Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Katrina Wilcox

Only 4 hours of sleep last night, but we're rarin' to go again! So here is another interview until we can get back to fill you in on our day. I was trying to get up the courage to come to DC and Charles Sullivan's article "Nation of Fools" helped push me that last little bit. Maybe it will help inspire you to join US for the next show of strength.

1. What caused you to become an activist and when was this?

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Dan Wilcox

{Katrina Wilcox, of VelvetRevolution.us, and her husband Dan, are in D.C. for this weekend's rallies, and are covering them for us here at BRAD BLOG.}

Katrina asked you if you were tired of writing, calling, and signing. Today, you answered with a resounding “Hell, Yes!”

We got to the Metro to take us into downtown D.C. There were a bunch of people at the ticket dispensers trying to figure out how to get tickets and how the machines worked. It was obvious right off the bat that this was no ordinary tourist trip. Tie-dyed peace symbol shirts, protest signs, people helping each other with a knowing “Oh, you too” smile. We get on the Metro. “Where do we get off?” “Metro Central. Then you can transfer to the Federal Triangle or the Smithsonian or like me, you can walk from there. I like walking, come on with me”. At each stop more shirts, more signs, more smiles. “Is it going to be big?” “Do you think there will be enough of us?”

We pour out onto 13th street. The sidewalk is already crowded with smiling, friendly people headed “that way”. “I see the Washington Monument”. Our destination. A square, a rally. “Montana Women for Justice” or maybe it was “Code Pink” with all the pink balloons. The streets are starting to swarm with US, stopping traffic as the rainbow river bursts across. We're starting to impact Washington and the march hasn't even officially begun!

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Katrina Wilcox

{apologies from Winter Patriot: Katrina sent us this piece last night but we didn't manage to get it posted right away ... but better late than never ... here's Katrina:}

Wow! Hell of a day. Crowds of protesters. How many? We tried to estimate all day. Definitely more than 100,000. But once surrounded by that number it is difficult to count more. Whoever was in the helicopter continuously circling overhead would know - but I doubt they will tell. Just all day ... people as far as the eye can see.

The March started with a one hour shuffle of 100 feet. Then finally we started moving. People packed in the street in front, behind, and around any corners we came to - a giant river of people. At a corner we met the front of the March coming back to pass us making one giant loop. Then a row of police guarding the Treasury building reminding all of us that money was all they care about.

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Blogged by Brad

Earlier we demonstrated that there are no photos to prove that anything unusual happened at all today in our nation's capitol. Just as the Cable News Channels reported. Or didn't.

And here now is video evidence to also show that nothing occurred...Good thing CNN, MSNBC and FOX (despite Bill O'Reilly's promise to cover it) didn't waste any valuable time or resources to send out any news crews! Fortunately, unlike the major Cable News outlet, us bloggers have unlimited budgets so we can afford to cover such non-events!

Windows Media Player Version...
Quicktime Version...

(Video courtesy of Michael Blane who happens to give a damn! Thank you!)

UPDATE 9/26/05: Longer, more detailed Exclusive Video from in front of White House...including shots of Cindy Sheehan and Jesse Jackson in the march, right here...

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Blogged by Brad

Hurricane Rita seems to be largely under control and the worst has past. Nonetheless, only one story in this country can be covered by Cable News Channels per day. Only bloggers like us have the massive resources to afford covering more than one story at a time. Which is a good thing, since there's nothing else going on anywhere in the country today. Nothing. Not even in the nation's capitol...Certainly not the most massive rallies this country has seen in 35 years...

AP's article just posted, headlined "100,000 Demonstrators Call for U.S. Troops To Leave Iraq" must be a mistake...Or at least, not newsworthy.

Please don't look at these photographs.

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by David Edwards

Here are just a few of the speakers from this morning's rally protesting the Iraq war in Washington D.C.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney Streaming Real Media Windows Media	Reverend Jesse Jackson Streaming Real Media Windows Media
Cindy Sheehan Streaming Real Media Windows Media	George Galloway Streaming Real Media Windows Media

UPDATE FROM BRAD: From all reports I'm getting, the turnout is absolutely huge! Wall-to-wall people! Nonetheless, the cable channels are ignoring, and C-SPAN was covering the speeches at the elipse, while hundreds of thousands were actually marching on the White House! C-SPAN helped make it look like there were only a couple of hundred there! I'm told cameras are everywhere, but nobody is carrying it live! TruthOut, however, is blogging, apparently via Blackberry, from within the "absolutely massive" march...All of the latest updates on hundreds of thousands gathered in D.C. (which you will not get on any of the cable channels, including C-SPAN) is here...

FURTHER UPDATE: Photos of crowds now here...

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Katrina Wilcox

Well ... we are off to raise hell and demand an immediate end to the war! While we are away documenting this massive show of strength by patriotic like-minded Americans, I leave you with this interview with Chris Floyd - author of one of the articles that opened my eyes to the need to stop them and hold them accountable NOW.

1. What caused you to become an activist and when was this?

Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Katrina Wilcox

So ... my fellow warriors on the path to truth, accountability, and justice ... are you tired of begging yet? Have you signed enough petitions, written enough letters, called your representatives enough times to finally realize that none of that is really going to do any good? Are you bone-weary, frustrated, and just plain pissed that your endless pleading continues to fall on deaf ears? Yeah ... me, too.

You don't need to be told that we live in insane times. We have definitely fallen down the rabbit hole. And while we are reeling ... trying to gain our footing, trying to make sense out of it all, trying desperately to do something to make it stop - they continue killing. Every day, every moment, every second ... they are killing more in Iraq and now in America. We are out of time. No more time for trying to convince our representatives to finally do the right thing. No more time to wait for the next rigged election. No more time to wait for that hopeful someday of completed investigations. We must stand up and stop them now.

But how? Has this sinking feeling been shadowing your actions? That maybe they can never be stopped by working within the system. That using the rules laid out by the system to affect change from within the system will never work. First ... the system is corrupt, rotten, and broken. Second ... they keep breaking all the rules while at the same time demanding that we follow them. Third ... no system of power ever has built into it any way for anyone to take the power away from those who hold it. Ever.

Maybe the only sure fire way to get this administration of criminals and their enablers to quit ignoring us is for a couple million of us to plunk down around the White House and Congress and shut down the government ... till we get our country back. Maybe you have a better idea. If so, please speak up.

In the meantime, my husband and I who have never protested before are heading to DC with video equipment and digital camera, protest signs and protest shirts, rock solid determination and stubbornness to participate in what we hope will be the biggest gathering ever. Maybe this event will turn the tide. It wasn't an easy decision to go. But these articles convinced me that I had a duty as an American:

• You Are an American
• Nation of Fools
• The March of the Madder'n Hells
• The Nightmare Comes True: WMD Terrorists in Iraq
• The Butterfly Effect --- Katrina and Occupation

Also ... One other thing made me damn sure I should go to DC. What we all saw with our own eyes. What they did to Americans on the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They made it crystal, blood-chillingly clear that they have declared war on all of us. From now on - it is either them or us - down to our last dying breath. Bastards.

Debra LoGuercio, editor of the Winters Express in California, takes a look at our DIEB-THROAT stories in her latest column for McNaughton Newspapers. She closes with this graf:

We're glad LoGuercio has noticed, and that more and more such folks are beginning to take notice of what we've been yelling and screaming about since at least November 3, 2004 here at The BRAD BLOG

We also join her call for refutation of the points made by DIEB-THROAT in our stories covering just some of the information that the still-anonymous source has shared with us. Those stories, if you haven't caught them yet, are respectively here, here and here. You can reach LoGuercio at this email address, and you can reach us at this one should you have any information or evidence that in any way questions the validity of our reporting or the information we've presented so far from DIEB-THROAT.

So far, that hasn't been done. As well, we are told that more coverage of our reporting from other media outlets (larger ones) is likely on the way.

Today, Diebold Inc's stock price stayed largely flat (gaining about .61%), closing at $36.15.

Last February, when we launched our "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign at VelvetRevolution.us shares of Diebold, Inc. (DBD) stock were more than $53/share. The value of the company's stock has fallen more than 30% since we began our campaign, plunging some 20% in the last week alone since our first DIEB-THROAT story.

The DV4D Campaign put America's Voting Machine Companies on notice. We let them know we expected them to do the right thing for this country and introduce transparency, security and accountability into the electronic election systems which they were foisting on a misinformed electorate.

We hope that the other major American Voting Machine companies are taking note of what is happening right now at Diebold, and before they get too excited about trouble at their competition, we hope they all understand our promise (The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VR) to do anything and everything legally and within our power to hold the anti-American owners and management of all of those companies accountable for putting our democracy at grave risk through their careless and unpatriotic business practices.

Democracy is not for sale. At least it shouldn't be. And we intend to continue to do something about it. Wherever and whenever possible.

We didn't set out to write a fundraising article for VelvetRevolution, but now that we've written it, we realize, this is as good a time as any to ask for your support of VR, so that we can keep up such work to help take our great country back from the cretins and bad guys that have --- and continue to --- hijack it from the good citizens of this country.

You can make a donation to VR right here... Thank you in advance! We need it!

P.S. Today, VR placed a new ad in Washington DC's City Paper to coincide with this weekend's massive rallies there. More on the latest ad in our campaign here, but here's a preview for you...

P.P.S. Katrina Wilcox, our Information Manager extraordinaire from VR, will be Guest Blogging here all weekend from D.C. where she's covering the rally for us! Please come back soon for thoughts, pictures and even video if we're lucky from on the ground in D.C. all weekend!

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Bush promises to do what he is best at doing...

Video in Windows Media format

Video in QuickTime format

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Project Censored has presented its annual compilation of the most important stories ignored by the mainstream media over the past year... and the rigged presidential election of 2004 came in at number three!

In normal times, the theft of a presidential election, and the virtual media blackout that followed it, would be an easy choice for the top spot. But then again these times are far from normal.

Here, according to Project Censored, are the top ten censored stories of the year:

(Hat tip BRAD BLOG commenter, DaveK!)

Finally admitting what honest Americans who give a damn (and who have paid attention!) already know, former President Jimmy Carter admitted on Monday that Al Gore won the 2000 Election.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Al Gore was elected president," Carter told an audience at American University last Monday. RAW STORY has the scoop and the audio of Carter at Monday's event.

We have plenty else to be irritated about of late concerning Jimmy Carter as BRAD BLOG readers know. Nonetheless, it's notable that a former President of the United States has finally come out and said publicly what so many of us --- including the major media who confirmed it in the wake of 9/11 while nobody was noticing --- have known for years!

Al Gore won. George W. Bush lost. Period.

Bush is an illegimate "President" of the United States. Accept it. Get over it.

He is an abrogation of American democracy. If one hates America and democracy, then we see no reason why one wouldn't support the "Presidency" of George W. Bush.

Turning off Comments on this item, just to let ya know I'm staying on with Jack Blood for another to take calls on Diebold, Election Reform, Blogging and anything else you like.

Listen to the show here. CALL-IN# 800-259-9231 if you've got any questions or comments for either me or Jack...

Our still-anonymous Diebold Insider --- who we call DIEB-THROAT --- has some thoughts on Wednesday's sudden and stunning 15.5% one-day plunge in Diebold, Inc. share prices as reported earlier today by The BRAD BLOG.

"What a difference a few months makes," DIEB-THROAT wrote after the market close on Wednesday. "Back in July, Diebold told investors during its conference call the election revenues were sound and expected to grow." Yes, DIEB-THROAT was on that conference call. "Now all of a sudden Diebold's [CEO Walden] O'Dell tells investors of $10 million in lower revenues from election systems alone. Perhaps what Diebold isn't talking about is the $500,000 a month in legal fees they were spending in California, or the current rash of problems with touch screen systems that freeze up when votes are cast. Using Hurricane Katrina is a poor excuse for bad products - the last time this kind of deception occurred it was called Enron."

The blistering comments about Hurricane Katrina were in regard to Diebold's press release early Wednesday morning attributing much of their lowered forecasts for 3rd quarter and full-year earnings to the hurricane. The "freeze up" on Diebold's touch-screen voting machines has long plagued the North Canton, Ohio-based company, and a recent massive test of the equipment by California's Republican Sec. of State Bruce McPhereson confirmed that a full 20% of Diebold's machines either froze up or had printer jams.

When The BRAD BLOG spoke last week with Diebold spokesperson, David Bear about the California tests, Bear repeated several times times that "there were a total of 10 printer-jams after 11,000 votes were cast." When asked several times about similar statistics concerning the number of screen freeze-ups, Bear was unable to give us any information or numbers whatsoever.

The Tri-Valley Herald, however, had some numbers in their report on the massive California tests:

Those tests, the largest of their kind, led to Sec. McPhereson's banning of the Diebold TSx touch-screen voting machines in the State of California, the largest voting "market" in the country.

Amongst other problems the company blamed on the hurricane in this morning's release, they claimed, "the impact of Hurricane Katrina is negatively affecting scheduled election systems deliveries in the Gulf region, resulting in approximately $10 million in lower elections systems revenue during the quarter."

As well, O'Dell himself is quoted in the release as suggesting "operational inefficiencies" as one of the factors contributing to lowered earnings expectations:

However, O'Dell --- who took over today as President and Chief Operational Officer for Eric C. Evans who announced his resignation this morning --- didn't mention if correcting "operational inefficiencies" would include any changes to the $3,058,650 paycheck that O'Dell himself took from the company in 2004.

As well, DIEB-THROAT believes there's more bad news ahead for Diebold stockholders, pointing to the failure of stock prices to bounce back quickly today after the early morning plummet. "Typically the stock would bounce back after such a dip. This is a sure sign of a troubled company," says the source who continues to request anonymity based on a continuing sensitive relationship with the company.

More trouble in the days and weeks ahead was also predicted by DIEB-THROAT, who feels the trouble isn't as much the weather, as it is a poorly run company.

"If Hurricane Katrina was at fault this stock should go through the floor when Hurricane Rita hits. The fact of the matter is Diebold is mismanaged and unethical. The revolving door in top management we've seen in the last few months is perhaps the sprint for cover. After all who wants to be around when the feds pull back the curtain on the Homeland Security issue," said DIEB-THROAT in regard to the Cyber Alert issued last year, prior to November's election, by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) --- an arm of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security --- as reported in a BRAD BLOG Exclusive late last week.

That "Cyber Security Bulletin", little-noticed by the media, and apparently wholly ignored by Diebold when it was originally posted in late August of 2004 is still available on the US-CERT website. It warns of an "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's GEM Central Tabulator software used with its electronic voting machine systems. The security vulnerability could allow a local or remote user to modify vote tallies stored in the system according to the warning and corroborated by several different sources.

"This backdoor means that one malicious person can change the outcome of any Diebold election," DIEB-THROAT said in our previous article. "Diebold's election system," the source added, "is one of the greatest threats our democracy has ever known."