In what appears to be the only known case of the Democratic Party itself (to our brain-addled knowledge anyway, since we've been on the road for the last several days for last minute super-secret meetings that have left us exhausted for the moment), the Alaska Dems and the DNC Alaska Communications Director have announced a lawsuit is being filed to demand the state release election records from 2004.

Yes, they are still trying to figure out what happened in 2004. And in America 2006, apparently such info can only be obtained (perhaps) by going to court!

The complete press release issued today is posted in full below, but here's a recap on this mind-numbing story up until now:

In December 2005, the Dems asked the state for the election data files from the '04 election. They were told that they couldn't have that information, because the state's contract with Alaska made that information a "company secret" of Diebold's!

After complaints to the state, and the state's consultation with Diebold, the state agreed to release the information, but only after informing the Dems they'd have to cover the cost of (and this is a direct quote from their letter), "manipulating the data" before releasing it!

Finally, before the data could be released --- "manipulated" or otherwise --- the state's top security official announced they would not release the information after all because it was a "security risk."

Oh, how I wish I was making this shit up. But I'm not.

So, now the Dems up there are showing a rare bit of spine and going to court to get at that highly secret and super dangerous information otherwise known as "how American citizens voted in an election two years ago."

Why are they so interested in this info in the first place? Here's a graf or two from the release (which you should read in full below for full impact!):

UPDATE 4/19/06: The entire complaint, filed as #3AN-06-7035 CI, is now available here [PDF]. Coverage from today's Alaska Daily News is here.

The entire press release from the Alaska Dems follows...

Abramoff, DeLay, Cunningham, Enron, Tyco, Jones Day, Sun Cruz...What more could you want in a Parody Music Video?! (Well, Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia maybe? We'll go ahead and give 'em credit for all of the above due to their inclusion of Jones Day. It's the least we can do.)

(Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG commenters --- and perhaps video brain-children? --- Bill Stark and Renu Parker)

We've just added a new text-only "BRAD BLOG Classified" adstrip on the left (below the "Premium Ads") for individuals who might like to advertise, make noise, or otherwise get their message out for less than half the price of a normal BlogAd here at The BRAD BLOG!

In addition to getting your message out to hundreds of thousands of readers each week, it also happens to be a great way to support our work here since donations continue to be very few and far between.

-- Click here to create your own BRAD BLOG Classified Ad now!

On the other hand, if you'd like to make a regular old donation, we certainly welcome that as well! Why not put some of that great tax break Bush gave some of you to a cause that he'd be thrilled to see you support! Us! Here's a form to make it easy for you to make a one-time only, monthly subscription or snail mail donation. And thank you for all the continued support!

David Swanson updates the sitch in Crawford, TX this morning where, as we reported yesterday, 14 anti-war protestors who are part of Cindy Sheehan's "Camp Casey" Easter protest were arrested last night...

Lonestar Iconoclast has more coverage and a bunch of fresh photos from yesterday.

Still more details, video of the arrests, and our LIVE audio interview last night with Cindy Sheehan after the arrests are all here...

As David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet.org reported minutes ago, there have been 14 arrests in Crawford, TX where Cindy Sheehan and supporters are again camping out in the original location where they took up camp last Summer.

Though Cindy's sister and Daniel Ellsberg were amongst those arrested, Cindy and ersatz Camp Casey organizer U.S. Army Col. Ann Wright have chosen to not be amonst those arrested this time around so they can continue to run the camp.

I've just spoken with Wright, and have arranged for Cindy to appear with us in person on The Peter B. Collins show on KRXA 540am, in Monterey, CA and elswhere, during my normal weekly Friday guest appearance on his show.

I'll be on tonight beginning at 5pm PT (7pm Crawford time, 8pm ET) and Cindy should be joining us at the bottom of the hour for a live update with the latest.

===

UPDATE: Just completed the live interview with Cindy, straight from Crawford, TX... Here are the MP3's in your choice of length...

-- Peter B. Collins Show: Segment with Cindy & Brad [MP3]
-- Peter B. Collins Show: Complete Hour with Brad on Election Stuff and more, includes live Cindy interview. [MP3]

FURTHER UPDATE: "Crawford is now our home too," says Ann Wright after the arrest, along with a promise to dog Bush wherever he goes. As Cindy pointed out in the interview above, and the Lone-Star Iconoclast ably reports, the folk arrested in Crawford on Thanksgiving last year still have not been formally charged. It seems the folks of McLellan County, TX would rather not have their new, unconstitutional ordinance disallowing protestors from camping on the side of the road, get tested in court.

See Scott Galindez' video coverage of the arrest at TruthOut.

Before I register my complaint here with Matt Taibbi's otherwise excellent article on the background of "Mr. Republican" Jack Abramoff and "The secret history of the most corrupt man in Washington," as published in the April 6th edition of Rolling Stone, I'll point to this smart graf amongst many such smart grafs in a very well-researched and informative piece:

Taibbi's piece covers in detail some of the many scams that Abramoff and the rest of the nationwide Republican Network of dishonest, opportunistic players who now comprise the power structure of the Republican party --- or the "vast rightwing conspiracy" as Hillary correctly described it. It's an ugly, but accurate portrait of those who have hijacked all that America was supposed to have stood for while an otherwise distracted and/or media-whipped public was trained to look the other way --- or otherwise give the benefit of the doubt to some very very bad guys who have earned no such benefit.

Those bad guys now run the country, its government, its corporations and its media virtually in its entirety. And more shamefull still, they've got goons played for suckers who are so daft and gullible that, to this day, they run around and play apologist for these people who --- I guess they don't realize it --- are fucking them hard up their own asses with their own hard-earned money and blindly offered good-will. You'll find many of those dopes repeating Fox "News" and Limbaugh-isms over Thanksgiving dinners everywhere, and otherwise plying their foolish and self-destructive trade wherever they can. A stroll through some of the most trollish comments left here at The BRAD BLOG reveals these people have left only the dimmest of connections to Reality as it exists in 2006 on the planet Earth.

With those accolades for Taibbi's work now out of the way, allow me to point to this earlier graf in his piece (emphasis added)...

"Lurking in the background" must be MSM code for: Reported by BRAD BLOG but otherwise ignored.

We're glad to see Taibbi pick up on some of our reporting as he writes...

...But it would certainly help to keep such bad guys from affecting so much corruption and damage for so many years before they actually get busted, if Taibbi would be kind enough to point out some of the sources --- independent, alternative, "blog" or otherwise --- who have been trying to blow such whistles for so long.

With appropriate credit and recognition from the mainstream, as we opined a several weeks ago, reporting such as ours and many others would likely have the effect of stopping the bad guys before they manage to wreak quite as much havoc on our once-great American democracy.

We'd hope that even the usually independent-minded Rolling Stone would keep such important points in mind by choosing to give appropriate attribution where possible in their future reporting. As we've said before: It matters.

The E-Voting Train Wreck continues...

This from a statement released today by the Indiana Secretary of State (to get just a tiny idea of what this statement is in reference to see the "Train Wreck" article linked above...and just about every other damn thing we've been running here at BRAD BLOG for the last God-knows-how-many weeks/months/years)...

The Indianapolis Star begins their coverage this way:

NOTE TO NATIONAL MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Please pay no attention whatsoever to any of the above. It's just a small local story. Nothing of interest. No pattern here here that effects our country as a whole in any way. All is well. Please enjoy your Easter Holiday break! Thank you.

Mike Rogers at PageOneQ, a gay online news site, has an interesting and amusing exclusive today based on our own exclusive last Tuesday featuring Ann Coulter's Felonious Florida Voter Registration Application.

The particular angle that PageOneQ focuses on today, came up briefly during a short appearance I made on The Stephanie Miller Show yesterday morning. The three-minute MP3 can be downloaded here or listened to below...

This part of the story is largely an amusing curiosity, of course. Not unlike Coulter herself. Though in truth, she is far more dangerous to America and it's values than a mere "amusing curiosity". Which is just one of the reasons why we follow her destructive antics from time to time here at The BRAD BLOG. To that end, I may have more substantive news and/or opinion on her alleged Voter Fraud Felony soon.

That's the oath next to the signature of Ann Coulter, who, on 6/15/05 filled out her Florida Voter Registration Application Form --- as obtained Exclusively by The BRAD BLOG (posted in full at the bottom of this article) --- after purchasing her new $1.8 million house at 242 Seabreeze Ave. in Palm Beach County, Florida in March of 2005. The "Warranty Deed" (also obtained by The BRAD BLOG) for the house was signed over to Coulter on March 30th, 2005 by the previous owners, Eric Stonestrom and his wife, Lucinda Pascale Stonestrom.

In February of this year, Jose Lambiet of the Palm-Beach Post reported that Coulter, the extremist Republican columnist and author, seems to have committed Voter Fraud by registering and then voting in a Palm Beach, Florida precinct in which she does not live. She registered to the vote, for reasons which still remain unclear, at the address of her realtor Suzanne Frisbie.

Coulter has maintained, when asked about the incident during recent public appearances, that the report is a lie and that she doesn't even live in Palm Beach.

Lambiet has since characterized those denials by Coulter as "absolutely a bold-faced lie."

Various information obtained by The BRAD BLOG, however, would seem to back up Lambiet's account which shows that the liar in the matter is, in fact, Coulter.

The radical darling of the GOP speaking/fundraising circuit did, in fact, purchase a house at 242 Seabreeze Dr. in Palm Beach, Florida as reported publicly by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's website and confirmed by several different sources including the "Warranty Deed" signed on March 30th, 2005.

Meanwhile, Coulter's official Florida Voter Registration Application Form received from the office of the Palm Beach County Election Supervisor confirms that she specified "999 Indian Rd" as her "Legal Residence" --- despite never having lived there.

The Indian Road address is that of Coulter's Real Estate agent and her husband David.

Coulter's signature on the form is next to an "oath" affirming the information on the form is true, and acknowledging that she understood she could face a third-degree felony conviction, a $5,000 fine and/or five-years imprisonment for providing false information on the form.

"She never lived here," Lambiet reported Frisbie as confirming about the address Coulter used on her registration form. "I'm Ann's Realtor, and she used this address to forward mail when she moved from New York," said Frisbie.

The BRAD BLOG was unable to reach Frisbie for additional comment for this article since obtaining Coulter's actual Voter Registration form. We were told during a call to Frisbie's residence (where Ann Coulter does not live) that the real estate agent was on vacation until April 20th.

While Republicans have been going to great efforts since the 2004 Election to suggest there is some sort of Voter Fraud epidemic in this country (as distinct from Election Fraud via electronic machines, registration database purges, corrupt Secretaries of State in Ohio, etc.,) very few such cases of Voter Fraud are actually known or documented. Nonetheless, phony GOP-run front groups, such as the tax-exempt "American Center for Voting Rights", have been distributing propaganda around the country to suggest such an epidemic in order to force state legislation to require Photo ID at the polls. As well as to smoke-screen from the very real problem of Election Fraud which has succeeded in disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters in recent elections. Critics have charged that the type of Photo ID legislation being pushed through statehouses around the country, at the behest of the national GOP, would disproportionately disenfranchise millions of Democratic-leaning voters and --- as a two Federal courts and the majority of the U.S. Dept. of Justice's Voting Rights Act unit have recently affirmed concerning such a law in the state of Georgia --- would amount to little more than a modern-day poll tax.

White House political operative Karl Rove played along with the misleading meme of a Voter Fraud epidemic over the weekend by lauding Republican attorneys for their "work on clean elections" in 2000, 2002 and 2004. He charged that "We have...an enormous and growing problem with elections in certain parts of America today," in reference to "ballot integrity" --- a code word used to suggest a problem with Voter Fraud in the country.

We certainly do have "an enormous and growing problem" with our elections, but, as John Gideon discussed in a must-read BRAD BLOG Guest Editorial on Sunday, it's not due to Voter Fraud. Nonetheless, that hasn't apparently stopped Coulter from committing same, or anti-democracy GOP operatives across the country from reportedly running Voter Registration schemes where Democratic voter registrations are changed to Republican or destroyed all together or simply never turned in to county officials. The state of California announced one such investigation into GOP Voter Registration Fraud late last week. Also, three GOP officials have been indicted so far in a "phone-jamming scandal" to hamper DNC get-out-the-vote efforts in 2002, and that investigation now seems to be reaching into the White House as reported by AP yesterday.

But back to Coulter who was recently given 30 days by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Arthur Anderson, to explain her reasons for committing an apparent third-degree Vote Fraud felony. If a satisfactory explanation is not given, Anderson has said the case will be referred to the state attorney for possible prosecution.

Clint Curtis, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress in Florida's 24th District is no stranger to the matter of Voting Fraud in the Sunshine State. As originally reported by The BRAD BLOG in December of 2004, Curtis has alleged his opponent, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), asked him to create vote-rigging software in 2000 when they both worked for a software firm in Oviedo, Florida while Feeney was also speaker of the Florida House.

In a statement released recently, Curtis commended Supervisor Anderson for taking action in the Coulter matter. Curtis noted the irony of the situation that "many Floridians...still recall Ms. Coulter calling our elderly voters 'hapless' and our statutory recount process 'a subterfuge for fraud, error and outright theft' during the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election."

The Palm Beach County appraiser's record shows that Coulter purchased her swanky Palm Beach crib in March of 2005 and then filled out her Florida Voter Registration Application shortly thereafter. The form is dated "6/15/05" next to the signature and is stamped as having been "RECEIVED JUN 23 2005."

It should also be noted that according to the Connecticut Voter Registration records available via Lexis/Nexis, Coulter's voter registration in that state, where she has previously lived, is still listed as "Active". The "Voting History" section of that listing, however, shows that she last voted in CT in 1996. Both the CT and FL voter registrations list her birthdate as 12/8/1961.

Here is Ann Coulter's complete Florida Voter Registration Application Form in full, along with her Palm Beach County "Voter History" record, as received from the office of Palm Beach County Election Supervisor Arthur Anderson via a public records request...

Read this if you're not up to date on the story so far. More coming on Tuesday...

In the meantime, we're happy to point to Clint Curtis' recent statement lauding Palm Beach County Florida Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson for taking action so far in this matter. Said Curtis, noting the irony of it all, "many Floridians...still recall Ms. Coulter calling our elderly voters 'hapless' and our statutory recount process 'a subterfuge for fraud, error and outright theft' during the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election."

(And if you're not up to date on the Clint Curtis story either...where have you been? Please read this. Thank you.)

UPDATE: Complete Exclusive, including Ann Coulter's Florida Voter Registration Application --- on which she lied about her "Legal Residence" is now here...

More on the Phone-Jamming charges against (so-far) Republican officials. The matter now seems to be reaching into the White House as reported by AP:

Read the full story for many more details, but it should be noted that the White House hired Tobin to work their North-Eastern regional campaign in 2004 even after they already knew he was under investigation for the 2002 charges. He was only asked to leave his '04 post once the reports of the '02 investigation became public knowledge.

(Hat tip to RAW STORY.)

Working on several items, so we'll defer to RAW STORY's coverage of the story.

Suffice to say, Karl Rove spoke to Republican lawyers this weekend (carried on C-SPAN) and thanked them for their work ensuring "clean elections" in 2000 and 2004.

He singled out Mark F. "Thor" Hearne by name. Hearne was the National General Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc. who, along with RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, created the so-called non-partisan "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) just three days before being called to testify before Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) U.S. House Administrative Committee hearing in March of 2005 on the Ohio Election. The front group, which declared tax-exempt 501(c)3 status, has still failed, to our knowledge, to disclose any information of it's funders or proof of their 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan status. They operate out of a PO Box in Houston, TX, though neither of their founders live in Texas.

ACVR was the only "Voting Rights" group called by Ney to testify at the hearings, and identified himself only as a "longtime advocate of voter rights" in his testimony. He failed to mention his connections to Bush/Cheney '04 Inc.

Hearne and ACVR have done little more since they opened shop beyond creating propaganda reports to suggest that their is an epidemic of Democratic voter fraud in the country to encourage state legislatures around the country to implement Democratic voter disenfranchising "Photo ID requirements" at the polls. Their charges of a voter fraud epidemic has been roundly disproven in various court cases around the country. (Though it does appear that at least one voter, Ann Coulter, seems to have engaged in voter fraud lately.)

The "non-partisan" Dyke went on to work for the White House to flak for John Roberts during his Supreme Court nomination, and now works out Dick Cheney's office.

Ney, who pushed the so-called "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) through Congress in 2002 --- the bill which urges all States and Counties in the country to impliment hackable electronic voting machines by 2006 --- recently stepped down from his chairmanship of the House Admin Committee after being named in the on-going Jack Abramoff investigations. His former chief of staff, David DiStefano is Diebold's main lobbyist in congress, as BRAD BLOG reported in January, and Diebold has made thousands of dollars in so-far unexplained payments to Abramoff's old firm, Greeburg Traurig.

See RAW's story for Rove's comments about Hearne and the other "non-partisan" GOP attorneys over the weekend.

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

We haven't been able to cover it at all until now with so much going on, but the latest ad by VelvetRevolution.us which ran a couple of weeks ago in the Op/Ed section of WaPo hit such a chord we were able to raise the money to run a similar version of the ad in last week's NY Times.

(DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VR)

The ad, which focuses on Bush's recent drumbeating and chest thumping for a War on Iran in light of his plummeting poll ratings (haven't we seen this bad movie before?), brought still more interesting reaction in it's second incarnation. More on that in a second.

We're kind of tired, at VR, of being out in front of so many of these issues (Election Reform, Media Reform, Downing Street Memos, getting Out of Iraq, Accountability for Bush/Cheney) before the media and the politicians figure it out. But now it seems that's where we are again. For an example, see Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article just out, which reports the Bush Administration "has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack."

As if that's not disturbing enough, Hersh's article, as well as another report today from WaPo points out such an air attack is being planned to include the use of tactical nuclear weapons! Hello?!

Rather than waiting until after it's a done deal, as with Iraq, the time to push back is now. Especially since Fox "News", as David Edwards reported this morning, is already back in their reliable embedded position for the Bush Administration and this morning were all too happy to smear Hersch on the air.

Most of the reaction to VR's ads on Iran have been extremely supportive. And then there was this postcard we received late last week...

FRONT:

BACK:

Oh, well. Can't please 'em all. (And we're still trying to figure out that "ADL ISLAMIC" comment which seems a tad oxymoronic to us, but what do we know about Christianity?)

If you'd like to piss off other good "Christians" like our big fan above, please donate generously to VR so we can continuing spreading the love --- and getting the word out to the public about what's really going on here! --- through more such campaigns in the future.

Had a hoot sitting in as Guest Host for my buddy Peter B. Collins last Thursday on KRXA in Monterey (and a few other affiliates). If you didn't catch the show live, please enjoy the archives below as you see fit. Some fun, and occasionally harrowing, interviews here for your listening pleasure...

HOUR 1 [MP3]
BRAD rants on the state of our electoral system meltdown and interviews FAIZ SHAKIR, of the Center for American Progress, on the breaking news that day of Bush revealed as the Leaker-in-Chief.

HOUR 2 [MP3]
A full hour-long interview with the great and high-larious cartoonist/blogger, TOM TOMORROW of This Modern World. On tooning, on blogging, on his new book, Hell in a Handbasket (please buy it!) and on the most obnoxious bumper music I could possibly find --- Also he points us to a 2003 strip he did on the horror that is Diebold Electronic Voting Machines.

HOUR 3 [MP3]
First half-hour, Emery County, Utah's 23-year elected County Clerk, BRUCE FUNK, on being locked out of his office after having the temerity to allow an independent examination of Diebold's touch-screen voting machines in his county. He explains the harrowing details of what was found and what has happened to him since. Don't miss this one, especially if you haven't yet heard his story. You can send a note of support for him right here...

Second half-hour, the legendary ED ASNER --- Lou Grant himself --- on Hollywood and Politics, his encounter with Ronald Reagan and all other manner of stuff. Includes Asner telling Brad to "Shut up!" What more could ya want?! Enjoy!

Tom Tomorrow (real name, Dan Perkins, by the way) of This Modern World was a guest of mine on ThursdayThe Peter B. Collins Show where I was Guest Hosting. (Audio archives posted here.).

After complimenting him on his keen ability to reflect the current zeitgeist well ahead of anyone else, I asked him how he chooses his topic. His answer, paraphrased, whatever he happens to find funny. I asked if he found anything funny about Electronic Voting Machines.

Apparently he did. And, as usual, long before most of us understood the true nature of the threat to democracy posed by these god-awful machines. He pointed me to this Halloween strip originally published on 10/23/03 (notice the name on the computer monitor)...

No wonder he calls himself Tom Tomorrow...