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Latest Featured Reports | Sunday, December 8, 2024
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Fox 'News' and GOP Get Their Hateful War on Trans Kids at SCOTUS: 'BradCast' 12/5/24
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GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

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Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

By Brad Friedman on 7/7/2005 4:07pm PT  

Received this moments ago from our friend Tony Trupiano of The Tony Show who received it himself via Email just moments after going off the air and thus was not able to run it. He tells The BRAD BLOG that he considers his source for this to be "golden"...

Just spoke to a Senate press secretary who said Republicans on the Judiciary Committee let them know that they should be prepared for Rehnquist to make a statement sometime between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. tomorrow morning and not to schedule anything during that time. Please be advised.

This report seems to sync up with a report just out at RAW STORY which independently confirms the "tomorrow between 10 and 11 am" timeline, as well as with Bob Novak's column this morning which reported that "Rehnquist also will announce his retirement before the week is over."

UPDATE 7/8/05: No retirement announced as of 11am ET today. RAW STORY has more...

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And the Bush Administration Continues to Lie About It...
By Brad Friedman on 7/7/2005 12:42pm PT  

As London erupts, and Bush tells us "the war on terror goes on", Eric Brewer, BTCNews.com's man in the White House has a timely posting today on the Administration's continued fudging of numbers in their Terrorism Reports.

The number of terror incidents continue to rise, even as the Administration attempts to downplay, fudge, obfuscate the numbers in various statements and annual reports wherever possible.

According to Brewer...

The U.S. government's National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) announced this week that the number of worldwide terrorist attacks that occurred in 2004 was 3,192. This number is almost five times higher than the figure of 651 "significant" attacks that NCTC released on April 27 of this year, after the administration received widespread criticism for attempting to hide a major increase in terrorist incidents by dropping the data from the State Department's 2004 report on global terrorism.

Brewer's fine analysis goes on to point out that virtually all of the numbers reported by the Government, completely leave out incidents from Iraq and Afghanistan despite Bush's continued assertion that these countries are now the "central front in the War on Terror"...

The number of attacks and deaths for 2004 would be even higher if complete data from the "central front in the War on Terror" were included in the administration's terrorism statistics. The NCTC figures do not include attacks on U.S. troops fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. If they did, the number of deaths in 2004 would be 958 higher, for a total of 4,150, and the number of attacks, at an average of 40 per day in Iraq alone, would be about 14,600 higher, yielding an incredible 17,800.

Need more evidence that you are being lied to and manipulated in this "War on Terror"?

Brewer reports on a new analytical tool available from the "Terrorism Knowledge Base" run by Oklahoma City-based non-profit National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism which is, as Brewer points out, funded by the Department of Homeland Security.

Brewer used the tool to create a graph of Terror Incidents from 1995 to 2004. Compare the years when those pesky "Liberals" who, according to Rove, were fighting terrorism by "prepar[ing] indictments and offer[ing] therapy and understanding for our attackers," versus the great success of those "Conservatives" and their new "catastrophically successful" approach...

"The war on terror goes on..."

(Brewer, BTCNews.com's blogger/White House correspondent, was interviewed several weeks ago on The BRAD SHOW along with BTC's blogmaster Weldon Berger. The archive of that interview is available here in MP3 format.)

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Court Order Delivered at Dramatic Board of Elections Meeting as Eaton Supporters Rally
ALSO: A Republican Board Member Admits Fundraising Work Done on BoE Property
By Brad Friedman on 7/6/2005 1:42pm PT  

Hocking County, Ohio's recount whistleblower, Sherole Eaton --- who was recently fired without explanation in the wake of having reported on a voting company employee tampering with the hard-drive of a central tabulating computer and offering "cheat-sheets" prior to the recount of the November 2004 Presidential Election --- received some support yesterday from both a Court Order and several dozen backers at a dramatic Board of Elections meeting.

Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, one of the attorneys who filed a case in Ohio to have the November Election results set aside due to evidence of fraud, served County Board of Elections officials with a court order mandating Eaton not be replaced until further court orders are issued.

"Yesterday was the first of what I hope are many victories for Sherole," Karla VanBibber told us via Email earlier today. VanBibber, who is Sherole's niece attended the meeting, and described the moment when Arnebeck arrived with the court order: "The expressions on the board members faces when given the court injunction was priceless."

VanBibber also gave us her take on the reactions from the Board Members in the face of questions from supporters about Eaton's dismissal, which she says is illegal under Ohio law. "Their sputtering and faultering and lying was unbelievable," she said. "It's amazing how the arrogance we see in the Bush administrations has filtered down to the local level as it has."

Apparently, they won't be giving up the fight for Eaton, who is recovering from recent brain surgery, but attended the hearing "in apparently good spirits and seemingly good health - full of energy and zeal and very appreciative of the support," according to Evan Davis's detailed account of the meeting at Ray Beckerman's blog.

Said VanBibber, "We knocked them down a few notches yesterday, we won't give up until they're on their knees and Sherole has her job back."

Eaton's firing, and her dramatic appearance at another recent Board of Election hearing, just two days surgery, was covered in this previous BRAD BLOG report.

Hocking County's Logan Daily News also had a report today on yesterday's meeting. "[Sherole] was so happy this morning when she received her paper," VanBibber said, "she came over and was so excited and for the first time in awhile was optomistic."

Logan Daily News described Arnebeck's dramatic appearance at the meeting...

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

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By Brad Friedman on 7/6/2005 12:15pm PT  

We've said it before...and say it almost everytime we speak anywhere publicly in fact...but if you need any more proof that the actions of one person can make a difference, allow us to offer just a few more recent examples of the actions taken by just a few of the good BRAD BLOGGERS out there.

We're sure we could offer loads of similar examples from several score more of you, but these two folks have jumped out of late and we're happy to add to the noise they've already made.

Last week, a frequent BRAD BLOG commenter (whose name we'll leave out, since we didn't get express permission to mention it --- they can take credit for here in comments if they are so inclined) made a bit of news after sending a letter of complaint to the Tennessee Department of Health complaining about Sen. Bill Frist's videotaped (and incorrect) "diagnosis" of Terri Schiavo a few months back.

The letter, apparently, has triggered a review of Frist's actions, according to the return letter received from the Director of Investigations for Health Related Boards.

All we can say is: Well done!

And another BRAD BLOG commenter, Sheila Leavitt, has been bravely making noise for quite a while. She seems to have little fear when it comes to speaking out rather publicly and for that alone (sadly enough) she deserves a round of applause in this chilling day and age.

That's her on the right as photographed by AFP on the day Conyers was delivering the Downing Street letter to the White House.

Today, Sheila made the news again as she was featured in a great Boston Herald column.

We're not certain, but it may be her car that caught the attention of the Herald reporter :-)

In an email exchange we had today, Sheila told us, "My medium is cardboard, just as yours is words in the computer. Each of us only needs to do what we do best, and do it with love and persistence, don't you think? Eventually, maybe things will get better."

Yes, we think maybe eventually it will.

Since the Herald site is subscription only, here's a few more grafs than usual from today's article on Sheila, some of the thugs she's faced down in the course of bravely speaking out, and, of course...a must-see EXCLUSIVE BRAD BLOG photograph of...Sheila's car...

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

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By Brad Friedman on 7/6/2005 12:01pm PT  

Just in from AP...Time Magazine's Matt Cooper looks to be ready to talk.

Cooper told U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan that he would now cooperate with a federal prosecutor's investigation because his source gave him specific authority to discuss their conversation. "I am prepared to testify. I will comply" with the court's order, Cooper told Hogan.
...
"I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions" for not testifying, Cooper said. But he told the judge that not long before his early afternoon appearance, he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" a direct personal communication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep the source's identity secret.
...
Cooper said he had been told earlier that his source had signed a general waiver of confidentiality but that he did not trust such waivers because he thought they had been gained from executive branch employees under duress. He told the court that he needed not a general waiver but a specific waiver from his source, which he did not get until Wednesday.
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And Ney and Rohrabacher and Blunt and LoBiondo and Doolittle...
And Perhaps a Crack Exposed in the Previously Mighty Congressional Dam of Legal Obstruction?
By Brad Friedman on 7/5/2005 10:19pm PT  

New York Times gets back into the reporting game with two stories in one day on Trouble in Tom Delay Land.

In a short piece by Philip Shenon, it's reported that the U.S. House Resources Committee has asked the Dept. of Justice to widen their criminal investigation into Jack Abramoff, the "Washington lobbyist whose ties to Tom DeLay, the House Republican leader, and other prominent lawmakers are the subject of inquiries throughout the government."

The request, sent in a letter last week, according to the Times, "cited a flurry of accusations of wrongdoing involving Mr. Abramoff's multimillion-dollar lobbying on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands, a small American commonwealth in the Pacific."

What we find most notable here is that a House Committee, all of which are headed by Republicans, has finally taken any kind of proactive stance in any of the myriad criminal corruption scandals now rocking Capitol Hill (or at least percolating just below the surface, even if they haven't shown up "in person" yet in the Committee Hearing rooms --- basement broom-closet hearings held by Democrats notwithstanding.)

It is, as the Times points out, "the first known request by a Congressional committee for prosecutors to review accusations of criminal conduct in the lobbying activities of Mr. Abramoff, who was one of the most powerful and best-paid Republican lobbyists in Washington."

We'll not bother to ask "what took you so long", but rather take heart in that action of some sort may finally be beginning.

As to how the Northern Marianias and Abramoff will all come back to bite delay, Shenon explains...

A copy of the letter was provided to The New York Times by the office of Representative George Miller, a California Democrat who is a member of the Resources Committee and who has led efforts in Congress to try to improve labor conditions in the Northern Marianas.

Mr. Miller, who has been calling for months for the committee to investigate Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying for the islands, said in an interview that Mr. DeLay should be worried by the possibility of a criminal investigation of Mr. Abramoff's activities on behalf of the Northern Marianas.

"I wouldn't be comfortable if I were him," Mr. Miller said of Mr. DeLay. "Clearly we're talking about a close relationship with Abramoff." He said Mr. DeLay had been instrumental in blocking Congressional efforts to end labor abuses in the islands.

...But that's not all the Times has today on Abramoff/Delay!...

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

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By Brad Friedman on 7/5/2005 2:04pm PT  

In an open letter to John Tanner, Chief of the Voting Section of the Dept. of Justice, Bob Fitrakis of the Columbus Free Press responds to the unrequested and blatant whitewash "report" that the DoJ published last week on disenfranchisement (or a lack thereof, as the the DoJ "report" characterized it) in Franklin County, OH.

Fitrakis has been on the ground since Day 1 (and before) in Ohio, and knows whereof he speaks.

The more one looks at the outrageous "report" from the DoJ, the clearer it becomes what a despicable obfuscation that particular piece of propaganda was meant to be. For our money, the DoJ "report" represents perhaps one of the most chilling set of tea-leaves we've seen so far as an indication of just how cooked this DoJ now is, and to what lengths they are prepared to go in order to mislead the American public and media away from the truth.

We're not particularly prone to hyperbole, but we find this small indication of what the DoJ is now made of to be particularly troubling. Anyway, read Fitrakis' rebuttal to get a sense of how outrageous that "report" actually was...

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Another Friendly Reminder for the '6 or 7'
By Winter Patriot on 7/4/2005 1:02pm PT  

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The following important message has just arrived from our friend Steve, and I encourage you to read it carefully.

Happy 4th of July to the REAL American patriots --- those who love our country enough to question its “leadership” and the direction in which that “leadership” is taking our great nation.

I guess that's enough proselytizing, so let's move on to the matters at hand. We have a new, updated flyer for The First Annual Brad Blog Blogathon & Fundraiser. The Word version of this document can be copied or downloaded HERE. We also have a JPEG version (courtesy of Torqued) for the Word doc. challenged among us. {SEE UPDATE BELOW! --- WP} As the rest of you can see, we've filled out our roster of “live” and “non-live” (but not dead) guest bloggers. We will also be posting a schedule of the times of the “live” guest appearances in the next day or so.

We should AGAIN remind you that we need you to ACTIVELY DISSEMINATE THE ANNOUNCEMENT FLYER TO FRIENDS, WEB/BLOG SITES, MESSAGE BOARDS, E-MAIL ADDRESSES, NEWSPAPERS, RADIO STATIONS (anyone with connections to Air America, Thom Hartmann, etc.?) and anywhere else you can think of (kind of like The Whispering Campaign).

We also remind you to PLEASE e-mail GOOD digital images of any artistic endeavor that you have made and are willing to donate for a silent raffle (or you could get from someone else- e.g., friend, local art shop/studio, etc.). I regret to say that, so far, we have but ONE (count ‘em, ONE) pledge (no images yet) of such an artistic contribution for our raffle. This does NOT have to be fine art. Anything you think might sell would be great! You should e-mail these images to BradBlogathonFundraiser@yahoo.com. We would also appreciate a suggested value/price and estimated size and weight. During the Blogathon, these images will be posted at a site that will be linkable when the auction for the particular item is announced on Brad Blog and opened for bids. We will have to set a minimum bid for the object to be purchased in order to provide a reasonable profit for the fundraiser AND to cover the cost of delivery of the object to the winning bidder, which we would pay. This will necessitate that the raffle donations not be so large or so heavy as to be prohibitively expensive to deliver to the recipient. If the item is not bid upon or does not receive its minimum bid, it will be retained by the donor (unless Brad wants it and you are willing to send it to him!).

The previously mentioned efforts (DISSEMINATE THE FLYER AND CONTRIBUTE ITEMS/SEND IMAGES FOR THE SILENT RAFFLES) are ways for people to contribute to the success of the Blogathon Fundraiser, whether or not they can contribute financially. Please get behind this for a worthy cause……BRAD!

See you at the Blogathon (and bring a friend!)

[Signed]
One of The Brad Blog 6 or 7 Squad

{UPDATE July 5th by WP}: Here is a full list of the flyers now available:
in MS-Word format
in HTML form
as a JPEG image
another place to get the JPEG image
Thanks to Torqued for all these extra goodies and of course thanks to Steve as well ...

IT'S YOUR TURN NOW!! Chat this up; tell all your friends; link to these flyers wherever you can; print and copy and plaster them all over the place {but not on cars! that's dangerous and annoying and in some places it's illegal} ... anything else you can think of.

ALSO: If you have any other good ideas about how to publicize the BLOGATHON, please don't keep them to yourself. Consider the rest of us. We want to know! Thanks as always.

Now let's get moving!

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By Brad Friedman on 7/4/2005 2:47am PT  
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

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

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By Brad Friedman on 7/3/2005 4:50pm PT  

Brad's Friskies Fund...

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By Brad Friedman on 7/3/2005 1:08pm PT  

{Ed Note: Bumping this up to the top for a bit so that you catch the couple of updated links added yesterday and today.}

As you all likely know by now, Lawrence O'Donnell has fingered Rove as the leaker to Time's Matt Cooper in the Valerie Plame investigation.

This morning O'Donnell offers further developements on the issue...

UPDATE 7/4/05: More coverage today by O'Donnell. This time on Rove's emerging Clintonesque Defense.

UPDATE 7/5/05: And today O'Donnell has three questions for Rove's Attorney...

ALSO...Democrats circulate Congressional Letter calling for the resignation of Karl Rove.

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Dems Expected to Give Quick Confirmation Due to Lack of 'Extraordinary Circumstances'
By Brad Friedman on 7/2/2005 3:18pm PT  


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Saturday Night! 7p-11p ET (4p-8p PT)
By Brad Friedman on 7/2/2005 2:25am PT  

Featuring four classic BRAD SHOW interviews celebrating the Independence of the American Spirit! Starring...

  • Florida Vote-Rigging Software Whistleblower CLINT CURTIS
  • Hocking County, Ohio Recount Whistleblower SHEROLE EATON
  • 2004 Green Party Presidential Candidate DAVID COBB
  • The Legendary & Mysterious FREEWAY BLOGGER
  • With a bit of CIA Analyst RAY MCGOVERN thrown in for good measure. And speaking of Ray McGovern, thanks to BRAD BLOGGERS Valley Girl, Kira and Kat our full interview with him from 6/11/05 has now been lovingly transcribed for your reading pleasure. Thanks guys! You rock!

    And speaking of Freeway Blogger (and rocking), his Summer of Truth kicks off this weekend! Check it out! And get to work! This democracy ain't gonna save itself you know! (Photo at left, FB's response to Bush's call for flying the flag this weekend in support of the troops)

    The BRAD SHOW returns with another all-new and exciting LIVE episode next week! During the BRAD BLOGathon!

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    Unrequested 'Report' Dismisses, Ignores Evidence of Discrimination, Disenfranchisement!
    DoJ Report Also Reveals More than 100,000 Voters NEWLY 'Purged' from Rolls in One Ohio County Alone!
    By Brad Friedman on 7/1/2005 3:57pm PT  

    There is almost no other way to put this, but we are simply floored by the report just released by the Department of Justice concerning the Franklin County, OH elections.

    If there ever was a report which could be called a whitewash, this would be the very dictionary definition --- with the emphasis on WHITE.

    The DoJ four-page report, based on dodgy figures, uninvestigated charges and undocumented information and details, simply concludes that "Franklin County assigned voting machines in a non-discriminatory manner", that "no violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act" was found and they "are thus closing our file."

    In truth, a detailed analysis of the flaws in this report, and an unwaivering condemnation of this reprehensible piece of "official documentation" is needed. But as folks are disappearing for the Holiday Weekend, we're afraid any analysis we took the time to compile right now would likely get lost in the holiday news-hole. So, for the moment, we're gonna dump these documents here and leave the detailed analysis and shouts of outrage and condemnation to BRAD BLOG readers. If we can follow up a bit more after the holiday, we will.

    Essentially, John Conyers' office requested a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice investigation back in January on a number of very troubling matters related to Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election on behalf of the minority members of the Judiciary Committee. (Letter requesting a Special Prosecutor from the DoJ is here [PDF]. Coverage of it by RAW STORY is here, and BRAD BLOG's own reporting at the time, which led to one of the complaints in the letter to the DoJ, is here.)

    Amongst the items for which Conyers' January 14, 2005 had requested an investigation at the time --- according to the response to the report Conyers sent on Wednesday --- were "serious charges concerning Voter Intimidation and Misinformation; Improper Purging and other Misconduct; Caging of New Minority Voters; Misuse of HAVA Funds; Tampering of Voting Machinery and Records; Perjury by a County Board of Election Official; and the Misuse of the Great Seal of the United States on Secretary of State Blackwell's Personal Campaign Materials."

    While no "substantive response to the many instances of voting irregularities and civil rights violations in the state of Ohio" about which Conyers' submitted evidence has been forthcoming by the DoJ since that January letter, apparently someone within the DoJ took it upon themselves to conduct --- and as we've said WHITEWASH --- an investigation concerning what happened in just one county in Ohio.

    The DoJ's resulting four-page report, conducted by "The Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division" and sent to Franklin County officials on Wednesday, is a masterwork of obfuscation, disinformation, misinformation, smoke and mirrors and out and out lies. And remember, it comes directly from your Department of Justice.

    As we've said, a more detailed point-by-point analysis of the outrage is called for. But for now, we feel it's important to get the information out as is so folks can see with their own eyes what has "flabbergasted" Conyers' as according to the response he sent in reply to the DoJ yesterday.

    There is, however, at least one paragraph which jumped out at us, but that Conyers' reply does not deal with directly (understandably, frankly, since there is so much to be "flabbergasted" about in this DoJ report!). We feel this one is important to point out as we find it particularly disconcerting for what the future may hold in Ohio [emphasis added]:

    A major complicating factor in the appropriate allocation of voting machines was the artificially inflated voter registration rolls in the county. The 845,720 registered voters in 2004 actually exceeded the 2000 total voting age population of Franklin County (800,657) by 45,063 persons. This unsettling disparity resulted from the loss, during preparation for computer system changes in anticipation of the year 2000, of voter history data necessary for purging the voter rolls of ineligible voters as required by the National Voter Registration Act. The County chose to start fresh with new voter histories, with the result that there had been no voter purge since 1999. The County resumed regular purging of its voter list only after the 2004 election, and on June 20, 2005 removed approximately 114,000 ineligible individuals from its voter registration list. The 2005 purge brings the voter registration total well below the 2000 voting age population in the county.

    Yes, you read that right. Franklin County's "bi-partisan" Board of Election has just now "purged" 114,000 voters from the rolls! Tee-ing things up nicely, it would seem, for many more thousands of voters to find themselves suddenly ineligible to vote when they show up at the polling place in 2006!

    Over one hundred thousand voters scrubbed from the voting rolls in just one Ohio County alone by their presumably "bi-partisan" BoE. That, while we have learned over the past several months how these Ohio BoE's are certainly not "bi-partisan" as Blackwell and their other defenders continue to maintain since a) There are "Democrats" on these boards who are specifically plants, in other words, "Democrats" in name only and b) All BoE members serve at the partisan pleasure of the distinctly partisan Secretary of State and Bush/Cheney Co-Chair, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who has routinely threatened BoE members with dismissal if and when they refuse to follow his personal partisan edicts.

    But that's just one of the outrages. We'll let Conyers' handle a few more. Here is his response to the DoJ report first, followed by the complete report itself by John Tanner, the Chief of the DoJ's Voting Section. Prepare to be appalled...

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

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    By Brad Friedman on 7/1/2005 12:02pm PT  

    Wonder if the Democrats are starting to wish --- right about now --- that they'd fought harder for every vote to be counted last November.

    Anyway, getting pounded here for the moment with email, news, tips and more, and must go on Tony Trupiano's radio show (3pm ET, 12noon PT) so I'll be out of the loop for more than a bit. Therefore...discuss amongst yourselves...

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