Two late-night Good News items for a change!

First, our friend and master progressive broadcaster, Tony Trupiano, returned to the airwaves today (actually yesterday) after a long self-imposed hiatus to run for the U.S. House in Michigan's 11th Congressional district. While he didn't win (this time), Michigan's loss is the world's gain as Tony is back on the air, on the Internets for the time being, every Monday through Friday from 12noon to 3pm ET (9am to 12noon PT).

Our weekly guest visits with the T-Man, which we had much missed, shall resume tomorrow (actually today) at 2pm ET (11am PT). We'll be there each and every Tuesday for your dancing pleasure at that hour. Listen up via TheTonyShow.com and/or call in and say hello or welcome back or whatever at (866) 209-8031!

UPDATE 5/15/07 12:30pm PT: Just finished up my first hour back with Tony T. Plenty to catch up on, along with breaking news and such. Listen up here [MP3] if you're inclined.

Also beginning again today (actually yesterday)...In the first close-to-intelligent move the LA Times has made in longer than I can remember, the paper has restored the Darrin Bell's Candorville to the funny pages!

BRAD BLOG readers may remember when the paper dumped one of their only progressive, urban-based strips last March. The cancellation was especially troubling to us, since it was virtually the only strip which dealt with voting machine issues!

But it looks like at least "6 or 7"* of you answered the call to make noise, as Bell wrote us today with the good news, to say...

Good work all! On behalf of all Los Angelenos, allow me to say thanks for that, and a big congrats and welcome back to Bell!

Check out his blog item today on all of this, in which he writes: "Score one for patriotic dissent, zero for the corporate media's dastardly plan to silence alternative viewpoints. Well, I guess that would be score 289,975 for the corporate media, and one for patriotic dissent, but you get my meaning."

We do, indeed...

* - For explanation of the "6 or 7" reference, see this classic April 2005 BRAD BLOG item for the genesis.

(Hat-tip David Swanson who has more thoughts at AfterDowningStreet.org)

Jesus' General has the rest...

The emailer who forwarded us the following toon, marking the 4th Anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, aptly commented: "The amazing thing about this is that all of these people still have their jobs and appear as expert pundits in the media, while the people who were right all along are often portrayed as left-wing out-of-touch-with-reality naive nutty fools, and they don't get on the talk shows very much."

No kidding. The failure of our current corporate mainstream media in a nutshell.

But be sure to read through to the bottom of this post, for an additional stunning quote from Cal Thomas' April 15, 2003 column which Tom Tomorrow, the creator of this toon, mentioned he wasn't able to fit into this strip...

(Hat-tip to Super-Duper Friend Corey K.)

On a related note... In the corporate media's misleading and self-created "two-person race" for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have each raised approximately $25 million in the first quarter of this year.

Neither, however, has gone on record in favor a paper ballot --- one that is actually tabulated --- for every vote cast in America.

(Hat-tip BRAD BLOG emailer "Jazzolog")

Courtesy of The Onion...

(Good God is this toon on the money. Can barely come up for air while trying to keep up with it all...This is amazing...)

The Los Angeles Times continues to beg readers to cancel their subscriptions altogether.

Their latest plan: Dump the progressive, interesting, non-white comic strips.

Last week, the Times decided to dump both Candorville, whose strip we've been running here from time to time --- the only one, mind you, that we're aware of which dealt with the e-voting issue directly. La Cucaracha, the paper's only Latino-based strip (in LA!), was dumped at the same time.

The latter was re-instated after a flood of reader complaints. So far, no return of Candorville, however, the last African-American related strip of note in the once-great Los Angeles newspaper, now gutted by its conservative Chicago Tribune owners/rapists. The Trib also recently canceled the strip as well.

We've gotten to know Darrin Bell, the strip's creator, a bit over the last year or so. He sent The BRAD BLOG the following announcement a few days ago on the latest corporate-media idiocy, noting that though his strip has been dumped, "Blondie and Marmaduke are still safe" at the Times.

The only good news in the bargain: The world's unfunniest "comic strip," Mallard Fillmore, has been put out of our misery. Finally. A dead duck we can all be happy about.

"Without at least one of these two papers," Bell writes in regard to the cancellations at both the Times and the Trib, "Candorville can't continue to annoy the knuckledraggers in two of our most important cities, and the strip itself may not be long for this world."

He also asks that complaints be sent to readers.rep@latimes.com. We join him in that request, and are happy to post his note in full below...

Apropos of our earlier article today concerning the fake Fox "News" Channel "comedy" show 1/2 Hour News Hour, Darrin Bell, the creator of Candorville dropped us a note to point to today's strip (see below), which touches on same.

He wrote: "I had to admit to feeling a bit guilty when I read the closing line of today's entry. I am guilty of helping draw more attention to that crap."

Don't worry, Darrin. Even though we wrote that last line, we're still guilty of same. We did write that article, after all. Oh, how we do loves the paradoxes and ironies here at The BRAD BLOG.

We're also happy to see attention drawn to the propagandistic garbage that is the Fox "News" Channel in MSM papers all over the country. Even if it's "only" on the comics page. So, thank you, sir, and keep up the good work!

NOTE: Bell links back to our story from this morning, in his daily blog which he now runs along with each of his strips over at his website. We're happy to return the favor...