On today's BradCast, I was joined for the first time by self-described "Congressman With Guts" Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), just after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) formally announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

Did Grayson, who shares many views with Sanders, take the opportunity I offered him to be the first elected Dem to endorse the Senator from Vermont for the 2016 nomination? You'll have to tune in to find out, along with what he thinks of Hillary Clinton and why he says "the sound of Mitch McConnell chortling is as disturbing as any sound you're ever gonna hear in your life". It was a fun, very interesting and quite candid interview, frankly.

I will tell you that Grayson did allege that "we've been hoodwinked" on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which he described as "a farce" and the "death knell for the American middle class" after the "worst economic mismanagement in the history of the planet" over the past 20 years since the passage of NAFTA. But, he also notes that he's not allowed to discuss the specifics of TPP, thanks to "the games the Administration is playing with us and the American public". He does, however, point us towards TradeTreachery.com for what he modestly describes as "the most interesting video you're ever gonna see in your entire life." It was just released today.

Grayson also discusses his fellow Democrats and whether they will finally take the legislative steps necessary to overturn Citizens United, if they are ever able to take back control of the U.S. House and Senate. (He says "yes", but only if one particular Democrat becomes House Speaker. Otherwise, he says, "I don't think we can count on the Democrats" to take the steps necessary to restore what the Supreme Court broke.)

All of that and MUCH more on today's BradCast, including breaking news out of Baltimore, from NASA, and even the once great "Republic of Texas"...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Senator Bernie Sanders, climate hawk, enters the 2016 Presidential race; Thanks to fossil fuels, California still has the nation's dirtiest air; Study finds most extremely hot days caused by global warming; PLUS: Pope Francis wants to protect God's Creation, and the rightwing, fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute wants him to knock it off... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Break-up of the century: U.S. emissions and economic growth are really, finally separating; New Survey Shows TV Weathercasters Increasingly Accept Climate Change (but not Fox News); Duke Energy to hand out bottled water in North Carolina after wells polluted; Bees Love Nicotine, Even Though It's Killing Them; Forest fire threatens Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear zone... PLUS: Exposure to widespread diabetes drug feminizes male fish... and much, MUCH more! ...

Would the nation even be discussing what happened in Baltimore were it not for the violence that broke out at the protests over the killing in police custody of Freddie Gray?

Also, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is jumping in to the 2016 race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Our listeners call in with thoughts on all of the above and more in a very lively show! All of that and Desi Doyen with the latest Green News Report on today's BradCast!

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On today's BradCast: What's really going on in Baltimore? We discuss the riots and the reason and turn to Fox "News", of all places, for a bit of sanity! (No, really. Thank you, Shep Smith!)

Then, Doug Hughes, the U.S. postal worker who landed his gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol to bring attention to the need for campaign finance reform in the wake of Citizens United, joins me for a conversation that focuses --- for a change --- on why he actually did it. See his website TheDemocracyClub.org for more.

It's an "orgy of spending," Hughes told me, and he's hoping to see a "nonpartisan, ground swell voter rebellion" against it. He also talked about his cool gyrocopter, what his bosses at the USPS have done since his brush with infamy, and the failure on behalf of our national security apparatus to stop him. The letter he was attempting to deliver to 535 members of the U.S. Congress is now posted here.

Plus: Marriage equality is winning the day even on Fox 'News', but can it win once and for all in the U.S. Supreme Court?...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Devastation and rescue in Nepal after massive earthquake; March 2015 the hottest March on record; Sardines crash in the Pacific; PLUS: Fighting climate change with the power of poo... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): VIDEO: Obama Finally Gets Angry At Climate Science Deniers And It’s Hilarious; California goes nuts: the hedge-fund-fueled race to plant thirsty trees in a catastrophic drought; 7.4 Million Acres of Ecosystem Lost to Oil and Gas Boom; Will The Chilean Volcano Be Big Enough to Cool 2015?; FL legislature diverts funds from voter-approved conservation fund; NV's Lake Mead headed to new historic low... PLUS: A solar future isn't just likely — it's inevitable... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's premiere edition of the now-daily BradCast, we cover the violence on the ground in Baltimore during protests of the death of Freddy Gray in police custody, and the ongoing disaster following the weekend's earthquake in Nepal.

Then, I speak to legendary 'Pentagon Papers' whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg from the National Press Club in D.C. about the Obama Administration's unprecedented prosecution of national security whistleblowers and the slap-on-the-wrist sentence given to disgraced CIA director General David Petraeus, versus the severe treatment to actual recent whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

"Our democracy has eroded very very heavily since 9/11," Ellsberg tells me in a fascinating conversation. "More than people realize. And maybe not more than they were willing to see, but it hasn't been an informed change on their part. When they think 'I'm willing to give up a little democracy here to have more security,' they don't know how much they're giving up and they don't know how little more security they're getting."

Near the end of our conversation, Ellsberg was also kind enough to say some very nice things about the work we've been doing here at The BRAD BLOG for so many years. Coming from someone like him, that means a great deal.

Plus, Loretta Lynch finally sworn in as the next AG; Dubya criticizes Obama's Mid-east foreign policy (!) and climate deniers head to the Vatican...

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For more details on our now-daily BradCasts, where you can automagically download it via free RSS subscription, etc., see this item from late last week...

Okay, so it's not "The Daily Show", but, as announced during yesterday's BradCast, beginning this Monday (4/27), barring any disasters (which could most certainly occur between now and then), Desi and I will be producing daily episodes of The BradCast for awhile.

My blogging here has been light-ish of late; the main reason has been trying to work out everything in the background, on a bit of a shoestring, as required to get a daily program up and running.

The show will be available for play or download, as usual, at The BRAD BLOG five days a week; for auto-download (subscribe for free at iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or our native RSS feed); and syndicated each day on most of the show's current radio and streaming affiliates, including Pacifica Radio's KPFK in L.A. and Southern California, KYAQ in Oregon, Progressive Voices, Netroots Radio, Indie Media Weekly, FYI Nation Network and some new ones as well, including Radio Sputnik (and a few more coming soon)!

For the first few weeks, I suspect the new project will take a lot of time, energy and focus. So please bear with us as I am giving myself permission to focus on the show every day without worrying about blogging beyond show postings for a while. I suspect that may not last very long (or even at all), but I need to give myself that permission anyway --- so I hope you will do the same.

So...aside from show postings, blogging here (by me anyway) may be light for a while (or it may not be), even as guest bloggers may continue to rake muck and cause trouble as frequently as they wish, and as I have time to perform my editing responsibilities therein.

As mentioned, we are doing much of this on a shoestring, so we welcome your donations towards the effort, if you are so inclined. (See below. And thank you!) Otherwise, I hope you'll tune in and shout out with feedback good, bad or otherwise!...

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Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court severely curtailed the government's ability to utilize a routine traffic stop as an excuse to subject motorists to a canine-sniff of their vehicles as a precursor to a search for narcotics.

In Rodriguez v. United States, the Court ruled that the right of "seizure" during a routine traffic stop extends only for the length of time necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop --- a purpose that ends with the issuance of a citation or warning for the routine stop. While the time needed to effectuate the purpose of the stop includes such measures as necessary to protect an officer’s safety, it does not, according to the Supremes, include a "dog sniff" which, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote on behalf of the court's majority, relates to "the Government’s endeavor to detect crime in general or drug trafficking in particular."

While the 6 to 3 decision (Justices Thomas, Alito and Kennedy dissenting) was handed down in a case in which a motorist was caught transporting methamphetamine inside his car, it also serves to protect the rights of those who are innocent, such as 63-year old Dennis Eckhart, whose nightmarish plight --- including multiple, invasive, forced medical procedures --- all came about as the result of a routine traffic stop and wholly unfounded suspicion by local police...

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: After years of denial, Oklahoma finally admits fracking causes earthquakes; Fines and accountability for oil spills, coal waste spills, and deadly natural gas explosions; PLUS: Environmentalists push back at new Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Oklahoma Lawmakers Vote To Outlaw Fracking Bans As Earthquakes In The State Spike; Video: "Dear Future Generations: Sorry"; Common pesticides hurting health of wild bees; Congress passes bipartisan energy efficiency bill; TV meteorologists increasingly accept climate science; Bad news in lionfish invasion; After 30 years, EPA tightens air pollution standards; CEOs to world leaders: Get off your asses and fix climate change... PLUS: 'Pipelines Blow Up And People Die... and much, MUCH more! ...

Big news about The BradCast in this week's BradCast! You can listen to it to find out what it is or wait for me to mention it here at The BRAD BLOG shortly.

Beyond that, while it happens to be Earth Day, it's always Earth Day around here, so we decided to make it Un-Earth Day in "honor" of the rightwing anti-science, anti-climate, anti-reality group The Heartland Institute. You'll enjoy some of their thoughts on this 45th Anniversary of Earth Day.

Also, updates in the Judge Mark Fuller "wife beating" case; a thought or two about Hillary and "the Left"; a bunch of great listener phone calls (including one with a, um, rather remarkable explanation for climate change!); and, of course, Desi Doyen and the latest Green News Report. Enjoy!

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By the way, if you're a BradCast fan, now is a great time to subscribe for free to the BradCast RSS feed (or use the iTunes subscription page, if you prefer) to have it downloaded automagically to the device of your choosing!

Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to mandate a 25% reduction of urban water use in California was absolutely necessary and woefully inadequate.

The unprecedented mandatory restriction is necessary because the state faces an historically acute and potentially catastrophic shortage of freshwater. Newly released NASA data suggests the state could run out of surface water reserves completely within the next year.

The severe water shortage, however, is not merely acute. It is chronic. The Golden State is now in its fourth year of an extreme, global climate change-linked drought that scientists predict could continue for decades.

There are a multitude of reasons why Brown's overly simplistic 25% urban water use reduction --- a meager 6.25% of water consumption by all sectors of the California economy --- is woefully inadequate when measured against both acute and chronic extreme drought conditions...

Recently, North Carolina opinion columnist and NC Insider editor Patrick Gannon misinformed readers of the Asheville Citizen-Times by telling them that the anti-voting law passed by Republicans after they took over the statehouse in 2013 --- a law which we (and others) have described as "the nation's worst voter suppression law since the Jim Crow era" --- isn't actually so bad.

"In many ways," apologist Gannon writes, the bill simply "put North Carolina more on par with other states."

He argues, as if it's a good thing, that while NC "once had among the least restrictive --- or more voter-friendly --- sets of election laws...That is no longer true." So, less "voter-friendly" is just fine by him, it seems.

Gannon offers justification for each of the key restrictions that now hamstring NC's once rather progressive and, yes, voter-friendly election laws, by arguing that the GOP's changes do little more than put the state back in line with voting laws in other states "including Texas and South Carolina." Again, as if that's a good thing.

But a Citizen-Times letter writer, in response, offers a key clarification to one of the most egregious bits of misinformation offered by Gannon --- one frequently parroted by Rightwing vote suppressors --- that the Photo ID restrictions passed as part of NC's new law are just like provisions for Voter IDs in "34 states that have passed voter identification requirements."

That, as letter writer Mike Burns accurately (if more politely) explains, is complete bullshit...

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, five years later; As Earth Day comes and goes, Obama pushes again for climate action; Jan-March 2015 was the hottest ever recorded; PLUS: Jeb Bush thinks climate change might actually be a thing... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 10 tips to make every day Earth Day; Geologists think they know what caused TX earthquakes; Everything you think you know about CA water is wrong; Majority of e-waste collected in 2014 not recycled correctly; Arctic is ‘unraveling’ due to climate change; Geologists blame fracking injection wells for TX earthquakes; Support for carbon tax reaches almost 70%; Electrical grid infrastructure needs major changes, report finds... PLUS: Since BP Spill, 9 Million Acres in Gulf Leased for Drilling... and much, MUCH more! ...