Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Yesterday, Robert Kennedy appeared on Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto.

Neil Cavuto didn't give Robert Kennedy the chance to finish a thought or make a point. It was the same old hostile wingnut tactics of distractions, diversions, interruptions and unrelated questions.

Cavuto actually questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr's integrity based on the 48 year old election of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy. At that time, Robert Kennedy Jr. was only 8 years old. Cavuto asked,

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS FROM BRAD: I love how these guys keep saying we shouldn't look back at '04, and then they look back 48 years ago to try and bash RFK's article on '04 (which is as important in re: it's implications for '06 and '08 as anything else). Not to mention, the 1960 JFK "stolen election" canard is exactly that, a canard. Here's some background which also shores up RFK's point to Cavuto that JFK would have won even without Illinois in 1960. But why dally on actual facts in having these sorts of debates?

From NY Times' Op/Ed Wednesday...

How bad is the ES&S meltdown in Arkansas? Really bad...

Of course, we ran a series on things as they were falling apart before, during and after their recent primaries. (See this story for a quick primer). Apparently, things have gotten no better out there.

Then ponder that ES&S has so far failed in about 10 states. These are just the primaries. With low turnout. On separate days. How do you suppose things will go for a general election. With large turnout. When ES&S has to service all 46 of their states at the same time?

This quote, from today's article on the mess they're still in, says it all:

Now where have we heard that before?

Updating this item with the latest news on top now. See 'below the fold' for the earlier reports, and the map of Bowen's enormous win!

1:04a PT... I just got off the phone with Senator Bowen where she's just heard from Senator Ortiz who has conceded!

It was a remarkable win, in many ways, given the 56% undecided in the state just a few days ago, and the fact that she was outspent by Ortiz, who also ran TV spots over the weekend (Bowen didn't run any, by the way.)

I asked her then to what she attributes this victory (with a whopping 20%+ margin) to?

"I think it's a major victory for grassroots organizing. People sent out messages to their email lists, to their friends. We used the net and the blogs to get our message out. I think it's also that people are beginning to understand if you don't make sure that elections mean something, you will lose your democracy."

(The BRAD BLOG was one small part of that netroots efforts with our recent endorsement and interview of Bowen, which was crossposted over at Huffington Post. You guys did all the rest!)

Was she surprised? "I really had no idea what to excpect. The 56% undecided a few days ago was rather...unnerving."

So what's the message that needs to get out between now and November? "People need to take a look at what's happened in the Secretary of State's office. The issues with voter registration and his certification of these voting machines....I mean look at what happened today with the problems around the state. I'm concerned about what happened in Kern County...and I won in Kern County!"

Will you be looking into it? Even though you won it? "You bet I will!"

Our kind of patriot. (Some of those meltdowns reported earlier here.)

Glad it wasn't a squeaker. I gotta be up in about 5 4 hours to do a radio show...And tomorrow's gonna be another big day. I just have a feeling...Congrats Senator! We'll be right there with you through November!

See below for earlier reports from the evening and map as of 1:04am...

This was buried in the earlier piece concerning Lou Dobb's coverage of Electronic Voting in which his report alleges that these machines and the private company's that now control our vote are a "threat to democracy". But the later CNN segment with Jack Cafferty deserves to be front and center.

Said Cafferty yesterday (complete must-read transcript of the segment is below!):

THANK GOD someone in the MSM finally gets it! Lord knows Wolf doesn't! See the full transcript below for answers from emailers to Cafferty's question-of-the-day yesterday: "Do you trust the honesty of America's election process?"

Regular BRAD BLOG readers won't be surprised at the answers sent in. Only that CNN actually read them on air! (Thank you, Jack Cafferty!)

...CONTACT...
Email: caffertyfile@CNN.com
Or go to CNN.com/caffertyfile

Just some of the problems already brewing today in just two of the states, of eight, holding primary elections today. With a reminder that most problems such as these don't begin to show up until later in the evening, and even more so in the days following the elections...We'll update this item as appropriate and as time allows throughout the day...

In California...

In Mississippi...

(Thanks to John Gideon for the early heads-up! More tonight in his 'Daily Voting News', of course.)

So, let me get this straight. NBC will give extremist fringe whacko, Ann Coulter more than 7 minutes of air time to spout her disgusting personal opinions about such things as widows of those killed in the 9/11 attacks rejoicing about it. Says Coulter: "I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much."

She receives 7 minutes and 38 seconds of airtime (video and transcript here) to help her sell her book, nonetheless! But NBC can't come up with 30 seconds of airtime for an actual legitimate source, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has written a legitimate and painstakingly researched article --- over four months in the making --- which alleges that our last Presidential Election may have been stolen?

Note to Matt Lauer and NBC: The shame is not Ann Coulter. The shame is you.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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In Iraq, the month of May saw the largest number of Iraqi civilian deaths since the war began 3 years ago. The Baghdad morgue reported over 1400 dead in May. Over 400 of the dead Iraqis could not be identified. Some journalists, like veteran reporter Robert Fisk, claim that the officials are under-reporting the actual number of deaths. In addition, many more bodies can never be counted because explosions and road side bombs often leave little evidence of human remains.

What's clear is that the violence in Iraq is increasing at a pivotal time for the fledgling Iraqi government. Even the shell-shocked Iraqis are stunned by the new level of violence. For example, over a two day period, 18 severed heads wrapped in plastic have been discovered. The likely cause are the escalating sectarian revenge killings.

In this video, an Iraqi woman cries,

ADDENDUM FROM BRAD: Good timing for David Edward's post here. I was about to do one of my own, pointing out this report that 6,000 Iraqi corpses have been discovered in the last 5 months. Given Iraq's population of appx. 25 million, compared with the US's population of 300 million. The equivalent of 6000 deaths in Iraq over the past five months would be some 72,000 in America. If we had 72,000 murders via "sectarian violence" in America in just five months, would that be considered a civil war? Or would we criticize the media for not reporting all the "good news" in our country?

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

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Yesterday on the Lou Dobb's Show on CNN, Lou's crack reporter, Kitty Pilgrim did the second of a two-part (with more to come we hope) report on the ownership of Sequoia Voting by a foreign conglomerate that is directly owned by Venezuelan nationals with direct ties to the Hugo Chavez regime.

It was fun to see Lou all blustery and nearly spitting as he decried the fact that the US government had allowed a foreign owned company to buy a company that supplies voting machines to states and counties.

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ADDITIONAL THOUGHT FROM BRAD: It should also be pointed out here, when the questions/concerns about Sequoia's ownership are raised, that it's no different from the "local" privatized ownership of all of the other companies, such as Diebold, ES&S, etc. They are equally, if not more, partisan and their privatized (and secretized) ownership of our public elections should be of equal concern to Lou Dobbs, and all other, mostly rightwingers, who are suddenly concerned about the ownership of Sequoia!
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A transcript of the show follows but a lot is missed if you cannot watch the video above.

Also Jack Cafferty asked about the honesty of the election process in his "Cafferty Files" segment on CNN's "Situation Room".

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UPDATE: Tonight on Lou Dobbs - Warren Stewart, Legislative Director from VoteTrustUSA and a poll worker in the Bay Area in CA. and Avi Rubin, Computer Scientist and possibly a poll worker again this year in Maryland.
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Text transcripts from both of yesterday's segments follow?

Wish You Were Gore...

(Hat tip BRAD BLOG emailer Justin F.)

UPDATE 6:56pm PT: Judge Denies Injunction! Suit Dismissed! Details follow in an update following our original coverage...

A last-minute Election Eve compaint has been filed in a Los Angeles courtroom within the hour calling on LA County's registrar of voters, Conny B. McCormack to immediately remove Diebold elecronic voting machine tabulators, said to have illegal access to the Internet as well as uncertified tabulation software, from counting rooms at the county's main facility in Norwalk, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

The plaintiffs in the case are Cindy Asner and Cynthia Henderson, LA County Chair of the Peace and Freedom Party.

The emergency filing, being heard at this hour, is based on an affidavit filed today by Green Party election system inspector, John Wenger, a PhD and retired software engineer from Northrup Grumman who has been tracking LA County's use of electronic voting machines over the past month along with several other inspectors from both the Green and Democratic parties. The BRAD BLOG spoken at length with Wenger over the weekend, and has reviewed a draft version of his declaration being filed with the suit. (The final version of Wenger's declaration is now posted at the end of this article.)

Los Angeles county is the largest voting area in California. The state is holding its Primary Election tomorrow. Touch-screen Diebold voting machines --- now shown to be hackable and highly vulnerable to malicious tampering at both the point of the voting machine itself and its central tabulator software --- are used for early voting only in LA County. Though early voting in LA began several weeks ago and ended last Friday, tabulation of votes cast during that period will not begin until the polls close on Tuesday evening at 8pm PT.

The race is an important one to Election Integrity advocates since state senator Debra Bowen is running in a primary race in hopes of winning the Democratic nomination to take on Republican CA Sec. of State Bruce McPherson who has been a supporter of vulnerable electronic voting machines, including Diebold's, in the state. As well, the LA County Registrar of voters, Conny B. McCormack has been a long-time supporter of Diebold and their election equipment and has even been featured, via photograph and endorsement, on promotional brochures distributed by the controversial Ohio company. (See graphic below.)

This year's primary is also being closely watched due to a Democratic primary challenge by anti-war candidate Marcy Winograd against powerful pro-war Democratic U.S. House Representative Jane Harman in the state's 36th U.S. Congressional district.

Further, another troubling detail about Diebold's touch-screen systems in the county was revealed on Friday of last week when The BRAD BLOG received an email indicating that one voter at least --- Michael Shure, a political commentator on Sirius Sattelite's The Young Turks radio program --- who voted on the Diebold touch-screen machines was given the incorrect ballot.

Shure, who lives in CA's 36th congressional district noted that his touch-screen ballot gave him the option to vote for Rep. Henry Waxman, who is running unopposed in his U.S. Congressional primary, instead of the Winograd/Harman race which should have been on his ballot.

"Unbelievable," Shure wrote in his email. "Had I not known, as I am sure many voters don't, who my Rep. was, and what district I live in, I would have been voting for someone else."

Indeed, Shure's experience underscores further dangers of combined precincts using elecronic touch-screen voting machines as Los Angeles offers during the early voting period when voters may go to any early voting location and cast their ballot on machines which --- supposedly --- offer them the appropriate ballot for their particular district.

The experience has left the Winograd campaign wondering how many other voters may have missed out on the opportunity to vote in that contentious race and whether or not they may need to file a challenge to the election in order to find out.

UPDATE 6:56pm PT: Judge Denies Injunction! Suit Dismissed! Details follow below...

We don't generally do endorsements around here for the most part. In the case of California state Senator Debra Bowen's primary race to be the Democratic nominee for California's Secretary of State, however, we're more than happy to make an exception.

While many Californians --- and even more non-Californians --- may not know it, the path towards restoring America's crumbling democracy may well rest in a little noticed primary race that will take place here on Tuesday.

Bowen, as state senator and chair of the state's Election Committee in Sacramento, has led the way where few Democratic elected officials have even bothered to acquaint themselves. Specifically, Bowen has studied, learned, investigated, held hearings and delved deep into that murky territory of electronic voting, electoral integrity and the threat to our democracy posed by the privatization of our public electoral system by corporate interests using secret software to "count" America's votes.

As private and partisan corporations such as Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, Hart InterCivic and all the rest have spidered out across the electoral landscape, usurping American values in the name of insidious corporate greed and at the expense of transparency, auditability and confidence in our once-great American democracy --- all at the cost and waste of billions of your taxpayer dollars, by the way --- few politicians have bothered to wend their way through the impossibly arcane and brain-withering technical details wherein the devil lies, most assuredly, in these matters of electronic voting.

An avowed computer geek, Bowen has been paying attention to these matters from the get-go while the vast majority of elected pols today do little more than whistle past democracy's graveyard. She has fought for electoral integrity by successfully moving legislation into law which mandates audits (only 1%, but hey, it's a start) and paper records (not paper ballots, but hey, it's a start) for every vote cast in the Golden State.

While one would think such ideas would be no-brainers for every state in the union, it's remarkable how few seem to give a damn about any of those ideas and, in fact, have gone out of their way to fight off mandates for such accountability in elections. Debra Bowen, on the other hand, does give a damn...

It looked promising for a start. USA Today files a report today headlined "Spate of lawsuits target e-voting".

As we've been calling for for some time, a national media outlet begins to connect some of the many "local" dots around the country. Then, of course, they blow it.

Here's the good news, early in the story (all stuff we've reported long ago, but happy to see it reported here, of course):

No mention of other "some problems" in primaries so far this year in Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, etc. But okay. What gets us is that the story then goes on to quote only two sources, both of whom are E-Voting advocates and both of whom suggest there is nothing to worry about and that these systems "can be trusted."

Not one quote from any of the myriad computer scientists and security experts who have decried the enormous flaws and security vulnerabilities in loads of electronic voting machines describing them as shocking, alarming, critical, etc. etc. etc.

Beginning to see any patterns here?

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Wolf Blitzer hosted a "debate"/ambush on CNN's Situation Room between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Bush/Cheney '04 spokesman, Terry Holt. In his Rolling Stone article Kennedy shows that Republicans prevented 350,000 voters from voting or having their votes counted.

Blitzer allowed a more civil discussion than did Tucker Carlson in another recent interview with Kennedy. CNN must have decided that an interview with Kennedy --- which would be entirely warranted --- would have appeared partisan. Republicans don't need someone who is uniquely qualified to defend their illegal electioneering in Ohio. Terry Holt can parrot the same tired GOP lies talking points and unsubstantiated, evidence-free charges as well as any talking head.

Holt said he would turn Kennedy's charges of Republic election rigging "on it's head". His first line of defense was that "an exhaustive bipartisan study of all 88 counties in Ohio was conducted after the election and Republicans and Democrats... have agreed that there was no significant or insignificant fraud." Kennedy is quick with a strong response, saying that, "there has no been no bipartisan commission... It's simply wrong to say that."

Holt wasted no time in blaming the voter. The true threat to America's democracy are the statistically insignificant fake voter registrations. Especially dangerous are those voters that attempt to "stuff the ballot box" registering with fake names like "Mickey Mouse" and "Michael Jordan". Holt's second talking point is a favorite in the Republican's long term strategy to restrict voting rights. They use this argument for everything from establishing voter Ids to purging Democrat voters from the rolls.

Robert Kennedy found his voice and easily defeated Holt's weak attempt to divert attention from the real issues. A few "Mickey Mouse" registrations hardly compare to the fact that Republicans stole the 2004 Presidential election by subverting the will of 350,000 voters in Ohio.

UPDATE FROM BRAD: Allow me to add to David's analysis here that there is not one known instance of phony "Mickey Mouse" or "Michael Jordan" registrations actually recorded as having voted. Holt spent no time speaking to the serious charges made by Kennedy in Rolling Stone but rather made up his own phony, unsupported nonsense. All the while Blitzer charged Kennedy didn't present evidence to support his charges (apparently, only if RJK Jr. had brought forward someone admitting they personally rigged the election would that have been evidence of anything). In the meantime, Blitzer allowed Holt to spread his unsubstantiated garbage without being challenged even once.

The complete text transcript from the video interview from Friday, June 2nd's edition of The Situation Room on CNN follows...

Much coming. But none of it for the moment, as I climb mountains over here for many hours today and tonight. Therefore, consider this an open thread if you like until I can come out from under...

That said, investigative journalist and BRAD BLOG friend, Greg Palast, whose new book Armed Madhouse hits the shelves this week has been kind enough to offer us 10 signed copies of the book for use as a premium to contributors here!

Couldn't come at a better time, frankly, as we are also being forced to expedite some software/design changes sooner rather than later due to increasingly virulent spam/hack attempts that have taken the site down at various times over the last several weeks. They are getting worse, and our hope is the new software will ward off some of those attacks (as well as allowing for many enhancements I've been hoping to make for some time --- more on all of this later.) To make it all happen sooner, rather than later, however, is going to cost no small amount of money for me, but it's gotten so bad I've got no choice.

So...The first 10 folks who send in donations of $50 or more will receive a signed copy of Greg's new book shipped to you by mail! (We're undercutting Greg himself who is offering same for $100 on his site!) If interested, please be sure to give your mailing address when you donate so we know where to ship it!

Thanks go to Greg for his generous offer and support of the blog! To learn more about Armed Madhouse, see my earlier posts about the day I recorded audio for the Armed Madhouse audio version with Ed Asner and Janeane Garafalo (here,) as well as some exclusive readings from those sessions by myself and Asner (here.) Or just stop by www.GregPalast.com.

To donate online click here. For snail mail donations, see the address in the blue box at right. (Though I can't guarantee you'll be amongst the first 10 if you go by snail mail, I receive few enough donations however, that you may actually still have a pretty good chance!)

I'd be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank all of you who have supported The BRAD BLOG throughout the years. Your generosity is consistently moving and help makes all of this possible. I never enjoy having to ask for support, but that's what we've got as of now. I do try to send a personal thanks via email to those who donate online, but it's almost impossible for me to reply personally to those who send in snail mail donations. So I hope this thanks goes at least some of the way to share my appreciation for your incredibly generous support, no matter what what form it may come by!

UPDATE 6/5/06: Thanks guys! We received 13 donations before I was able to get back here and cut it off, so I'm going to see if I can get 3 more books from GP. If not, I'll let the final three who came in know about it, and return the donations to ya, if you like. In the meantime, of course, donations from any readers out of pure altruistic support of The BRAD BLOG are always appreciated (and needed) either way. Thanks again! I'll try and make more such premiums available in the near future!