Not since Indiana Jones, has one man made such a bold statement about men's haberdashery! In a stunning photograph, flashed across the AP wires today, a well-known and well-connected GOP lobbyist by the name of Jack Abramoff has put the once-ubiquitous headware for men, known as the fedora, back on the nation's front pages!

Attaboy, Jack! The BRAD BLOG thanks you for waking up a fashion-stultified nation! The country relies on forward-thinking media icons like yourself to help keep our nation --- and our nation's capital --- from suffering under the oppressive malaise brought on by an all-too-timid crop of girlyman fashion mavens in DC!

Once thought to have been relegated to the fashion basement, the new statement by Abramoff is rumored to have caught a great number of DC lawmakers off-guard! Those who might have otherwise thrown out their old chapeau's are now rumored to have begun to "hold onto their hats" indeed!

Hooray Jack Abramoff! Thanks to you, the fedora is back! We think we'll buy ourselves one today! If you'd like help in buying a few more, please see this! We'll be happy to help any way we can! It's the least we can do to say thanks!

UPDATE: Fashion-maven Wonkette weighs in...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

This morning, lawyers for super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff revealed a plea deal where Abramoff will plea guilty to fraud charges in a Florida fraud investigation. In return for the deal, Abramoff agreed to cooperate with any other federal investigations. AP has filed this report.

Republicans are worried about information that may implicate as many as a dozen in Congress including Tom DeLay and Bob Ney. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) is up for re-election and has returned more than $100,000 in campaign donations. Polls in Montana show that Senator Burns' constituents are becoming concerned about his dealings with Abramoff.

ThinkProgress and RAW STORY are reporting that a news conference will be held at 12:30 et today. Some DU members suspect that the Abramoff scandal is masking foreign influence peddling by the GOP.

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UPDATE: David Corn asks "What's Good for Abramoff Is Good For America?" And in a just-published piece, Mad Cow Morning News follows David Corn's reasoning to a grave possibility:

At the press conference, the prosecutor read out the charges against Abramoff and then in a forceful but rehearsed voice said that "government officials and government action are not for sale. The Justice Department will aggressively investigate and prosecute these types of cases which have a devastating impact on the public's trust of government. We will not shy away from that responsibility no matter where the trail leads."

The prosecution of public officials by the DOJ has increased 90% in 3 years. When asked, the prosecutor chose not to give an explanation for the increase.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 26 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 2705 emails and 375 letters so far....

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Osama bin Laden's niece attempts to rehabilitate her image by posing for the January edition of G.Q. magazine.

For your protection, a warrant was not obtained before (or after) violating her privacy.

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Guest blogged by David Edwards

The New York Times reports that in 2004 Deputy Attorney General James Comey refused to sign off on renewal of Bush's warrantless NSA spying program. Instead of addressing Comey's concerns, Bush Administration officials took the desperate move of actually visiting Attorney General Ashcroft in the hospital to get his authorization for renewal of the program. Ashcroft was, at the time, in intensive care recovering from pancreatitis.

Comey refused to approve renewal of the program based on concerns over "whether the president had the legal and constitutional authority to conduct such an operation."

In light of these new revelations, Senator Charles Schumer, appearing on Fox News Sunday, demanded that Bush Administration officials testify before congress.

Mitch McConnel, who appeared along with Schumer, chastised The Times for continuing to report on details of the wiretap program. While Schumer said that any investigation should consider a possible whistle-blower status for anyone who leaked this information, Senator McConnel was more interested in punishing the whistleblower.

Because the NSA shared the wiretap information with many federal agencies, it will be very difficult to assign blame to a specific leaker.

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Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The December 26 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

Missing 2005 already? I'm not. But if you are, here's
The Best of The BRAD BLOG 2005!

What a year 2005 has been. Wish I could say it was a "great year". But it wasn't. Even if it was a "great year" for the blogosphere and the citizen's uprising against both a failed media and a failed administration. I'm sorry to say that America's shame is the blogosphere's gain. I'd be much happier if it weren't the case. I'd be happier still if our government halted its tragically wreckless and misguided foreign policies, cynically and ironically implemented in the name of "national security". I'd be joyous beyond reason if the unprecedented rise and reign of corruption in DC came to an end. And giddy to the point of distraction if the Mainstream Media woke up finally from their five-year slumber and decided to show up to play their vital role as our fourth estate once more. All of which would allow for a welcome retirement from the job I reluctantly find myself doing much less because I want to, and much more because I believe it's necessary.

At the year's very end, I thought it would be interesting to compile a "Best of BRAD BLOG 2005". A list of notable stories, achievements, landmarks, highlights and lowlights. In the process, I was overwhelmed by how much has been recorded on these cyber-pages over the last twelve months. Selecting choices for the "Best of..." list was no easy feat, even if the end result is still a rather hefty compilation of notable stories. I welcome your thoughts on these selections and any additions that you, dear BRAD BLOG readers who have made it all possible, feel should have made it onto this list. As always, all of our archived stories are here for your perusal.

I can't turn the page to 2006 until I've given a proper thanks to the many who have made The BRAD BLOG what it is and The BRAD SHOW what we hope it may soon be. To all the Guest Bloggers, contributors, tipsters and sources (named and otherwise) who have shaped the very character of these pages, I say thank you. To name just a few (and likely to leave too many errantly out!) I'd like to recognize a few folks who have served above and beyond the call of duty here over the past year: "Winter Patriot", David Edwards, John Gideon, John Byrne, "Kira", Brett, Katrina Wilcox, Joseph Cannon, Ben Burch, Jaime Robledo, Kat L'Estrange, Ilene Proctor, Aerielle Louise, Otie McClay, Lydia Cornell and Desiree Doyen. Thank you all several times over. And, of course, without you readers, listeners, emailers, commentors, donators (see how I snuck that in?) and all-around patriotic trouble-makers, I am nothing. So thank you all from the very bottom of my heart.

From Bush's ignominious inaugural and electoral challenge in January...to new revelations in the Clint Curtis story and CNN's duplicitious or just dumb drumbeating for war in February...to Velvet Revolution's launch of a campaign against American Voting Machines companies, a stunning twist in the Curtis case and the appearance of a phony GOP "voting rights" group in March...to a cooked "National Election Reform" commission, a new radio show and the emergence of the "BRAD BLOG 6 or 7" in April...to spiked newspaper columns and outrage on Capitol Hill in March...to meltdowns in Congress and Conyers at the White House gates in June...to whitewashed investigations, censored websites, fired elections workers, a heroic "Blogathon" and the first whiffs of "the I word" in July...to an unexpected trip to Crawford TX to be a witness to history and to "be the media" like never before in August...to Rove shenanigans, disastrous hurricanes, an insider dubbed "DIEB-THROAT" and "nothing at all" happening in D.C. in September...to running Ann Coulter off the air, finding Conservatives who despise her and discovering "faith-based voting" is alive and well in October...to GAO reports corroborating and ignored, staggeringly impossible election results and Ann Coulter lashing back in November...to a remarkable end of the year unraveling of the once-great, now-disgraced company known as Diebold and more election reform panics than one could shake a stick at, much less blog about as fully as it all deserved, in December...2005 has been --- to paraphrase Dubya --- "a heckuva year".

And with that overly long preamble, and having more than a few ideas of what is soon to come in 2006, I hope you now enjoy a look back, if only at a few of the remarkable headlines! --- to the BRAD BLOG year that was 2005...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

On MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann presented a very funny segment called "D.C. Follies".

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Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 18 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 1550 emails and 180 letters so far....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 14 organizations have signed the petition. Concerned citizens have sent 855 emails and 90 letters so far...

It's been a while since the slimy cretins trying to pass themselves off as the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) have reared their ugly, high-level GOP-operative heads. We first uncovered these punks back in March while they were busy attempting to pull off a congressional charade in cahoots with the not-yet-indicted U.S. congressman, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). We haven't heard much out of the ACVR since their August '05 report trying to sell the silly notion that "Democrat operatives were far more involved than Republican in voter intimidation and suppression in 2004" was laughed off the nation's radar (by all but a few of the most pathetic dead-ender wingnut suckers who will believe anything they're told to believe, no matter how laughable.)

But today, our friend Bob Fitrakis at the Free Press in Columbus connects a few more dots in the shameful ACVR/GOP/Ohio story. He offers a few more details on the group's direct connection to other high-level GOP operatives (like Bill Frist's attorney), the horrendous Ohio HB3 "Election Reform" legislation being ram-rodded up the asses of otherwise democracy-loving Ohio citizens by the unapologetically corrupt GOP-controlled snakepit of a legislature in the state, as well as more of the direct connections between them and the frivolous lawsuits and PR attacks made against several of the most active (legitimate) Voter Registration groups in the country.

We had a quick story ourselves on that last bit about two weeks ago, explaining how virtually all the phony legal attacks made against these groups have now failed --- even if the swiftboating success of the phony PR from it lingers on. Mission accomplished. This is the group whose website --- the one with Fox "News" Channel's Tony Snow on the front page, speaking of dead-ender wingnut suckers --- promises "ACVR will defend the election process through on-going civil litigation" amongst other lies, garbage and scurrilous attempted deceptions on the American electorate. Anyway, before we get too worked up into another rant on the America/democracy-hating ACVR chumbuckets, here's Fitrakis' latest on them and more.

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

While sitting in for Rush Limbaugh this morning, Roger Hedgecock did a fine job of lying in his place.

Paraphrasing here, since I don't yet have a copy of the audio (any Ditto Heads out there feel like sending it to me?), at appx. 40 minutes into the first hour of today's show, Hedgecock informed lied to his listeners by telling them that Bill Clinton "didn't even have NATO approval" for the campaign against Kosovo.

Aside from NATO, who actually led the bombing, Hedgecock's "news" will likely come as a shock to the wingnuts out there (like Phyllis Schlafly, for instance) who have been referring to the Kosovo campaign as "the Clinton/NATO bombing raids" for years while expressing their outrage (IRONY ALERT!) that the President "lied" us into the war. A war, we might add, where not a single American Troop was lost, but that's beside the point, of course.

BRAD BLOG comment trolls can rest assured that --- even with their Talking Points Master, Rush, gone for the week --- they are still receiving the finest misinformation GOP money can buy even in his absense.

Guest Blogged by David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org and CensureBush.org

In the eight months since the so-called "Downing Street Documents" have been made public, certain media elites have claimed that it is all "old and uninteresting news" that…

1. Bush had already decided to go to war long before approaching Congress or the public or the UN about it, and had already started the attack with increased bombings;

2. Bush had already decided to lie about weapons of mass destruction and ties to 9-11;

3. The Brits were concerned by the illegality of an aggressive war, but the Bush Administration was not;

4. Going to the UN was an attempt to justify the war, and the hope was to craft an ultimatum that Saddam Hussein would reject;

5. The focus of the Bush and Blair administrations was on selling the war to the public, and not at all on trying to avoid it;

6. The Bush and Blair administrations were aware that Iraq was no threat, and were willing to attack Iraq precisely because it posed no serious threat of fighting back.

Of course, those who care about the world we live in do not find any of this "uninteresting." As well, given the shameful dearth of proper coverage by the Mainstream Media of these issues, many Americans still have yet to hear about these things. So it is hardly "old news" in any meaningful sense.

But still, some have maintained that the "Downing Street Documents", as well as all the other evidence that makes them old news in the eyes of some, are not credible. In fact, a right-wing group called Move America Forward is running television ads claiming that every Bush war lie was true, even the ones that Bush himself has admitted were "mistakes." (Yes, they even go so far as to claim in their ads that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq!)

Some people may be beyond the realm of rational persuasion, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to present those in doubt or poorly informed with a few pages of paper confirming the accuracy of the Downing Street Minutes and related documents, and listing other evidence that corroborates the Minutes point by point?

Now you can…

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

VoteTrustUSA has launched a campaign; with the assistance of The BRAD BLOG and VelvetRevolution, and other state and national election integrity groups; to hold the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) accountable for ensuring that all Diebold software is re-inspected and decertified until it can be shown that all prohibited code has been removed. We also urge the EAC to initiate the re-inspection of the election software of other vendors, which may also include software that is expressly forbidden in the FEC Voting System Standards. Please go to the VoteTrustUSA action page and send an email to the EAC voicing your concern about the use of prohibited software on voting machines.

In December, The BRAD BLOG joined newspapers across the country and reported that computer experts in Florida had conclusively proven that the “electronic ballot box” in Diebold optical scan vote counting systems could undetectably alter the results of an election. Within days, California's Secretary of State reported that the use of banned software affects Diebold's touch-screen voting system as well, a fact which Diebold has acknowledged.

This breach of security exploits an inherently insecure feature of the Diebold optical scanners and touch screens known as interpreted code, which the Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) of 1990 and 2002 specifically prohibit. For further details about how Diebold uses interpreted code and why it is banned from use in voting software, please click here.

Because this prohibited code exists on Diebold touchscreen machines as well as their optical scanners, the Secretary of State of California has demanded that the Diebold Touchscreen (TSX) software be re-examined by the Independent Testing Authority (ITA), who originally certified that the systems were in compliance with the 2002 Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG).

How did the ITA overlook such an obvious violation of federal standards in the first place? And just as importantly, do the voting systems produced by Diebold's competitors contain similarly prohibited code?

It is time to put the EAC on notice that violations of federal standards by the ITA, which is now under their jurisdiction, will not be tolerated by voters.

Take action and send an email to each of the four EAC commissioners and to the EAC Independent Test Authority Secretariat and let them know you demand that action be taken.

National, state, and local election integrity groups can sign an Open Letter to the EAC which will be sent to them on January 3.