We weren't going to bother with the John Roberts nomination at all. After all, if the Dems had given a damn about it, they should have thought of that last November and December and January when their leadership didn't feel that the Presidential Election --- which they had most likely won --- was worth fighting for. They knew that anywhere from two to four seats on the Supreme Court would be opening up this Presidential term, but they and Senator No Surrender were apparently too chickenshit to fight for what was likely rightfully theirs.

So this Supreme Court nomination battle now was just a little too little, a little to late as far as we were concerned.

But now, it's being reported today that Roberts was a foe of the Voting Rights Act. Whoops, he's just ticked us off too, in that case!

According to today's New York Times, Roberts was ardently against Congressional plans "to extend - and strengthen" the Voting Rights Act of 1965 back in the 80's when he worked for the Reagan Administration. That extension eventually passed in the House by a 389 to 24 margin in 1981.

We'd suggest folks listen to Lewis. He was there on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 and still has the dents in his skull to show for it. (And actually you can listen to both Lewis himself and Congressional Aide Burton Wides, who helped write much of the VRA legislation from 1970 on up through today --- on this Saturday's Special Edition of The BRAD SHOW to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the VRA on August 6th.)

The Times piece goes on to note:

In response, DNC Chair Howard Dean issued the following statement today:

So will the Dems really show up to fight this time? For some reason, we're not holding our breath.

As mentioned, this Saturday is the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Rainbow/PUSH is holding a huge march and rally in Atlanta. If you're anywhere near, please get there. We hope to have a live report from the rally on this Saturday's show from BRAD BLOG perennial, Kira! But we'd also love to hear from anybody else who attends!

If you haven't noticed yet, it should be a spectacular SPECIAL EDITION of The BRAD SHOW celebrating Saturday's 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act!

CURRENTLY SCHEDULED GUESTS TO INCLUDE...

PLUS! If the Radio & Democracy Gods are with us...

Also...

Give us a call Saturday Night at 323-650-1286! Listen in via www.BradShow.com and join along in the LIVE Open Thread here at BRAD BLOG during the show!

See ya then! And feel free to VOTE FOR US by leaving any of your extra change in the tip jar!

Is the pressure starting to get to Covert CIA Operative Outter Bob Novak?

For reasons we can't entirely explain, Novak just said "Bullshit" live on the air on CNN and then walked off the set.

The host for the segment said that Novak knew in advance he was going to be asked about the outing of covert CIA asset, Valerie Plame. Apparently, he never got the chance. Here's the video...

UPDATE: AP has just reported that CNN has suspended Novak "indefinitely" after today's bizarre episode!

ANOTHER UPDATE: In a newspaper column today, Sen. Arlen Specter accuses Novak of defamation in a completely different matter. It was not a good day for The Prince of Darkness...

How many of those media outlets which ran uncritically with the ACVR's phony election propaganda/press release do you suppose will also run this one?

Also, Digby has some appropriate words on the Republican "ratfuckers" of the American Center for Voting Rights UnAmerican Center Against Voting Rights.

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.

The punks at ACVR and their useful idiots in the Wingnut Blogosphere and lazy Corporate Media have waylaid us from our hopes of looking into the latest GOP Election Miracle in Ohio last night.

Billmon, however, seems to have gotten off to a fine start. We recommend his analysis, even while we wonder at the amazing coincidences of computers breaking down in the final moments of vote tallying, and then returning with just enough "fresh" votes to flip the numbers prior to the breakdown and resulting in the desired GOP outcome.

As we say, we know it's merely a coincidence that this sort of thing happened again last night in Ohio almost exactly as it did last November. In Ohio. And we know that the resultant 2 to 4 percent margins of victory are coincidences as well. Coincidences that Democrats would be well advised to get used to as long as most of them are willing to do nothing about it.

Nonetheless, this might be a nice time to ask again: "Who is Clint Curtis?"

UPDATE: We're reminded by the good Joe Cannon, in regard to the late-night Clermont County, OH tallies which --- after a brief and unexplained "computer failure" --- ended up flipping the final results to Schmidt at the last moment that Larisa Alexandrovna filed a related report last January on whistleblowers who claimed that stickers were placed illegally on ballots during the Ohio Presidential Recount in Clermont. Our own interview with two of those whistleblowers, Stephen Spraley and Eric Gifford, on The BRAD SHOW several weeks ago is available for via the the Archives in the 5/14/05 section, HOUR 2.

Perhaps if Diebold spent more on engineering, and less on "bribing" Elections Officials and buying off Lobbying Groups for the Blind, they'd be in better shape.

Updating our previous report on the rejection of Diebold in the state of California by Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPhereson after some 10% of Diebold's touch-screen voting machines reportedly froze or jammed in a mock election recently, it now seems that the failure rate was actually twice as high.

As reported by the Tri-Valley Herald:

(Hat tip John Gideon of VotersUnite.org)

From Editor & Publisher...

What real Voting Rights advocates look like:

What phony, cynical, loathesome, America and democracy-hating "Voting Rights advocates" look like:

Thanks, by the way, to NEWSWEEK for bothering to recognize that this month is the 40th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma/Montgomery March...which led directly to the Voting Rights Act, signed into law 40 years ago this coming Saturday. The photo at the top of the real Voting Rights advocates was taken on Bloody Sunday in Selma, 1965. We wonder if the cretins from the "American Center for Voting Rights" even know what happened that day. Or if they give a shit.

(NOTE: We hope to present Special Coverage of the milestone on this Saturday's BRAD SHOW)

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.

It's likely you'll be able to find more Rightwing nut jobs out there who couldn't wait to run the phony propaganda issued yesterday by the sham "American Center for Voting Rights" than we have. But as expected, the same knuckleheads who called for Dan Rather's head for shoddy reporting and who choke themselves every day claiming "Liberal Media Bias!" have been all to pleased to run with the garbage that the ACVR released yesterday.

The good Jesse Taylor at Pandagon points out just a few of the wingnut suckers who are apparently unable to type a single word into Google or find within themselves an ounce of critical thought before they must run to their keyboards and re-type horseshit simply because they found it on the Internets and it fits squarely with their uneducated hopes and dreams:

Captain Ed of the Wingnut Ship/Blog calling itself "Captain's Quarters" fell for it as well, though even after being told what a chump he's been played for, he still seems to have trouble admitting when he's wrong. Like "President" like Blogger, we guess.

The jackass Steve Bowers, "Senior Editor" at "Pardon My English," trips over himself to write a long item entitled "REPORT DOCUMENTS MASSIVE DEMOCRATIC VOTER FRAUD" in which he uncritically creams in his pants at everything he's read in ACVR's scam "368-page report". The masterful conclusion of what he describes as "Part one of a two part series":

We can't wait for "part two." Will it be titled "BLOG ITEM EXPOSES STEVE BOWERS AS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL HORSE'S ASS"?

The "Editor", Jason Saine, of "NCRumors" also fell happily for it. But at least that site has the decency to call itself for what it is, a site full of rumors. We'd expect nothing less from its "Editor".

Now citizen bloggers likely have an excuse for being non-journalistic dopes. Just because they call themselves "Senior Editor" doesn't mean they actually have a clue what journalism means. But what of the actual journalistic dopes that fell for it as well?

Arizona Republic was one of them, though to their credit they seem to have now removed the report they ran uncritically on their website yesterday. (Don't know if it ran in their carbon-based edition or not). Thanks to Steve M. of "No More Mister Nice Blog" for noticing and bothering to inform his readers rather than simply pass on unconfirmed garbage as is the wont on the Right.

News Channel 5 of Cleveland, OH, however, ran the story and it's still running! Apparently, they simply cut and pasted the ACVR nonsense about Cleveland being the "#5 Election Fraud 'Hot Spot'" onto their website and called it "reporting."

So what's their excuse?

Daniel Rubin of Philadelphia Inquirer's "Blinq" blog, fell similarly brain-dead in giving "ink" and free publicity to the ACVR this morning. Rubin, who describes himself as a "reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1988, except from 2000 to 2003, when I was Knight Ridder's European correspondent, based in Berlin," ought to know better, but apparently not. Rubin advises his readers to "Forget Ohio" as he takes the bait...or as he calls it "Election Cheese"

No, Dan. We won't. Neither will we forget you.

(UPDATE: Rubin writes to suggest that we're "nuts" because we failed to mention his link to our ACVR Special Coverage page which received a cursory mention in his blog item. He is correct in that we read his item too fast to notice the quick link, and we apologize for that. Nonetheless, we'll stand behind our criticism of his uncritical coverage/repetition of ACVR's charges and the tremendous publicity he has afforded to the snake-oiled sheisters who cynically created the hoax organization. We hope he'll soon give a similar amount of "ink" to the real evil operatives who need to be called out in this matter for the good of our democracy.)

Then there is the Cybercast News Service which, as expected, ran the ACVR crap virtually as is. CNS, of course, is a phony Rightwing extremist "News" organization who actually covered the ACVR scam after we broke the story here originally. But after the reporter who was assigned to write it filed a report which backed up the original BRAD BLOG reporting, her story was re-written so that she didn't even recognize it when it was posted online to CNS (and subsequently carried at phony GOP "News" sites like GOPUSA, Townhall.com, etc.)

All of which is little surprise, of course, since as we noted in our original article on CNS:

We recommend you click on all of the articles and blogs linked in this item, and leave comments (at least on the sites that allow it) letting the bloggers know how you feel about their credibility. Feel free to point them to any of our ACVR reports, or our master index of Special Coverage on ACVR at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR. Yes, it's important to correct the record before their noise allows "conventional wisdom" to set incorrectly into place.

As to "News" Channel 5 of Cleveland, OH, their contact info is here:

Mailing Address: 3001 Euclid Avenue; Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Phone: (216) 431-5555

News Managers:newsmanagers@wews.com
Web News Staff:nn5news@newsnet5.com
Station Comments:feedback5@newsnet5.com

NewsNet5.com Staff
Colleen Seitz, Executive Producer: colleen@newsnet5.com
Darlene Dunn, Senior News Editor: darlene@newsnet5.com
Becky Sabo, News Editor: rsabo@newsnet5.com

Or, nn5news@newsnet5.com; feedback5@newsnet5.com; colleen@newsnet5.com; darlene@newsnet5.com; Email">rsabo@newsnet5.com?BCC=T...dBlog@cville.com\">Email them all at once here...

Go make noise.

UPDATE: Kudos to John Cole of the the right-leaning blog, "Balloon Juice" for calling the ACVR Report for what it is. In his words, it's "Bullshit". Thanks for being an intellectually honest conservative, Mr. Cole. There are far too few of you left in your once grand old party.

Also, kudos to Mark of "Relentlessly Optimistic" for pointing out that at least 26 "Conservative" blogs now have egg on their unabashed faces, and broken links to show for it after breathlessly linking to the now removed Arizona Republic coverage of the ACVR sham report:

FURTHER UPDATE: Another American democracy-hater who deserves particular notice is "Lee" of "Right Thinking from the Left Coast". He couldn't wait to make an utter asshole of himself after he read ACVR's garbage and ran to his keyboard to breathlessly advise his readers in an item titled "The Truth Comes Out":

Of course, his link was to the now disowned/removed "story" from Arizona Republic. You think "Lee" will feel like admitting what a pathetic, embarrased "maggot Republican" he is? Somehow, we doubt it. The "Truth" is very subjective and not to the taste of all readers in Wingnut Land apparently.

FURTHER UPDATE STILL: Steve M. points out that Washington Times (not a surprise) is also running the story. Not that we ever expected actual journalism from that particular White House Organ.

FURTHER FURTHER UPDATES STILL STILL: We neglected to mention Joe Gandelman's coverage of all of this at "The Moderate Voice" in my initial piece. Gandelman covered the initial ACVR report nonsense, but then quickly did some footwork upon realizing that he'd been had. He made a tremendous effort to cover for his initial lapse in judgement in running with the report, and apologized profusely and correctly for the error (even though you can tell he really wanted that report to be true! But we'll not quibble with a gentleman who has enough honor to cop to a mistake and understand what credible reporting actually means.) To that end, our apology for not mentioning Joe's work earlier in this matter. We should have. But as the shit was flying, his piece was mistakenly overlooked. And it should not have been.

On the other end of the spectrum, unfortunately, we still have the desperate Captain Ed of "Captain's Quarters" who just can't stand that he's been played for a sucker. The Cap'n is still doing everything he can to try and cover his ass. He's failing. We're sure that Iraq is going great too! The Captain, it seems, has finally noticed the ACVR's inclusion of "Democrat" Brian Lunde in yesterday's ACVR Press Releases.

NOTE TO THE CAPTAIN: Ahoy Matey! Perhaps you didn't notice, but the Press Releases for that ACVR report was the first time Lunde has ever showed his face as having anything to do with ACVR during their short, discredited history. The inclusion of a phony quote from Lunde in a Press Release (the same quote re-written for each of six different press releases), hardly makes this group "non-partisan". For details on his phony quote --- which we guess you couldn't find in all your hours of research --- can be found here, in our original report from yesterday. There, that wasn't so hard was it? You'll also find that Lunde has been working hard with both Karl Rove and as well the business interests Lunde represents which support Bush Administration policies. That said, I haven't gotten comment from Lunde yet on if he even realizes he's attached to this report, or if he's even aware of what the ACVR's short but sordid history is. Have you? OVER AND OUT, CAPTAIN!

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.

All graphics taken from screenshots of WCPO.com's Special Election Results page throughout the night:

In regard to my last report on the flurry of disinformation spewed forth today from the phony "Voting Rights" group calling themselves the "American Center for Voting Rights", John Gideon of the excellent --- and truly non-partisan --- VotersUnite.org group wrote to me wondering if this AP report from Virginia on Mark Dougerghty, the Republican Mayor who was tossed from office and recently indicted on 37 counts of election fraud during his recent re-election bid was included in ACVR's latest report propaganda paper.

The answer, likely to nobody's surprise, is no. There was no mention of the incident in the ACVR's comprehensive report cynical, transparent and subjective cherry-picking of "vote fraud" related incidents and rumors from 2004. The entire Virginia page of the report mentions only one matter: A Nader campaign worker who apparently plead guilty to "signing candidate petitions before a notary that he did not personally circulate, a violation of state law." No other voter fraud or election apparently occured in the state.

Don't even get me started on their pathetic Ohio page, which lists a sum total of four organizations who, the ACVR reports, engaged in some sort of voter registration malfeasance. All of the organizations named, natch, are Dem-leaning groups. Not a single mention of any GOP malfeasance in the Buckeye state, nor a single case of actual vote fraud by anybody. Not one. Perhaps that's because "Of 9,078,728 votes cast in Ohio in 2002 and 2004, only four were fraudulent," according to a June '05 report from Cleveland Plain Dealer. Election fraud, on the other hand, and massive voter disenfranchisment didn't exist according to ACVR's scam report.

For example, while ACVR Exec Director and GOP Operative "Thor" Hearne discussed Kerry campaign workers as attempting to mislead voters as to when Election Day was in the testimony he presented under false pretenses to the U.S. House Administrative Committee last March (proudly displayed in video on ACVR's own website), they seem to have forgotten to include actual evidence like this (courtesy of FreePress.org's book, Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election: Essential Documents) show just one of the myriad of dirty tricks perpetrated by GOP operatives in Ohio last year:

Nonetheless, as per the plan, Rush Limbaugh reportedly was making good use of ACVR's disinformation campaign on his radio show today, and his current homepage points to the ACVR press release claiming Philadelphia as the nation's "#1 Election Fraud 'Hot Spot'.

Mission Accomplished, ACVR!

But make no mistake. As incidious as these evil ACVR democracy haters are, they have a very clear and transparent purpose above and beyond deflecting from the real malfeasance that occured during Election 2004 which allowed George W. Bush to appear to be victorious. Their real work is to continue the massive disenfranchisement of American Voters by pounding the phony "Voter Fraud" drum in order to give credence to their call for Photo ID requirements at the polls.

Photo ID, of course, would disenfranchise still millions more American voters since the elderly, minority groups and urban dwellers --- overwhelmingly Democratic voters, in other words --- also disproportionately do not have Photo ID's and would thus be disallowed from voting in upcoming elections.

Hearne, from his "non-partisan" post at the ACVR, still sits on the Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission's "Advisory Panel" where he continues to manipulate the sham committee to ensure their final recommendations will include Photo ID and National Computerized Voter Databases which can be easily gamed to achieve the desired results anywhere in the country.

"Thor" Hearne and Jim Dyke may be unabashedly evil and transparent in their loathing of fair and transparent democracy in America. But they are clever charlatans who know how to get the black-bag job done for their GOP paymasters. And until Democrats wake up and realize the depths to which their opponents will sink to manipulate and/or steal elections, they will continue to lose one after another to these guys. Wake up DNC!

Don't believe me? Take a look at OH-2's Special Election for the U.S. House of Representatives, the results of which were posted just moments ago.

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.

In a massive new attempt today to disinform the American Voting Public and sidetrack the true bi-partisan Election Reform movement in this country, the phony "voting rights" group --- calling themselves deceptively "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) --- issued a new report today charging that Democrats were "Far More Involved In Voter Intimidation And Suppression In 2004."

{UPDATE 5/15/07: Since the ACVR has now disappeared from view in the wake of the U.S. Attorney purge, and their website has been taken off line, the report referenced above is now available here via the Internet archives instead. For the historical record.}

Five different heavily Democratic-leaning cities were cited in each of six different Press Releases issued at once via US Newswire within the last hour as being amongst the "top Election Fraud Hotspots" in the country. The sixth Press Release was focused on pushing the ACVR propaganda claim: "Democrat Operatives Far More Involved In Voter Intimidation, Suppression In 2004".

The deceptively-self-described "non-partisan" ACVR, as previously exposed in a series of exclusive articles on The BRAD BLOG, is a Republican front group created by high-level GOP operatives expressly for the purpose of spreading disinformation to sidetrack the Election Reform movement in this country.

Both of ACVR's main players continue to be tied to the upper echelons of the GOP and are longtime Republican partisan operatives. Executive Director Mark F. "Thor" Hearne, has been a backroom player for years in the Missouri and national GOP parties and was most recently the National General Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc. Their Press Spokesman Jim Dyke was the RNC Communications Director during the 2004 election responsible for arranging to have operatives dress up in "Flipper" costumes at John Kerry election events.

Though they claim to be "non-partisan" and enjoy tax-exempt status as a 501(c)3 organization, they have never shared their 501(c)3 paperwork with The BRAD BLOG as requested (and as they had promised many months ago) despite what we understand is a legal requirement to do so.

Hearne was called to testify as an "expert witness" at a House Administrative Committee Hearing on the Ohio election just days after the creation of the phony group. The ACVR was the only such "Voting Rights" group called to participate in the hearings. Hearne misrepresented himself at those hearings only as a "longtime voting rights advocate," saying nothing about his ties to Bush/Cheney and the Republican Party. The hearings were chaired by Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who is himself now under investigation for various alleged ethics violations.

We're on the move today, so haven't yet gotten to plow through the ACVR's full report, but in an onslaught of Press Releases today, the ACVR is clearly attempting to get the message out that it's Democrats, not Republicans, who primarily engage in "Election Fraud".

Ironically, they identify "non-partisan" (yes, they use the quotes!) groups such as ACORN as inappropriately registering Democratic voters. And though the ACVR report is identified in each of the Press Releases as "the most comprehensive and authoritative review of the facts surrounding allegations of vote fraud, intimidation and suppression made during the 2004 presidential election" there are no references to the thousands of well-known allegations of Republican intimidation and vote-suppression around the country or the Voter Registration forms collected and destroyed by groups tied to Republican Operative Nathan Sproul and Associates. Those registration forms --- from Democratic voters only --- were alleged to have been shredded in key swing states including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Oregon and Nevada.

This article from Boston University's Daily Free Press, amongst many others, details the many charges against Sproul and Associates and the phony "non-partisan" Voter Registration groups he set up around the country. Sproul was paid millions by Team Bush and attempted to hide it according to the Baltimore Chronicle and several other reports, and is the subject of a criminal investigation related to these matters in the state of Oregon. Much more on Sproul & Associates is available here.

No reference to Sproul or the many dirty tricks said to have been conducted by groups he organized are mentioned in any of the ACVR Press Releases today.

One new tactic of the ACVR's revealed in the flurry of Press Releases, is the addition of quotes from "ACVR Legislative Fund board member" Brian Lunde who was a DNC Executive Director at one point apparently. Press Reports, however, reveal Lunde as having worked closely with Bush Political Operative, Karl Rove and having represented several big business organizations which are supportive of Bush Administration initiatives.

The Press Releases, one each for the five so-called "Election Fraud 'Hot Spot'" cities, each quote Lunde as saying the same thing, but change the city referred to by Lunde in the quote.

For example, in the Release on St. Louis, claimed the "No. 3 Election Fraud 'Hot Spot'", Lunde is quoted as saying:

The city is then replaced in the Press Release on Seattle, claiming the city to be the "No. 3 Election Fraud 'Hot Spot' in America":

The other three Press Releases referring to the top "Election Fraud 'Hot Spots'" have the same quote from Lunde, changed only to refer to the city in question: Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Cleveland.

A Washington Post article from 2003 identified Lunde as working closely with Bush political director/operative Rove:

As mentioned, because we are traveling this afternoon, we've not yet had time to try and reach Lunde for comment. However, Dyke's phone number is given on each press release as 843-532-1192 for those who may have any questions.

The ACVR's homepage where their report, and several other pages of appalling disinformation is available is at www.AC4VR.com.

This Saturday is the 40th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act. No doubt, today's reports and press releases were meant to coincide and continue the gross insult that the American Center for Voting Rights represents to the true Voting Rights activists in this country, many of whom have given their lives in support of such rights over the past century.

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.

As George W. Bush continues his dangerous and unprecedented expansion of Executive Branch power over all others, we thought you might appreciate a reminder of who he has just recess-appointed as Ambassador to the United Nations.

See our previous report --- including a stunning short video --- of Crazy Man John Bolton.

(Video linked above courtesy of the fine folks at OldAmericanCentury.org!)

We've been (mostly) quietly watching the situation in Ohio blow up in slow motion over the last several weeks/months.

The "CoinGate" scandal there has been the touchstone of Campaign Finance/Money Laundering scandals which is spreading like a cancer across the entire state; from "Mr. Republican" Thomas Noe, who angled his way into mis-managing a $50 million piece of the State Workers Pension Plan via his own personal exceedingly risky investments in rare coins --- millions of dollars from which have now disappeared --- through the Republican Governor Taft's own office and even the Ohio Supreme Court itself, both of which are all now being implicated through the spidering tentacles of this extraordinary state-wide scandal.

But what is known so far appears to be just the tip of an incredibly rotten iceberg.

Mixed metaphors aside, the scandal in Ohio is far from isolated to the state only. Noe's influence as a Bush-Cheney "Pioneer" contributor and his reach into and out of the pockets of GOP Officials (elected and otherwise) all around the country is still bubbling towards the top, and promises to be at least as stunning as the current Karl Rove "TreasonGate" investigations.

After several months as we've been keeping the corner of our eye on the scandal, the story of Noe's wife Bernadette and her complicity in helping to game the November '04 elections is finally making its way to the top of the filthy brewing pot.

RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna today has some stunning revelations --- based on a newly obtained memo from a Blackwell investigation --- in what is likely just the first salvo exposing Ms. Noe's personal role in this growing GOP cancer.

In her dual role as chairman of the Lucas County, OH Republican Party and the Lucas County Board of Elections, it now appears that Ms. Noe was one of the key players in the Ohio Republican Party's proven gaming/likely theft of the 2004 Presidential Election in the state via her BoE's "gross failures" to secure ballots, voting machines and the manipulation of the Green/Liberatarian-requested recount which followed the election.

And yes, at least one Diebold employee was present on the scene throughout all of the shenanigans.

The RAW STORY Exclusive is a must read, filled with remarkable details. As well, it's accompanied this morning by a request to the Dept. of Justice from John Conyers (D-MI) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) to appoint a Special Prosecutor in the matter to replace the current DoJ-appointed Prosecutor Gregory White.

White, as it turns out --- himself a partisan operative and friend of Gov. Taft and Karl Rove's --- is in no way "independent" in the matter. The letter from Conyers and Kapture explains in detail, the several personal conflicts of interest that White has across the entire case.

There will be more on this matter to come from several different angles. Though it all begins in Ohio, it will be little surprise to regular BRAD BLOG readers to find that it will soon reach out far and wide, in several different directions, across the country.

Stay tuned...

P.S. For a hint at just some of the further dots to be connected, see Bob Fritakis and Harvey Wasserman's recent article from Columbus Free Press. They add many details to the complex case, though it can be tough to follow since there are so many corrollaries. The second half of the article, however, speaks directly to the Ohio/Noe/Lucas County connections to Bush/Cheney and the November '04 Election.

Save the world while I'm otherwise occupied. Thanks!

(Hope to have the archives to last night's BRAD SHOW up within the next 24-48 hours! Lots of great stuff if you missed --- even if I say so myself