It looks as though Saudi princes may now be buying their way into the good graces of news organizations --- or at least into Rupert Murdoch's FOX "News" channel and other Murdoch-owned outlets as reported by FrontPage Magazine, a rightwing website:

(Hat tip RAW STORY)

Guest blogged by David Edwards

CNN Reports that Iraqi insurgents (Bush-speak: Saddamists, Rejectionists, and Terrorists) are building more sophisticated I.E.D.'s (improvised explosive devices) which increases the violence and danger for U.S. Forces. A new type of IED uses a projectile that can go through 4 inches of steel on an M1 tank from 300 feet away. The projectile-style IED is often hidden in foam and disguised to look like concrete.

The Pentagon claims that Syrians and Iranians are coming across the borders to train insurgents how to build more sophisticated weapons. Attacks are expected to increase after the election.

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Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

As an introduction, the "DVN Top 5" is a feature that I have been providing in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The December 5 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on BRAD BLOG!...

This is only a test. Please ignore.

Will be erased shortly.

(Hat tip YesButNoButYes)

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In Virginia they use a mixture of DRE and Optical-Scan voting machines. They are presently involved in a recount of votes due to a close race for Attorney General. One side was able to convince a three judge panel that it was sufficient to just re-add the computer tapes from the machines and that recounting 500,000 paper ballots was not necessary. This is NOT a recount and the people lost in this court decision. In Ohio an activist and seminary student is on a hunger strike and prayer vigil in front of the Statehouse to protest a regressive bill that is passing through the state legislature and will soon be passed by the governor. This bill will in essence make it virtually impossible for homeless folks to vote, would make it virtually impossible for groups to register large numbers of voters, would eliminate oversight of voting machines, and would cancel our right to challenge election results....

The folks at DU are talking about this caller to O'Reilly's Radio Factor on Friday claims to have refused a tip to a waitress after she said "Happy Holidays" at the end of the meal.

Here's the audio clip [MP3] (it's just about two minutes).


What are your thoughts?

UPDATE: Eric Jaffa at SpeakSpeak says the call reveals O'Reilly as a "flip-flopper" for contradicting his own previous statements about "Happy Holidays".

ADDENDUM: Larisa has some serious thoughts on the threat O'Reilly's silly campaign poses to this country in an open letter at HuffPo.

To protest what Free Press investigative reporters describe as a "holiday burial for American Democracy" in the Buckeye State, Ohio divinity student and Columbus resident, Jonathan Meier is continuing his prayer vigil and hunger strike at the Ohio Statehouse despite heavy snow and brutally cold winter temperatures.

House Bill 3 has already passed the House and is about to be approved by the Republican-dominated Senate in the ground-zero snakepit of GOP political corruption otherwise known as Ohio.

Activist Meier, in a just-issued press release says "that his Christian faith calls him to 'constantly pursue social justice and illuminate social ills, and, often, this call requires personal sacrifice."

Free Press' Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman recently described the latest onslaught to democracy in Ohio, which Meier is protesting, this way:

Says Meier, "Most people don't realize that this legislation, if passed by the senate next week, would make it virtually impossible for homeless folks to vote, would make it virtually impossible for groups to register large numbers of voters, would eliminate oversight of voting machines, and would cancel our right to challenge election results."

He added, "Instead of addressing the long lines at the polls, instead of making it easier for people to register and to vote, Republican lawmakers put forward 424 pages of legislation that will set up roadblocks to our democracy. I, for one, do not trust a vote reform bill that is purely a partisan act."

Fitrakis and Wasserman put the Ohio legislation in context for the rest of the country, where similar bills are being explored by various Republican-controlled legislatures:

Richard Pryor, 1940 - 2005

The beloved 40 year-old Voting Right Acts, implemented by Lyndon B. Johnson after violence and death to Voting Rights activists in Selma, Alabama in 1965 has been all but gutted by the George W. Bush administration. The VRA celebrated it's 40th anniversary this summer, even as Bush's Department of Justice was destroying one of its most important measures by covert political caveat.

That gutting now appears to be becoming a still greater threat to our democracy as it is being institutionalized by recent policy changes which bar career Voting Rights staffers and attorneys in the DoJ from offering opinions on new laws that fall under the jurisdication of the VRA.

Two recent reports by Dan Eggen of the Washington Post revealed that Bush political appointees in the DoJ has overruled the recommendations of career staffers and attorneys in the Voting Rights division tasked with determining the legality of two separate laws sent to the department for "pre-approval" under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Section 5 requires that states with a history of discriminatory election practices --- like Texas and Georgia --- must receive pre-approval from the DoJ before implementing any changes to their voting systems. It prohibits "retrogressive" changes to voting laws, or laws that would bring harm to minority voters.

In the last several weeks Eggen has reported on remarkable memos leaked by DoJ staffers showing that they had recommended against approval of new laws both in Georgia, where the legislature had insituted a new Photo ID requirement at the polls, and in Texas, where then Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) had helped to redistrict the state to allow for more Republican representatives after the GOP gained control of the state house in 2002.

Georgia's law has since been ruled unconstitutional by two Federal Courts who deemed the law to be a "Jim Crow-era Poll Tax". Texas' law has resulted in 7 additional Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. The fallout from the DeLay led gerrymander of Texas districts has resulted in several indictments for DeLay and his cronies who helped force it through the legislature and allegedly conspired with the Republican National Committee to launder money in support of GOP candidates running for the new seats. The Texas law, which had been unanimously recommended against by 8 DoJ staffers, including the lead attorney in the Voting Rights Act division, still stands.

Today Eggen reports that such staff opinions are now completely banned in Bush's Department of "Justice"!

The one ray of hope that Eggen offers is that Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA) is considering Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings...at least on the Texas redistricting case.

We often bristle when we hear those on the Left criticize the Bush Administration as Fascistic. It's simply too easy to ascribe to them the worst possible traits as a blunt political weapon. But if the issues discussed above don't send a shiver down the spine of every democracy-loving American it's either because they don't understand what's actually at stake --- and being dismantled in the process --- or they simply don't give a damn about this country's most important legacy to the world: A free and fair electoral system where all citizens are given an equal voice in the selection of our leaders...or at least a system as close to that as we can possibly muster.

Our Republic is in grave danger.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

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This morning on the NBC Today Show, Chris Matthews acknowledged that falling gas prices have given the president a small bump in the polls. Matthews said that the trend in approval ratings since 9/11 is downward and that trend will continue due to problems with the Administration's Iraq policy.

President Bush's recent speeches win the argument that "We cannot leave Iraq now" but it also reinforces the perception that "we are never leaving Iraq". In fact, Matthews said, he had never heard the president say that we would eventually pull all the troops out of Iraq. It is no secret that the neocons have long wanted to use permanent military power to protect our "interests in Iraq" and to eventually become the dominate military power in the Middle East.

The unspoken policy of unending military influence in Iraq offers Americans no "light at the end of the tunnel", Matthews said.

Democrats have been largely divided on the future of the Iraq war. Matthews predicted that Harry Reid would attempt to show that most Democrats are coalesced behind a moderate pseudo-policy. Senator Reid and other Democrats will suggest a "timetable" that draws down troops based on measurable progress without imposing an actual timeline. Matthews thinks that it could take a year or longer to put enough pressure on the administration before they would accept concrete definitions of success tied to troop redeployments.

Matthews said that both sides should join the debate on whether or not there will be total troop withdrawal from Iraq.

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Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Sequoia's parent company, Smartmatic got caught providing a Venezuelan customer with a gift of two days in a Boca Raton, FL resort. Smartmatic spokesman Mitch Stroller confirmed the company initially paid the bill but said Rodríguez later reimbursed all the money to Smartmatic. He declined to provide proof of the reimbursement or to say when the money was paid back. Uh huh! Activists speak out in Connecticut and act out in Pennsylvania. And the Wisconsin legislature unanimously sends a vvpat bill to the governor....

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Senator Joe Lieberman said he had breakfast with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Pace. Lieberman denied rumors that he has plans to replace Rumsfeld as the Secretary of Defense.

According to an AP report, the Pentagon claims that the breakfast meeting was called so that Lieberman could share his impressions of Iraq with Rumsfeld and General Pace.

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Guest blogged by David Edwards

Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report continued his role as a warrior against the "secular cabal" that is trying to destroy Christmas. On an earlier show, Colbert had followed the lead of Bill O'Reilly, speaking out against the silent discrimination of Christmas.

Colbert starts a new battlefront against the "War on Christmas" by declaring his "Campaign Against Humbuggery"...

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ALSO: Check out The Daily Show's response to Bill O'Reilly's attack and don't miss The BRAD BLOG's exclusive full report on O'Reilly's phony and misleading "war on Christmas".

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

There have been some interesting recent developments in the CIA's Italian kidnapping caper...