is that some significant news was made at that event in Chicago on June 12: Howard Dean, chair of the DNC, endorsed the right to vote amendment sponsored by Congressman Jackson. This is not a small development: Dean is a key political figure, and nothing is more fundamental to American political institutions than the right to vote.

    One might have thought, thus, that Dean's public endorsement would get some attention in the press, particularly since numerous reporters were in attendance. But at the press conference that followed the event, reporters displayed little interest in (or knowledge of) the right to vote amendment --- although they had just spent two hours in a room where it was the sole subject of discussion. A room where hundreds of people, many of them African-American, seemed to enthusiastically welcome the prospect of an amendment that would guarantee their right to vote.

    Instead, the reporters' questions focused obsessively on the comments that Dean had made a few days earlier disparaging some Republicans. What the press wanted to cover was not an important substantive issue but a spitting contest between political personalities: e.g. would Dean respond to criticism that vice president Cheney had voiced that morning? Even worse, they seemed more interested in promoting the spitting contest --- by asking questions designed to continue it --- than in sorting out an issue for their readers. Not a single question was asked about the meaning or significance of the amendment itself.

    And so it goes. Nothing new there. Just a reminder of what most BRAD BLOG readers know all too well already.

    If only a young blonde white girl had introduced a Right to Vote amendment in America before being kidnapped! Perhaps then the Mainstream Corporate Media would have decided such an issue was worth letting Americans know about. The abysmal record of the MSM continues...

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    Kristen Breitweiser Helps Bush's Political Hatchet-Man 'Understand' 9/11
    PLUS: HuffingtonPost Removes BRAD BLOG from Blogroll!
    By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2005 11:12am PT  

    We've been attempting to track down Kristen Breitwesier, whose husband was killed on 9/11, for this weekend's BRAD SHOW. So far, we haven't been able to get in touch with her, but in the meantime, she posted an open letter to Karl Rove concering his "Understanding of 9/11" yesterday at HuffingtonPost.

    The entire letter needs to be read, since quoting just a few grafs here can't convey the full message of her letter. Nonetheless, here are a just a few highlights from her response to Rove's latest obnoxious, divisive and opportunistic statements as he continues his desperate attempt to help Bush divide the country in an effort to shore up a failed Presidency by using the carnage of 9/11 for their own reprehensible political gain...

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

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