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Latest Featured Reports | Friday, October 4, 2024
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All the Trump Rackets: 'BradCast' 10/3/24
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After another climate disaster, climate change finally front and center at VP Debate; PLUS: Ongoing climate disaster Helene, now second deadliest hurricane in modern U.S. history...
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'BradCast' 10/2/24
Special coverage with Heather Digby Parton of Salon, 'Driftglass' of 'Pro Left Podcast'...
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...


By David Edwards on 3/28/2006 7:42am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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President Bush's Chief of Staff Andy Card will be replaced by Josh Bolton, the current Budget Director, who is also part of the President's "inner circle".

This clip begins with an introduction by CNN's American Morning. MSNBC's Imus provides some comic relief as the President begin's his Press Conference. Imus refuses to watch the entire press conference (calling it "insanity"). The video switches back to CNN for Andy Card's comments. In conclusion, NBC White House correspondent David Gregory provides some post-speech analysis.

Read more information about the White House shakeup from AP.

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By David Edwards on 3/28/2006 5:09am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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Prompted by a new report in The New York Times, MSNBC's Hardball takes a fresh look at a history of the Iraq war through the lens of a January 31, 2003 memo detailing a White House meeting between Bush and Blair.

This video begins with a report by David Shuster that weighs possible repercussions of The Memo against the increasing violence in Iraq and President Bush's low standing in the polls.

Chris Matthews interviews writer Phillippe Sands whose recent book, "Lawless World", exposes more pre-war lies. According to The Times, Mr. Sands "is a professor of international law at University College of London and the founding member of the Matrix law office in London, where the prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair, is a partner."

Matthews and Sands take the opportunity to pile on The President. Even Matthews' questions to Sands appear to be clear indictments of The Presidents actions:

MATTHEWSWhat struck me in the memorandum again today was that the President George W. Bush had decided to go to war with Iraq before completing the inspections. Had decided to do so before sending Secretary of State--and a skeptic, I must say--Colin Powell to the United Nations.

What is the significance of that? That he made the decision--as recorded by David Manning who was working for the Prime Minister at the time--before either of those events occurred . The U.N. presentation which was apparently to sell Europe of the fact that there were weapons of mass destruction and the completion of the weapons inspections themselves. Both were not waited for. The President decided before then. So did Tony Blair apparently.

The January 31, 2003 memo is consistent with the July 2002 "Downing Street" Memos where British officials expressed concern that Bush had already decided to go to invade Iraq and that "intelligence was being fixed around the policy" to meet that goal.

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

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Democratic Official Agrees with Republican Governor, Disagrees with Democratic Board of Elections Director...
By Brad Friedman on 3/27/2006 3:29pm PT  

Blogged by Brad from the Road...

Yup, still on the road, and largely "off the grid" for another day or so (with much going on, sorry, I'll catch up soon, I hope! Not even able to check email!) --- but caught this in the carbon-based version of the NY Times this morning. No time for context other than to mention our previous report on Maryland's Republican Governor who wants to see Diebold's paperless touch-screens banned in the state along with the Democratic-majority House which voted a bi-partisan 137 to 0 to ban them recently, along with the Democratic Board of Elections Director, Linda Lamone, who has been fighting for them since Day 1, and still is. Search BRAD BLOG for the links to all of those stories.

Point is, as we've always said, this ain't an issue of Right and Left, it's an issues of Right and Wrong. That said, here's the letter printed in this morning's NY Times (who has been horrendously delinquent in reporting on any of these matters, and still buys into the Voting Machine Company's "it's just glitches" meme)...

Electronic Voting Glitches

To the Editor:

Re "Common Sense in Maryland" (editorial, March 23):

I am the chief Democratic election judge for District 21, Precinct 2, in Prince Georges County, Md. We have used the Diebold AccuVote-TSX machines since the 2002 primary election. From the start they did not encourage confidence in them.

When they were turned on in the 2002 elections, some of them refused to start unless we reseated the memory cards. In the 2002 primary, one of the machines chose to lock up just as the poor voter pushed the "cast ballot" button on the screen. The technician we got in to check the machine insisted that the vote was counted. Then why did we have 30 paper voter authority cards for the machine and only 29 votes recorded?

In the 2004 general election, two of our machines refused to start up. We got in another two machines, and one of them refused to use the electricity from the wall. Its internal battery was not enough to run the rest of the day, so we shut it down. These machines are quality only if you spell quality with a capital K.

Surely the Free State could find a far more reliable replacement than Diebold's TSX machines. The rest of the nation should, too. Preferably one with a good paper trail.

Paul D. Motzenbecker Jr.
University Park, Md.
March 23, 2006

Letters to the Editor --- especially from Elections Officials, but regular old Voters are just as good --- make a difference. Especially to papers like the Times who refuse to properly investigate and report on this stuff! Please write one today!

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AND: Tom Toles Toons Diebold in WaPo Today
By Brad Friedman on 3/26/2006 12:53pm PT  

Blogged by Brad on the Road...

Still on the road and unable to cover anything as usual. So I'll leave it to you guys to comment on the notable details. Had an interesting day/night yesterday at the California Democratic Council Annual Convention, and hope to share some thoughts and perhaps pics with you as time allows in the not-too-distant future. But until then...

Both Washington Post today, and AP yesterday, cover the Ion Sancho story is a fair bit of detail with some interesting responses, as well, from both Diebold and Sequoia (ES&S seems to have refused comment for either story).

WaPo's story in today's A section (page A7) --- headlined "Election Whistle-Blower Stymied by Vendors: After Official's Criticism About Security, Three Firms Reject Bid for Voting Machines" --- focuses on all three companies certified to do business in Florida all now refusing to do business with Sancho.

That story reads nearly identically, to BRAD BLOG's March 8 story on same. Hey, better two-and-a-half-weeks late than never, we suppose. And no, not a nod nor hat tip to BRAD BLOG's coverage. And as our friend Larisa Alexandrovna from RAW STORY points out in her dead-on piece over at HuffPo yesterday, the Mainstream Media is far too good too recognize any lowly "bloggers" in their reporting.

On Saturday, AP covered the Sancho story in great detail as well. Though there's a few more details here, I think I prefer the WaPo story today. Both are worth a read however, particularly since I have no time to cover the deets.

Finally, today's WaPo story in the Sunday paper included a Tom Toles cartoon which, so far, I haven't been able to find online. A kind reader scanned it and sent it to me. It's posted below.

We continue to win this fight...despite the slow and seemingly endless struggle against some forces of evil with a lot of money to back their fight. We may be naive here, but with the truth on our side, we believe we believe David will eventually defeat Goliath.

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By David Edwards on 3/24/2006 11:59am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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We haven't forgotten Fox News' phony 'War on Christmas' where Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson and other Fox personalities attacked anyone or anything that used blasphemous words like "holiday".

Fox is again "fighting for the rights the Christian Majority" with another faux menace: The War on Easter.

Undoubtedly, the "Spring Bunny" will cause the downfall of The Republic.

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By David Edwards on 3/24/2006 8:12am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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Responding to the President's criticism of the media coverage of Iraq, ABC's Nightline, airs the story of an attempt to report on good news in Iraq.

After a day of covering the horrible violence in Iraq, ABC reporter Jake Tapper tried to find some lighter news. The ABC News team decided to cover a new Iraqi sitcom and the challenges of creating comedy for Iraqi television viewers.

The story quickly turned from good news to tragedy and fear as Jake's contact, who was also the head of the entertainment division for Iraqi TV, was murdered during filming.

Jake Tapper concludes the story with these words: "And there went our effort to show comedians trying to make Iraqis smile again. It ended with the funeral of the man who helped us put the story together. A horrible, gruesome, perfect metaphor for daily life in Iraq."

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By David Edwards on 3/23/2006 12:42pm PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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CNN's Showbiz Tonight picked up on an interview Charlie Sheen did for Alex Jones' radio show where Sheen expressed his doubts about the "official" 9/11 story.

Besides Showbiz Tonight, the story has gotten some critical coverage by the New York Post, The Boston Herald and Human Events. Alex Jones' Prison Planet website explains "The mainstream media has finally seen fit to cover Charlie Sheen's comments on 9/11... penning hit pieces that seek to smear Sheen as an unstable crackpot."

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By David Edwards on 3/23/2006 11:18am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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Russ Feingold and Jon Stewart both do a great job in this interview. Videos have been floating around the internet since it aired last night. If you haven't seen it yet then it's worth a look.

Feingold: There is no valid legal basis for this and everybody basically knows it. They're just afraid to stand up to the President. The President needs to hear the voice of Congress and the voice of the American people. You can't make up your own laws.

Stewart: Here's what I like about it... I'm not sure, quite frankly, what censure is. I'm not even sure what a FISA court is. I'm not sure that I feel better that they were looking over the President's shoulder because I don't know much about it but this feels like some attempt at accountability. And that's what I really like about it.

Stewart: Because it seems like the worse you screw up with these guys the bigger the trophy they give you. And I like the fact that you're standing up - even if it's symbolic - that it's an attempt. I appreciate that and I thank you for it.

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By David Edwards on 3/23/2006 7:58am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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Howard Dean filibustered CNN's Soledad O'Brien to push the message that the Democratic Party has an effective strategy for changing the course in Iraq.

While the President Bush and the Republican noise machine are blaming the press, Dean said that the Democrats are having difficulty getting media coverage.

On the plan for Iraq, Dean said "We do believe that we can't withdraw immediately... Over the next couple of years we need to bring the troops home." On the apparent divided opinions of Democrats Dean said "There's a middle ground between Jack Murtha and Joe Biden and we think it makes a lot of sense."

Will the strategy as described by Howard Dean convince American's that the Democrats can get Iraq on track towards a resolution? Should the Democrats come together and support a single specific plan for Iraq?

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By Brad Friedman on 3/22/2006 7:26pm PT  

Heading up to Santa Clara to speak this weekend (see "Media Appearances" section at top of front page, and come on by if you can!) Don't know if I'll be on or offline over the next week. Please assume I'll be off, and don't hold it against me. Need a break anyway. Though knowing me, I won't be gone long. Although I'm happy to leave the messes in TX, IL, CA and elsewhere to John Gideon anyway ;-)

He and David Edwards will be holding down the fort here. Treat them kindly. If anyone needs me, contact John or David and they'll know how to track me down!

And stay outta the liquor cabinet while I'm gone! Seriously, I marked the bottles, and I will be checking them when I get back.

P.S. Don't forget to VOTE FOR US!

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By Brad Friedman on 3/22/2006 1:59pm PT  

We'll have another fairly enormous story shortly concerning the problems, as reported previously, in Tarrant County, TX where some 100,000 votes were incorrectly added to the results of the March 7th primary by ES&S and Hart InterCivic electronic voting machines in use there. For a bit more background on that, see our report on the Hart InterCivic whistleblower who also worked in Tarrant County. He tried, to no avail, to alert the Sec. of State of problems with both Hart and Tarrant as far back as July 2004. His alarming letters, included in the article, were ignored by both the TX Sec. of State and Attorney General.

But until the promised big story out of Tarrant...We received the following email last week after posting the aforementioned report. The writer, Jerry Lobdill, identifies himself as "a retired physicist and system engineer who has specified, designed, tested, and evaluated computing systems for the US Navy for 30 years." He was a supporter of Doreen Geiger who ran in Tarrant County for Democratic Party County Chair. Read Lobdill's note for details of how the Democratic Party seems to have rolled over in Tarrant County on this issue, chosing not to challenge the questionable results from the Hart InterCivic and ES&S machines.

All of which leads the Lobdill to conclude in his note: "Democracy is dead here."

That is, of course, particularly troubling considering the TX Sec. of State halted a recount in Tom Green County yesterday when the printed results differed from the reported results from Election Night by as much as 20%.

Lobdill's email follows in full...

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

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Electronic Voting Machine Vendor is accused of doing the work of three men, 'Larry, Curly, and Moe'
After 30% Failure Rate of Memory Cards Revealed, Still More Problems Surface...
By John Gideon on 3/22/2006 8:51am PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Summit County has recently had problems with failed memory cards as related by BRAD BLOG on March 9 and March 10. The problems in Summit County concerned a 30% failure rate found in pre-election testing for those cards. That problem alerted folks in North Carolina to test those same cards on their own ES&S machines where they discovered last week that more than 1000 of them failed to work!

Now that those problems have been in the media (Yes, even the MSM has reported the problems) the vendor has decided to not be cooperative with Summit County, OH.

The ES&S on-site project manager was not allowed by the company to attend a board of elections meeting to explain why there were problems with memory cards. Board members have also complained that ES&S staffers installing the system have suddenly become cold and getting any information is "like pulling teeth".

The Akron Beacon Journal also reports on other problems the board is having:

Delays in getting copies of the May 2 primary ballots to proofread, which has resulted in the board missing the date on its timeline for ordering ballots from the printer.

``They won't give us the opportunity to proofread the ballot,'' [Board Director] Williams said. He explained that the board, working in teams of Democrats and Republicans, routinely triple-checks the rotation of names on the ballots, but ES&S won't provide copies of the ballot to do that.

[Board Deputy Director] Donofrio said in early copies the rotation --- the order in which the candidates' names appear on the ballot --- was incorrect.

Williams said ES&S' attitude has been that the extra checking ``was not necessary,'' but the problems the board had with the company's performance have proven that it is.

He said the board hoped to order the ballots on Monday. ``We'll be lucky to have them ordered by the end of the week,'' he said.

However, that does not mean that ballots will not be printed in time for the May 2 election.

And in addition:

ES&S staffers, while training local poll workers, have actually broken three handicapped voting machines when they inserted the memory cards incorrectly.

Donofrio said she intends to ask the company to replace the broken equipment.

[Republican Board member] Arshinkoff accused ES&S of ``doing the job of three men --- Larry, Curly and Moe.''

``This is inexcusable. I think ES&S has failed in their capacity as a vendor. If this doesn't work in the May primary, we're going to have to make real hard choices,'' he said.

Meanwhile, SoS Ken Blackwell's office has, in effect, just shrugged their shoulders and said that they hope both sides can get along and adhere to their obligations. Of course it was Ken Blackwell who chose ES&S as the vendor for Summit County.

We will be sure to keep an eye on this situation and report back when there is more to pass on.

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By David Edwards on 3/22/2006 7:01am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

WARNING: This video contains graphic images.


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A video tape uncovered by Time Magazine showing evidence of an attack on Iraqi civilians in Haditha has renewed human rights calls for investigations into possible war crimes by the U.S. military. The Pentagon announced that 12 Marines were under investigation for the deaths shown in the video tape.

The video in this post has a BBC report on the U.S. military investigation as well as reports from the point of view of Arab television.

Here are some details from a March 21 AP report:

(AP) A videotape taken by an Iraqi shows the aftermath of an alleged attack by U.S. troops on civilians in their homes in a western town last November: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.
...
The video, obtained by Time magazine and repeatedly aired by Arab televisions throughout the day, also showed bodies of women and children in plastic bags on the floor of what appeared to be a morgue. Men were seen standing in the middle of bodies, some of which were covered with blankets before being placed in a pickup truck.

The images were broadcast a day after residents of Haditha, 140 miles west of Baghdad, told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

Last week, the U.S. military announced that a dozen Marines are under investigation for possible war crimes in the Nov. 19 incident, which left at least 23 Iraqis dead in addition to the Marine.

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By David Edwards on 3/22/2006 5:04am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


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Last night on CNN Anderson Cooper 360, Rep. John Murtha reacted to comments made by President Bush during a rare press briefing. Responding to a reporter's question, Mr. Bush let it slip that all U.S. troops would not be removed from Iraq for the duration of his Presidency.

This is a short video clip of Murtha's response (transcript) in which he says:

I don't know how to believe this president or this administration. There's been so much mischaracterization, so many misstatements, so --- so --- it's just on and on and on, the rhetoric vs. the reality. And --- and it's just so confusing. I --- I don't have a clue who is accurate. They have --- they have --- they have not been accurate about anything they have predicted so far.
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And This is Before They've Even Started Counting the Results...
By Brad Friedman on 3/21/2006 11:57pm PT  

The second Primary Election night of the year, this time in Illinois. As predicted --- following on the heels of the various disasters two weeks ago in the primary in Texas (with much more news to come on that, by the way) --- the first reports out tonight begin to outline the latest raft of problems throughout the day on the newly deployed Electronic Voting Machines in the state.

Also as predicted, the problems are minimized as "glitches", and here in the first sentence no less. The word is used a total of three times throughout the Chicago Tribune's "High-tech voting hits snags" article quoted below.

These "glitches", mind you, are just those reported so far. And only the one that occurred on Election Day itself...the counting problems have yet to reveal themselves. But they soon will.

You've heard it here first, but based on the various disasters in just the first two Election Nights of 2006, it sure as hell looks like we're headed towards an E-meltdown with our Electoral System --- And at this rate, it's coming well before we make it to the Generals in November.

Here's just a few of the "glitches" and "snags" as reported by the Chicago Tribune (apparently, they're reserving "hiccups" and "snafus" for the follow-up articles.) These before Elections Officials and Voting Machine Vendors (this time, mainly from Sequoia Voting Systems) send out their Damage Control Goons. Take a look and decide for yourself how "minor" the problems are...

As election officials closed the polls Tuesday evening, reports of glitches from throughout the day continued as both voters and election officials learned how to deal with a new, high-tech voting system in Chicago and suburban Cook County.
...
"It was easier to worry about hanging chads," said Daniel Fore, an election judge in Oak Park's Barrie Center polling place.
...
In the past few elections, officials said, they have typically been able to report results from more than 90 percent of precincts within an hour of the polls closing. They refused to predict how long the count would take this year, though they stressed it may take several hours more.

At Lowell Elementary School on the city's Northwest Side, the only touch-screen voting machine was locked up around 6 p.m. It had been that way since about 4:30 p.m. after a voter tried to use it and the message: "Election verify. Please wait" appeared on the screen.

"We're not planning to use the machine any more," said election judge Julio Vargas. "What can we do other than vote the old fashioned way?"
...
City and county officials said they were dealing with glitches as they arose.
...
Voters from the North Shore to the South Side reported that selected touch-screen voting machines weren't working, and said they also encountered problems with new, oversized, optical-scan paper ballots.

Around the county, vital internal switches weren't flipped, power cords were missing or misplaced, audio equipment for blind voters was not installed or did not work properly, and the new touch-screen machines malfunctioned.
...
On the city's South Side, only Republican ballots registered on the optical scanner at the Providence of God Early Learning Center, 1814 S. Union St.

"It's a landslide," Republican election judge David Masak said, trying to diffuse the situation with humor. "As of right now, I can tell you we are officially the only precinct in Chicago that is going 100-percent Republican."

That was at midday. The good humor melted away after four visits from elections officials failed to make the scanner work.
...
Electronic woes plagued other polling stations.

Read on...It gets worse...

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

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About Brad Friedman...
Brad is an independent investigative
journalist, blogger, broadcaster,
VelvetRevolution.us co-founder,
expert on issues of election integrity,
and a Commonweal Institute Fellow.

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...And is featured in these documentary films...

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