Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

This Heartland clip is the perfect complement to the extended threaded discussion BRAD BLOG commenter Big Dan has been leading on corporatism and the media. In this short segment, host John Kasich uses the new home of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards as the pretext for attacking his two Americas campaign. Surprisingly, Kasich doesn't disagree with Edwards that two Americas exist and even calls Edwards an expert on the subject. The problem, as Kasich sees it, is that Edwards speaks of the great wealth divide when he should use his "sunny disposition" and own experience to "celebrate" all the opportunities afforded Americans. With "some elbow grease and a little ingenuity" even the "John Edwards dream" is possible!***

And that is as simple and clear a delineation of the two sides battling for America that one is likely to get in a 1:37 clip. In the red, white and blue, and incessantly patriotic corner, are Fox News, giant corporations and the super rich that own them. The masses, according to this corner and as articulated by Kasich, should just accept their lot in life without complaint yet remain motivated by the unlikely prospect of striking gold. In the other corner is John Edwards and others not controlled by the vast corporate system that has engulfed society. They are fighting incredible odds to try to revive the principle of equal opportunity for all Americans as well as adopt more equitable economic policies necessary to maintain a healthy democracy.

Which side are you on?

***This is not a guarantee and we make no claim as to the veracity of this statement. By law we are required to state that the odds of this occurring, even with "elbow grease" and "ingenuity," are less than the chances of George W. Bush telling the truth on any subject. This does not minimize the point, however, that the John Edwards dream is real and can happen to you. And that is what America is all about.

Guest Blogged by DES

This week marked BRAD BLOG's third anniversary and looked initially as if it might be a slow State of the Union rehash week, but quickly moved into red-hot territory as the Libby Perjury Trial got underway, serving up a daily courtroom dish chock full of juicy bits (and not a damn thing this famously secretive White House can do about it). Dems in da House are turning up the heat as well, cooking up a stew of investigations to right the imbalance of power between our Constitutionally-designated co-equal branches of government. Though Diebold, again, managed to outdo them all in the "incompetence" category.

There were also a few notable developments in the fight to protect the integrity of our elections --- oh, nothing major, just a few Ohio elections officials finally CONVICTED of rigging the 2004 Presidential recount --- nothing to see here, folks! Just move along...Or, take a look at just a few of the most notable stories we ran last week...

SUNDAY, Jan. 21st....

A 'Plan' for 'Success' in Iraq....
...As Proposed by Fred Kagan, Bastardized by Bush and Spun by Kagan with an Assist from Bill Kristol...

Meanwhile, as Bush prepares to serve up another 21,500 American troops to Iraq, it's worth taking a look at who the hell came up with the "augmentation" plan in the first place, what it said before the Bush spin machine grabbed hold of it, and what the plan's author has had to say since Bush revealed it to the country on January 10, 2007.

MONDAY, Jan. 22nd...

Iraqi PM: Condi Rice Statement Helps Al-Qaeda

"Such statements give moral boosts to the terrorists."

Frank Luntz is a Liar
Shame on Huffington Post for Giving Him a Platform to Do So...
Treacherous Republican wordsmith/pollster/spinman Frank Luntz sinks to new depths in pretending to offer "advice" for the Democratic Party in a condescending little screed posted at Huff Po on Sunday.

TUESDAY, Jan. 23rd...

BREAKING CIA LEAK CASE: Prosecutor Says Libby 'Destroyed' Cheney Note, V.P. 'Far More Involved in Leak Case Than Previously Known'
Defense Attny: Libby Was Worried About Being 'Sacrificial Lamb for Karl Rove'

“They’re trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb,” Wells said, recalling the alleged conversation between Libby and Cheney. “I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected.”

Statement from Pelosi Spokes on Webb's SOTU Response
'Logistics of Giving Democratic Response in the Chamber Tonight Make it Impossible at This Late Date'

While the logistics of having Senator Webb give the Democratic Response in the Chamber tonight make it impossible at this late date, he will be addressing the American people directly from the Capitol and he will speak with authority for all Democrats in committing to a New Direction here and abroad. His strong voice will be heard.

Ohio's Blackwell Authorized $80k in Farewell Bonuses to State Employees as He Left Office
Another Suprise: $250k in Legal Settlements for 2004 Election, Helping to Leave Office $1 Million Short as New SoS Takes Helm
BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Memo Listing Bonus Payments to 19 of the Outgoing Buckeye State SoS' Office Pals, Legal Action May Follow...

DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINE KEY COPIED FROM PHOTO AT COMPANY'S OWN ONLINE STORE!
Princeton University Computer Scientists Confirm 'Secret' Key For Every Diebold Voting Machine 'Revealed' on Company Website!
[UPDATED THRICE] Shutting the Barn Door After Horse Has Left: Diebold Removes Photo, PLUS: Receives Certification for U.S. Homeland Security Contracts...
NOW BAIT & SWITCH: Diebold Puts Digital Key Online Where Mechanical Key Was Previously!

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 24th...

Vet Group: Bush Failed to Mention American's 1.6 Million Vets During State of the Union for Second Year in a Row
Why Does George W. Bush Hate Our Troops?

'Daily Voting News' For January 24, 2007

According to an article in The Hill: “A new academic study of voting in Florida’s 13th district congressional race refutes the prevailing opinion of experts that the large undervote in the race in November was likely due to poor ballot design. The new study points to an error message that the experts say correlates with the undervotes, as well as to voting patterns that show unusually high undervote rates for Democratic voters. The study’s authors say more information, specifically the secret software used by the voting machines, is required to draw any real conclusions.”

TWO OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS CONVICTED FOR RIGGING 2004 PRESIDENTIAL RECOUNT!
Will be Questioned by Special Prosecutor Before Sentencing to Learn if Higher Ups Involved
RELATED: Kerry Drops Out of 2008 Race. In Advance This Time.

These convictions occurred in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold of some 600,000 voters. Kerry "lost" the state of Ohio, according to the history books anyway, by just 118,000 out of some 5.5 million votes cast in the Buckeye State.

THURSDAY, Jan. 25th...

Scalia on His 2000 Decision to Award the Presidency to George W. Bush: 'Get Over It'
Dishonorable SCOTUS Justice to American Democracy: 'Go Fuck Yourself'
RELATED: Al Gore Must Run Again...

And the Hearings Begin...
Conyers and Feingold Announce Judiciary Hearings on Bush Admistration Policy in Both Senate and House...

In the House, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee --- the one which would lead the way concerning any Articles of Impeachment for a sitting U.S. President or Vice-President --- announced today that hearings would be held next Wednesday in the committee on "Presidential Signing Statements under the Bush Administration: A Threat to Checks and Balances and the Rule of Law?" (Complete media release, with details, scheduled witnesses, etc. at end of this article.)

In the Senate, Russ Feingold (D-WI) will chair Judiciary Committee hearings on "Congress's Power to End a War." In a media advisory just released, (posted in full below) Feingold refers to Congress's "power of the purse to redeploy our troops safely from Iraq so that we can refocus on the global terrorist networks that threaten our national security."

LIBBY TRIAL: 'Memory Defense' Denied in Court
But Rightwing Outlets Run With It and the Rest of the Media Follow...
*** Special to The BRAD BLOG by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns

FRIDAY, Jan. 26th...

Subpeonas May be Issued by NY State After 'Outrageous' Snub by U.S. Elections Assistance Commission
Election Board Ire as EAC Fails to Disclose 'Soiled Laundry' on Failure to Accredit Voting System Test Lab

"What is going on here? Both the EAC and the unaccredited testing lab are refusing to open the curtain that hides their soiled laundry." - Doug Kellner, NY State Board of Elections

Happy 3rd Anniversary to The BRAD BLOG!

And as we enter Year 4 here, I suspect we'll enjoy many more breathtaking plunges, climbs and g-force brownouts on the unpredictable roller coaster that is The BRAD BLOG....Thanks to all BRAD BLOG readers and supporters for three years of unimaginable "success"! Couldn't be prouder to know you're here. Onward!

SATURDAY, Jan. 27th...

LIBBY TRIAL: CIA Briefer for Cheney, Libby Kept Subject Headings for Shredded Briefing Topics
Courtroom Disclosure Indicates Daily CIA Headings Not Sent with Briefing Binders to Burn Bag
Tables of Contents Subjects May Show What White House Knew and When Concerning Nigerian Uranium Questions...
*** Special to The BRAD BLOG by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns

Feingold to File Senate Legislation Calling for Defunding of Iraq War
Fact-Sheet Released Covering General Details, Points to Republican Passed Legislation to Defund U.S. Troops in Bosnia Under Clinton in 1998...

The BRAD BLOG has now obtained details from Feingold's office concerning what his proposal to exercise Congressional control of the purse strings over military deployment in Iraq will and won't do. A fact sheet concerning his upcoming legislation and how the defunding and re-deployment of U.S. troops would be conducted is included.

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

There are three things that I can count on in life beginning with the sun coming up tomorrow and that when it comes up I will be a day older. A close third, is that every Saturday night on the McLaughlin Group, Tony Blankley will make a hypocritical statement. And tonight proved typical.

In this 1:55 clip (January 27, 2007), McLaughlin asks the panel whether Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who delivered an impressive rebuttal to Bush's lackluster State of the Union speech last week, has the credentials to be President. Eleanore Clift then sets Blankley off by calling his chickenhawk friends in the White House chickenhawks.

On Thursday we covered the announcement of hearings to be held by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) in the House Judiciary Committee and by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Conyers' hearing will look at the questions of legality surrounding Bush's "Signing Statements" and Feingold will look at issues surround de-funding the War in Iraq in advance of a legislative proposal to do just that. More details, and the expected witnesses for both of those hearings are in our previous article.

The BRAD BLOG has now obtained details from Feingold's office concerning what his proposal to exercise Congressional control of the purse strings over military deployment in Iraq will and won't do. A fact sheet concerning his upcoming legislation and how the defunding and re-deployment of U.S. troops would be conducted is below.

As well, the statement lists several other historical instances in which Congress voted to hold back funding while American troops were deployed, including in 1998 when the Republican-controlled legislature included a provision in a Defense Authorization bill prohibiting additional funding for U.S. troops in Bosnia after a date-certain, unless certain assurances were given to Congress by then-President Bill Clinton.

Feingold's fact-sheet follows in full...

*** Special to The BRAD BLOG
*** by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns

A startling detail emerged from testimony Wednesday in U.S. v. Libby: the CIA briefer for Vice President Richard Cheney and Lewis Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, kept each Table of Contents from his briefing binders when he sent the contents of the binders to shredder and burn bag. CIA manager Craig Schmall testified, matter-of-factly, in response to defense attorney questioning about those informative subject headings: “They still exist.”

Schmall’s cross-examination by Libby’s attorneys corroborates that the CIA morning briefing covered dozens of topics each day deemed important to U.S. security. Twenty-seven topics from a single day mentioned by Libby’s lawyer included terrorist strikes and threats, any actions deemed worthy of attention by foreign governments or other entities, and any significant actions by North Korea, Iran, and Iraq.

Schmall, as noted in a previous post, was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby’s morning intelligence briefer six days a week from summer 2002 through fall 2003 and served Vice President Cheney as intelligence briefer to the end of May 2004. In winter 2002-2003, he briefed both Libby and Cheney on Mondays and Tuesdays of each week and briefed Libby on Saturdays at Libby’s home. The briefings began at 7:00 a.m. and lasted about 40 minutes; results and taskings were then typed into a database and pooled with results from briefers of other senior government officials (“principals”).

Presumably CIA briefers raised equally critical topics each morning for the president, the Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of Defense.

Each topic was clearly titled in the Table of Contents in the daily briefing binder. Investigators should look at those tables of contents in regard to White House efforts to cover up the unraveling of the Iraq WMD fable. When bogus intelligence was floated, for example, or when reports corrected the misinformation, presumably those items were reflected in the briefings.

Schmall testified that the principals spent most of the time in briefings reading their binders, with any questions or requests noted for follow-up by the Intelligence Community.

The fragmentary list below illustrates a few of the critical events that Bush, Cheney, their top aides and their Cabinet members may have known and reacted to. The basic starting question is the same for each item:

Did this appear in a table of contents for a briefing, and if so, on what date?...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

The Soup's Joel McHale zings Republicans at the beginning of this Fox & Friends clip and then smacks Fox News at the end. Sandwiched in between is some really uncomfortable banter between the three hosts about the birds and the bees and how many roosters it takes, before Brian Kilmeade ends the clip with a crude Rosie O'Donnell smear. Poor Rosie. Fox has swift boated her so often and mercilessly lately that you'd think she was the junior Senator from New York. The clip runs 0:55.

An absolutely classic and devastating segment from last night's Daily Show featuring a relentless --- if greatly deserved --- reaming of the as-yet unimpeached Dick Cheney by Jon Stewart.

Must-see video is at RAW STORY courtesy of David Edwards.

Has it been three years? Apparently. And we were so busy covering the latest Diebold debacle on Wednesday that we forgot to remember it was our Anniversary!

My unknowing gift to myself, apparently, was the huge number of sites which linked up to that story across the World Wide Interwebs in the subsequent 24 or so. But did any of those hundreds of thousands of readers leave a single anniversary tip for yours truly? Of course not

Whining now out of the way...a heads up that we'll be hitting the road shortly for a week or so. You may or may not notice. While gone, we'll be sitting in to Guest Host the mighty Peter B. Collins Show a couple of days late next week from Phoenix. Hope to have some pretty exciting guests. But more details next week.

And as we enter Year 4 here, I suspect we'll enjoy many more breathtaking plunges, climbs and g-force brownouts on the unpredictable roller coaster that is The BRAD BLOG. Hopefully we'll see some exciting changes as well.

To that end --- and as I consider making the new "Dark on Light" color scheme (selectable from the right sidebar) the default theme here in the not-too-distant future, just to blow all expectations to hell by subordinating the classic BRAD BLOG yellow-on-green (we hate for anybody to ever get too comfortable) --- please feel free to leave in comments any thoughts, suggestions, hopes, dreams or criticisms that you'd like me to consider --- technical, substantive or otherwise --- in the coming year.

Honored to have your input. For good or bad. Like Dick Cheney, I've got a thick hide and I'll just completely ignore what I don't like, so feel free to have at me.

Thanks to all BRAD BLOG readers and supporters for three years of unimaginable "success"! Couldn't be prouder to know you're here. Onward!

Guest Blogged by Michael Richardson

Tom Wilkey, former executive director of the New York State Board of Elections, and now the executive director of the Election Assistance Commission, has refused to answer questions from New York election officials about the non-accreditation of voting machine test lab Ciber, Inc. A letter from a state election official describes the lack of response for requested information as "truly outrageous and scandalous." That refusal "to open the curtain that hides their soiled laundry," may lead to subpoenas by the State Board.

The ongoing secrecy, and apparent duplicity, of the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) surrounding the failure of Ciber to be given federal accreditation to testing voting machines began last summer causing an unknown number of voters around the country to vote on improperly tested electronic voting machines in last November's election. The EAC failed to notify elections officials or the public about what they had already discovered concerning the poor state of testing conditions and procedures by the lab.

The EAC secrecy has been particularly troublesome in New York where Ciber has been testing equipment specifically under contract with the state. The EAC was created by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002 and is charged with accrediting "independent testing authorities" to examine and certify electronic voting machines. Ciber failed to gain interim accreditation when the testing duties shifted from the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to the EAC last July.

As discussed in a report yesterday --- which included a series of 'very friendly' notes between Wilkey and the current chair of the EAC, Donetta Davidson --- Wilkey’s silence may stem from his role as chair of the Voting Systems Board at NASED prior to his position at the EAC. The failures of Ciber to properly conduct and document security testing of voting machines that led to the denial of interim accreditation occurred during Wilkey’s watch at NASED where he served with his "Sis", Davidson, as he referred to her in the emails between the two.

Davidson was on Wilkey’s NASED certification board along with "ex officio" member Shawn Southworth of Ciber, Inc. Wilkey and Davidson’s silence about the failures of Ciber has angered election officials around the nation who had relied on Ciber’s certification of their voting machines in the November 2006 election.

As also recently reported, the delay in the public disclosure of the problems at Ciber, conveniently allowed both the firm's founder and its CEO the time needed to unload $1.7 million of company stock before the news would eventually be reported by the New York Times earlier this month.

New York, unlike the rest of the states, did not rush into purchase of new, expensive voting machines without public hearings and more thorough testing and ended up being sued by the U.S. Justice Department for HAVA non-compliance. Commissioner Doug Kellner of the New York State Board of Elections has reacted to the EAC stonewalling about Ciber with a call for a subpoena in hopes of getting some answers.

In an email announcement on Wednesday, Kellner expressed his outrage in no uncertain terms...

*** Special to The BRAD BLOG
*** by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns

As noted in an earlier post, the Libby defense team has emphasized memory lapses in the first three prosecution witnesses, government figures who placed Libby at the nexus of information about Joseph Wilson’s wife. Probing, sometimes repetitiously --- or so it seemed to me, sitting in Courtroom 16 --- for variable or incomplete memories took up much of the first two days of the Libby trial, now in its third day.

This line of attack has already been picked up by rightwing media outlets, including a gloating article posted this morning by Byron York at the National Review and another on a rightwing web site called "America Thinks."

More insidiously, the same line is seeping from some large media outlets. The Los Angeles Times ran an article today saying that the "memory defense" is aided by the government witnesses' own memory lapses, and the Baltimore Sun reports that the "'busy man' defense gains some ground". The local (D.C.) ABC television station presents a more balanced report, but very brief.

As it turns out, the memory defense at this stage of the Libby trial is not supposed to be used under judicial guidelines. Former prosecutor Christy Hardin Smith, also present in Courtroom 16 yesterday, points out that for Libby’s lawyers to plead shortness of memory, Libby himself has to take the stand as a witness, because it is his memories that are being referenced. The unremitting focus on witness memory for the entire day Wednesday seems to have resulted in a ruling from the judge that there will be no 'memory defense' allowed in the closing argument unless Libby does take the stand . . .

At the turn of the new year, we dubbed 2007 "The Year of Accountability." So, let it begin.

Two announcements were released today concerning upcoming oversight and investigative hearings in Congress on Bush Administration policy. If you can imagine such a thing.

In the House, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee --- the one which would lead the way concerning any Articles of Impeachment for a sitting U.S. President or Vice-President --- announced today that hearings would be held next Wednesday in the committee on "Presidential Signing Statements under the Bush Administration: A Threat to Checks and Balances and the Rule of Law?" (Complete media release, with details, scheduled witnesses, etc. at end of this article.)

In the Senate, Russ Feingold (D-WI) will chair Judiciary Committee hearings on "Congress's Power to End a War." In a media advisory just released, (posted in full below) Feingold refers to Congress's "power of the purse to redeploy our troops safely from Iraq so that we can refocus on the global terrorist networks that threaten our national security."

"This hearing will help inform my colleagues and the public about Congress’s power to end a war and how that power has been used in the past," Feingold is quoted in the release. As well, he promises to to introduce new legislation to do exactly that in the Senate. "I will soon be introducing legislation to use the power of the purse to end what is clearly one of the greatest mistakes in the history of our nation’s foreign policy," the senator said.

Neither of the Constitutionally mandated oversight hearings will be held in a basement broom closet, but rather in proper Congressional Hearing Rooms.

UPDATE 8:22pm PT White House says they "will cooperate." Of course they will.

The complete media releases from Conyers and Feingold, with dates, times, locations, and expected witnesses, follow below...

AP reports the following comments made Tuesday by the unimpeached Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia concerning his decision to overthrow American democracy in the 2000 Presidential Election:

We wonder what other decisions by the SCOTUS that Americans should "get over." We wonder if the voters of Florida who were denied their expressed intent to elect Al Gore should also "get over it." Doubtless, the more than 3000 U.S. troops killed by George W. Bush's unnecessary war have no choice but to "get over it."

Deceptively attempting to justify his wholly incorrect and unconstitutional decision by playing the unequally applied "Equal Protection Clause" card once again, Scalia reportedly added, "Counting somebody else's dimpled chad and not counting my dimpled chad is not giving equal protection of the law."

Interestingly enough, Scalia and the SCOTUS have stood by and allowed all forms of un-Equal Protection in Elections ever since --- from the myriad different voting systems and "standards" now used, to the myriad ways in which votes by voters in the very same county are counted differently and at different times. In other words, the repugnant democracy-hating Scalia is full of shit.

As pointed out --- though somewhat cryptically --- in the AP piece by Mark Sherman, subsequent study of the actual ballots in the state of Florida in 2000 showed that, in fact, had all of the them actually been counted (we know, it's a quaint idea) Gore would have won [PDF] the state, and thus the Presidency.

Speaking of which, Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson says: Run, Al, Run. We concur, and offer John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" as our suggestion for the campaign's victory song.

(Hat-tip Michael Roston at RAW STORY.)

From AP...

Golly. We're shocked. We wish we would have paid closer attention to that whole 2004 Ohio Presidential Election scam thing instead of ignoring it all these years.

Oh, wait, that was just about everyone else other than The BRAD BLOG, across the near-entirety of both the MSM and the bulk of the Progressive blogosphere.

That aside...as pointed out in the article, the two who were convicted in Cuyahoga County were still pretty small fish...

By way of reminder, the recount --- the one that was rigged by Ohio Elections Officials --- came by way of the Green and Libertarian Party candidates, not by way of the Democrats or John Kerry. As well, the money to pay for the gamed recount was raised by folks on the Internet, not paid for out of the $15 million or so that Kerry reportedly had left in his campaign war chest after the "Election" in Ohio.

All of that, despite Kerry's continued and then broken promise to "Count Every Vote" in 2004.

These convictions occurred in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold of some 600,000 voters. Kerry "lost" the state of Ohio, according to the history books anyway, by just 118,000 out of some 5.5 million votes cast in the Buckeye State.

In related news, today Kerry decided to quit the 2008 Election, mercifully this time before it instead of afterwards.

UPDATE 3/13/2007: Maiden and Dreamer each sentenced to maximum of 18 months in prison. Judge and prosecutor at sentencing say they still believe the conspiracy goes higher. Details...

Got a call late in the day from the folks at the Lars Larson Show to come on the show following Tony Snow to talk about the State of the Union address.

If you're not familiar with Lars, he's a hard right, fiercely "conservative", widely-syndicated national talk radio host in the Rush/Hannity tradition. If you've heard me on his show before, you'll know that fireworks usually occur. Tonight was no exception, though he was a bit more subdued than usual, and was singing a new tune from previous appearances when it comes to Election Integrity and the need for a paper BALLOT (not "trail" or "record) for every vote cast.

Lars and I talked about the SOTU, N. Korea, the dismal treatment of vets by the Bush Administration, Election Integrity, the right-wing Swiftboating of Barbara Boxer and John Kerry bowing out of the 'Clusterf#@k to the White House 2008'...

Sadly, he took no calls during the short appearance, so we didn't get to hear from his wingnut base this time around. Oh, well. Still a fun appearance, I think. But you tell me.

I've cut out the commercials (you're welcome) as well as the Snow interview just before me since it was the same old tired WH spin (you're welcome again). Enjoy our latest round of "Brad Plays Audio Whackamole!"

-- Brad on Lars Larson Show, 1/24/07 [MP3, appx. 19 mins.]

One interesting --- dare we say, hopeful --- point we just noticed about last night's speech.

In the text transcript at the White House website, the speech was written to end, curiously enough, with the following words:

"See you next year"???

Anybody ever recall such an ending to a State of the Union address?! Now why would they include something like that, one has to wonder.

But as odd as it was to include those words in the first place, what's even more interesting is that Bush didn't say them, choosing instead to end simply with "God bless."

Shall we take this as an encouraging omen? I say we do.