A number of pressing items on the plate in the background. May mean I'm quiet here for a bit (though we'll see)...For now, I'll leave it to you to make some noise about what's going on out there. Open thread! WARNING: Don't Feed the Trolls!

SOME QUICK HITS...

Uh, oh...

Why does Chuck Hagel hate freedom?

Personally, we think this item is more than siren-worthy, but as we already mentioned this story as it broke last night on The BRAD SHOW, we'll leave it you guys to add the noise to it.

So...The house of cards tumble is now officially underway. What month does the Impeachment begin? Or is it derailed by a new "terrorist attack" or a new "war"?

Discuss...

P.S. If you're in or near Santa Monica, CA, stop by and say hello to Bob Fritrakis and me at his book tour event for "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election: Essential Documents"! Tonight (Sunday, June 19) at 6pm @ Venuce United Methodist Church, 1020 Victoria Ave!

P.P.S. Bob's donated some books to us, that we'll ship to you --- personally signed by him --- for a supportive donation of $100 or more! It's an amazing 700+ page book! And we can certainly use the support right now!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

This week's Brad Show is almost ready to hit the airwaves. Once again we have a fine lineup and the prospect of a great show.

Listen LIVE via the Web! Saturday from 7p-11p ET (4p-8p PT)!
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This week's guests:

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New York Times' Scott Shane wrote a serious article covering yesterday's Downing Street Hearings and the facts it examined concerning a President of the United States who may have committed Impeachable High Crimes by fixing intelligence and misleading the country into an unnecessary war leading to the death of thousands.

On the other hand, Washington Post's embarrasing Dana Milbank wrote an obnoxious and condescending little screed which begins, "In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe."

And, oh yeah, speaking of "the land of make-believe", Milbank gets one fact wrong after another as he plays "journalist" in the pages of one of the countries once-greatest newspapers.

The Washington Post, to their own shame, presumably gives a paycheck each week to Mr. Milbank for his coverage of Washington D.C.

Moments ago, Congressman John Conyers sent a letter in reply to Milbank's column. BRAD BLOG has the letter. Since someone's gotta be the media while WaPo continues its seemingly hell-bent attempt to continue its spiral towards irrelevance...and since we don't particularly expect WaPo to publish it themselves...we guess we'll do it...

More...

LATE-NIGHT UPDATE: From ConyersBlog in re: The Delivery...He was met with expected respect one might afford the longest sitting member of the United States House of Representatives, and nine other Congressmen...At least what one might expect from this particular White House...

He has several other thoughts from today as well (including a link to yours truly - thank you...Mr. Chairman.)

UPDATE 6/17/05: A full list of the 123 congressional signees is now available here.

UPDATE 6/22/05: The tale of the tape...

Guests currently scheduled (with more to be announced soon)...

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Updating White House press spokesman, Scott McClellan's complete dismissal of a Downing Street question yesterday (reported previously here), he continued his "Watergate Act" at today's press briefing. Only more so. Editor & Publisher has it...

UPDATE: And on a lighter note...Scottie faces the "last throes" of his ability to hold off the barbarians at the gate. Also from the good folks at E&P...

UPDATE 6/17/05: By way of helping Scottie, who seems to feel that there is just one member of congress who would like an answer to the questions sent weeks ago to Bush --- which are still unanswered --- here are the 123 duly elected members of the United States House of Represenatives who would like answers to those questions, along with at least 600,000 American citizens, so far:

List courtesy of RAW STORY.

As there are many who were unable to follow the hearings live and given the historic importance of them, I am making my raw notes --- essentially live blogged, but not posted during the hearings --- available here right away...Please note that these are raw notes, not necessarily quotes even if some of them are in quotes. I did try and type as closely as I could to what was being said however.

Hopefully this will give those of you unable to listen live, an idea of these EXTRAORDINARY hearings which were chaired by Congressman John Conyers' and just adjourned in the 15' by 30' room in the basement of the Capitol Building!...Simply extraordinary hearings...

(The hearing will re-air on C-SPAN 2 tonight, Thursday, at 8pm ET, and late-night at 1:56am on C-SPAN 1 at 1:56am Friday "morning", And again on Friday at 8pm ET)...

Complete Audio now posted, courtesy of BRAD BLOG secret weapon, David Edwards!
- Streaming RealAudio
- Mirrored Streaming RealAudio

We will try to get the prepared testimony from the witnesses as soon as we can...

Though the hearings were remarkable, we don't believe they were the cause for 4.9 earthquake we experienced here in Los Angeles during the hearings (we're fine, but the ground did shake)...

A total of 122 members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have now signed on to Rep. John Conyers' (D-MI) letter to George W. Bush requesting a response to several questions in relation to the Downing Street Minutes.

The original letter, sent several weeks ago by the Ranking Minority Member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee along with 88 congressional Democrats, was recently recirculated after several more members requested signing on. The original letter has so far gone unresponded to.

As well, The BRAD BLOG has learned that a total of 553,996 signatures by citizens have been collected for the letter by Conyers' and MoveOn.org over the past two weeks, and those will be delivered today to the White House shortly after today's scheduled hearings on the Downing Street matter.

That hearing is scheduled for 2:30pm ET today, to be followed by a rally in front of the White House and the delivery of the letter by Conyers and several others at 5pm ET.

As reported yesterday, the hearings will be carried live on C-SPAN 3 as well as Pacifica Radio and Radio Left.

Conyers' statement this morning via RAW STORY...

UPDATE: At least 14 20 25 Congressional Members present at hearings in basement room turned into hearings room, appx. 15 by 30 feet. Hearings now ongoing, being LiveBlogged at PDA...

POST HEARING UPDATE: BRAD BLOG raw notes posted...

UPDATE 6/17/05: A full list of the congressional signees is now available here.

PARDON THIS CRASS COMMERCIAL REMINDER...But as so many are now linking up to today's coverage here on the Downing Street hearings, and the audio recording, etc., now might be a good time to mention that The BRAD BLOG is run almost entirely on DONATIONS...Please feel free to help me continue!. Thanks.

At today's White House Press Briefing...The press corps managed to ask a single question about the Downing Street documents...near the very end of the briefing...

No, Scottie. I think it hasn't.

UPDATE 5/16/05: McClellan asked again today about DSM, mocks questioner!

IN OTHER LATE RELATED DSM MATTERS...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The following very important message is for YOU, and it's from our friend Steve...

Six weeks after its release by Rupert Murdoch's Times of London, CNN seems to have realized that the "Downing Street Minutes" just might indicate that the "President" of the United States may have lied the country into an unnecessary War on Iraq.

We're happy to see that CNN, along with many other MSM organizations, are finally covering (somewhat) what some of us "Conspiracy Theorists" have been covering for at least six weeks.

The report by Bill Schneider, available via Crooks & Liars, is not bad --- even featuring some guy named John Conyers --- though Schneider does manage to drop in some completely misleading and mangled analysis when he suggests that the reason this business is making news now is because support for the war has dropped to 42% or so, when it was over 60% in June of 2002.

NOTE TO BILL: One of the reasons support was so high back then, was because the "President" and his lackeys were actively running around the country, lying about Saddam's WMD, and you guys were covering such claims without batting even the slightest critical eye. Now that more and more information has come out to demonstrate the entire affair was bullshit, support for the war has plummeted.

In other words, support has dropped because we now know the truth. As opposed to your suggestion that this material is gaining traction because support for the war is bottoming out.

That said, we do realize that you may now be willing to cover it because support is bottoming out. God forbid you should give critical coverage to anything that America is currently in favor of.

Of course, if Schneider has any information to suggest that his analysis is correct and our analysis is wrong, he didn't bother to present it.

Perhaps CNN should stick to Michael Jackson, and leave the news to the bloggers.

C-SPAN has committed to carrying the U.S. House Judiciary Democrats hearings tomorrow on C-SPAN 3. They will be carried LIVE.

For those who don't receive C-SPAN 3 on their local cable system, the video and/or audio from the hearings should be carried via the Internets right here.

The hearings will also be carried live on Pacifica Radio and via Radio Left.

Yesterday, TrueMajority.org, another very large citizens activist organization, joined in sending Petitions to its members to collect signatures for John Conyers Letter to Bush, to be delivered bu Conyers himself after tomorrow's hearing. TrueMajority.org joins MoveOn.org who last week collected some 500,000 signatures in 48 hours or so.

As well, the hearings have now been rescheduled to 2:30pm, and have been moved from the DNC offices --- where they had previously been scheduled, when Republicans would not allow a hearing room for the Democrats --- back to a room in the Capitol Building.

According to a Press Release from AfterDowningStreet.org, the citizens coalition which has been very instrumental in bringing attention to this matter as previously ignored by the Mainstream Corporate Media...

More info, printable flyers, and details of local groups organizing around the country in support on the same day, are available via the same link at AfterDowningStreet.org.

UPDATE: Conyers is scheduled to appear on CSPAN's Washington Journal at 9am ET Thursday morning.