Several of "The Jersey Girls," who were widowed in the 9/11 attacks, have issued a statement in response to the Bin Laden audiotape released last week which excoriated Bush for his failure and apparent disinterest --- "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him ... I truly am not that concerned about him." --- in hunting him down "dead or alive", as he once acted like he was promising.

Further, they criticize him for having "sanctioned the torture of individuals, breached constitutional safeguards regarding the privacy rights of U.S. citizens and started an illegal war in Iraq."

Not to mention their enumeration of the various 9/11 Commission recommendations that Bush has all but ignored to this day, some four years and four months since the deaths of their husbands.

This graf however, in particular, caught my eye:

While we agree with the general sentiment, we have just one quibble: Bush should resign now for his unprecedented Constitutional transgressions. There is no reason to wait for the next attack, and indeed it would be insane to do so. Especially as this rubber-stamp Congress will do everything in their power to avoid an impeachment --- as appropriate as would be right now --- in deference to their Political Party's "Commander-in-Chief".

Bush would never have the courage or fortitude or integrity or simple manliness to stand up and face down any impeachment proceeding. He'd go running away with his tail between his legs like the chickenhawk he is, once it became clear that virtually any such impeachment proceedings would have him dead to rights.

So why not show some sense of honor and dignity now, Mr. Bush, by leaving the office which you have tainted and stained beyond even Bill Clinton's wildest wet-dreams?

It's time for Bush, and his criminal co-conspirator Dick Cheney, to resign from office immediately in order to save this country from one more day of inexcusable exposure to attack from terrorists, but even more so, for Bush/Cheney's demonstrated and unmitigated loathing of American Values, their unapologetic failure to uphold their oaths of office to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", and, once and for all, to put an end to the metastized cancer of the unprecedented Executive Shame they have brought to the great United States of America.

Last month, we reported how the George W. Bush administration has effectively gutted the beloved, 40-year old Voting Rights Act. He has done so by allowing political appointees in the Department of Justice to override the recommendations of career attorneys in the Voting Rights division who had recommended against the Georgia Photo ID Requirement Law and Tom Delay's Texas Congressional Redistricting Scheme.

In both cases, the career attorneys at DoJ had written lengthy memos opposing the new laws --- 4 out of 5 of them in the GA case, 8 out of 8 in the TX case --- only to be overruled by Bush's political cronies. Dan Eggen of The Washington Post broke both of those stories, with some exemplary reporting, after obtaining the leaked memos.

Later, the DoJ mandated that no such written opinions would be allowed in the future.

Eggen, on Page A1 of Monday's WaPo, now has more on the fallout and allegations of politics being played with the VRA within DoJ, as Bush continues to dismantle as many American Values as he can before leaving office...Here's some highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be)...

We're torn between complaining about Washington Post's delinquency in covering anything to do with our crumbling electoral system and jumping for joy that they've actually filed a credible report on the problems we (and many other "conspiracy theorists", "sore-losers", "tinfoil hat wearers", "anarchists" and "insurgents") have been yelling and screaming about for months --- if not years!

Given our endlessly optimistic nature, however, and the dearth of honest-to-God reporting by the Mainstream Corporate Media on these matters since...well, forever...we'll go ahead, slap a siren on this item, and focus on the "victory" side of things!

In tomorrow's paper, page A6, in a "Special to The Washington Post", Zachary Goldfarb covers the matter of last month's hack of Diebold optical scan machines in Leon County, Florida which completely flipped the results of a mock election test without a trace being left behind.

As well, for the first time, WaPo even discusses some of the findings of the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) 107-page report on the failures of electronic voting machines which was released last October!

The story cannot be good news to Diebold and the other voting machine vendors, however. They've all had it pretty easy up until now as the Mainstream Corporate Media has played into their "company line" that such concerns were the stuff of "conspiracy theorists" and "sore-losers". Goldfarb even recognizes the fact, even if he doesn't call WaPo on being one of the media outlets who have contributed to Diebold and Friends' appalling ability to marginalize Election Integrity advocates with such insultingly dismissive and democracy-loathing remarks:

Well, there it is. In plain black and white WaPo ink! Go figure!

Goldfarb goes on to make the case quite clearly concerning the Diebold hack as pulled off by Finnish computer security expert Harri Hursti, including Diebold's pathetic response to it:

Well, God Bless America...Perhaps the Mainstream Corporate Media is finally paying attention! Go read the whole thing with your own eyes!

We've heard tell of another major news organization that may soon roll out legitimate coverage of these matters as well.

Can it be that we are finally not alone? Stay tuned...

Such was the sometimes contentious, sometimes exasperating atmosphere, apparently, in Sacramento this week when State Senator Debra Bowen, transparent election champion and Democratic candidate for Secretary of State convened a hearing on the current electoral mess in the Golden State. The hearing was held by the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee which she chairs.

County Election Registrars from all over the state were called to give a report on how things are going (not well, apparently) and Election Integrity advocates filled the gallery to witness the goings on.

There was actually quite a bit of coverage by the media, some better than others, but overall, it's nice to see an open forum for oversight and discussion of the state of democracy in this state. All the while, so much that is involved with the most fundamental element of democracy --- the vote --- has been done in secret corridors of power, darkened Boards of Election back rooms, Private Corporation board rooms, and of course, inside the uninspected, none-of-your-business software of completely untrustworthy, unaccountable electronic voting machines.

Articles hit late this week on Wednesday's hearings in the LA Times, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Vallejo Times Herald and elsewhere. While the "facts" offered by some of the reports were at times less than accurate, we note that it's remarkable how many Journalists deign to cover such issues when they are granted "legitimacy" by an officially sanctioned Government Inquiry. (Just a thought to those of you who actually get paid for this sort of thing, from someone who doesn't...but we've long advocated Journalists cover what is newsworthy. Not only what politicians have instructed them to be newsworthy.)

Let's take a look then at some of the coverage, including our own on-the-air conversation on Friday evening with Bowen...

Regarding my previous very strong suggestion that Democtrats fillibuster the Supreme Court confirmation of Samuel Alito, it looks like things may be changing from the conventional wisdom that he definitely would not be filibustered.

This from the Chicago Sun-Times today:

And just to short-circuited the Wingnuts when they (inevitably) trot out their misinformation concerning the Republicans approval of Ruth Bader Ginsberg during the Clinton Era...Unlike that case, Bush did not bother to get Democratic approval for Alito, the way Clinton did with Ginsberg:

Keep those calls, emails and faxes going folks! See comments in the previous item on this for a few phone numbers and website addresses!

Chris Bowers of MyDD.com adds these thoughts:

UPDATE: Here are some toll-free numbers to get through to the Senate: 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. Also, be sure to read comments in this item, for several other phone numbers and links to petition efforts, etc!

UPDATE 1/22/06: Guest Blogger Pokey Anderson builds the case for filibuster...

Election Reform advocates have been turning out in droves at several recent public hearings in State Senates around the country. This week, official hearings were held in both California and Arizona concerning the unparralleled mess in which each state now finds itself in regards to Elections and Electronic Voting.

We'll cover the hearings in California shortly, where, as in Arizona, Election Reform advocates (read: citizens who have little to gain other than hope for the ultimate restoration of integrity to this nation's democracy) filled the galleries to capacity in order to witness the astonishing spectacle of public election officials sputtering, spewing and admitting to all in attendance that they haven't a clue how to manage the mess that is referred to as "democracy" in America.

On a side note: One can't help but wonder if we'd even be in the predicament today were it not for the complete abdication of duty by the mainstream media, who has ignored every facet of this issue beyond cursory and insulting smears dismissing such fundamental questions as little more than "conspiracy theory". There is no longer any doubt that those of us who understood the issues at stake here, long ago, were 100% right about it. As well, those who marginalized and dismissed us and the matter were 100% wrong. In the bargain, their delinquency in reporting on these matters in any substantial way has resulted in an unprecedented crisis of confidence in our democracy by the electorate. Such a crisis threatens our way of governance in ways that Osama bin Laden could never have conceived, much less found a way to cause himself.

Anyway, on to the most recent revealing and remarkable chapter in Arizona's Shameful Republican vs. Republican Primary Electoral Fraud Circus, in Maricopa County's Legislative District 20...

The Democratic led hearings on the illegal, warrantless spying of Americans on U.S. soil by the Bush Administration's NSA is currently being aired LIVE on C-SPAN 1!

Despite the House of Representatives being currently in recess, once again the Republicans have refused to give Chairman John Conyers, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and his distinguished panel, a formal hearing room. So, as with their hearings on the "Downing Street Documents" last year, they're back in the basement this morning.

RAW STORY has Conyers' opening statement.

C-SPAN's online streaming seems to be down, however, the live audio of the hearings is available via Pacifica radio.

(We'll try to update this item if possible, despite a very busy schedule this morning! Those who are listening/watching, feel free to "Live Blog" anything you like in Comments!)

Republican and true Conservative (as opposed to today's majority of phony "conservatives"), Paul Craig Roberts, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and National Review, as well Ronald Reagan's one-time Assistant Sec. of the U.S. Treasury, discusses "Evidence of a Stolen Election" in his latest column out today.

Unlike the bulk of his media and political brethren, clearly Roberts "gets it" as he writes, in review of Mark Crispin Miller's landmark election theft tome, FOOLED AGAIN, "now that Republicans have learned that they can use the electronic machines to control election outcomes, the disenfranchisement of Democrats is likely to be a permanent feature of American 'democracy.'"

Along with an appropriate indictment of the media's overall failure to adequately investigate and report on the crumbling of the most essential, very core of our democracy, ("a free press has proven to be inconsistent with the recently permitted highly concentrated corporate ownership of the US media," says Roberts) he pens the obvious point which the rest of the media, and America along with them, just can't bring themselves to admit outloud:

It does, indeed.

And, in closing, he hits the ball way over the fence:

Homerun, Mr. Roberts.

Arianna is right. If the Dems tap someone like Virginia's newly elected Gov. Kaine to respond to Bush's State of the Union Address --- simply because he was able to win in a supposed "Red State" and sounds a helluva like Bush on the Iraq War --- instead of someone who represents the mainstream views of America like Rep. John Murtha, then they deserve every just dessert that will come to them.

The same is true in regard to any Senate Dem who refuses to filibuster Alito. They will have lost his/her right to be supported by anybody in this country. An illegitmate Presidency only lasts eight years (maximum). The Supreme Court is for a life time.

If Alito is worth voting against for confirmation (and he is), then he is worth doing everything in ones power to keep off of the Supreme Court. To that end, anything short of a filibuster to keep someone like Alito, nominated by a criminal like Bush --- who has lost all credibility, every "benefit of the doubt", along with a supposed "right" to appoint anybody to the Highest Court in our land --- is spineless, pathetic, fruitlessly pandering, and ultimately providing of a perfectly justifiable reason for any voter to refuse to support any such Dem ever again.

If Dems would begin Impeachment Hearings on George W. Bush immediately, if only they had the numbers in Congress to do so, then why, in the wildest stretches of anyone's imagination, would they defer to him the singular power to shift the balance of the court for decades beyond his shameful, criminal, and illegitimate reign?

There are many reasons to filibuster Alito. No matter what the Conservative Media tells you repeatedly. Those are the same folks, after all, who also told you that "John Kerry would be much tougher than Dean to defeat as a Presidential Nominee." And you believed them. While there are few reasons not to fillibuster Alito, aside from what those very same Wingnuts have hypnotized you Dems (again) into believing.

For the moment, however, I'll point to just one reason, as described in this study of Alito's prevarications about and claims of "Unitary Powers of the Executive" as compiled by the good folks of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition. They, correctly, conclude thusly:

Amen.

I've been out of town for a bit, and on and off line in the bargain, so haven't compiled an authoritative list of actions for folks to take if they agree that Dems should filibuster Alito. Come what may. So I'll leave it to folks in comments here to offer links to email petitions, phone numbers, and other such campaigns to help get the message to Senate Dems that the time for "playing it safe" is over. The time for stepping up courageously to do the right thing for this country...for our country --- fallaciously perceived political costs be damned --- is now here.

Do it Dems, and you will deserve every kudos. Do not, and you deserve every bit of disdain that will come your way from those who might have otherwise supported you to the ends of the earth. Either way, I promise, you will receive very same the slings and arrows from the Right. That's what they do for a living. But if you attempt to pander to the non-existant "middle" yet again --- as the Wingnuts have tricked you into believing actually exists --- I hope you'll not wonder why your base may justifiably turn their backs on you when you may need them most.

Fool you a dozen or so times...shame on you.

UPDATE 1/20/06: Dick Durbin says 'Filibuster now possible'! Details here...

UPDATE 1/22/06: Guest Blogger Pokey Anderson builds the case for filibuster...

Yesterday, I wrote about the suicide of Specialist Douglas Barber, an Iraq War vet who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) upon returning home from fighting on behalf of this country. A man who put his life on the line for this country, but who was unable to receive adequate help from the Veteran's Administration as run (and facing deep cutbacks) by George W. "Support the Troops" Bush.

Here is an email posted on SCOOP, from Barber, as written in January of 2005.

He had a difficult time getting people to listen to him while he was alive. Perhaps some of us can try to listen to him now that he's dead, so that perhaps his death will not be in vain.

In his email, Barber describes what many families go through when they witness their sons and daughters coming home in flag-draped coffins, hidden from view by the Bush Administration. And, even more telling in this case, some of the horrors veterans suffering from PTSD face once back on the homefront. Here's a few grafs...

See his full post for some of the specific personal issues that Barber faced as he wrestled with his PTSD demons.

But then, he goes on to finish with some words for all of the Wingnuts out there who make this sort of disaster possible. Those who, from the comfort of their million dollar homes and multi-million media contracts, distort the cost of this war to sell it as "a noble cause," as if it's a Made-in-America product we can all be proud of and ought to promote to every corner of the earth. Those who bang on a political drum to give the death and destruction of others a "positive" spin for their own personal benefit. Those who gain from the nameless, faceless deaths of real heroes who --- unlike the media-politico scoundrels --- will never benefit by having their contracts renewed, their books promoted to the Best-Seller lists, or see offers for multi-thousand dollar speaking fees. Those who haven't the first clue of what heroes like Barber faced in order to make the lives of such Chickenhawks so cozy and swell. Those like Rush and Sean and O'Reilly who, in Barber's own words are "nothing but dirt under every soldier's boots!"

All of that, even as Barber's death, along with countless others, won't even rate to make the Pentagon's ever-growing list of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or even seem themselves added to the scores of thousands listed on the Injured Lists.

I'll let Barber finish out this post...

(Please consider supporting Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), formerly OpTruth.org --- Unlike Rush and Sean and O'Reilly, these guys were actually there...and they actually give a damn.)

RAW STORY has an early release of Gore's full statement replying to the attempted obfuscation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in reply to Gore's speech yesterday.

Letting you know here, since the Mainstream Media will likely ignore it --- as they did with Gore's speech yesterday. Or misrepresent it and twist its facts. As they did with Gore's speech yesterday.

I'll leave others to embarass the Trolls when they try to retread the Gorelick "Blackbag" physical search nonsense (not covered by FISA!) here in comments. I'm taking a few hours off...

I'm on the road for a few days, currently near Palm Springs (or, as I like to call it, the Hollywood Old Folks Home), so unable to blog as around-the-clock as normal. But a couple of points today have really got me upset.

One is the spin-meister Bill O'Reilly's unpardonable apologies for the criminal George W. Bush administration. His remarkable rationalizations and attempts to excuse what noted constitutional attorney Jonathon Turley just called "an open and shut criminal case" against Bush (at the bottom of the first hour of O'Reilly's radio show today), are simply appalling.

O'Reilly's reasons why none of these broken rules of law or corruption of the U.S. Constitution rises to impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors? Because the American people don't support the impeachment of Bush. (Never mind the new Zogby poll showing that 52% of Americans would support such action for illegal, warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens. And never mind that no more than 30% of Americans ever supported the impeachment of Clinton!). But more on that, hopefully, later or tomorrow as my stomach, and time-away allows it.

For the moment however, a very disturbing story...just another one of far too many similar ones, I'm afraid...pointing up why this son-of-a-bitch who sits in the White House needs to be held accountable for the horrific actions of which I don't believe he actually has a clue. Or, at least, has insulated and lied to himself so much, that he can't even conceive anymore of the pain he has caused the citizenry of this country which he once swore to protect and defend. That, on top of the cynical claims of looking after the armed forces which he (fallaciously) claims at every opportunity to support.

I received some very disturbing email messages this morning, which have, by now, become all too familiar...

The BRAD BLOG has obtained a statement from "Gag Ordered" FBI Whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, Founder and Director of the National Security Whistleblowers Coaltion, in response to Al Gore's just completed speech earlier today in Washington D.C.

Gore's address, sponsored by a bi-partisan coalition, warned that our "constitution is in grave danger" and called for, amongst many other things (highlights of speech here), the creation of new Whistleblower Protections for members of the Executive Branch and others.

Edmonds, due to a rarely invoked "State Secrets" privilege by the Dept. of Justice, is legally barred from discussing remarkable and troubling findings she made as an FBI translator after 9/11, in regard to a number of explosive matters of national security.

She emailed the following statement to The BRAD BLOG moments ago:

In a Guest Blog of her own here at BRAD BLOG in late December, Edmonds called for whistleblowers from within various national security agencies to step forward and reveal illegal activities by the agencies, as a "patriotic duty" to the country.

Several days later, NSA whistleblower, Russell Tice, revealed to ABC News that he was one of the New York Times' sources who had provided the paper with information concerning the alleged illegal, warrantless wire-tapping of U.S. citizens in apparent violation of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act of 1978. Tice is also a member of Edmonds' National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

Al Gore's speech, to a bi-partisan audience, on our "Constitutional Crisis" has just concluded. UPDATE: We've posted extended video highlights from the speech here...

Gore was to have been introduced by former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA), but Barr's live video feed broke down at the last moment. We are told by the Liberty Coalition's Michael Ostrolenk (who jumped up to introduce Gore in an improvised statement), that Barr will be appearing on CNN's Situation Room later this afternoon.

An early highlight from Gore's address: "The President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently."

MORE HIGHLIGHTS...

Much more in the extraordinary full speech, for which RAW STORY now has the complete prepared text.

UPDATE: FBI Whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds issues an exclusive statement to BRAD BLOG in reply to Gore's speech...

Crooks and Liars has video highlights.

A new Zogby Poll, just announced, to be officially release tomorrow shows that a majority of Americans would support Congressional consideration of the impeachment of George W. Bush if, in fact, he wiretapped U.S. citizens without obtaining a legal warrant to do so!

Earlier today, we posted a video of Arlen Specter, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, admitting on ABC's This Week that "impeachment" was one of the first remedies for the illegal wiretapping by a President of U.S. Citizens.