Guest blogged by Brad Jacobson of MediaBloodhound

During Monday's State Department press briefing, Associated Press State Department Correspondent Matthew Lee posed the most pointed question about the conflict in Gaza and the Bush administration's position: "What's wrong with an immediate cease-fire that doesn't have to be sustainable and durable if, during the pause that you get from an immediate cease-fire, something longer-term can be negotiated?" Lee didn't tread lightly either when Deputy Secretary of State Sean McCormack failed to provide a sufficient answer and continued to challenge McCormack on the same point in Tuesday's press briefing.

Yet a funny thing happened on the way to print: the substance of these exchanges never made it into Lee's corresponding articles...

...For Coleman.

Imagine the round-the-clock phony "outrage" from the Public-air Propagandists (Fund, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc.) you'd be hearing about "felons voting in the MN Senate race!" had the felon voted for Franken. Such as it is, however, he voted for Coleman, so it doesn't actually "matter".

But now that we're here, can we finally do away with these stupid restrictions on felons voting? Especially if they're out of jail, as this one was. He was on supervised release, after being convicted and imprisoned in 2004, when he was 20, for having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl.

On Election Day, he had left a voice message for his supervisory agent that he was going out to vote, only to come home later to find out from the agent that he had broken the law. He has since pleaded guilty to illegally voting.

"I was just excited that the presidential election was coming up and I would be able to vote," he said. "I had never voted in my life. ... I really wasn't aware that I couldn't vote."

Why should felons --- often more directly affected than most by government laws, good ones or bad ones --- be disallowed from having a voice in the government that makes those laws? Particularly after they've served their time in jail?

I realize that may not be a "politically correct" point of view in many quarters. But I don't care. If you're out of jail, of voting age, able to participate in society, and are bound to the laws of that society, you ought to be able to excercise your voice in that society by being able to cast a vote in a democratically-held election. Period.

I realize that felons, even after release, may have other rights taken from them, but voting doesn't seem as if it should be one of them. If you have an argument to the contrary, of course, I'd certainly be interested in hearing what it is

[UPDATE 1/8/09: Oops! The article discussed below is indeed from Wednesday, but from a Wednesday in 2007! March 14th to be precise. I'll not out the colleague who sent it to me, who similarly thought it was published yesterday. But I'll thank the commenter who finally noticed the date on the Reuters article, re-remind myself of the the dangers of "road blogging" too quickly, and otherwise make myself feel better by noting that my originally expressed caution about getting too optimistic at this point was apparently well placed. As another commenter then noted, the original bill in question was later blocked in the Senate by an unknown, likely-Republican, Senator. Let's hope the Ds now have enough votes and control of the Senate to avoid the same fate for these bills that need to be passed now in the new Congress. And my apologies for the false-positive alarm. - BF]

From Paul Krugman (via MCM):

The BRAD BLOG covered the fracas, fireworks and smack-down(s) in the Summer of '07 first between Moore and Wolf Blitzer here, and then subsequently between Moore and Gupta here.

Said Norm Coleman, as he announced his election contest:

He also added, as if he was serious, "We are filing this contest to make absolutely sure every valid vote was counted."

The sore-loser Coleman, who refuses to move on, was explaining his tin-foil hat conspiracy theories of a stolen election to reporters and cry-baby supporters, as he made the sour-grapes comments which threaten democracy, as quoted above.

-- Brad Friedman, The BRAD BLOG

The state canvassing board in Minnesota has now certified Al Franken (D) as the winner over incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in the race for the U.S. Senate. Barring a successful legal challenge, which has now been filed by Coleman, Franken will have won the seat by an astoundingly close 225 votes, out of some 2.9 million cast.

But there's still a chance, albeit a slim one, for Coleman to reverse his fate. A very good provision in MN's law --- not found in most other states --- may delay Franken's seating, meaning he will not be sworn in with rest of Congress at the beginning of the new session slated to start tomorrow. Ultimately, however, the provisions should ensure that whoever is eventually sworn in to serve as the state's Senator will not be forced to serve under a cloud.

The voters of MN deserve that much, no matter how long it takes, and thankfully, like its hand-count laws, the state's provision requiring the completion of legal challenges before final certification is sent to Congress by the Sec. of State, is a model for the nation.

Would that all of the other states in the union had such a provision...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon and Ellen Theisen, VotersUnite.Org

There can be little doubt that, of the issues springing from elections held since George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, two are among the most significant. Those issues are failures of voting systems to meet the HAVA mandates for accuracy and accessibility and the confusion over the proper use of provisional ballots.

The states should have been able to look to the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for guidance on both issues, but the EAC has failed to give the necessary Assistance, thus failing to fulfill duties assigned to the agency by federal law.

Now the EAC is proposing to extend its dereliction of duty for another two years. The result will be the publication of these important guidelines a full eight years after HAVA was enacted. The delay is inexcusable and intolerable, and the cost to American elections, on many fronts, is nearly incalculable...

Majority leader Sen. Harry Reid and the rest of the Senate Democrats have long said they'd refuse to seat anybody that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed to fill Obama's seat.

But as of yesterday's Meet the Press, Reid stated that "he's always ready to negotiate."

Will Harry Reid fold on Burris nomination, and allow him to be seated after all?

• Yes, he always folds
• No, he'll stick to his guns this time
• I haven't a clue

View Results

Seriously. It's hysterical. If you happen to catch this in time to turn it on, do. Kathy Griffin is hysterical. (And psst...I voted right after her in line on November 4th, and she asked me how she should vote. I'm sure she disregarded my suggestions.)

Nice to see CNN with its pants down for a change. Good work Kathy! Eat it, Seacrest!

So what are you other homebodies doing on New Years Eve? (And why aren't you watching CNN?!)

Part One was here. Part Two follows...

As The BRAD BLOG hobbles wrist-wrecked and flu-fallen towards the finish line of a particularly harrowing and exhausting year, we're heartened by a very nice distinction, being named as Finalist in the 2008 Weblog Awards.

We hadn't even realized we were in the running, until the list of nominees was announced last night. So we're pleased to find ourselves in very distinguished company for the "Best Liberal Blog" nod:

• Hullabaloo
• Think Progress
• Sadly, No!
• The BRAD BLOG
• Blue Gal
• Orcinus
• Truthdig
• Wonkette
• Taylor Marsh
• Shakesville
• Crooks & Liars
• The Confluence
• Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory
• Talking Points Memo

We don't much care for the "Liberal Blog" label, but as neither "Best Independent Blog" nor "Best Non-Rightwingnut Blog" were available categories, and given the company we're honored to share, we'll take whatever we can get and note --- as it is said, and we mean it --- the honor of simply being nominated.

Online voting for the title begins right here at the Weblog Awards site on Jan 5th. Though given the sizes of the (mostly) group blogs we're nominated alongside, as mentioned, we're honored to have simply been nominated, without even campaigning, as Finalist.

UPDATE 1/5/09: Voting is now open through Jan 12th. And guess what? You can vote once in every 24 hour period! So go stuff the ballot box! It's legal!

It is no more offensive for a potential chair of the RNC to circulate a song called "Barack the Magic Negro" than it would be for a potential chair of the DNC to circulate a song called "Bristol's Bastard Baby."

Both acts would be equally amusing.

Guess what I got for Xmas? Yup, got slammed by the flu on XMas weekend, just to make sure I had extra fun this year. Well, I've taken the hint, and have been standing down, way down, lying down, in fact, for several days, and may continue to do so, unless the world stops revolving without me.

Guest bloggers, as usual, will save the day...until I feel up to doing so myself again...Please pardon my absence until then...Much to catch up on, but it'll have to wait for now. You --- and I, both --- will thank me later.

Guest blogged by John Gideon, VotersUnite.Org

In an October BRAD BLOG article we reported that a court-ordered report highly negative of Sequoia Voting Systems products being used throughout New Jersey could soon be released to the public. Prior to the release date, and then again last week, Sequoia Voting Systems attacked both the report and its author, Princeton University computer science professor Andrew Appel.

On December 18, Sequoia issued a press release with a misleading title and subtitle:

And, on the company's blog, written by VP of Communications and External Affairs Michelle Shafer, she continues the lie:

In an email to this writer, Professor Appel responded to what he says are "false statements about me in two recent press releases" from Sequoia. The BRAD BLOG posts his response in full below, with his express permission...