The death toll for U.S. Troops in George W. Bush's ridiculous war "Noble Cause" topped 1,900 as 5 soldiers were killed in 3 different incidents over the last 24 hours...Do you feel safer yet?

Washington Post's Dan Froomkin has the story (overlooked by most of the media, even though it would have been a top banner headline had it been the Clinton White House, of course):

And in the expected (by now) bit of further troubling irony from this bunch:

Of course, had you read RAW STORY at the beginning of September, you would have known all about Mr. Safavian and his dirty links to Abramoff and Friends.

Landing with a mighty thud today in the Nation's Capitol, the so-called Baker-Carter "National Commission on Election Reform" delivered precisely what true voting rights advocates in America had been warning about for months.

Most notably, the privately-funded, secretly-convened commission, which held just two hearings and refused to invite any real voting rights groups to participate, failed to even reach consensus amongst its hand-picked commissioners in it's final 113 page report.

One of those Commissioners, former Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), criticized the Commission's number one recommendation --- the use of mandatory restrictive photo ID requirements at the polls --- as a "modern day poll tax." (As reported previously, Daschle's quote appeared in a Washinton Post article this morning by Dan Balz who also concluded, with no quotes or sourcing that "there has been no credible evidence of partisan manipulation of the election in Ohio." That despite the mountain of credible evidence of partisan manipulation of the 2004 election in Ohio. For a start, here is the recent indictment of two Ohio elections officials for gaming the recount, and here is another one who admits to receiving a $10,000 check from a Diebold rep and passing it to the RNC, and of course here's 102-pages of such evidence as published by a U.S. House Judiciary Committee Minority Report and another 700+ pages of such evidence found in a book recently published by FreePress.org...Just to give the tip of the iceberg.)

Another one of the Commissioners, Spencer Overton, a specialist in Election Law has gone so far as to set up a CarterBakerDissent.com website which decries both the procedures and the recommendations of the privately run "blue-ribbon" Commission.

The scathing dissent posted on Overton's site begins:

...And devolves from there in a crushing condemnation of Baker/Carter's Photo ID recommendations. As well, Overton pulls the curtain on the Commission's shoddy partisan procedures and lack of real input from experts, charging:

...and that the Commission "impose[d] rules that stifle[d] opposing views to give the false impression of consensus or to mask the substantive flaws in the commission's proposals." Overton goes on to add:

And that's from someone on the commission!

Overton promises a full analysis of the report on his site soon.

The report, so far, has faired no better on Capitol Hill. Congressmen John Conyers (D-MI) and John Lewis (D-GA), a long-time voting rights advocate who was beaten during the Bloody Sunday Marches --- which led to the landmark Voting Rights Act 40 years ago in Selma, Alabama --- where he marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King have roundly condemned the Baker/Carter Commission's report. They describe the Voter ID recommendations as "discriminatory" and allege that these cynical recommendations would "make it harder for tens of millions of citizens to vote."

The Congressmen have written a letter to colleagues inviting them to join in introducing a resolution in the U.S. House stating opposition to new restrictive voting ID requirements and have announced that a Senate counterpart to the resolution will be forthcoming from Senator Barak Obama along with Minority Leader Reid, Senator Dodd, Clinton and Corzine.

A blog item this morning by Conyers expresses more details and outrage at Bush Family Crony James Baker's attempts to once again keep Americans from having their votes counted, as he so successfully accomplished on behalf of the Bush's during the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida. Conyers also announced he has set up the main page of his website as an action center to counter this latest assault on voters rights in America.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean released a statement late this afternoon echoing those sentiments and saying that "The DNC is concerned and disappointed that the Baker-Carter Commission on Federal Election Reform, over the strong dissent of some of its most distinguished members, has seen fit to support a 'national ID card' that threatens to deny the right to vote to millions of citizens who are lawfully registered and eligible to do so."

The statement from Dean goes on to add, referring to a recent study by the League of Women's Voters that found just 4 cases of voter fraud out of 9 million votes cast in the last two national elections in Ohio!:

Longtime Voting Rights Activist groups and citizen coalitions were similar appalled by the Baker/Carter recommendation. Here are just a handful of them and the reports they issued today:

At this time, the only unapologetically positive review of the report's recommendations that we've seen comes, unsurprisingly, from a press release given to the wires by the anti-American, anti-Democratic group of high-level GOP operatives calling themselves (cynically) the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR).

Mark F. "Thor" Hearne, general counsel for the ACVR (and also, coincidentally, for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc.) says in his predictably fawing statement:

The Press Contact listed on the report is Jim Dyke, the former Communications Director for the RNC. If you have any questions, the release says you may contact him at: 843-722-9670.

The phony group, which was instrumental in the creation of the Baker/Carter Commission, and --- unlike any real voting rights groups --- enjoyed the privilege of sitting on its "Advisory Panel." The ACVR has been revealed by The BRAD BLOG over a series of reports since the group's inception to be little more than a small band of partisan operatives attempting to smoke-screen the evidence of what really went wrong in Election '04. In the bargain, they've issued propoganda in the form of "reports" in an attempt to further disenfranchise American voters by giving the false impression that there is some sort of "voter fraud" epidemic in this country. Their scam website is here where you can follow the "joke" for yourselves.

The same shameful group of democracy hating opportunists were also exposed in a recent report by RAW STORY to have been instrumental in the creation of the Baker/Carter Commission expressly for the purposes of seeing Photo ID requirements mandated in order to disenfranchise millions of more Democratic-leaning voters.

More, no doubt, to come on Baker/Carter Report soon. The report can be read --- should you be able to stomach it --- along with its executive summary, here.

(Thanks to VotersUnite.org's John Gideon for help in compiling this report.)

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.

Reports from eye-witnesses are now emerging on the net here, here and here...that a "Camp Casey" Peace Rally in NYC was broken up earlier today by police just as Cindy Sheehan was beginning to speak. Unclear whether she was arrested or not at this time...

Photos of the rally, the aftermath and police posted here...

The Village Voice now has the full story described as "City's Finest pulls move even Bush wouldn't have tried."

The rally in NYC was "one of 200 hundred in 28 states over 21 days," according to Reuters. Sheehan is working her way with other anti-war activists towards Washington, D.C. where a massive anti-war rally is scheduled to be held this weekend in front of the White House and on the mall.

The site of her original stand in Crawford, Texas, where she requested a meeting with George W. Bush to inquire about the "noble cause" he says that her son Casey died for in Iraq, was recently plundered and all remaining memorial crosses --- and Casey Sheehan's boots, which sat next to his cross --- were stolen in the middle of the night.

UPDATE 9/20/05: AP covers to the story to report that NYC police stopped Sheehan's speech and arrested the organizer of the event on the charge of "using a loudspeaker without a permit." Yup.

Guest Blogged by Congressman John Conyers, Cross-Posted at ConyersBlog

I have spent my more than 40 years in public service fighting for voting rights and a better democracy. Today, I am sad to say, there are proposals being made that would set us back in that struggle. A privately funded, unaccountable Commission organized by former Bush-Cheney campaign lawyer James Baker, III, and former President Jimmy Carter issued a report today that includes policy proposals that will disenfranchise over ten percent of eligible voters --- a national ID requirement to vote. I need your help to fight this 21st Century poll tax today.

The simple fact is that many minority and poor voters do not have the time, money or need to purchase a drivers license. In fact, over ten percent of eligible voters in the last election did not have a photo ID. They vote by presenting other means of identification (a voter registration card, utility bill, or affidavit). This Commission is now asking Congress to deny the franchise to those voters unless they get a national ID card. The Commission makes the implausible claim that, in these times of a multibillion dollar war in Iraq and multibillion dollar restoration of the Gulf Coast, the Congress will pay for ID cards for those who cannot afford to buy them. We know this is not going to happen.

Even if you are not among these vulnerable populations, this affects you. The institution of a National ID card has throughout our history been the tool of every despotic regime the world has known. This recommendation, coupled with the Commission's recommendation of interoperable data bases of voters, is the first step toward data bases of American citizens.

Make no mistake about it, this national ID voting card is more of the same old Ken Blackwell-style Republican electoral dirty tricks, where Democratic voters are deliberately disenfranchised so that Republicans can win elections. Remember the lack of voting machines in Ohio for Democratic voters? Remember the machines that broke down or registered strange numbers of votes for George Bush or unknown third party candidates? Remember Ken Blackwell's paper weight requirements for voter registration cards?

Imagine if the Republican party can, in one fell swoop, legally prohibit more than ten percent of voters, most of them poor, minority and elderly voters, most of them Democratic voters, from being able to vote.

Please help me today. I have made the front page of my website into an action center on this issue. It will be constantly updated with actions you can take to help and up to the minute news on this issue. Thanks for your help and your continued stand for a better democracy.

The discredited "Blue Ribbon" National Election Reform commission led by Bush Family Crony and Democracy Hater James A. Baker along with former President Jimmy Carter releases their recommendations today.

As expected, the scam to disenfranchise millions of more minority, elderly, poor and urban-dwelling Americans through a call for a Photo ID requirement at the polls has been made. Washington Post has the first look at what this shameful excuse for a "Blue Ribbon" commission --- irreparably stocked and tainted with Voting Machine Company officials and anti-American, anti-democracy advocates from GOP front-groups like the phony "American Center for Voting Rights" --- is now hoping to perpetuate on an under-informed (thanks WaPo and friends) American public.

BRAD BLOG readers will be delighted to know that WaPo's Dan Baltz informs readers in his article on the Commission's report this morning that "there has been no credible evidence of partisan manipulation of the election in Ohio." Betcha didn't know that!

The only upside as reported for now:

Not that anyone will bother to listen.

More after we get some sleep, and try to convince ourselves in our dreams that we are still in the United States of America.

...CONTACT...
Dan Balz, Washington Post, balzd@washpost.com

UPDATE: More details...many more...in this update!

There's been quite a hullaballoo both here and elsewhere since I posted my exclusive interview with DIEB-THROAT last Thursday pointing to the Cyber Alert from the arm of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security which warned about Diebold's hackable machines prior to last November's election. That's good. Without noise and vigilance from the citizenry, the story of what has happened and continues to happen to our Electoral System in this country will be drowned out by those who have an interest in the system remaining as is...and real democracy in America will drown along with it.

It is up to you to make sure that something is done now about what DIEB-THROAT described as "one of the greatest threats democracy has ever known." Here's a link you can use right away to alert your Congressional Representatives (both Dem and Rep!) about the problem, and ask them to support at least one piece of legislation --- Rep. Rush Holt's HR 550 --- that attempts to deal with at least some of the problems in the current disastrous system. Holt's bill has over 100 co-sponsors now, including some Republicans as we understand, and thus it has the best chance of seeing the light of day in Congress at this time. It's worth supporting.

Several Mainstream Media organizations have contacted me since publishing Thursday's story to get more info and/or interviews with DIEB-THROAT. I've done everything I can to accommodate them, and hopefully we'll be seeing more on this story soon. Then again, I was also contacted by many MSM'ers after I broke the amazing Clint Curtis story, and we're still waiting for those exposes to appear in the MSM. So we'll see what happens. Don't wait for them! Make noise yourself right now!

Amongst the notable noise out there on the net was this coverage by Mako Yamakura at the Detroit News and Free Press weblog site. Yamakura does a fine job of explaining --- in laymen's terms --- the significance of the US-CERT Cyber Alert discussed in my original article.

Over at BlackBoxVoting.org where the backdoor vulnerability to Diebold's central tabulation software was originally discovered more than a year ago, there is a thread discussing our article, its ramifications and a great deal of additional information along with both kudos and critiques for yours truly. To be frank, I was a bit surprised there wasn't more appreciation for the story originally over there, since it provided independent corroboration to so much of what they've been trying to get folks to pay attention to for so long. Nonethess, I'm glad that folks are talking about it.

A few of the notable links found via BBV's thread would include:

I'm also reminded that you can watch Howard Dean hack the Diebold GEMS Central Tabulator in 90 seconds in a video clip from CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown where Dean guest-hosted with BBV's Bev Harris as his guest.

That demonstration is also used in the short Special Edition of the Votergate documentary film still in production by our friend Russ Michaels. If you haven't seen this version of his film, released to the net prior to last November's Election, you're in for an eye-opener! Go watch it!

Also, McCamy Taylor was moved enough by our article to do up a quickie cartoon strip on DIEB-THROAT over at the Grand Theft Election Ohio website.

Lastly, for those folks who are just now waking up to unaccountable, unverifiable, untransparent privatization of America's elections by Diebold (the Halliburton of the Voting World) and others, I would recommend you:

Wanna Do Something About All of This?

Other than linking to our DIEB-THROAT article, emailing it around, and writing letters to the editor at your local newspaper about both that story and other reasons to be greatly concerned about what has happened to America's Electoral System, you can help light a fire under some Congressional feet! Both Dems and Reps! They must get to work and pass some legislation that begins to deal with this incredible threat to our Democracy! VelvetRevolution.us has made it easy to SEND A LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES demanding that they support Congressman Rush Holt's "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" (H.R. 550). Click here now to do it! It'll just take a minute of your time! And thanks for giving a damn!

P.S. I'll be on Pacifica's Sunday Monitor program out of KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston to discuss all of this today (Sunday, natch) at 4:15p PT if you want to listen in...

P.P.S. Arianna has asked me for a piece on this as well for Huffington Post which I hope will be posted soon over there is now posted here!

Perhaps the best "New Rules" segment I've seen yet on Bill Maher's show. He knocks it out of the park, frankly. Don't miss this one.

Crooks & Liars has the complete video...

If you missed it the first time, it's new to you! Be sure to catch our jam packed Special Edition of The BRAD SHOW celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Originally aired on Aug. 6th, the show features an amazing array of folks both live and on tape! Here's a few of them, but see www.BradShow.com for more details!

Rep. JOHN LEWIS (D-GA) · Rev. JESSE JACKSON · SAM WALKER · Rep. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D-GA) · Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING · LEON SMITH · KEENAN KELLER · Rev. BILL MOSS

Interestingly, the day we originally broadcast this show, a woman named Cindy Sheehan had showed up in Crawford, Texas, outside Bush's vacation home to request a meeting with him. We spoke that night with Leon Smith, editor of the Lonestar Iconocast in Crawford, about what became quite a national event!

This program is also particularly timely as the Baker/Carter Commission on Election Reform, the one that was created in part with the help of the cretins/GOP-operatives who call themselves the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR), is to release their findings on Monday. Our early word is that they will making their recommendations to ensure disenfranchisement of millions of American through the requirement of Photo ID at the polls (which millions of Elderly, Urban Dwellers and Minorities simply don't own). So this show is a good reminder of what was won 40 years ago in the name of government of the people, by the people and for the people...and what may well be lost at the hands of America and Democracy Hating folks like James A. Baker who continues to do George W. Bush's bidding...or vice versa.

Perhaps Americans and Democrats will soon wake up before it's too late. Though we're not particular optimistic about that today. Either way...Enjoy the show! It was a great one!

The Lonestar Iconoclast is reporting that the remaining memorial at Camp Casey, crosses, tent, the boots of Cindy Sheehan's fallen son, Casey, were stolen on Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning in Crawford, Texas...

Nice "support for the troops", we guess. Incredible.

UPDATE 9/21/05: Stolen items returned by Sherrif's office! No explanation given! Lonestar Iconoclast reports...

In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper management" --- as well as "top government officials" --- were keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of the Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet.

Pointing to a little-noticed "Cyber Security Alert" issued by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the source inside Diebold --- who "for the time being" is requesting anonymity due to a continuing sensitive relationship with the company --- is charging that Diebold's technicians, including at least one of its lead programmers, knew about the security flaw and that the company instructed them to keep quiet about it.

"Diebold threatened violators with immediate dismissal," the insider, who we'll call DIEB-THROAT, explained recently to The BRAD BLOG via email. "In 2005, after one newly hired member of Diebold's technical staff pointed out the security flaw, he was criticized and isolated."

In phone interviews, DIEB-THROAT confirmed that the matters were well known within the company, but that a "culture of fear" had been developed to assure that employees, including technicians, vendors and programmers kept those issues to themselves.

The "Cyber Security Alert" from US-CERT was issued in late August of 2004 and is still available online via the US-CERT website. The alert warns that "A vulnerability exists due to an undocumented backdoor account, which could [sic: allow] a local or remote authenticated malicious user [sic: to] modify votes."

The alert, assessed to be of "MEDIUM" risk on the US-CERT security bulletin, goes on to add that there is "No workaround or patch available at time of publishing."

"Diebold's upper management was aware of access to the voter file defect before the 2004 election - but did nothing to correct it," the source explained.

A "MEDIUM" risk vulnerability cyber alert is described on the US-CERT site as: "one that will allow an intruder immediate access to a system with less than privileged access. Such vulnerability will allow the intruder the opportunity to continue the attempt to gain privileged access. An example of medium-risk vulnerability is a server configuration error that allows an intruder to capture the password file."

DIEB-THROAT claims that, though the Federal Government knew about this documented flaw, originally discovered and reported by BlackBoxVoting.org in August of 2004, they did nothing about it.

"I believe that top Government officials had an understanding with top Diebold officials to look the other way," the source explained, "because Diebold was their ace in the hole."...

I've been working on a rather important story since I've returned home. You'll recognize it when you see it. Hopefully very soon. So apologies in the meantime for things having slowed down here a bit since my return. Plus, the good David Edwards, Winter Patriot and Joseph Cannon all deserve a bit of a break since pulling extra long Guest Blogging duty in the wake of my unexpectedly long summer "vacation". Hopefully they will each continue to contribute here, however, after a bit of a well-deserved rest. They are welcome any time and I can't thank them all enough for their tremendous work here while I was on the road. Especially since I'll soon be heading out for it again to make my way up to participate in the National Summit to Save Our Elections in Portland along with Thom Hartmann, Bob Koehler, Jesse Jackson Jr. and other illuminaries too numerous to mention at the end of the month.

Beyond that, I can't seem to get this E.J. Dionne piece from yesterday's WaPo out of my mind. Though Dionne may be jumping the gun a bit (anything and everything could happen any day now), his epitaph for the "End of the Bush Era" seems to be right on target. Or at least provide a bit of welcome and smart perspective to an America in trouble, but perhaps soon on the mend. Perhaps.

Here's a few key grafs, though I recommend you read the whole thing if you haven't already:

As I said (twice) read it all.

Every now and again, we like to remind BRAD BLOG readers how the wingnuts --- from the "mainstream" Washington Times to the top nutcase blogs like "Little Green Footballs" and "Powerline Blog" to the expected spinners at Fox "News" --- love to grab onto a lie, avoid bothering to check a single fact, and shove it down America's throat as if it had any basis in reality. Which all results in the actual mainstream corporate media like ABC and CNN repeating the horseshit as if it was actually true.

Case in point, courtesy of Media Matters (via this morning's Al Franken show), is the falsehood repeated over and over again in the wingnut media and beyond about the "2000 school buses" that could have been used to evacuate everyone in New Orleans who needed evacuation, but sat instead in a parking lot unused.

Turns out, the city of New Orleans actually owns only 324 school buses, 70 of which are broken down (according to September 5, 2003, article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune) plus another 364 city owned public transit RTA buses. Bringing the total available fleet in New Orleans to less than 700. The Times-Picayune reported on July 8 in an article headlined "RTA buses would be used for evacuation: But plan still falls far short of needs" that "Even if the entire fleet was used, the buses would carry only about 22,000 people out of the city --- far short of the 134,000 people estimated to be without cars in a recent University of New Orleans study."

No excuses here for those available buses which were not being used (Mayor Ray Nagin has claimed they didn't have enough drivers for them, but we haven't verified that one way or another at this time.) Nonetheless, the wingnuts repeated the nonsense about "2000 unused school buses" over and over again as if it was based in reality.

So where did the wingnuts version of "reality" begin this time? The story apparently began (little surprise) when it was used in a Sep. 6 column by Washington Times managing editor-and-liar-in-chief, Wesley Pruden. He wrote instructed followers to say:

That claim was quickly and unsurprisingly linked by the popular wingnut blogs Power Line and Little Green Footballs, both of whom have shown an utter inability, day after day, month after month, year after year, to check a single fact, or do anything other than repeat one Republican talking point after another. Hence, they are both very popular amongst the faith-based Bush dead-ender crowd. That's what they're paid for.

Of course, Sean Hannity then raced to the airwaves that same evening to dutifully repeat the misinformation to Fox "News" viewers on Hannity & Colmes:

The next night on Hannity & Colmes, Newt Gingrich was called upon to continue spreading the misinfo:

In fact, the number of buses required to evacuate the city's approximately 100,000 elderly and disabled, according to the New York Times on Sep. 4, was 2,000, but as their article responsibly noted, that 2,000 number was "far more than New Orleans possessed."

Never mind responsibility and reality, though. Back to the wingnuts and the so-called myth of the "Liberal Media".

By last Sunday, Sep 11, the lie had become mainstream "reality" as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's national security writer Jack Kelly wondered:

...And then the deed was finally done --- as Wingnut Horseshit becomes Conventional Wisdom --- on last Sunday morning's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Gingrich was the guest, but it was "Liberal Media" elitist, Stephanopolous who made certain the lie got out to all of America across the ABC Television Network:

Not bad for a week's work. Mr. Rove and his America-Hating friends have certainly earned their pay check over the past week.

Kudos to Media Matters for their detailed tracking of all of this. And if you stop by over there (where all the audio and video is also available) be sure to check out how the Fox and Friends wingnuts also keep spinning the nonsense of when Gov. Blanco declared a state of emergency and those "Liberals" at CBS who repeated it thereafter, how the entire media gave a free pass to Bush's "dodged a bullet" claim about the levees, how O'Reilly is spinning numbers to trick America into believing that Bush is better on poverty than Clinton was, and oh, so many documented, out and out Right Wing lies we'd need about 2,000 unused school buses full of bloggers to report them all.

Today, for the first time in five years, George W. Bush took responsibility. For anything. AP was there to note this extraordinary moment in the history of mankind.

In related news, Hell reported record cold temperatures today and a small pig was spotted hovering over Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

As well, BRAD BLOG readers are urged to be on the lookout for four horsemen riding together and said to be mounted each on one white, one black, one red and one pale or ashen horse. Please report any such sightings immediately to FEMA or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security so that swift action may be taken. They're doing a heckuva job. Thank you.