Signs are good in Maryland --- Diebold's original "showcase state" --- that the legislature there is finally wising up to the democracy undermining problem that is Diebold.

According to AP --- yes, again AP --- the Democratic chaired House Ways and Means Committee "voted 20-3 on Friday to scrap the Diebold touchscreen machines for at least this year and use paper ballots with an optical-scan system for the primary and general elections."

The measure still has to move through the Senate, though the Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich has previously called for something very similar. So if the Senate moves, chances are the Guv will sign on.

Yes, there are problems, as you know, with optical-scan machines (just ask democracy's hero Ion Sancho in Leon County, FL), but at least the move away from Democratic Election Administrator Linda Lamone's fateful deal with the devil to use (and continue apologizing for) Diebold's unrecountable paperless touch-screen machines across the state may finally be coming to an end.

Also of note; The media, this time in the form of Associated Press, is finally beginning to understand the importance of the story that they've ignored for years. From Tom Stuckey of AP...

The article also points out that Lamone --- who, as of this article, still has a job --- is certain everything will be fine due to the legendarily watertight security that American election officials are recognized for world-wide:

Fraud and manipulation is "impossible" says Lamone! I know I'll sleep better at night...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Most Americans believe that John McCain's anti-torture bill clearly protects prisoners in U.S. custody from abuse. Most Americans also believe that the conditions for detainees have improved since the Abu Ghraib scandal and some initial problems at the U.S. detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Republican PR efforts to change American's perceptions of detainee treatment have been have been successful. The truth is that the Bush Administration has used the McCain anti-torture bill to codify a policy of torture that is now embedded in our legal system for perpetuity.

Professor Alfred McCoy is the author of a new book, "A Question of Torture", in which he gives a history of US torture from the CIA's development of torture techniques through the latest generation of systematic torture in the Bush Administration's "war on terror".

McCoy explains how the Bush Administration has purposefully crafted a strategy of torture. They have claimed executive powers and have had laws re-interpreted by Administration lawyers to give the government the power to continue the practice. Loopholes slipped into the McCain bill now ensure an enduring policy of torture.

Democracy Now interviewed Professor McCoy several weeks ago. We've taken about 9 minutes of clips frmo the 23 minute interview and provided them here. The entire interview and transcript are available from Democracy Now.

Due to the focus on detainees' human rights at Guantánamo, the U.S. is quietly expanding a detention center at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. In the past few years, the population has increased by 5 times. While there has been significant legal action over Gitmo, little has been done for the detainees at Bagram. Many say the conditions at Bagram are far worse than even during the height of the Abu Ghraib abuse.

With the constant buzz of helicopters and blimps overhead since dawn this morning (No, not "Black Helicopters"...I'm about two blocks from the Kodak Theater where the Academy Awards were tonight) and two old schoolmates of mine nominated (Hoffman and Huffman - nice going guys!), granted I may have a touch of the Oscar Fever.

But the winner of the best song tonight, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp", couldn't help but remind me, to remind you --- in case you missed it --- of our new Special Guest Diebold Comment Troll/Pimp calling himself "Wally O'Diebold".

While he may be too cowardly to give his real name publicly --- even while sliming folks like myself, Bev Harris, Jim March, Avi Rubin, Sen. Debra Bowen and others who are not afraid to put our real names on our work and behind our beliefs --- he's a Diebold insider with a lot of knowledge of the systems, and (WARNING) a lot of mis/disinformation he's suddenly very eager to spread.

He also seems to be, as he referred to Rubin, "a self-serving tool". And I don't mean that in the pejorative sense in which he meant it.

Interestingly, while the Diebold "company line" has always reportedly been to dismiss Election Integrity Advocates like myself, and March and Harris et al as "conspiracy theorists," it's the faceless "Wally O'Diebold" who now cowers in the shadows of anonymity because BRAD BLOG readers, according to "Wally" in comment #56, "would not hesitate to stalk me to my home and possibly try to kill me."

Watch out for them Black Helicopters, "Wally"! Unless you're also near the Kodak Theater, eh?

But forthrightness, honesty and openness has never been much of a hallmark for the Diebold corporation. At least during their Voting Machine Years of Shame. Their latest spokesperson/mac daddy/anonymous slimer is no exception. Secrecy, disinformation and cowardly scurrilous attacks on those who have nothing to gain but the free and fair democracy their country once promised...ah, yes, that's Diebold all over. They never rest.

The desperation displayed by "Mr. O'Diebold" is entertaining sure, but not particularly becoming...especially when it's accompanied by ad hominem attacks and knowing disinformation --- lots of it, very cleverly drawn, I might add --- all launched from behind the veil of secrecy. But that's his company's business model after all, so who are we to quibble now that he's willing to offer us a reminder.

If they would only call me back when I call them for comment, they'd be able to actually put such comments on the record under their own names for a bit of credibility. But I guess it's easier to talk to journalists who don't ask follow-up questions, and who are easily fooled by the company spin. Which is to say, most of the non-BRAD BLOG media out there.

So if you're in the mood and have the stomach for it (and before I lose my patience, and remove this guy's feeding tube all together) pull up a chair, grab some popcorn and enjoy the BRAD BLOG nominee for Best Original Comment Thread Hijacked by a Diebold Pimp Based on Stuff That Sounds Like Fact, But Actually Isn't.

And the Oscar goes to...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The February 28 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

(P.S. - Don't tell anyone this was in today's Sunday comics page.)

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Ex-CIA Officer Paul Pillar was in charge of providing intelligence about Iraq to the White House prior to the beginning of the war.

In a recently released paper, Pillar wrote,

In short, the Bush team misrepresented, misused, mislead and completely lied to the American people about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Pillar provides more evidence of what most of us already know...

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Picking up in the tradition of California's Sec. of State Bruce McPherson, who seems to have a fondness for Friday night releases of important information which he hopes nobody will notice, Florida's Division of Elections Director, Dawn K. Roberts, issued a "Technical Advisory" memorandum calling for "enhancements to voting system security procedures that each supervisor of elections must address immediately." The memo was issued late this evening at the end of the work week.

Roberts' memo (posted in full below) would be the first official acknowledgment, to our awareness, by the state of Florida of the security concerns raised by the recent Leon County, FL "hack test" conducted by Election Supervisor Ion Sancho. That now-infamous test --- in which computer security professional Harri Hursti had managed to access and change information on the Diebold optical-scan voting machine memory cards --- resulted in the results of the test election being completely flipped, without a trace being left behind.

In her "Technical Advisory", Roberts fails to mention that "hack test" or the equipment it occurred on --- or even Diebold themselves --- by name. Rather, the alert alludes to McPherson's recent --- and stunning --- "conditional re-certification" of Diebold voting equipment in the state, in light of confirmation of the newly discovered "interpreted code" used by the machines. That type of software source code is specifically banned by the federal Help America Vote Act guidelines. During his re-certification of Diebold --- after the company's equipment had previously been de-certified in the state for use of illegal software patches, and subsequently found to have failed atleast 20% of the time in a massive test held last summer --- McPherson mandated specific security procedures to be used with Diebold equipment in the state of California.

"This technical advisory therefore applies to all voting systems deployed in Florida," writes Roberts in the memo issued this evening...

She's fought her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the very same day that the facade cracked on the front of the building and a chunk of marble --- just above an allegorical statue representing "Order" and just below the words "Equal Justice" --- came crashing to the ground. The highest court in the land refused to hear her case.

Along the way, the Dept. of Justice has done everything in their power (and then some) to keep her quiet. They invoked the rarely used "State Secrets Privilege" to shut her up --- going so far as to use it, without explanation, to remove her and her own attorneys from the courtroom when arguing their case against her.

In at least two unclassified Senate briefings, FBI officials confirmed the validity of her reports, but the information from those briefings was then retroactively classified by the DoJ --- which served to gag the Congress from further investigation on the matter. The DoJ even retroactively classified a 60 Minutes profile on her --- after it had already aired!

All of that, even after the DoJ's own Inspector General's report found Sibel Edmonds' allegations to be "credible" and "serious" and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI." The unclassified version of that report was only released by the DoJ after prodding from Congressional members and the 9/11 Commission.

Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Members Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Pat Leahy (D-VT) both publicly support her case and would like to allow the Congress and the American public to hear more.

Want to know what it is that she knows? What it is that she feels we the people ought to know about? And what it is that has led her to form the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition to support other patriots like herself who are trying to expose crimes and corruption from within our own government? We do. And we hope you do too.

Therefore, The BRAD BLOG is pleased to support a new petition calling on Congress to hold a joint Senate and House Judiciary Committee investigation, with open hearings into all of these matters.

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. You all remember that, right? Let's make this happen. Please sign her petition right now.

And please spread the word to other blogs and bloggers (and perhaps even the MSM may want to get in on the act --- it is their country too, after all), and ask them to do the same. This one's important.

We've reported over the last few months about various aspects of Edmonds' case. However, for those unfamiliar with the larger pictures of Edmonds' allegations and what she would like to testify about before the Congress and the American people --- all based on what she heard and saw first-hand while working as an FBI translator just after 9/11 --- please see the following bullet point summary of just a few of her explosive whistleblowing allegations...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Known for her role in the 2000 Presidential debacle, Katherine Harris has been linked to illegal campaign contributions funneled from a defense contractor who has also been convicted for bribing former Representative Cunningham.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Harris tried to secure a $10-million Federal deal for the convicted defense contractor. At about the same time, one of Harris' aides, Mona Yost, was hired by the same contractor.

Katherine Harris denies knowledge of the illegal campaign contributions. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is being sentenced today for accepting bribes in exchange for securing Federal contracts and other favors.

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Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Recent court filings by Patrick Fitzgerald indicate that Bob Woodward may have audio tapes that of who leaked information about CIA operative Valerie Plame to him. Woodward's source may also be Novak's second source. Novak's first source is already known to be Karl Rove.

Novak's second source has always been a matter of great speculation. Up to this time, Novak described his second source as "no partisan gunslinger". Jeralyn at TalkLeft guesses that Novak's second source may be Stephen Hadley or Richard Armitage.

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Yesterday, Brit Hume and the "Fox All-Stars" were in denial about Bush's dreadful poll numbers from the CBS survey. Now that Fox is out with their own poll, what excuse will poor Brit have to dream up now? (Aside from not even posting a link to their own brand-new poll on the front of their own website?)

By the way, one good point that Chris Matthews made yesterday (yeah, it can happen) is that he likes to check the internals of such polls to see how the Independents are polling. Thus, avoiding the over-weighting of Dems vs Reps or vice versa in any particular poll (as the Bush dead-enders had been complaining about the CBS survey which was weighted heavier with Dems).

Well, a very quick look at the internals of the following three polls, revealed that Independents are now even less enamored with Bush than are Dems! Go figure...

Because of a grave lack of time, we post Think Progress' coverage of the three polls in its entirety here:

A few additional numbers of note (we suggest you click through each poll to get still more)...

From Quinnipiac's poll: Even the reddest of "red states" believe a warrant should be obtained before wiretapping, by a 51 to 46 margin. Overall, the numbers are 55 to 42 percent that the government should get court orders for this type of surveillance. And here the media has been repeating the BushCo line that the NSA eavesdropping is "a winning issue for the President". What a shock. They're both wrong again.

As to who should take Congress this November...

Quinnipiac: "By a 49 - 37 percent margin, voters want the Democrats to win control of Congress in this year's House and Senate elections."

CNN/USA Today/Gallup: "By 53% to 39%, registered voters say they lean toward supporting an unnamed Democratic candidate over an unnamed Republican in their district."

FOX: "by a 14-percentage point margin voters think it would be better for the country if Democrats win control of Congress in this year's election"

Oh, poor Brit...What will he do now?

I'm working on a number of important articles, of late, so have been a bit quieter here than usual. (Thanks to David E. and John G. for ably picking up the slack during my distraction!) Stay tuned for noise soon, of course.

In the meantime, please take a moment to fill out this BlogAds survey if you could. Should only take a few minutes, and it'll better help blogs like this one raise money and stay in business through the help of the folks at BlogAds.com.

The more of you who fill it out, the better! It takes just a few minutes.

Please enter "BradBlog.com" in the "Referring Blog" question on the last page so we can get some idea who the BRAD BLOG readers are...so I can spy on you for a change!

UPDATE: The poll is now completed. Thanks to those who were able to fill it out before it came down!

Yeah, we realize that new evidence showing Bush is a liar is not really a "News Flash" to anyone who hasn't been living in a cave (or listening to Rush, Sean and O'Reilly) for the past five years.

But this just in from Murray Waas of National Journal (who deserves a Pulitzer, in our opinion, for his tremendous investigative reporting in recent months!)...

And what did that one-page summary, which even George W. Bush could read, say? That the "aluminum tubes" he and Cheney (and Rice and others) touted as proof of Saddam's nuclear program were not actually to be used in a nuclear program. Oh, and also that Saddam would use WMD, and/or share them with terrorists, only if attacked first by the United States.

In other words, add this to the file of things they knew and later claimed to not know. Like terrorists interested in flying planes into buildings, and the possibility that the levees might be breached in New Orleans.

Read Waas' excellent and brilliantly documented report. In our opinion, it's the most damning and direct evidence to date that Bush out-and-out lied this country into war.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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This is truly amazing reporting from a very dangerous situation. A film crew from UK's Channel Four was threatened with execution while filming the Taliban burning a school accused of teaching Western ideology.

It seems that the camera man is on his knees as members of the Taliban threaten the lives of the film crew. Before the matter is resolved, machine gun fire is heard and the Taliban men scramble for cover. Pakistani special police are seen running into the frame shooting wildly into the air.

As the Taliban disappear, the Pakistani police begin beating the film crew. The producer falls to the ground and he is repeatedly hit with an assault riffle. The police are clearly not trained well. Apparently, all of the Taliban were able to escape this encounter.

President Bush visited Afghanistan earlier this week and trumpeted success of the war. Facts on the ground call Mr. Bush's claims into question.

Is there anything these guys won't lie about? Good thing they didn't swear him in.

From today's WaPo...

Of course there are other programs they're not talking about. David Edwards has blogged about it repeatedly here on The BRAD BLOG. We reported (each time with video) on NSA whistleblower Russel Tice trying to sound the alarm that the warrantless surveillance programs were much bigger than the White House was admitting. One report is here from mid-January, then again here from mid-Februrary, and finally yet again last Monday.

Just one more wave yet to fully breach the Bush Administration's crumbling levee, we suppose.