I love that self-depricating stupid act. It reminds me of Steve Martin, or Borat and Ali G.(Sasha Cohen, yah yah I know.) It's hard to believe what a 1984 type society we have become. From the voting machines to the surveilance to the never ending, shifting war. Ewww, I just gave myself the willies.

I think I'm going to need throat surgery to unlock my pipes from fits of apoplexy on the floor... breathing is now seriously difficult... * is the "mayor of Texas".........

s this a personal full-disclosure before you are outed as being a reformed (dry) comedian?

My personal favs:

"You're a Republican?"
"No I explained that I am a Democrat who crossed over and voted for McCain."

I loved the lady who voted for McCain to try to block Bush.

The fellow for whom Bob Jones University was just too much, and did seem to know his Joneses.

The downside of this is that I felt better about my country then. No smirking Cheney.

Good clean fun --- we thought.

Little did you know that polling places would become commonplace crime scenes that year and beyond.

I miss how our country used to be.

- Tom

ps. I liked how that one lady grabbed the mic and began interviewing Brad. Perhaps that's what citizens need to do with the so-called journalists and pundits in the lamestream media.

Very funny. I thought at first the elderly lady was Giuliani.
They were very patient with you. Must have been because of this handsome face
Brad

That was funny stuff!
Maybe after we save democracy we can push Brad into a gig with John Stewart...

Awww...
Damn... Just remembered...

Eternal vigilence will be needed...

Maybe Comedy Central will never have an opportunity to use the talents of Brad Friedman...

Too bad... A lot more folks would see him do his think if it were just about entertainment, instead of freedom...

shw

So this is what you meant https://bradblog.com/?p=5633#comment-296729 by "no substantive reporting."

At least I got the year right, didn't I?

All the money you have made reporting on voting irregularities and all we have through your crusade is an Independent Senator named Lieberman and one totally FUBAR'd voting system.

Much worse than we had in 2003 or 1999.

Thank you for your work, now explain yourself.

Jeff Barea -

You may need a fresh hobby. First, I don't generally report on "voting irregularities" (unless they are Ann Coulter's) but rather election irregularities. The voters are doing fine. Please leave them alone. It's the electoral system that is a mess.

As to "all the money [I've] made," that's great news! Where do I pick it up? I could use it!

Finally, I realize you're tickling yourself (perhaps because nobody else will?) by suggesting that by now I should have single handedly saved the entire electoral system on behalf of America for you (as you mentioned both in your original silly comment and your silly follow-up above). Where you got that idea, I can only guess. Your own bizarre blog might offer us a few guesses, but I leave the speculation to others.

I disagree that we are worse off than we were in '03, back when few (including myself) understood just how bad the system was.

Beyond that, again, my deepest apologies for not having singlehandedly saved the entire American electoral system for you by now. I'll do my best to keep trying though. You're welcome. My best suggestion, for you only, until that can be done: Leave the country. I'll send you a telegram when it's okay to come back.

Good luck on your continuing quest.

Yeah Brad, what's up? Why haven't you fixed our messed up voting system yet? With all the money you must be making while "reporting on voting irregularities" you should certainly have fixed things by now. Please get to work on that and when your finished with that, please start working on global warming or the trade deficit or the national debt (all the money you've made in the last 4 years should help with this last one). Man, what a slacker!

Don’t know why I cannot watch this video on Firefox. It is fine on Explorer 7.06

My apologies to you as well, Steve

I got distracted while personally correcting that whole world peace thing, even while feeding all of the children of the globe so that none of them went to bed hungry at night. Must keep my eyes on the prize. Thanks for the reminder! I'll try to do better.

Jeff # 7

Rome wasn't built in a day, either..!

Try asking your countries media to explain THEMSELVES..!

If THEY were doing their jobs and reporting what's REALLY happening out there with your fubar'd voting system instead of saturating everyone with the latest Britany episode, then maybe our Brad and a few others like him, would have been able to retire by now, instead of still being out there beating the bushes and trying to right all the wrongs.

Hang in there Bradders.....you're doing a great job..!

I like the lady in purple, she's wasn't afraid to state what was on her mind. Too bad she's not a member of the White House press corps.....she'd probably give your commander in chief a bad case of the runs every time she opened her mouth

Oh, just admit it, Brad. It's all yer fault....

Brad,

Stick to the point and don't obfuscate with randomness like "silly."

You said "I disagree that we are worse off than we were in '03, back when few (including myself) understood just how bad the system was."

And you said: "South Carolina uses DRE (touch-screen) voting systems made by ES&S. It will be literally and physically impossible to verify that a single vote has been recorded accurately on any of them. 100% faith-based voting."

In 2003 they had paper ballots. Chads and all that could be counted. In 2004 we watched them do that.

In 2008?

Instead of wasting space about problems your blog and, you, in particular have reported on I will simply say two words that demonstrate the 2008 problems with both paper and electronic election processes.

New Hampshire.

You and I, both, want accountability in our public officials.

I want accountability in those who declare crusades to protect each vote.

Remember this quote?

UPDATE: 11/15/04 Recount fundraising goal has been met! Now seeking funds for "mobilization" costs and also volunteers to serve as "recount witnesses"! (https://bradblog.com/?p=939)

1) In 2004 you thought raising money to recount votes would work.

2) In 2008 you said you noted there was literally no way to verify the voting.

It's ok Brad. I'm keeping 100% on topic.

I just want an explanation. You have staked your name and those annual conventions on your constant vigilance of "elections."

Yet. New Hampshire.

I just want some accountability from the blog that made its name as the guardian of each persons vote (you know I will find a quote in the archives to support that statement).

Too frickin' funny! Jon Stewart has nothing on you. Have you sent this to him - maybe you could be a sidekick - but then who would tell us about the b.s. in the election areola, er, arena?

Jeff Barea -

I just want some accountability from the blog that made its name as the guardian of each persons vote (you know I will find a quote in the archives to support that statement).

You're right. I have plans before Tuesday to fly around the world backwards so many times so quickly, it will reverse the earth's rotation, thus turning back time, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 will never be signed!

Please don't tell anybody, as I'd like to keep this good news a bit of a surprise.

Plus , if it doesn't work, I'd hate to have to refund the money to all of those voters who have personally paid me for my promise to personally be the "the guardian" of their vote. (Please don't look too deeply into the archives, though, Jeff! You might find yet another quote to embarrass me, you diabolical accountability-demander you!)

(And here I thought the video above was going to be the most fun I had all weekend! Who knew?!)

To Mar #7:

Rome was burnt in a day.

The lesson? Bad election processes can be torn down quicker than they are established.

If only a leader can be found to do it outside of Las Vegas.

Brad,

Me. The moment you decided to ignore the year 2000.

Aside from your kinda funny response (Yeah, I can admit that)...

4 years not enough?

Maybe help Kucinich fundraise to pony up enough money to see what happened on the Democrat side (we know you did in 2004)?

Just admit things are more screwed up now.

Not even sure why you tried to deny that?

Okay Brad, fess up. You hired Jeff to spice up the comments and continue with the same type of incisive questioning and challenging repartee that you demonstrated in your Flashback Video above. That was a stroke of genius on your part but you probably didn't expect that he would play the role in the comment section even better than you did in the video. The guy is obviously a genius of satire!

Well... or about eleven....

Nice work, Brad! Let's get this election mess cleaned up so you can go back to making people laugh full-time;-)

Bradblog is the best website ! Please don't let the trolls take it over. I think of them as all paid $2.50 and hour to just be stupid. I can't fathom that everybody doesn't want fair election.

Hi Molly! Believe it or not, there are thousands that want "to win" (Repubs) at any cost! That is how this whole mess started. When you look back on the last 8 years, that's why - Iraq, no bid contracts, decimating the Constitution, permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, unlimitless power to corporations, etc - on and on and on. I feel as if we are in a nightmare and can't wake up.

Reminds me of once when I was able to wrest the microphone out of your hands. Does this happen to you often?

Ellen Theisen said:

Reminds me of once when I was able to wrest the microphone out of your hands. Does this happen to you often?

Hmmm...I believe I recall the incident you're likely referring to. But oddly enough, I seem to remember it slightly differently, Ms. Theisen

That troll could very well be paid to post. A quick look at his blog turns up a lot of vulgarity, and to be honest, most of it just doesn't make any sense.

Thanks for that video Mr. BradBlog. It can be tough to trust people on the internet. This humble nobody from Massachusetts thinks you're for real.

If you were a fake, you'd have the cable news show and not Greg Gutfeld.

Your blog has made a difference. Election fraud is too important an issue not to place a big spolight on it. You had the gumption and fortitude to stay on topic.

This is how I look at it. 2004 in Ohio did not add up. Now who are we gonna believe, a Princeton professor or an insidious, internet fake like Steven Hertzberg?

Perhaps there's a greater awareness in our country, now more than ever, of our dysfunctional election system (i.e. DREs, optical scanners, etc.) and that's somewhat of an improvement.

But really I don't understand the point of arguing whether things are more or less screwed up now than in 2000 or 2004. We all acknowledge our election system is screwed up and something needs to be done about it--that's the point.

Shooting or blaming the messenger seems pointless to me.

- Tom

Brad, I visit your site about every day and have been meaning to make a comment for some time. Today looks as good as any, especially with the trollish behavior - from kos to the dog barking for attention here today - that's been afoot recently.

I’ll start out by saying that I have donated to just two blogs, Glenn Greenwald’s and yours, but would add for those so concerned that if Brad has gotten rich from this gig, it certainly was not due to my efforts. Although your areas of expertise are different, I believe you both share a passionate concern for our country and the rights of its citizens, and recognize the need for proper accountability to ensure these rights are maintained, whether it be on the telephone or in the voting booth.

kos has been a leading force for good in a lot of ways, which is why I was particularly disappointed when he first profoundly misinterpreted the responsible concerns you and others raised, and then chose to ridicule the messengers. (According to your postings, this goes back a ways, which is a shame and needs be worked out somehow. I was glad to read your magnanimous offer of a one-on-one - kos obviously needs to be educated on this issue, especially the difference between exposures of obvious weaknesses in the control of ballots and accusations of fraud.)

I assume kos is not a global warming skeptic, but the reasoning behind his taunting regarding your concerns with the New Hampshire primary is not unlike that of the skeptic who selectively uses anecdotal events, such as a cold snap or some area of the world whose temperatures have been below normal recently, to bolster unscientifically-arrived-at positions or to accuse those in opposition of being overly alarmist.

The considerations of electoral security tie directly into my line of work, particularly in the area of fraud risk. A model used extensively in my profession identifies three conditions generally present when fraud occurs: incentives/pressures, opportunity and attitudes/rationalizations. It does not take a great deal of imagination to come up with an example applying these same three factors to the electoral process: a highly-ideological (incentive) political faction with a sense of innate superiority, certainty of position and nobility of purpose (attitudes/rationalization) that sees - and has overseen in many cases - an electoral process undergoing rapid technological changes without commensurate consideration of safeguards (opportunity).

It is important to note that these factors are not independent, that a change in one can fundamentally affect the other. If opportunity is minimized through election controls that are strong and followed strictly, and a prospective perpetrator of election fraud thereby sees a very small likelihood of success, in terms of the act of fraud accomplishing its goal without the act being detected, this perception of reduced opportunity may dramatically reduce the prospective perpetrator’s incentive to commit fraud regardless of his political zealotry. On the other hand, if controls are lax, incentive is thereby increased, leading more to believe they would get away with it. Their rationalization? Everybody else is doing it and the world will be a better place for them having committed the fraud.

One issue where Brad gets misinterpreted as often as any other is that election security is not just about preventing fraud; it is also about preventing accidental, undetected errors which easily could make the difference in a close election. It is like Brad is yelling, “Security weakness!” and many hear, “Fraud!”

If businesses operated using controls as lax at what Brad has often described here, either the company controller or the company itself would soon be gone. Such looseness would simply not be tolerated in a business trying to make a profit. Hiring a Diebold or other companies with clear ties certain politicians is not unlike a business that would hire a third party to deposit its income, write its checks and balance its bank statement without any management oversight - and, oh yeah, the third party happens to be the brother of the company controller. Thanks to Brad’s untiring efforts, Diebold, etc. have been exposed as examples of the evils of privatizing inherently government functions, and the cronyism that inevitably will ensue, on a level that is every bit as noteworthy as Blackwater. The issues with Diebold and Blackwater are remarkably similar if you think about it.

While I think it would be a mistake to dismiss kos in entirely and demean him for eternity due to his lack of understanding of this particular issue and its messengers, I hold no such hesitations for those of your recent critics here who lack and will always lack any of kos’s other accomplishments, and whose only “beat” is to sit at their keyboards and criticize without relevant or factual basis in an attempt to marginalize the research and investigative efforts of those such as yourself who care enough to have actually gotten off their ass, hit the streets, become an expert in something and attempted to make a difference. As one who deals with similar issues from a business angle, if the voting process is left as it is today, it is not a matter of if the wrong election winner will be determined, it is a manner of when, and when very well could mean going back in time.

Thank you, Brad, for already making a difference.

Rollotomasi -

Thank you for your tremendous insight, R, and the additional words of support.

Please feel free to share your thoughts here more often on these issues, as you've clearly got a unique insight on precisely what the problem is.

Thanks for sharing those thoughts.

Brad, if you want to actually make some good money, you need to pair up with somebody and form a comedy duo. You could be the straight man. Your blank looks and double-takes are way funnier than most comedians' jokes.

Great post Rollotomasi. I second Brad's hope that you share your thoughts here more often.