It's been a while since the slimy cretins trying to pass themselves off as the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) have reared their ugly, high-level GOP-operative heads. We first uncovered these punks back in March while they were busy attempting to pull off a congressional charade in cahoots with the not-yet-indicted U.S. congressman, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). We haven't heard much out of the ACVR since their August '05 report trying to sell the silly notion that "Democrat operatives were far more involved than Republican in voter intimidation and suppression in 2004" was laughed off the nation's radar (by all but a few of the most pathetic dead-ender wingnut suckers who will believe anything they're told to believe, no matter how laughable.)

But today, our friend Bob Fitrakis at the Free Press in Columbus connects a few more dots in the shameful ACVR/GOP/Ohio story. He offers a few more details on the group's direct connection to other high-level GOP operatives (like Bill Frist's attorney), the horrendous Ohio HB3 "Election Reform" legislation being ram-rodded up the asses of otherwise democracy-loving Ohio citizens by the unapologetically corrupt GOP-controlled snakepit of a legislature in the state, as well as more of the direct connections between them and the frivolous lawsuits and PR attacks made against several of the most active (legitimate) Voter Registration groups in the country.

We had a quick story ourselves on that last bit about two weeks ago, explaining how virtually all the phony legal attacks made against these groups have now failed --- even if the swiftboating success of the phony PR from it lingers on. Mission accomplished. This is the group whose website --- the one with Fox "News" Channel's Tony Snow on the front page, speaking of dead-ender wingnut suckers --- promises "ACVR will defend the election process through on-going civil litigation" amongst other lies, garbage and scurrilous attempted deceptions on the American electorate. Anyway, before we get too worked up into another rant on the America/democracy-hating ACVR chumbuckets, here's Fitrakis' latest on them and more.

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.

While sitting in for Rush Limbaugh this morning, Roger Hedgecock did a fine job of lying in his place.

Paraphrasing here, since I don't yet have a copy of the audio (any Ditto Heads out there feel like sending it to me?), at appx. 40 minutes into the first hour of today's show, Hedgecock informed lied to his listeners by telling them that Bill Clinton "didn't even have NATO approval" for the campaign against Kosovo.

Aside from NATO, who actually led the bombing, Hedgecock's "news" will likely come as a shock to the wingnuts out there (like Phyllis Schlafly, for instance) who have been referring to the Kosovo campaign as "the Clinton/NATO bombing raids" for years while expressing their outrage (IRONY ALERT!) that the President "lied" us into the war. A war, we might add, where not a single American Troop was lost, but that's beside the point, of course.

BRAD BLOG comment trolls can rest assured that --- even with their Talking Points Master, Rush, gone for the week --- they are still receiving the finest misinformation GOP money can buy even in his absense.

For those of you who may have missed any of the notable ups and downs (mostly downs) for our patriotically-impaired friends over at Diebold, Inc. over the last three weeks, I've just done a quick review of the most notable tales from the tape over at Huffington Post, including links to the latest key BRAD BLOG articles chronicling the end-of-year undoing of everyone's favorite American Voting Machine Company.

At HuffPo: "DEMOCRACY STRIKES BACK! As Diebold Goes Down for the Count..."

Everything's fine. Nothing to worry about. These aren't the droids you're looking for. That was the message out of Sacramento yesterday in regards to the newly exposed concerns about ES&S voting machines in California as recently revealed by a secret letter from California's Secretary of State. That letter was written and sent five weeks ago privately, but only reported publicly for the first time last week after it was uncovered by an AP reporter.

Of course, CA SoS Bruce McPherson's office has yet to actually inform the voters (you remember them, don't you, Mr. McPherson?) of the "problems experienced by counties utilitizing ES&S voting equipment and software" as discovered during the recent November Special Election which "deeply concerned" the SoS enough to threaten ES&S with decertification in the entire state, according to the letter.

But the message out yesterday is that all is well, and no --- you pesky voters don't need to worry your pretty little selves about a thing!

According to the Vallejo Times-Herald (note how the concern in the lede here is for Elections Officials as opposed to Voters!):

Yea! The Solano County leaders don't have to worry about a thing! Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

What exactly are those needs, Ms. Kerns? Do the California Voters have any right to know about them? Or will it require investigative reporters and bloggers with bad attitudes to uncover still more secret letters and documents sent to the Voting Machine Companies that we, the Voters (you remember us, don't you, Ms. Kern?), are paying with our tax-dollars to privatize our public elections?!

State Senator Debra Bowen had previously called on you "to immediately release all corrspondence to all vendors, and all documentation related to the certification of any and all voting equipment and voting systems." Have the SoS's office done so? It would certainly be appreciated, so we could judge for ourselves about those "one by one" needs that ES&S has "thoroughly met". And we speak as California Voters ourselves here, by the way.

Bowen also asked, "When is the public entitled to know?" Which, of course, we'd like to know as well. She also added "This kind of secrecy is completely unacceptable." And, of course, we agree to that as well.

So, Mr. McPherson or Ms. Kerns --- or whoever it is that is making decisions up there in Sacramento while you suppose that few are paying attention between Christmas and New Years --- would you like to answer the Senator's call on behalf of the voters of California for whom you work?

Our lines are always open. We'll be happy to help you disseminate all of that information. If you actually care about such things. We'll even try and get rid of the bad attitude when we do just for fairness sake. But you'll have to meet us halfway. If you work for us (as you're supposed to), then we'll do our best to work with you.

(Hat tip to the eagle-eyed John Gideon, who, unlike Diebold, actually means it when he says he "never rests".)

From another adoring BRAD BLOG reader!...

No details given beyond that, on either what we're misinformed on or have lied about. Oh, well. Too bad. I might have "left" had she only bothered to convince me of the errors of my ways. Guess I'm stayin'!

Then there's this from a Velvet Revolution lover/emailer...

No apparent recognition there that it was, in fact, a "Velvet Revolution" that helped overthrow the "commie bastards" in Eastern Europe. But perhaps such nuance is lost on "patriots" like Charles.

Can ya feel the love?!

I've seen the excellent piece by Juan Cole on the "Top 10 Myths about Iraq in 2005" linked by several blogs already, so perhaps you've already seen it. Either way, I think it's well worth linking to here and I recommend you give it a quick read if you haven't already. As Cole points out, there are many complexities in the Iraq situation, which don't necessarily translate well to the sound bites we're accustomed to in the "rough and ready, two-party American political arena."

Cole explains some of those complexities in a very straightforward and informative fashion. Amongst the one or two of the myths that jumped out at me, personally, and have been driving me crazy when I hear them repeated by wingnuts on both TV and in comments here...

Got that? Okay, good. So --- wingnuts --- please spare me the crap about how wonderful it is that your man Bush has finally brought democracy and freedom for all to the Middle East. You may be willing to bullshit yourselves, but please don't bother to try and wipe that stench off on me.

In another section of Cole's rather fair and rather balanced assessment, from which both "sides" of the American political food-fight are bound to harvest fresh ammo, is this:

Got that one, too? The "terrorists" are increasing, not decreasing vis a vis this pathetically run charade.

Finally, the myth that "The Bush administration wanted free elections in Iraq" is quickly dispatched by Cole as "simply not true". But the still-more maddening piece of this bit of treacherous wingnut mythology, refers back to the point above about the increasing insurgency. In giving the real history of the Bush Administration's various flip-flops throughout the American occupation in regards to holding free and fair democratic elections in Iraq, Cole points out how the Bushies played their cave to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (who had demanded free elections back in late 2003) in order to avoid troubles that might effect Bush's own election back here in America. The results of Bush's personal political power play meant the insurgency was allowed to grow worse, so Bush might be allowed to be elected in 2004:

Lovely. And Team Bush has the unmitigated gall to accuse Democrats of "playing politics" with the Iraq War?! Puh-lease.

Check out all 10 of the myths as explained by someone who actually knows what's going on on the ground. How refreshing.

Now that the War on Christmas is finally over (picture me kissing some random woman in Times Square amidst tons of falling confetti to celebrate VC Day!), shouldn't O'Reilly's War on Chanukah be getting under way? We've got at least 7 days left to object to all of those still-hanging "Happy Holidays!" and "Merry Christmas!" banners at Sears and Target to offend those who believe this is a Judeo-Christian country as the X-Warriors have been claiming for the last several weeks (whenever they are "politically correct" enough to add that "Judeo" part, anyway).

But don't hold your breath for the Maccabean Troops to begin their Fox "News" Circus offensive any time soon. That whole "we support Jews and Israel" thing is (surprise!) just another Rightwing ruse for more votes to further entrench their Christo-Governmental agenda. And if those pesky Christ Killers don't watch it, the Wingnuts may just declare they're not the "Jew Lovers" they've been pretending to be after all!

For you Jews out there who still support the Rightwing Nuts and Christian-Right Religious Zealots (by no means mutually exclusive groups) under the misleading pretense that "they are strong supporters of Israel" take a look at what Media Matters reported last week on recent comments made by Don Wildmon, the President of the extremist religio-political group calling itself The American Family Association.

In reply to to the Anti-Defamation League President, Abraham H. Foxman, who had been critical of Christian Right groups attempting to "Christianize America" Wildmon recently said:

Wow. Talk about your fair weather "friends".

The Wingnuts --- in whom various Jewish folks have given their support in a Faustian bargain (and that would include several members of my own family!) --- may act as if they are supporters of Israel. But make no mistake, it is not because they are supporters of the Jews.

Any such belief or support for such cynical wingnuttery is wholly misplaced as I have tried to point out for some time. Wildmon's comments above illustrate that fact nicely.

Now if someone would just inform the apparently just-plain-insane Jew, Don Feder of "Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation" that he's being played for a chump by these cretins. Ghengis Don, as he proudly calls himself, recently told his wingnut "press" pals that "America is a Christian Nation." Oh, well...

P.S. The fickle Wildmon and his American Family Ass. have also put Wingnut Sen. Rick Santorum --- of all people --- on notice too! It seems you just can't please some "American" "Families".

Courtesy of Tom Tomorrow...

(Speaking of the above...keep your eyes on that li'l countdown clock on the top right of every BRAD BLOG page. I'm just sayin'.)

Regular BRAD BLOG comment trolls (well, one at least, with little better to do, apparently, then jerk-off to hot Fox News Alerts) have criticized us for lack of coverage of the recent so-called "Historic" Iraqi elections. (Even, we should note, while they don't seem to give a damn about our own American electoral system in desperate tatters.)

We apologize for the oversight.

So congratulations to the Iraqi Shiite Mullahs who have gained control of the country's parliament with the singular help of $300 billion in tax payer dollars ("That's your money, you should get to keep it." - GWB) and at the expense of more than 2100+ American lives!

Yeah, Team America! Spreading Freedom and Democracy around the globe!

The BRAD BLOG congratulates George W. Bush for his unwaivering optimism and steely resolve in "staying the course" in light of all those freedom-hating Liberal nay-sayers who didn't believe that another Iran in the Middle East was such a great idea. You sure showed them!

But the biggest congratulations of all, are reserved for Iraq's new leader! The peace, freedom and democracy-loving Muqtada al-Sadr!

CONGRATULATIONS! Way to go, Muqtada!

Or, to quote from the 'Iraq Rising' blog (oft-linked by Neo-Con wingnut blogs, btw) as run by a "Pro-Liberation" Iraqi, here's what he posted a few days ago:

Of course, if you've been paying attention to the under-reported rumblings out of Iraq, you know that the pro-Western(ish) factions (well, the factions that the American government supports anyway, like the one-time CIA asset, one-time prime minister, Ayad Allawi) performed miserably in the election. And they, like the Sunni's who also didn't care for the results, are now rumbling about armed rebellion against the newly elected theocratic majority in parliament as the country inches ever closer towards finally setting a very hot match to the powder keg of full-blown civil war that continues to loom.

All of that, while Christians in the country are reportedly fleeing to Syria and elsewhere. Ironic, as Juan Cole points out, as "the secular Arab nationalist regimes like the Syrian Baath have typically been favorable to local Christians, since they downplay religious identity." (But we'll get them next!) It was not an especially very merry for the Christians who still remained in Iraq this year.

Even the wingnut Pajamas Media is having a tough time finding anybody amongst their bevvy of Pro-War bloggers who are happy about the results. (UPDATE: For more on the Rightwing Welfare to Pajamas Media bloggers, see Jane's thoughts today, btw.)

But, hey, who can forget those purple fingers, huh?! What a triumph!!!

So much for "Peace on Earth"...Oh, well, we tried. It was Christmas. So we tried.

From Bob Geiger's excellent coverage of the recent debate between Scott Ritter and Christopher Hitchens. By Geiger's account at least, it sounds like Ritter cleaned Hitchens' clock. (A clock, we might add, which could well use some cleaning...even if a filthy, dirty, broken one still manages to be right twice a day.)

Holy cow...perhaps this explains why California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson suddenly started turning inexplicably back to Diebold some time around mid-November of this year after having decertified them already back in 2004, and then finding them to have failed massively in a recent mock election test over the summer.

"Information about problems with voting machines should not have been delayed long enough to become a lump of coal in California's Christmas stocking," half-joked State Senator Debra Bowen to The BRAD BLOG upon reading the following astounding new story.

AP's Juliet Williams reports today on a letter written by McPherson's office to voting machine vendor, Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) after the recent Special Election here on Nov. 8th. The letter documents a number of very serious problems discovered on ES&S voting equipment during the election. Apparently the SoS threatened ES&S with decertification in the bargain, similar to the one Diebold faced in the state back in 2004 under the previous Sec. of State Kevin Shelley...

In other words, it's none of the voters damned business what problems occurred in their own elections just five weeks ago! And had Williams not discovered the letter, none of the citizens in California, or for that matter States and Counties around the country --- all of whom are making their last minute decisions on which vendors to sign with prior to the Jan 1, 2006 HAVA deadline --- would have ever known about any of these problems with ES&S machinery!

CA State Senator Debra Bowen, who has been a leader in the state on issues of election integrity, was clearly irked upon reading this news, as reflected in this comment she just shared with The BRAD BLOG, asking [emphasis hers]: "WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE BEEN IN THE DARK ABOUT THE PROBLEMS WITH ES&S FOR FIVE WEEKS?"

She went on to call on the SoS to release all pertinent information on these matters in her missive:

As well, she promised to reiterate those concerns with a "formal request" in her official capacity soon.

Yet, there's still more that SoS's office doesn't feel, apparently, that voter's have the right to know. Back to the AP coverage:

Lovely. A device created to be used by touching the screen with ones finger, won't work if fingernails are used. Good thinking!

In all honesty, however, the entire "fingernail" defense from ES&S sounds like a bunch of nonsense to us. Once again, we've got a documented and video-taped report of "Vote Hopping", not unlike the thousands of similar reports that American's testified to back in November of 2004 after the Presidential Election --- only to be dismissed and called "conspiracy theorists" later when they testified to the incidents, and signed official affidavits along with it.

And just a bit more from the article:

We had more on the troubles with the ES&S company --- just in case they were under the impression that Diebold deserved all the BRAD BLOG "love" --- in this previous item.

Between ES&S and Diebold, the two companies currently tally more than 80% of America's votes. They have each been run by two brothers named Urosevich. And while Diebold, Inc. in total, is a larger company than ES&S, the latter is actually a larger provider of Voting Systems and Machinery around the country.

AP's Williams deserves big props her reporting here! So...thank you to her! Please put us out of "business" entirely! And soon if you don't mind!

On further related matters from Sen. Bowen, who is running for Sec. of State in 2006 herself, she's been a rather busy bee of late, even if everyone else in Sacramento has already knocked off for the holidays.

A "Letter to the Editor" of hers was published in today's Tallahassee Democrat down in Florida, lauding Leon County's Ion Sancho for his leadership on the recent Diebold "Hack Test" which revealed that an Electronic Election could be entirely flipped by a hacker without as much as a trace being left behind.

As well, she issued a press release late yesterday spelling out how California's law requiring Voting Machine Companies to place their source code in escrow is virtually identical to the law in North Carolina which Diebold yesterday said they could not abide by and thus stated their intention to withdraw from the state completely. If that was the case in NC, suggests Bowen, then apparently Diebold needs to withdraw from CA as well.

She also states her serious concerns about the so-called "Independent Testing Authority" (not so "independent", they're chosen and paid for by the Voting Machine Vendors, and not so "authoritative" since they seem to rubber-stamp just about anything the companies send to them!) The ITA's are supposed to certify all of this software and hardware on the Federal level. Recently, as Bowen points out, Sec. of State McPherson opted to "punt" the matter of Diebold's hackable memory cards back to the ITA rather than doing what Sancho did; Simply decertify them and their crappy machines once and for all from all further elections!

As her press release on the ITA matters has not yet been published anywhere as far as we know, we offer her our Christmas gift by doing so here, in full, below...Happy Holidays, Senator...We look forward to coming to Sacramento in '07 for your Inaugural as the next California SoS...

The widely-read inside-the-beltway "Hotline" from National Journal notices our series of reports, of late, and seems to recognize (finally) that there may be something rotten in the State of Diebold.

They "assign" further coverage on these matters to Tom Edsall (WaPo), Scott Shane (NY Times), Sharon Theimer (AP), Mark Memmott (USA Today), and Bloomberg News. We'll see who takes them up on it.

Any of the above may feel free to contact me if they'd like to know where a few of the bodies are buried. I'm happy to help. And, otherwise, here's a friendly starter page to help fill you in on on what you missed "while you were out."

For those who have followed the recent yet storied history of Diebold in North Carolina, The BRAD BLOG has just received word that there has been yet one more late-breaking twist! We can now confirm that, in fact, Diebold is removing their company from contention for the lucrative election systems contracts in the state in light of a state law which requires Voting Machine Companies to submit their full source-code to the state for inspection. At least for now.

A letter just obtained by The BRAD BLOG, sent from Diebold to the NC State Board of Elections, confirms that indeed, the company which had previously fought a state law requiring the submission and inspection of their voting equipment's software source code has decided they'd rather quit than fight, and is withdrawing their bid to contract with the state of NC for the time being, pending their ability to convince NC to change their laws!

According to the letter, dated Dec. 20th, 2005 and sent by a Diebold attorney to NC's State Board of Elections Executive Directory, Gary Bartlett, Diebold has decided they cannot comply with the current state law requiring full source code submission. The letter claims that Diebold is prepared to submit their own source code, but not that of third parties which is used by Diebold in their voting systems, including Operating System software and pre-packaged third-party tools.

Diebold, however, in the letter written by attorney Charles R. Owen, and apparently sent via Email on Diebold stationery, says that Diebold "is prepared to work closely with the North Carolina State Board of Elections ('SBE') in drafting a modification" to the law which they contend neither they nor other vendors can meet. It goes on to say that such a modification to the state law would be one "that meets the true intent of the legislature while at the same time imposing reasonable requirements on all vendors that are capable of being met."

Owen adds, however, that they will be "unable to comply with the deadlines imposed by the SBE in addition to the requirements of state law."

-- Here is the full 12/21/05 Letter from Diebold [PDF] to the NC State Board of Elections.

John Gideon, of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA, as well as a frequent Guest Blogger here at BRAD BLOG, received word of this decision not long ago via an email sent from a source in NC:

The email was a follow up to word Gideon received late last night from the source who was reportedly waiting to get "the official word" on the matter.

The back and forth between Diebold, North Carolina, and Election Integrity advocates has been an intense roller-coaster ride over the last several weeks as reported in several BRAD BLOG stories which followed all the various ups and downs.

Several weeks ago, Diebold had attempted to receive an exemption from the state court for submitting their complete source code into escrow. They were denied that exemption by the court and announced that they would therefore be unable to do business with North Carolina. Just a day or so later, the state announced they were going to go ahead and certify Diebold anyway based on a partial submission of source code even though that appeared to violate state law. That became known as the "Immaculate Certification" since it came just a day or so after the Ohio-based company had said they'd submit some of their source code to the state after all. Election integrity advocates had argued that their was no way the state could have complied with state law for inspection of the code in the short between the company's submission, and the states certification. The decision to certify at that point, was apparently led by the former Diebold employee, Keith Long, who had recently left the company to join North Carolina's commission advising the State Board of Elections.

Several days later then, a lawsuit was filed by NC citizen, Joyce McCloy, to challenge the state's decision to certify Diebold, contending that it was done against state law. And now, apparently, even Diebold agrees.

North Carolina passed their new, tougher state elections laws, after at least 4,500 votes were entirely lost in Carteret County on a single electronic voting machine made by UniLect, Inc. during the 2004 Presidential Election.

Where things will go from here, we can only guess. But, as ever, we will do our best to stay on top of the story as it moves forward...or backwards...or sideways...as the case, when dealing with Diebold...may eventually be...

UPDATE: AP now has the story, reports that only one vendor is left in NC willing to meet the state law requirements. ES&S. More more on the problems of ES&S, and a few other remarkable items, see this BRAD BLOG story from earlier today.