Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

It's September 8th, 2006.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The Orlando Sentinel has noticed the "Clint Curtis Is Crazy" campaign being run by Tom Feeney. It's hard not to notice, I'd say, when a three-ring binder full of stories about Clint Curtis lands in your lap.

Scott Maxwell, whose reporting we were fortunate to encounter just the other day, chips in with a line-item from his blog:

There's quite a bit more more detail from Robert Perez in a piece called Congressional race gets 'crazy' fast which begins like this:

Blogged by Brad on the road...after 5 days offline, but not off the job (unfortunately)...

After a car breakdown in Kansas, in the middle of nowhere, literally, we're now $650 lighter, but back up and running and closer than ever to the West Coast. And what's the matter with Kansas? Nothing. The folks who helped us out of a jam were aces. With a few meetings over the next week between here and home, and some hot feature articles and other super-secret missions that I'm working on in the background, we'll be back no later than late next week. With much to come the following week.

In the meantime, here's a couple of quickies...

+ I'll be back on Peter B. Collins' show tonight in my usual weekly 5:20pm PT (8:20pm ET) slot to discuss the latest developements (and a few unpublished details) in the Clint Curtis/Tom Feeney election, the Busby/Bilbray matter, and anything else that comes to mind. Listen up online here or call in to say hello! We'd love to hear from you! 1-888-573-8372.

UPDATE: Peter B. called earlier after another guest had to drop at the last minute, so I went on about 15 minutes early. If you tried to tune in, but missed the first part of the interview --- including some previously unpublished details of Tom Feeney's beer-fueled election night flip out last Tuesday --- the interview is now archived here for your listening pleasure.

One section dropped out briefly from my recording, concerning the story I wrote for Hustler on Ray Lemme. Lemme was the man from the Florida Inspector General's office who was mysteriously found dead just prior to releasing the results of his "all the way to the top" report (as it was described by vote-rigging whistleblower turned congressional candidate, Clint Curtis) in a Valdosta, Georgia hotel room. That report, which was published in Hustler's September issue --- and warning: it contains some graphic crime scene photos --- is available in porn-free PDF format right here in case you missed it.

+ Watch PBS' NOW tonight (Friday) at 8:30pm ET for their report billed as "DOWN FOR THE COUNT: Will new voting machines cause an Election Day debacle? NOW takes an alarming look at the new systems in place, ready or not." If this quote from the now-resigned, formerly Bush-appointed first head of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission is any indication, it could be an ugly report: "We are no more certain today than we were in 2000 that we will not have an embarrassing moment and a tragic outcome in this year's election," Deforest Soaries, former Chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, told NOW. (Hat tip to Oregon Voting Rights Coalition for the heads-up! Check the NOW page for air times in your area.)

UPDATE: The PBS NOW report was tremendous. You can now watch the video here...

Guest blogged by Emily Levy

The BRAD BLOG has learned that the plaintiffs in the Busby/Bilbray CA-50 election contest will be appealing the recent dismissal of the case by a San Diego judge. The appeal will be filed in California's 4th District court. Briefs are now being prepared and funds being collected for what may be a rather expensive appeal. Notice of appeal may be filed as soon as today.

Donations to the appeal can be made via Velvet Revolution.

The appeal is a rejection of Judge Yuri Hofmann's August 29 ruling which echoed GOP claims that the U.S. House of Representatives, not the state courts or voters, have the power to determine the outcome of elections of members of Congress. In California's 50th Congressional district in San Diego County, Republican candidate Brian Bilbray was announced to be the winner of the June 6 special election, flown to Washington and sworn in before all the votes were counted or the election certified. That, after reports were initially broken, and well circulated by The BRAD BLOG revealing that the Diebold voting machines used in the elelection were sent home with poll workers for overnight "sleepovers" in the days and weeks preceding the "bellwether" U.S. House special election.

Those sleepovers, in which election works had unsupervised access to the highly hackable, programmed, election-ready voting systems, were in contravention of both state and federal laws and led to a filing of an election contest in early July.

Says attorney Paul Lehto, who argued the plaintiffs' case in Hofmann's court...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Late Tuesday night, after the election returns from Florida showed a landslide win for Clint Curtis over Andy Michaud in the 24th congressional district's Democratic primary, I heard a fascinating story from Ace Reporter and Managing Editor Alex Babcock of Oviedo, Florida's Seminole Chronicle. The Chronicle is Feeney's "hometown paper" which both the corrupt Republican congressman, and Yang Enterprises Inc. (YEI) --- the company he used to lobby for, even while he was speaker of the Florida House! --- threatened with a lawsuit after the paper dared to report on Curtis' sworn, video-taped testimony to members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

Curtis had testified that Feeney asked him to create a prototype of electronic vote-rigging software when they were both employed by YEI as The BRAD BLOG originally broke back in December of 2004. Curtis, of course, is now the Democratic candidate challenging Feeney for the U.S. House seat in Florida's 24th congressional district.

Babcock's remarkable account of the "jubilant" Election Night conversation, witnessed by at least three other parties, went as follows...

Guest blogged by Chris Floyd | Originally posted at Empire Burlesque

Kos comes up with this nice catch:

Top Bush counterterrorism official bashes ABC's 9/11 mockumentary

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Well, here it is!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Late Tuesday night, after the numbers coming in from the Florida primaries had told their story, many BRAD BLOG readers were happily celebrating Clint Curtis' win in the 24th district, and we were blogging about it quite a bit. If you drew inspiration from the events of the evening; if you thought it was very important, and very encouraging: Congratulations! Your heart is still beating and your blood is still red --- and American!

In the barrage of Curtis-Feeney blogging, I neglected to mention another Democratic primary victory which in its own way was equally important and perhaps even more encouraging: Robert Bowman's victory in Florida's 15th district was a powerful shot in the arm for those of us who agree with what Bowman says about 9/11.

"And what does Bowman say about 9/11?" you ask.

Well done! Instead of jumping to conclusions immediately, you have asked the key question.

In a nutshell, Bob Bowman says:

A large and growing number of Americans share Bob Bowman's view, and clearly it hasn't hampered Bowman in his quest for the Democratic nomination in Florida's 15th congressional district.

Are you with me so far? Good!

More clips and links below the fold ...

Guest blogged by Emily Levy

Today on RawStory.com, Miriam Raftery interviews Paul Lehto: Court rules against voter-supervised elections, attorney tells Raw

Lehto ties together recent court cases in California and Nevada, and makes some hypotheses about the future.

First: Judge Yuri Hofmann in San Diego dismissed the CA-50 (Busby/Bilbray race) election challenge a week ago, after receiving a letter [PDF] from Paul Vinovich, counsel to the Committee on House Administration, claiming that only Congress had jurisdiction over California's election. The letter cited Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, "Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members"¦." Never mind that when Brian Bilbray became a "member," the election wasn't yet certified and thousands of votes remained uncounted.

Then: Three days after dismissal of the San Diego case, a judge in Nevada's District 2 dismissed a challenge to the Republican primary there on the same constitutional grounds. John Gideon's excellent piece, Opinion: Is The Constitution Going To Be Used Against Democrats In November?, which appeared on The BRAD BLOG over the weekend, ties the two cases together. If you haven't read it, please do.

There's more: As previously reported on these pages, Vinovich's letter came after Congress received by fax the preliminary results of the CA-50 race. That fax was sent by Susan Lapsley, Assistant California Secretary of State for Elections. She hasn't worked for CA SoS Bruce McPherson for very long. What was her previous job? Assistant Secretary of State in Nevada, where her boss was Dean Heller. SoS Heller is running for Congress, and is the candidate who claims to have won the contested race in Nevada. More on Lapsley here.

Connect the Dots: Is Texas Next?

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

An "explosive" new press release from the office of Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) reveals "new information" regarding his November opponent, Clint Curtis, the "Craziest Man in America".

Wow! Craziest Man In America! That's quite a distinction. There are some pretty crazy men in America these days, as if you haven't already noticed. And it's odd that Tom Feeney should award this title to Clint Curtis, because ...

I never even knew Clint Curtis was a little bit crazy! Did you?

Well apparently he is, because Tom Feeney certainly wouldn't say so if he wasn't.

Right????

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Miriam Raftery:
Court rules against voter-supervised elections, attorney tells RawCourt rules against voter-supervised elections, attorney tells Raw

Run right over there and read it!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The Orlando Sentinel jumped all over the story of Clint Curtis, his apparent victory in last night's Democratic primary, and the epic battle "between Good and Evil" which it sets up in Florida's 24th Congressional disctict.

See? Here's their coverage!, and this is --- literally --- the bottom line:

Even lower down the page, it also says this:

Calling 6 or 7 green and yellow bloggers!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

In today's episode, Ruben Navarrette Jr brings a new depth of meaning to the "Op" part of his job as a writer of "Op/Ed" pieces.

Navarette writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune but he's also a syndicated Op/Ed writer and fortunately I found him in the Seattle Times, where he was saying:

Reason loses out in Mexico

Quite a headline, don't you think? That's the hook. Wonder what's inside? Come along with me!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

According to reliable sources, WESH-TV has called Clint Curtis the winner of the FL-24 Democratic primary by a landslide. Curtis had 12,652 votes, compared to 7,990 for Michaud: That's 61% for the vote-rigging whistleblower, with 208 out of 257 precincts reporting, or or 81%.

According to other reliable sources, a reporter from the Daytona Beach News-Journal called Clint and asked whether he wanted to make a statement. Clint said:

So ... shall we let the party begin? Well, really: there's no hurry!

If Clint can wait until all the votes are counted, then so can we!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Online News [Pakistan] September 6, 2006: NATO forces be deployed in Balochistan: BNP [emphasis added, here and below]

What? Did we miss something?

Apparently! Somewhere in between the hunt for the real reason why Rashid Rauf was arrested and the stunning interruption in the Pakistani cricket tour to Britain, we did miss something of importance. I've been meaning to blog about it, but in the midst of everything else it hasn't quite risen to the top of my To-Do List --- until now!

Quotes and links from relevant stories you may have missed, below the fold: