Guest Blogged by Arlen Parsa

A mysterious and politically-incorrect series of viral videos posted on YouTube are lighting up speculation online about their origin. A report published on July 13th attributed them to an employee of of Stevens, Reed, Curcio & Potholm (SRCP), the same Republican firm that produced the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004.

The videos, posted on the YouTube account "abrad2345", mock several Republican candidates, at times making racist attacks against Rudy Giuliani, making fun of his bout with prostate cancer, suggesting that Fred Thompson's wife is transgender, and Mitt Romney is gay. SRCP now apparently works for John McCain.

"In 2004, Mr. McCain said the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertisement asserting that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts had not properly earned his medals from the Vietnam War was 'dishonest and dishonorable,'" the New York Times reported in February. "Nonetheless, he has hired the firm that made the spots, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, which worked on his 2000 campaign, to work for him again this year."

Plans for syndication of the story alleging an SRCP connection to the videos on The BRAD BLOG Monday were delayed at the last minute due to legal concerns after SRCP's lawyers claimed the story was false and asked that it be purged from The Daily Background blog, where it had been originally published.

Watch the first of the "abrad" videos (video at right), which appear to be endorsing Giuliani in a mocking way. The video even resorts to racism for its not-so-subtle attacks on Giuliani. More of the videos can be found here.

"We strongly urge you to cease distribution of all content furthering from these false assertions," a July 16th letter from SRCP's law firm Dickstein Shapiro LLP read. "The business reputation and professionalism of SRCP is being challenged in a way that causes irreparable damage unless you act immediately."

Oh, the irony. (A complete copy of the letter can be found at the bottom of this post...)

Guest Blogged by Rebecca Mercuri

(NOTE: The archived appearance of Dr. Mercuri on the Peter B. Collins show, as Guest Hosted by Brad Friedman, discussing this article and other matters surrounding Holt's Election Reform bill is now available here....)

Anyone who has been anywhere in the blogosphere in the months since Rush Holt's HR 811 Election Reform bill was introduced knows that a schism appears to have developed in the voting advocacy community. I say "appears" because it's not terribly clear to me at this point whether this schism existed all along and now the fires are being stoked by rogue insiders in order to fuel a "divide and conquer" effort that benefits voting system vendors who can rise like Phoenixes out of the ashes of the activists, or whether Congressman Holt's bill is a litmus test being used to decide who'll continue to get a seat at the table (to testify at hearings) and a chunk of the grant money and other set-asides for election "research" projects. Maybe both of these actions (and others) are in play.

This has been reminding me a lot lately of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, riding on the hippie bus to the 1964 New York World's Fair. Tom Wolfe quoted Kesey saying: "There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place --- then it won't make a damn." Wolfe went on to explain "And nobody had to have it spelled out for them. Everything was becoming allegorical, understood by the group mind, and especially this: You're either on the bus ... or off the bus."

That dividing line between where the bus ends and the rest of the world begins, right where Wolfe was sitting, is the only place to get some decent perspective on the whole situation. So I'm perched at that vantage point, and inside the voting bus I'm seeing Brad Friedman, Bev Harris, Lynn Landes, Rob Kall, Teresa Hommel, Ellen Theisen, Mark Crispin Miller, Greg Palast, Ion Sancho, Doug Kelner, David Chaum, and Dennis Kucinich all arguing about something, but the vibe is upbeat. And outside the bus there's Doug Lewis, Wally O'Dell, Tom Wilkey, Theresa LePore, Linda Lamone, Jeb Bush, Karl Rove, Hans von Spakovsky, Jim Dickson, and Matt Damschroeder just milling around. These are not comprehensive lists (since I'm somewhat myopic and have never been very good with names or faces), and I'm certainly not saying that any of these folks have affiliations with each other, though maybe some do.

What's bugging me is that I can't tell whether Rush Holt and HR 811 are on the bus, or not, right now. Though the bill's predecessor versions (from the prior two Congresses) seemed to be on the bus, none of Holt's bills have ever made it totally clear that the voter verified papers would actually be the real ballots, by ensuring that 100% of them would be counted (preferably by hand, in public, and before the election night returns are reported).

The folks who are truly on the bus all seem to grasp this reality. Holt's latest bill, especially the revised version, comes with Avi Rubin, David Dill, Barbara Simons, and maybe even Ron Rivest, each of whom have wandered on and off the bus before. Plus now there's the Microsoft attorneys too, and Holt's backyard buddy Avante, who hopped on when the bus passed through their adjacent parking lots (see photo below).

Blogged by DES from Houston...

It's Day Two of our hijacking week-and-a-half long Guest Hosting stint on the Peter B. Collins Show today from 3p-6p PT (6p-9p ET). We'll be broadcasting from the facilities of Pacifica's Houston station, KPFT.

Today's scheduled guests (subject to change/updates as warranted): FAIZ SHAKIR, Research Director at the Center for American Progress and Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report; PBC's regular contributor on military affairs, retired Marine SCOTT DICK, MICHAEL ZACCHEA of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and just added, CHRISTINE JENNINGS, candidate for Congress from Florida District 13, and in today's Daily Election Integrity Hour, JOHN GIDEON of VotersUnite.org, voting machine expert REBECCA MERCURI and YOUR CALLS! (More guests added soon!)

Listen LIVE via: http://www.PeterBCollins.com (or an on air affiliate station)
Call in at: 1-888-5PeterB
Open thread discussion during the show: In Comments below...

POST-SHOW UPDATE/ARCHIVES...

HOUR 1: Breaking news on the Plame case dismissal, Faiz Shakir on that and the politicization of the Judiciary and Executive branches, and "Congresswoman" Christine Jennings announces her intention to run again in '08 and that the GAO will announce their findings on her FL-13 '06 election in a closed door Congressional meeting on July 27...

HOUR 2: Military affairs contributor Scott Dick and Iraq vet Michael Zacchea on the lack of armored vehicles (MRAPs) for U.S. troops and Zacchea's experience training the Iraqi army...

HOUR 3: Election Integrity Hour with John Gideon on the rumored death of the Holt Bill, Robert Carillo Cohen on the emmy nomination for Hacking Democracy and Rebeca Mercuri on the mess that is Election Reform...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A lot of important decisions are nearing completion. Members of Congress are deciding whether they are happy with HR-811 as it came out of committee. Many members have said they are no longer in support of the bill. Riverside Co. California supervisors have a decision whether to follow the recommendation of their study group to rid the county of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. San Francisco California election officials have to decide whether they will have to count ballots by hand in November. And Pennsylvania counties that use ES&S DREs have to decide whether they want to continue paying the exorbitant fees for machine warranties. And, by the way, speaking about decisions; many groups decided to support, and pleaded with their members to support, HR-811 two-weeks before the bill was even filed. Yet, those same groups are totally mum on S-1487 even though it is due to go to committee hearing in a week. Why the silence? Why are they not standing up and being vocal about their support for democracy and opposition to the bill?...

Blogged by Brad from Houston...

The official nominations aren't to be announced until tomorrow. But if this page at the official Emmy Awards site is accurate, it looks like our friends who created the tremendous Hacking Democracy documentary which aired on HBO before last November's election have been nominated for an award in the "OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM‑‑LONG FORM" category!

We reviewed the documentary for ComputerWorld in the week before the election last year right here. The nominated team, as posted on the site, includes:

They'll face some stiff competition, it looks like, in that category, but the nomination itself will undoubtedly draw more needed attention to this important film and it is, as they say, an honor just to be nominated. Congrats, guys!

Bev Harris, naturally, one of the film's central players, had the scoop from inside sources yesterday and offers more details in her post.

The official Hacking Democracy site is right here, and you can purchase the film online from the producers at Public Interest Pictures (DISCLOSURE: They are BRAD BLOG advertisers) right here.

Blogged by Brad Friedman from Houston...

Radio host Peter B. Collins has been earning his keep of late. On his last show before a three-week Summer vacation today (we will be filling in to Guest Host for him for the next week and a half), Collins finished up a segment with Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today concerning his efforts to renew the Fairness Doctrine with two quick, unrelated questions.

First, Collins asked whether the Congressman supported the controversial Rush Holt Election Reform Bill (HR 811) "in it's current form." The legislation has come under fire from Election Integrity advocates for its continued allowance of the use of dangerous DRE touch-screen voting machines, and a host of other concerns.

Hinchey --- who is currently signed on as one of the bill's co-sponsors --- responded by saying he had "some very serious questions about it" and feels that "it has been compromised."

While there was no time to follow up with details, his comments likely referred to the troubling changes made to the bill by the House Administration Committee. Originally, the legislation had called for complete disclosure of electronic voting system source code to any member of the public interested in examining it. By the time the bill was voted out of committee, however, those important disclosure provisions had been changed to require that the source code be placed in escrow, to be examined only by so-called "experts" in the event that a problem is discovered during an election, and only under non-disclosure agreements.

Those changes led Holt himself to admit that "the vendors have won," according to reports from several Election Integrity advocates who attended a town hall event where the New Jersey Congressman spoke over the weekend. No word on whether Holt may be removing himself as a co-sponsor of the Holt bill in light of his reported admissions.

Secondly, Collins asked Hinchey, "What is your posture on the impeachment of Vice President Cheney?"

Blogged by Brad from Houston...

I'll be kicking off a week and a half of Guest Hosting on the Peter B. Collins Show today from 3p-6p PT (6p-9p ET). We'll be broadcasting from the facilities of Pacifica's Houston station, KPFT.

Today's scheduled guests (subject to change/updates as warranted): Former CIA analyst and Valerie Plame classmate Larry C. Johnson of NoQuarter, Bob Geiger of BobGeiger.com, Larisa Alexandrovna of RAW STORY and at-Largely, Alison Parker of Human Rights Watch and in our first daily Election Integrity Hour, John Gideon of VotersUnite.org, Tom Courbat of Riverside County, CA's SAVE R VOTE, and attorney Gregory Luke on his recent court victory to hold a re-vote in Alameda County, CA.

Listen LIVE via: http://www.PeterBCollins.com (or an on air affiliate station)
Call in at: 1-888-5PeterB
Open thread discussion during the show: In Comments below...

POST-SHOW UPDATE/ARCHIVES...

HOUR 1: Featuring Bob Geiger on the Senate Iraq debate and Larry C. Johnson on the National Intelligence estimate and other intelligence chicanery...

HOUR 2: Featuring Larisa Alexandrovna on secret CIA prisons and Alison Parker on mandatory deportation laws.

HOUR 3: Election Integrity Hour! John Gideon on decisions coming to a head, Tom Courbat on the latest tomfoolery of the Riverside County, CA Board of Supervisors and Gregory Luke on last week's landmark Alameda County, CA court victory.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today was the day of congressional announcements. It’s funny how things all seem to happen on the same day. First, on the Senate side, it was announced that Feinstein’s democracy-busting S-1487 will be heard in the Senate Rules Committee on July 25. This bill is so dangerous that even many Holt bill supporters are speaking out against it. Also announced today is that Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich has sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter to ask Speaker Pelosi to stop the advancement of HR-811 so other voices can be heard regarding this legislation.

Those voting news stories, and all the others of note, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio, and David Bender had a great discussion about RFK Jr.'s Live Earth speech on the July 14, 2007 Ring of Fire on Air America Radio. The show opened with a laughing Papantonio asking, "So Bobby, what in the hell did you do this last weekend, my God, hate-mail is flying, Hannity is attacking you, I mean what's up?" You can hear RFK Jr. reply that he "just told the truth, man, just told the truth" in the ten minute audio clip from the radio program (below). The video of the Live Earth speech can also be viewed here at BRAD BLOG.

And there is plenty more truth telling in the Ring of Fire audio clip (above) which includes RFK Jr. elaborating on his Live Earth comments about treasonous corporations:

RFK Jr.'s appearance on Glenn Beck, also at BRAD BLOG, is also discussed briefly. Finally, Bender repeats RFK Jr.'s call to fight lying pundits like Hannity and Beck through their advertisers (many of which can be seen in this video mashup).

Guess Blogged by John Gideon, VotersUnite.Org

Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), several weeks ago, had expressed his intention to drop support for Rep. Rush Holt's (D-NJ) Election Reform Bill, HR 811. A week or so ago, he reiterated his lack of support for the bill, and his intention to drop off as co-sponsor.

Today, he has begun to circulate a "Dear Colleague" letter (posted in full below) to be sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urging her to ensure the legislative process addresses the concerns of the many groups who have spoken out in opposition to HR-811.

"For these constituencies," the letter says, "H.R. 811 falls short of its intended goals to ensure votes are cast and counted as intended by the voters."

The Congressman is looking for others to step up and co-sign the letter, and asking Election Integrity advocates to contact their Congress Members to ask them to join the effort.

On a related note today the Senate Rules Committee announced that they would be holding a hearing on Sen. Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) democracy-busting S-1487 election reform legislation in the Senate. This is the bill that will turn over our elections to corporations and the incompetent, compromised U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The hearing is scheduled for July 25 at 10AM.

Below is a copy of an email that was sent out by Kucinich's office today, including the "Dear Colleague" letter now being circulated for signatures...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

A slightly edited (for time) Jay Leno interview of Bill Maher (approximately 10 minutes) follows a very political and oftentimes funny Leno monologue (5 minutes). Subjects covered by Leno include Senator Vitter's DC Madam problems, Condi Rice and Dick Cheney golfing, Bill's backing of Hillary for president, Scooter Libby, and Al Gore. Meanwhile, Maher worries that Democrats might blow the 2008 election by nominating Hillary. And while Maher claims to never have endorsed a candidate, he calls Edwards/Obama a "no-lose ticket" and a "winning ticket."

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

My turn to rant: Over five months ago Florida State University put out their report on what they found when inspecting the Sarasota Co. voting system that had not recorded over 18,000 votes for congress. FSU researchers found a serious security vulnerability in the voting system. I took it upon myself to try to get people in positions of responsibility to do their jobs and to warn counties that their voting machines may be vulnerable and that there were mitigations that could be used. Numerous emails to the Election Assistance Commission resulted in nothing happening because, according to them, they did not qualify it for use so they couldn’t do anything about any problems. NASED qualified the system and after five months of also talking with them a response was received yesterday: “I can assure you that we are aware of the importance of your issue. NASED will be discussing this issue at our next meeting.” “Next meeting”? Five months of no action while counties, cities, towns, hold their elections on these machines without any idea that they are vulnerable to attack. Next meeting? What was wrong with sending an email to those who use those systems and include a copy of the report and ask them to read the damn report? And these people expect us to have confidence in the election system. Not hardly.

Links to today's other voting news stories of note are posted below, as usual...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Bill O'Reilly goes off the deep end tonight (video at left) because of alleged comments his producers claim to have found "on a vicious far-left website called the DailyKos, one of the worst examples of hatred that America has to offer." O'Reilly proceeds to take issue with Jet Blue for sponsoring the DailyKos convention (with 10 plane tickets!) which, coincidentally, is this week in two weeks, August 2-5. At one point O'Reilly makes some rather unfortunate comparisons with the DailyKos:

UPDATE/ADDENDUM FROM BRAD: As dKos diarist "mcjoan" a pointed out over there in advance of O'Reilly's big hate scoop, perhaps No Spin Boy may have a gripe against dKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga that he failed to mention in his hit piece. "Markos led the way in getting the Democratic presidential candidates to boycott the Fox debate," she writes, "and we're going to be having a Democratic presidential candidates forum at YearlyKos."

There's that, and the fact that dKos is only the largest community in the blogosphere, either Left or Right, and a grave threat to folks like Fox "News" and O'Reilly, since they have a habit of countering their spin with actual facts.

And most importantly, O'Reilly forgot to mention that the comments he alluded to on the site could well have been posted by anyone, since it's an open site. A question one might ask then (one that's at least as responsible as O'Reilly's ridiculous attack): Did Bill O'Reilly or one of his producers post those "hateful" comments at dKos themselves? Perhaps someone should ambush them to find out. Without evidence either way, I'll just go ahead and say O'Reilly did it himself. Why not? O'Reilly has no journalistic credibility and he's got the biggest show on cable "news." Perhaps we need to start making stuff up too!

FURTHER UPDATE FROM BRAD 7/17/07: Daily Kos' "DarkSyde" responds directly to O'Reilly segment, patiently explaining exactly what Billo doesn't grasp about the progressive blogosphere. "ShaunMcDonnell," a dKos diarist who claims to be a "Right-Leaning Lurker" takes O'Reilly to task for his hit piece calling it "easy" and a "cheap shot". And Kos himself posts a few of the pieces of hate mail (ironically enough) from O'Reilly's fans that he's received since the story ran yesterday.

Blogged by Brad from somewhere in Texas...

Our long road trip continues. And who knows? At some point, we may even fit in a day or two off if we're lucky!

After heading from California to Arizona to New Mexico to Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas to Mississippi to Alabama to Georgia to Tennessee to Kentucky to Missouri and then back down through Oklahoma, we now find ourselves somewhere in Texas, en route to Houston, where we will stay put for a couple of weeks.

Beginning on Wednesday, I'll be Guest Hosting the Peter B. Collins Show for a week and a half, Monday through Fridays from 3p - 6p PT (6p - 9p ET, or 5p - 8p CT on our Houston clock) and hope you'll tune in to one of Peter's affiliate stations, or via the Internet for whatever trouble-making we end up cooking up.

We'll be broadcasting each day out of the facilities of KPFT, as generously offered by the good folks of Houston's Pacifica Radio affiliate station there. We're very much looking forward to it, as we've not been on the air for such a long stint in quite a while. The last time would also have been out of Texas, during the Summer of 2005 from "Camp Casey," where we took the old BRAD SHOW on the road for our special "Operation Noble Cause" broadcasts from the middle of one damned hot cow pasture.

Ironically enough, it was some of the good folks from KPFT who helped us get on the air in a broadcasting miracle back in 2005 from on the ground at "Camp Casey." We're promised air conditioning this time, and perhaps even slightly shorter work days, but we'll see. Either way, I hope you'll both join us and spread the word. We're hoping to set aside the last hour of each show, each day, as our Election Integrity Hour. But now that we've left Kansas, things may change quickly around here.

We'll try to keep you up to date each day here at The BRAD BLOG with a list of guests and a LIVE open show thread during the broadcast, as well as take as many of your calls (1-888-5-PeterB) as we can, even while the BRAD BLOG Guest Bloggers (and I) keep on blogging here at the same time.

Should be fun. Hope you'll both tune in and stay tuned! More from Houston...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

UPDATE: The original video had one error identifying Frederick Kagan as a co-founder of PNAC. In fact, it was Robert Kagan, Freddie's brother who co-founded PNAC with General Kristol. Freddie is merely a rank and file member of PNAC and signatory to some of the reports generated by the neocon think tank. (hat tip Robert Danow)

Neoconservative co-founder of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and author of Bush's recent Iraq "Surge" plan, Frederick Kagan, shared a virtual propagandafest with Brit Hume on Fox 'News' Sunday yesterday. BRAD BLOG covered the entire charade that was Kagan's Plan for Success back in January along with a timeline evidencing Freddie's ever-changing call for a troop surge which began with 50,000 additional troops and ended up with either 20,000 or 33,000 more soldiers depending on the day of the week.

Perhaps the only thing more amazing than Kagan's lack of honesty and empathy for our troops is Fox's audacity for continuously giving Kagan and his warmongering kin, including "General" Bill Kristol, a platform to spout their neoconservative rhetoric. If Fox 'News' had any integrity whatsoever it would implement a Mendoza Line type requirement for its pundits. In baseball, all one has to do to stay even with the Mendoza Line is get a hit 1 out of every 5 at bats. Imagine if Fox made it a requirement that Kagan had to be right on at least 1 of 5 matters that he weighs in on. Actually, as far as I know, if the minimum requirement were merely to be right once he wouldn't make it on the air.