Texas' Republican Attorney General has found that there's little or no "voter fraud" of note down there either, despite a promise two years ago, according to the Dallas Morning News, to "root out what he called an epidemic of voter fraud in Texas," and his creation of a special unit which "tapped a $1.4 million federal crime-fighting grant" to expose the election stealing rascals.

For all of his crime-fighting in those two years, across the big Lonestar State, TX AG Greg Abbott has prosecuted just 26 cases, "all against Democrats, and almost all involving blacks or Hispanics," according to the Morning News, most of which resulted in "small fines and little or no jail time."

Additionally, almost all of them (18 of 26) involved mail-in absentee ballots where elderly voters were "illegally" given assistance in mailing their ballots, versus in-person voter impersonation of the type that cynical GOP attempts to mandate draconian polling place Photo ID restrictions are purportedly meant to deter. (In reality, they are meant to deter Democrats from being able to cast their legal ballots, so Republicans can more easily "win" elections.)

Just eight of the 26 prosecuted cases, the Morning News found, out of Abbott's two-year effort, involved any kind of ineligible or manufactured votes --- only 2 actually involved individuals casting fraudulent ballots at the polls, the rest were registration fraud issues --- and none of them revealed any larger conspiratorial scheme meant to effect the results of an election.

In the meantime, critics charge Abbott has been ignoring complaints about Republican election skulduggery, and we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that nobody has bothered to prosecute Republicanist Ann Coulter, for her several demonstrable voter fraud-related felony crimes in Florida despite, dead-to-rights evidence as published by The BRAD BLOG since early 2006.

We'd also like to point out, that in addition to there not being "an epidemic of voter fraud in Texas," there is similarly no such epidemic among space aliens either. Though Ted Rall suggests we may wish to implement some new measures there too...just in case...

[Updated post show with audio archives below, and moving this item up to the top so you're sure to catch the great news, lots of it, that came in late today, as covered live on the show!]

I'll be jumping in for my friend Peter B. Collins to host the last hour of his syndicated radio show tonight at 5pm PT (8pm ET), as he'll be broadcasting from Missoula, Montana, but will be unable to do the final hour of the show, when I'm usually his weekly guest.

So...as my guests this week, splitting the hour, we'll have...

• Journalist STEVEN ROSENFELD from AlterNet, to discuss his excellent reporting of late from the front lines of the "Republican War on Voting" battlefield and the outlook for November 2008.
• Conservative icon RICHARD VIGUERIE to discuss his blistering op-ed yesterday calling for the "immediate resignation" of the GOP leadership in light of what he describes as the "looming disaster" he sees his party facing this fall as "the conservative movement has been set back 10-20 years – possibly even permanently," by George W. Bush, Karl Rove and friends.

We'll also have an update on the latest news from the MO Senate, on its final legislative day, as Republicans there try to push through a disenfranchising Photo ID/Voter-Suppression Constitutional amendment before the November election!

I'll be BradCasting live from the studios of KTLK AM1150 in Los Angeles. Though they don't carry the PBC Show (but should!), I'm much obliged for their assist. If lucky, we'll be coming atcha out of Stephanie Miller's studio, and thus plan to leave behind the wonderful smell of democracy to greet her on Monday morning.

Listen live on air, or via the Internets, and call in with your questions at 888-5-PeterB (888-573-8372)! Or post your questions here in an Open Show Thread and I'll try to notice them while on air!

POST-SHOW UPDATE: Wow...Great news all around! We'll call it Voting Rights Victories Friday! Here's the audio archives from tonight's 3rd hour of the PBC Show!

First up, Mindy Mazur of AmericaVotes.org reports the attempt by the MO GOP Senate to pass a state Constitutional amendment to allow voter disenfranchisement through new, draconian Photo ID and citizenship requirements goes down in flames, as the final day of the MO Senate legislative session ends without a vote on it, due to the outcry against the measure! Great work, guys!

Then Steven Rosenfeld of Alternet.org joins us to break the news that GOP voter fraud zealot Hans von Spakovsky has finally withdrawn his nomination to the FEC, and as if that's not enough, Arizona finally agrees to allow for voter registration at welfare clinics as they are supposed to, under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993!

Finally, the legendary and iconoclastic Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHq.com joins me, as I try to hold his feet to the fire a bit, on conservatism, Rush Limbaugh and even Ronald Reagan. He also says he's "honored and thrilled" to accept the BRAD BLOG "Intellectually Honest Conservative Award" we bestowed him with earlier this week. Feel free to hold my feet to the fire, and let me know how I did.

Broken into two parts, commercials removed for your listening pleasure...

• Mazur & Rosenfeld (appx 19 mins) MP3 download or listen online here...

• Viguerie (appx 23 mins) MP3 download or listen online here...
  

(Apologies for the late archive posting, but I was so pleased by the good news, I went straight out from the studio to celebrate by checking out my old hero's new film.)

By way of late update, MO sources tell The BRAD BLOG that the Republicans' state Constitutional Amendment to require draconian proof of citizenship and photo ID in order to cast a legal vote --- which the MO SoS reports could disenfranchise as many as 240,000 legal Show-Me State voters --- is still likely to come up for a vote today in the MO Senate, as this is the last day of the legislative session before recess.

All eyes were on developments on the floor until the early hours last night, when the Senate was still in session as of 2:30am, even as Columbia Tribune reports there may be attempts to amend the language to make the Constitutional revision more "palatable" by allowing for the disenfranchisement to not take place until 2010, instead of this November.

The Senate session is scheduled to end today at 6pm CT, and we're monitoring the situation. We hope to have an update tonight when we'll be guest hosting the Peter B. Collins Show at 5pm PT (7pm CT ).

Advocates for democracy (small "d") are still urging Missouri residents to call their Senators to ask them to vote NO on HJR48, which could be all the GOP needs to keep the important swing-state in the R column this fall! Here's the details you'll need...

Missourians for Fair Elections has much more, including breaking details, such as the late call just posted from the catholic Sisters of Mercy to oppose this legislation!

Recently related BRAD BLOG stories:

• TAKE ACTION NOW: Thor Hearne and MO GOP Attempt to Rewrite Constitution to Allow Voter Disenfranchisement
• GOP Vote-Suppressor-in-Chief Thor Hearne Deserves a Raise, Gets a Boost from the NYTimes, and Continues His Unapologetic Assault on Nuns, Vets, Students, Hurricane Victims, Married People, the Elderly, and Palsy Victims
• NYTimes Cleanses Thor Hearne's Record, Scrubs Front-Page Reference to the GOP Vote-Suppressor's 'American Center for Voting Rights'

UPDATE 5/16/08: The good guys win one for a change! Measure fails to be passed by the MO Senate before they completed this year's session! Details now here...

[UPDATE: Viguerie joined me as my guest on Friday, 5/16 at 5pm PT when I filled in as Guest Host on the syndicated Peter B. Collins Show during my normal weekly guest slot. You can now listen to that interview online here. - BF]

Another winner for The BRAD BLOG's rarely bestowed, but much sought after "Intellectually Honest Conservative Award."

Today's winner (in actuality, this year's winner, seeing as it's been a pretty dim year so far), conservative icon and author Richard Viguerie, who yesterday called at the "Ultimate John McCain" website for the entire Republican Leadership, from George W. Bush on down, to "resign immediately."

He charges "disaster is looming" following the Republican loss of the third previously "safe" U.S. House seat in a row on Tuesday, in Mississippi's special election where Bush reportedly defeated Kerry 62% to 37% in 2004. AP announced the Democratic candidate Travis Childers the winner of the MS-01 race, in the heart of the "solid South" by a remarkable 54% to 46% thumpin'.

In its wake, Viguerie names names, and declares the entirety of the GOP leadership has "failed --- or outright betrayed --- the conservative voters who put them in their positions...The hard work of the last 50 years by millions of conservative campaign workers, donors, candidates, writers, intellectuals, and activists has been trashed."

"The conservative movement has been set back 10-20 years – possibly even permanently," pens the man once referred to as the conservative "funding father" and creator of political direct mail fundraising. The "party Establishment...has brought the party down," he writes, adding "the party must clean house. The party leadership should resign immediately."

He goes on to say Republican leaders have "nothing" to offer Republican voters and are motivated by "nothing except a craving for power," before concluding with a direct command to the GOP Leadership: "You turned against the principles you once espoused – conservative principles – and, in turn, conservatives and the American people have turned against you. Things will not get better until you accept responsibility, and resign...You have stayed too long. For the future of the Republican Party, for America and the cause of freedom: Go!"

Ouch. Extended, must-read excerpts from his blistering --- and we mean blistering --- rebuke of those who have hijacked his party, follow below...

Now that they've made it as difficult as possible for those pesky 90-year-old nuns to cast votes, it's time to make sure that vets injured and disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan have as difficult a time voting as possible.

The Republican War on Voting, as directed by Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush out of the White House, continues to continue.

The new front: Disallowing registration drives, by non-partisan organizations at Veterans Administration facilities. That, despite an order issued in late April by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they would allow such activity, in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Apparently someone high up (we don't yet know who) found out about that, and ordered an about-face on the previous directive, leading the Veterans Health Administration's Under Secretary for Health, Michael J. Kussman, to announce this week that "Voter registration drives are not permitted" at their facilities, "due to Hatch Act requirements and to avoid disruptions to facility operations."

"The Department of Veterans Affairs has retreated on a recently announced policy to allow voter registration drives at its facilities where veterans' groups and others would assist wounded former soldiers to participate in the 2008 presidential election," writes Steven Rosenfeld over at AlterNet, where he points out that "the Hatch Act restricts political activities by federal employees."

Non-partisan voter registration drives by groups such as the League of Woman Voters, however, can hardly be considered "political activities by federal employees."

Senators such as Feinstein and Kerry, and disabled veterans groups, as you may imagine, are none too happy...

Couldn't find many more on this topic this week. Guess ensuring that legal voters can actually cast their ballot this November isn't all that important. On the other hand, there are dozens of toons this week about that guy who said some stuff and who also happens to know someone that's running for President (to paraphrase Jon Stewart on the Rev. Wright nonsense).

As I've been trying to help people understand, this Indiana polling place Photo ID restriction law, as upheld last week by the Supreme Court, is so much worse than most folks realize right now.

It is, as previously predicted, already beginning to spread like wildfire to other states, such as Missouri, where the Republicans control both legislature and state house, and where even a few thousand legal Democratic votes, shaved cynically off of the results in places like the city of St. Louis next November, can be the difference between the state going "red" instead of "blue."

The following remarkable tale of a U.S. Army vet who has fought in three conflicts for our country, and who has won multiple medals for his service, including two bronze stars, purple heart, etc., who has been registered to vote since 1968, but who is now having a helluva time being able to cast a ballot in Indiana, will likely become all too typical now. The report comes from from the Nuvo weekly in the Hoosier state, and was sent in by BRAD BLOG reader "RC."

It is absolutely maddening, at least to those of us who give a damn about American values, such as democracy, the U.S. Constitution, patriotism, love of country, etc., so it may mean little to the vast majority of Republicans out there today. Please, at least, read the lede to the story below and --- if you're a Republican who supports this anti-American bullshit --- please let us know, in comments, why why this sort of treatment of our troops is okay with you. All of this, despite Indiana's own admission during the SCOTUS hearing, that there has never been, in the state's entire history, a single known instance of polling place voter impersonation fraud of the type this law is supposedly meant to keep from happening...

...Or did they?...

...Well, go figure.

That skill set should come in very handy down there in, of all places, San Diego, where the far-right Republican Board of Supes, and the far-right Republican Registrar of Voters office, have never met a hackable Diebold electronic voting system they didn't love.

I recall "Strider" (Krvaric) and the "Fairlight" boyz from my own C-64 and BBS "warez" swapping days in the late 80's. Those guys, and the other incredibly competitive pirate crews, could crack anything, anytime, usually within minutes after a new piece of software hit the market (and often, even before it did!).

But no doubt, the air-tight, mission-critical, impenetrable security in Diebold's voting systems would be beyond the reach of d00dz like Strider and friends. And, of course, there's far more to gain by a 17-year-old "Strider" cracking the codes of, say, International Karate Plus and Shoot 'em Up Construction Kit than there ever would be for him, as county GOP chair, to hack an election in San Diego, right? I mean, what would possibly be the upside to that?

Miriam Raftery's excellent two-part investigative exclusive for RAW STORY (and for me, at least, a trip down memory lane) is here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

For those wondering what a legally registered voter needs to do to successfully cast a ballot in Indiana --- now that their draconian polling place Photo ID restrictions have been upheld by the Supreme Court --- so that it might be counted, in the event the voter doesn't currently own a state-issued photo ID (no, military ID is not acceptable) we thought we'd offer a handy quick guide.

Note: It doesn't matter if you've voted in every single election for the last 40 or 50 years at the same polling place. Nor does it matter, as Justice Souter pointed out his dissent yesterday, "that the State has not come across a single instance of in-person voter impersonation fraud in all of Indiana’s history." You'll still need to do the following if you don't happen to have an IN drivers license!

Also note: Given the SCOTUS decision, and the nation-wide GOP effort (anywhere they can get away with it) to deny legal, Democratic-leaning voters from being able to even cast a ballot, folks in other states may wish to read the following to get an idea what's likely to be coming your way, as the Republican War on Voting successfully rages on. Please try not to be a causality.

How to cast a ballot in Indiana, if you don't currently have a state-issued ID:

• Find your birth certificate or passport. If you don't have either, you might be able to apply to the state to get a copy of your birth certificate, if you happened to have been born there, for just $12. A passport may cost you $100 (I can't help you get to the place where you'll need to get your photo taken for that.) UPDATE: BRAD BLOG commenter Mary Mancini points out Indiana's requirements for a copy of your birth certificate, require you to have......you guessed it...a Photo ID!

• Get yourself to a Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Don't let the fact that you don't drive, or have a car, or have access to public transportation, as in many counties in Indiana, stop you from getting to the BMV before Election Day.

• Do the above every four years, without fail, or risk not being able to vote like everyone else at the polls in Indiana on Election Day.

If you fail in any step above, don't have the money to afford the necessary documents, or have a religious objection to having your photo taken, do not to worry. Indiana has you covered...

• Figure out how to get to the nearby polling place to vote. (Unlike the BMV, polling places in IN, for the moment, are many. If you're lucky, one will be close enough that you can walk there, presuming the weather in Indiana, say, in November, allows it. Though many will help you get to the polls on Election Day, even if they're not always available to drive you to the BMV at other times of the year.)

• When you get to the polls, and are told you can't vote like everyone else, because you have no state-issued ID, you'll get to vote on a provisional ballot (hopefully, at least that's the law).

• Don't forget to sign the affidavit on the ballot, stating that you are who you say you are, before dropping it into the box, so officials can match your polling place Election Day signature with your voter registration form signature.

But it's not over yet, if you want to get that vote counted somehow! (Having it counted accurately and/or transparently, due to the voting systems used in IN, is largely out of any citizen's hands, at this point.)

• Before 10 days have elapsed after you've voted, you must now go back and figure out how to get your Photo ID still! (see original three steps.) And then...

• Get a ride to the county seat, however far that may be from where you live. Get to the Courthouse there within those 10 days, and then show them your ID as mentioned above, sign yet another affidavit, similar to the one you signed on Election Day at the polling place on your provisional ballot, attesting again to the fact that you are you. And then maybe, just maybe, if that signature is also judged to match your registration, then your vote might be counted.

No, it's not onerous at all. As Scalia and friends noted in their decision [PDF] yesterday, "the burden at issue is minimal," as he sees it. (Though we're guessing he probably owns a state-issued ID already.) So what could those losers on the Supreme Court have been thinking, just 42 years ago, when they struck down a simple $1.50 poll-tax on the grounds that it might keep some voters from being able to cast their legal vote? Silly them.

Welcome to America's brave new modern world. 9/11 changed everything.

"Mondo Joe" at DU came up with the following little gem of a screenshot from Conservadepia, which bills itself as "An encyclopaedia with articles written from a conservative viewpoint" or "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia"...

Hilarious enough on its own. But not one to run something without checking it first, we stopped by the statistics page ourselves last night just to verify it. And while it looks like the "Most viewed pages" have changed slightly, the latest batch of Wingnut faves, as seen in the screenshot below, is no less telling...

Some guy named Patrick Ruffini, at the right-wing Townhall blog of right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt, is using the space to disinform readers as to the reasons for the current shutdown of the FEC. And he's dishonestly misrepresenting a BRAD BLOG article from last year (we're the "left-wing blogger" he links to in his comments below) in order to help fool his presumably gullible readers...

Breaking late tonight on the Cleveland Plain-Dealer's blog comes news that the Summit County, Ohio, Republican Party Chair, Alex Arshinkoff, is being removed from his position on the county Elections Board by Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

According to the report, Boss Arshinkoff has been running the party machine out of the county election office, which even Republican State Senator Kevin Coughlin --- who is currently the first to vie for Arshinkoff's job as party chairman during his 30-year reign --- says has led to his having "abused his power...abused his position [and his having] abused employees at the board to strengthen his grip on the local party apparatus."

Arshinkoff becomes the latest in a series of Board of Elections officials who served under former Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to face either criminal sentences or disciplinary action since Brunner has taken office.

Writes Michael O'Malley and Laura Johnston at the P-D tonight...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Matthew Dowd was the chief strategist of the George W. Bush 2004 presidential election campaign and is currently an ABC News political contributor. Jonah Goldberg is a nationally syndicated conservative columnist, founding editor of "National Review Online," and author of Liberal Fascism. Neither of them knows who is the current Director of National Intelligence.

We don't pretend to fully understand the strange and confusing mechanics of the Iowa Caucuses (the Hawkeye Caucii, as Rush refers to them), nor do we make predictions about the results of such things (Edwards and Huckabee), but BlackBoxVoting.org sent out a missive over the weekend, with some very helpful information about how the Election Integrity aspect of the two respective party caucuses will, or won't, work, along with a the request to forward the info to folks in Iowa.

As the corporate MSM will undoubtedly be watching the horses only as they cross the finish line --- not bothering to notice what their owners and jockies are up to on the way there --- we're happy to help with anything that increases citizen participation and transparency in the process, and empowers citizen vigilance and reporting. So with that, we pass along the following important and interesting info from BBV's Bev Harris...

"Problems and issues with the Iowa Caucuses" --- for both the Democratic and Republican parties, including the lack of precinct-based reporting of tallies, and even an apparently Republican-leaning company who is running one of the Democratic caucus web servers --- "And what every Iowan can do" about it, follow below from the BBV newsletter...

"To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!" brags Kansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach in his end-of-year letter.

Blue Tide Rising has the scoop, along with details on what "vote caging" is, for those who don't know by now. We should note, however, it's not immediately clear from Kobach's letter what exactly he means by his use of the term, and if he's referring to the illegal type of caging or not.

In any case, it's clear that the undemocratic (small "d") practice of working to keep Democratic (large "D") voters off the rolls, through any means necessary, in order to keep them from voting, through any means necessary, has been mainlined as perhaps the top strategy for the GOP in 2008. Even Bush's Dept. of Justice, under the hand of John "Minorities Die First" Tanner, has now been officially mobilized to direct such practices on behalf of the Republican States of America.

For more, see PBS's long-overdue video report from last summer, on the GOP's sordid history of vote caging and the corporate American mainstream media's failure to cover it when it might have mattered.

Plus, Crooks & Liars has details on the piece of work that is this Kris Kobach, a former counsel to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.