Late last year we wrote about the email exchanges between GOP uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and associates describing their strategies for using Christian "wackos" at the polls. They were playing them for chumps.

Now, a former Bush Administration official from the White House's "Faith-Based Initiatives" office reveals further how Bush and the Republicans in power did little more than play their Christian Evangelical supporters as suckers who they could trick into turning out to the polls.

In the book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, author and former Bush official David Kuo, a real Christian and conservative, explains how Karl Rove referred to their so-called Christian "Values Voters" as "the nuts," "out of control," and "just plain goofy."

Tucker Carlson spoke about the "pure contempt" that the Republicans actually have for the Christian base recently on The Chris Matthews Show (short video here). MSNBC ran a longer segment detailing the explosive revelations found during their exclusive look at the new book (video at RAW STORY).

We realize this item came out a day or two ago, but we think it's worth pointing more attention towards.

So will you dyed-in-the-wool far right Christian voters fall for the same trick again this November by supporting candidates who loathe you and are using you for everything you're worth (money and a vote)? We'll see...

UPDATE 6:08pm PT: The video from Part II of MSNBC's report is now here, courtesy of Crooks & Liars...

From Reuters...

More detailed AP coverage now here...

UPDATE 3:39pm PT: Back in early January of this year, VelvetRevolution.us ran an article on Ralston calling on her to fess up to authorities concerning information she has on the 2004 Presidential Election "Miracle"...

More at VR...

Holy shit...They may even be losing Fox "News"!...

Welcome back to Planet Earth, Shep!

(Hat-tip Joy Williams!)

From Mercury News Thursday (Sorry, been running behind for some reason)...

And here's more...

See the full story, for more...it gets even worse.

We've long been describing Bob Ney as the "Soon-to-be-Indicted Bob Ney". It looks like that day is finally here.

The New York Times is reporting that Ney, the leader sponsor and author of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is headed to jail...

We've also long reported on Ney's "good luck" in winning $34,000 at a London casino owned by some good friends...at the exact same moment he owed exactly that much in credit card bills. Says The Times...

With both Ney and former Republican Majority Leader, Tom DeLay (R-TX) now facing indictments, that means there is only one remaining congress member who went on Jack Abramoff's golf junkets to St. Andrews, Scotland who has yet to be served with criminal charges: Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)

Feeney is currently facing a challenge for his seat by Clint Curtis, the man who has sworn in affidavit, video-taped congressional testimony and polygraph test that Feeney asked him to create vote-rigging software when they both worked at the same computer firm in Florida in 2000 (where Feeney was general counsel and registered lobbyist, even while he was also serving as Speaker of the Florida House).

Anyway, now that Ney is apparently going to jail for his Abramoff-related crimes, can someone other than The BRAD BLOG please look into the hornet's nest surrounding the passage of HAVA, as aided and abetted by Abramoff's old lobbying firm, Greenburg Traurig, and Ney's former chief-of-staff-turned-Diebold-lobbyist, David DeStefano? Pretty please? Here's a nice place to get you started!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Have you seen this yet?

Weird is RIGHT!

You can read all about it here.

Guest blogged by Chris Floyd. Originally posted at Empire Burlesque, September 10, 2006.

Let us pause on this day of solemn remembrance and take stock of what our noble Leader has done in the world with the vast storehouse of "political capital" he received from the "new Pearl Harbor" that his noble captains Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby (and brother Jeb) once openly called for – in September 2000 – in a document published by their noble organization of selfless zealots for global altruism, The Project for a New American Century. Now, on this solemn occasion, as the noble Leader himself takes to the airwaves to remind us of his nobility in those dark days after the attack that his noble captains had so presciently yearned for, let us assay just one small gleaning of the great and noble crop of freedom the Leader has harvested with the seeds from what he has often called the "opportunity" provided by the murder of almost 3,000 American citizens and nationals from many other countries.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Camp Democracy has landed!

That's, uh, one small camp for man, one giant camp for mankind!

Don't believe me? You think this is a hoax? Well, it's up to you. But do some research:

Watch the video.

Enjoy the photos:

[1]: 09/07/2006 - Camp Democracy’s Immigrant’s Rights Rally in front of the US Capital Building

[2]: 09/07/2006 - VR’s “Impeachmobile” on the grounds of Camp Democracy, at the foot of the Washington Mounument.

[3]: 09/09/2006 - Camp Democracy moves from near the Washington Monument to the front of the US Capital Building.

[4]: 09/09/2006 - “Bushocchio” at Camp Democracy giving a “Thumbs Up”!

For even more background, read The BRAD BLOG's interview with David Swanson.

That is all. For now!

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

As you probably know, ABC plans to commemorate 9/11 with a lying "docudrama" designed to portray Bill Clinton as soft on terrorism. As a small counter to such assaults on history, AmericaBlog reminds us the the Republicans once had a very different attitude toward terrorism.

In July of 1996, Clinton asked Congress for increased wiretapping authority in order to catch terrorists --- unlike Bush, who simply assumed such powers, consulting his lawyers instead of the legislators. The Republicans smacked down the idea, citing the dangers of increased presidential powers.

They also fired up their base with dark tales of a Clinton power-grab, using terror as a excuse. You can relive this history as I did --- by firing up Google Groups in order to see what Clinton's conservative opponents were saying about terrorism ten years ago.

Below, you will find a hastily-compiled selection of excerpts. Some of these comments were written directly for usenet, others are quotes from web sites or printed sources. In order to convey an impressionistic sense of how conservatives thought at that time, I've decided to forego names and dates; if you want full context, fire up Google for yourself. All the quotes appeared somewhere on usenet during 1996.

Those of you old enough to recall those days will testify that these sentiments were widely shared in conservative circles. The change in attitude is almost as stunning as the attempt to change history itself. As you read, ask yourself if you can imagine any of our modern death-to-Islam types saying such things about Bush or the current world situation:

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Monday's New York Times included a long article about the alleged "liquid bombing plot", which --- as you may recall --- was reportedly broken up by British authorities three weeks ago.

The article "claims to reveal new information", and would certainly have been of great interest to NYT readers in Great Britain.

But they couldn't read it!

Guest blogged by Joy Williams

Hello folks, here's the next in my series of Democracy in Crisis... I hope you can attend this!

I emailed David Swanson after hearing him describe Camp Democracy on a few different shows on Air America, and asked him for a few minutes of his time to explain to me the plans for this event in our nation’s capital. He happily agreed, so here’s the interview. Let’s spread the news about this far and wide so as many people can attend as possible.

From David Swanson’s website...

David Swanson is the Washington Director of Democrats.com and of ImpeachPAC.org. He is co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, creator of Progressive Democrats of America. He serves on the steering committee of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice and on a working group of United for Peace and Justice.

He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson serves on the Executive Council of the Washington Baltimore Newspaper Guild. He obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.

His website is www.davidswanson.org.

Stay tuned following the interview below for more information and specific details on Camp Democracy for those who'd like to come on out...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

I have three Katrina-related items for you, from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Greg Palast, respectively.

NYT: Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot.
Research assistance by Agent99.

British authorities investigating the alleged "liquid bombing plot" released two more (suddenly former) suspects last Thursday, charged one person, bringing the total now charged to 12, and extended the custody limit for the remaining suspects who are still being held without charges.

One of the two people released Thursday (August 24) had previously been described as "a potentially important figure" in the alleged plot, since his brother is (or was) supposedly the ringleader.

Allo, London? We're getting mixed messages here!

But then again ... what else is new?

Guest Blogged by Winter Patriot

An enormous investigation continues in Great Britain, where eight people were charged with conspiracy to murder on Monday and lesser charges were laid against three others. All eleven of the suspects who were charged Monday appeared in court on Tuesday.

From Monday's account in the Mirror: 11 Charged Over Airline Bomb Plot, police described the alleged evidence as follows (with my emphasis):

As for the charges...

Guest bloged by Winter Patriot

If you've never heard a nearly frozen voice coming out of your radio --- or better yet, coming out of a series of tubes --- your chance is coming soon.

Your humble and very cold blogger will be speaking with Peter B. Collins this afternoon, beginning at 5pm Pacific time (that's 8 Eastern, 7 Central, 6 Mountain, and so on). I'll be filling in for Brad (who usually visits with Peter on Friday afternoons) and talking about "the thwarted alleged British-Pakistani simultaneous airline bombing plot".

I've written four articles for The BRAD BLOG about this alleged plot since last Thursday; here are the links in case you missed them the first time:

If you're in (or near) Monterey, Sacramento, Eureka or Phoenix, you can listen via broadcast radio. Otherwise you'll have to tune in to a streaming "tube-cast". Either way, click here for more details.

Peter's shows are archived, so if you can't catch us live you will be able to do so later. I'll keep you posted on that. But if you can join us live, we'd love to hear from you. Give us a call at 888-5PeterB ... that's 888-573-8372. And have a good question ready!

UPDATE: An audio record of my talk with Peter is now available online. In consideration of those readers with slow connections, I've broken the segment up into three files. Each is about 6 megabytes and plays for about 6 minutes. I hope you'll be able to download them without difficulty; I'll check the comments thread in case anyone has trouble.

Here you go: