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Guest: Brady Center's Kelly Sampson; Also: Biden, Trump clinch; GA judge nixes 6 counts...
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Press quietly resets weeks of misreporting on Biden; Suggestions for NYT; Stephanopoulos v. Mace; Also: Buck quits; RNC 'bloodbath'; WI's MAGA Speaker Recall...
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GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

COLORADO FOLLOWS FLORIDA WITH GOP CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Repub Sec. of State Gessler ignores expanding GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, rants about evidence-free 'Dem Voter Fraud' at Tea Party event...

CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
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Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

CAUGHT ON TAPE: COORDINATED NATIONWIDE GOP VOTER REG SCAM
The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

CRIMINAL ELECTION FRAUD COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST GOP 'FRAUD' FIRM
Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

VIDEO: Brad Breaks GOP Reg Fraud Scandal on Hartmann TV
Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...

EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

Big Rightwing Babies Welcome Wrath of God and Al-Qaeda For Election Results That Don't Go Their Way
By Brad Friedman on 11/10/2005 7:28pm PT  

The mind boggles at how Fox "News" and the rest of the Rightwing Echosphere would attempt to destroy the lives and livelihoods of any Non-Rightwing clergymen or TV commentators were they to invite the wrath of God and/or al-Qaeda on Republican voters who didn't vote the way they would have preferred, but that's exactly what wingnuts Bill O'Reilly and Pat Robertson have done today.

O'Reilly welcomed al-Qaeda destruction of San Francisco, because their citizens had the temerity to vote against military recruitment in public high schools and colleges.

Robertson may have topped him, however, by warning citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania, not to ask for God's help in the case of disaster there. All because the rather intelligent voters of Dover tossed out all eight school board members who were up for re-election last Tuesday after they'd tried to force the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in public school science classes.

On his radio show today, as reported by Media Matters, the smear merchant and media mogul O'Reilly spun last Tuesday's rejection by the voters of San Francisco of military recruiters in their public schools as worthy of denial of all federal funds, and even the destruction of the entire city by al-Qaeda [emphasis added]:

O'REILLY: Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."

And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

Meanwhile, as CNN reported today, man of God and "conservative" "Christian" Pat Robertson warned Dover, PA residents not to be surprised if disaster stikes them since they chose to express their will at the voting booth that Science classes should teach science, not religious theory. If disaster does strike, Robertson warned, the citizens of Dover shouldn't turn to God for any help:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

We're reminded of all the wingnuts who declared Democrats "cry babies" after the Presidential Elections in 2000 (and again in 2004) simply because they felt that all the votes should actually be counted, and the winner of the election should be the candidate who ended up with the most votes. In contrast now, we've got elections with decisive losses to the wingnuts' initiatives and candidates and in return they order up hopes for destruction and annihilation for entire cities --- presumably even for the voters in those cities who voted the way they would have wanted them to.

We'd love to call folks like O'Reilly and Robertson sore losers and cry-babies, but that seems rather trite given how morally loathesome and reprehensible in fact they actually seem to be.

UPDATE 11/12/05: Despite his cursing me, Joseph Cannon has, as usual, some worthwhile thoughts on all of the above.




Newly Discovered Document Echoes Previous DIA Documents
By Brad Friedman on 11/10/2005 2:21pm PT  

Isikoff and Hosenball are reporting in NEWSWEEK today that the CIA had raised doubts about the information that the Bush Administration (and indeed Bush, himself) relied on to sell the War on Iraq to the American People and to Congress.

The newly uncovered CIA document seems to echo a DIA document previously released that similarly expressed doubts about the information received from Al Qaeda detainee, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi who recanted his claims that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members. That, however, didn't keep the Bush Administration from using the bad intelligence anway...

A CIA document shows the agency in January 2003 raised questions about an Al Qaeda detainee's claims that Saddam Hussein's government provided chemical and biological weapons training to terrorists—weeks before President George W. Bush and other top officials flatly used those same claims to make their case for war against Iraq.

Lots of meat in the piece, but the following graf speaks to those wingnuts who still enjoy describing Harry Reid's invokation of Senate Rule 21 last week as "a stunt" after two years have passed without Sen. Pat Robert's (R-KA) promised investigation into the Administration's use and/or mis-use of prewar intel matters [emphasis added]:

For their part, [Sen. Carl] Levin [(D-MI)] and Sen. Jay Rockefeller [(D-WV)] want the Senate Intelligence Committee, as part of its reinvigorated Phase II investigation into the handling of Iraq pre-war intelligence, to answer key questions about al-Libi: What happened to the February 2002 DIA report questioning al-Libi's credibility? Were the CIA's caveats circulated to the White House before President Bush made his assertions? And why did the intelligence community declassify the substance of al-Libi's original claims so they could be used in Powell's speech in February 2003—but fail to publicly acknowledge that he had recanted until NEWSWEEK reported on it more than a year later?

They all sound like good questions to us and about which the American People and Congress deserve answers...as the wars...all of them...rage on.




Pentagon's 'Able Danger' could have prevented USS Cole bombing and 9/11
CNN Reports on Weldon's Claim: 'Most Important Story of Our Lifetime'
By David Edwards on 11/10/2005 12:25pm PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

While we are not certain of Representative Weldon's motives, he does manage to keep the "Able Danger" story in the news. In this interview with CNN's Lou Dobbs, Weldon asserts that intelligence from the "Able Danger" group could have prevented the bombing of the USS Cole and the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001.

Weldon was also quoted in an article published earlier today by Eric Rosenberg of Hearst Newspapers:

Citing information provided to him by Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, the former manager of the Able Danger project, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said that two weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, attack - and then again two days before - the intelligence unit uncovered evidence of a plot against an unnamed U.S. target in Yemen.

"They saw information that led them to unequivocally understand that something was going to happen in the port at Yemen involving an American entity," said Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

"Two days before the attack, they were jumping up and down because they knew something was going to happen ... at the port of Aden," Weldon told a Capitol Hill news conference.

Video in Window Media format...
Video in QuickTime format...




And the White House's Tortured Logic on Anti-Torture Legislation...
(Fox "News" is, of course, Simularly Tortured in Attempting to Defend Their Torturing Leaders)
By David Edwards on 11/10/2005 9:30am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

As we reported on Monday, President Bush categorically denied that the United States uses torture while implying that interrogators would use any means necessary in the name of protecting Americans. Meanwhile, John McCain has been advocating a bill, recently passed 90 to 9 in the Senate, outlawing torture in all cases.

Already, President Bush has threatened to veto the bill but that may not be possible given Bush's waning popularity. Vice President Cheney is now arguing to exempt the CIA from the torture legislation. So, how does the GOP explain this position to the American people... "We're against torture and we're against outlawing it (wink, wink, nod, nod)."

John Gibson hosts Fox News' Big Story. In this video clip Gibson interviews Reagan's National Security Advisor, Robert McFarland, who seems to agree with the new torture law. Of course, Gibson offers his own contrary yet confusing opinion about the torture bill. He starts by saying "I'm with John McCain on this..." and then goes on to confound his audience by saying:
It has been revealed that the U.S. maintains a string of secret prisons (well, they're not secret now) in Eastern Europe where we have stashed captured Al Qaeda guys and I'm not in favor of telling these guys what we won't do to them.

...
In my way of thinking, the benefit gained from telling the world that we have a law that forbids torture is outweighed by the bad guys knowing that we have a law that forbids torture.

...
For the record, I'm against torture. I'm also against outlawing it. These are not mutually exclusive concepts. It may take a nimble mind to manage both ideas but I assure you, it's worth the effort.

A nimble mind, indeed.

Video in Windows Media format...
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The White House press corps seemed to also pick up on the discrepancy between President Bush's torture denial and Vice President Cheney's desire for an exemption allowing torture by the CIA. MSNBC's Countdown put together this clip of reporters trying to get an explanation from White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. Howard Fineman of Newsweek calls McClellan's attack on reporters "Nixonian".

Video in Windows Media format...
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Jon Stewart acknowledges the torture confusion. He asks Ed Helms about the "ticking time bomb" scenario. TV Shows like the Fox series 24 depict torture as the the dramatic solution while most experts believe that torture provides dubious intelligence under any circumstance. Who are you going to believe? Kiefer Sutherland's character, Special Agent Jack Bauer or "the experts"?

Video in Windows Media format...
Video in QuickTime format...

Stephen Colbert's sarcasm puts the issue into perspective. Colbert asks if John McCain's prisoner of war status gives him the moral authority to advocate for an anti-torture bill. After all, Colbert points out, the president's remarks on the subject sum up the administration's lack of clarity. Is the strategy here to simply confuse the American people into ignoring this issue?

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From the Bizarre File...
By Brad Friedman on 11/9/2005 7:08pm PT  

This is a day or two old, but I'm in the mood for a bit of lighter fare at the moment after the last couple of days of various mayhem, so I thought I'd share it with you. From yesterday's LA Times account of Charles and Camilla's visit to San Francisco...

Sunday night the couple, following in the footsteps of thousands of tourists over the past three decades (including Queen Elizabeth), took in a zany and flamboyant performance of the city's beloved musical revue, "Beach Blanket Babylon," touted as the longest-running musical revue in the history of time.
...
And for the finale, San Francisco chief of protocol Charlotte Maillard Shultz donned a Wonder Woman costume and flew briefly on a wire over the theater before her husband, former Secretary of State George Shultz appeared, ripped open his dress shirt to reveal a Superman T-shirt and "saves" her from the wire.

Afterward, the former secretary of State spoke directly to the audience about his respect for the British and then gushed, "So hats off to the British!"

If the news was like this every day, I could retire.

(Hat tip to Desi, who just can't get enough of those lovable royals...and the Schultzes)




The Day After...
By John Gideon on 11/9/2005 6:32pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today was a typical "day after an election day" news day. Though many claim that everything went well, a look at the list of counties in Ohio, and elsewhere, proves that everything did not go well. Of course elections officials and the vendors are claiming that all of the problems were caused by the voter or poll workers. The problems are never the result of using the machines. Already a candidate is calling for a recount in Virginia after complaints that voters would vote for him and the votes would register for his opponent. And there are 45,000 questionable votes in Montreal, Canada...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




By Brad Friedman on 11/9/2005 1:47pm PT  

Arnold's personally-declared Special Election (only the fifth one ever in history of state) was a multi-million dollar disaster for the Governator. Fortunately, California has plenty of money to spend on such larks, so no harm done just because every measure on the ballot was rejected. Every. Single. One.

Busy day today otherwise, so I'll throw it open to your thoughts on yesterday's election.

And a request to you folks in Ohio: Why do you suppose the Election Reform Initiatives failed so soundly in your state, while anti-Republican candidates and measures did so well every where else in the country? Is it because Ohio really really likes the way their elections have been handled up until now by SoS J. Kenneth Blackwell? Also, did you vote on Ohio's brand-spanking new Diebold Accuvote TSx machines (the ones that California's Sec. of State rejected because they failed 20% of the time in a recent massive mock election test)?




Governator First Instructed to Use a Provisional Ballot, Given Normal Ballot Anyway!
LA County Registrar, Diebold Supporter Admits 'Protocol Breached in Advance of Election'
By Brad Friedman on 11/8/2005 2:01pm PT  

Due to a problem with Electronic Voting Machines in Los Angeles County, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was told he had already voted when he showed up at the polls today to cast his ballot in the Special Election that he himself declared for California today!

He was told he'd have to use a provisional ballot, but unlike most American voters, he was eventually allowed to use a regular ballot anyway.

Los Angeles County Registrar, Conny McCormack (a huge fan of Diebold machines, and a very good friend of their sales rep here in Southern California) is trying to mitigate the damage...big time...Though she admits that someone "breached protocol in advance of the election"

It should be further noted, that the Governator was attempting to vote in Brentwood (in Los Angeles County), but the "breach" --- which would have kept a normal non-Gubernatorial citizen from voting on anything but a provisional ballot --- occurred in Pasadena, about a 30 to 45 minute drive from Brentwood. Early voting, on paperless Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machines, has been occurring in Los Angles County for the last several weeks.

From Los Angeles Times... [emphasis added]

Schwarzenegger Hits Snag at Polling Place

SACRAMENTO --- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up to his Brentwood neighborhood polling station today to cast his ballot in the special election --- and was told he had already voted.

Elections officials said a Los Angeles County poll worker had entered Schwarzenegger's name into an electronic voting touch screen station in Pasadena on Oct. 25. The worker, who was not identified, was testing the voting machine in preparation for early voting that began the next day.
...
Schwarzenegger's aides were informed of the problem when they arrived this morning to survey the governor's polling station. The poll worker told the governor's staff he would have to use a "provisional" ballot that allows elections workers to verify if two votes were made by the same person. McCormack said the poll worker did the correct thing.

The governor, however, was allowed to use a regular ballot.
...
"This is someone who breached our protocol and was playing around in advance of the election," she said.

Tom Hiltachk, the governor's attorney, said: "I have no reason to believe anything nefarious occurred.

But Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said the problem highlights the need for better verification of electronic voting.

"If the governor is going to have a mix-up on his ballot," she said, "it will make other voters wonder what is going to happen with their ballots."

(Thanks to John Gideon of www.votersunite.org for alerting us about this one!)

CORRECTION: The original version of this article had said that Schwarzenegger had voted in Sacramento. Schwarzenegger had, in fact, voted at his Brentwood precinct, which is in Los Angeles County. The BRAD BLOG regrets the error.




By Brad Friedman on 11/8/2005 1:33pm PT  

From Dayton Daily News... [emphasis added]

Election Day got off to a rough start Tuesday in some precincts in Montgomery County, where new touch-screen voting machines are being used for the first time.

The machines, which officials said are more accurate and are expected to speed up the vote-counting process, are being used in about half of Ohio's 88 counties, including Greene and Miami.
...
Mike Petkus, 47, of Dayton said that when he went to cast his ballot at Kiser Middle School in north Dayton, he had the Northridge school board candidates on his touch screen rather than the Dayton school board.

He thought, ‘I don't have time to play games but this isn't right,' ” he said. As he was leaving the polling place to get to work, he said, “another guy was raising that same red flag.” “I think there was some very poor checking,” he said. Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Steve Harsman acknowledged there were some expected and unexpected problems, though he was pleased overall with the way things were running.
...
His office received 30 to 40 calls from precincts reporting a “low paper error” on some of the machines even though each contained a new roll of paper.

Harsman believes the machines got jostled while moved to the polling locations, shaking a bracket and causing a sensor to go off.
...
At one Washington Twp. precinct, two of the eight voting machines were reportedly taken out of service in the morning because of snafus.

In Miamisburg, a voter who went to cast his ballot at a precinct in the Miamisburg library at 7 a.m. said he wasn't able to vote because the new machines were displaying ballots for a Warren County precinct.

He said poll operators told him they had to cancel all the ballots of people who had tried to vote there earlier because they all said the wrong ballots were displayed.




Voters Complain Attempts to Vote for Democratic Candidate Recorded for Republican...
By Brad Friedman on 11/8/2005 1:05pm PT  

From WDBJ7... (video report included at link):

Election day voting is going on across the Old Dominion, but everything has not gone smoothly in Roanoke County.

News 7 has received calls from several voters in at least four different precincts who say their votes for Tim Kaine were not recorded or took several attempts to go through.

They contend the electronic touch screens repeatedly indicated they were voting for Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore instead of registering their intended vote for his Democratic opponent Tim Kaine.

Roanoke Co. Registrar Judy Stokes says she doesn't want to say the problem is operator error on the part of the voters, but she points out the touch screens are sensitive. She says anyone who is having difficulty voting should ask one of the poll workers for assistance.

State election officials have been told of the problem. They believe if there is a problem, it could have been caused by the way the machines were stored.




PR Efforts to Mitigate Damage Begins...
By Brad Friedman on 11/8/2005 12:42pm PT  

From the Toledo Blade...

Voting so far on new touch-screen machines has not been quite as seamless as local board of elections officials had hoped.

Lucas County Board of Elections director Jill Kelly said some voters left the precincts this morning without voting because the machines were not up and running. She urged people who had problems to return and cast their ballots.
...
Poll workers at the Sylvania Senior Center could not find the machine's memory cards and at the Toledo Board of Education building the voting machines could not be found. Those issues were resolved, Ms. Kelly said. And those coming to vote where machines were not yet up and running were given provisional ballots.

She denied reports that voters in some precincts were given the wrong ballot issues to consider. She added that as of about 9 a.m., the calls from the 495 precincts died down significantly.




Coordinated Fatwa on Intel Agency Declared by Rightwing Columnists, Bloggers, Talk Radio and Congress...
By Brad Friedman on 11/8/2005 12:07pm PT  

Over the last 48 hours or so, the newest front of attack by the Republican Attack Dogs on behalf of the Bush Administration has become quite clear.

To defend against the indefensible leaking of the identify of a covert CIA operative in the TreasonGate affair, it is now clear that the Rightwing has begun an offensive to try and attack the CIA in order to define them as a "rogue agency" who was out to get the Bushies from the get-go.

The insinuation has been made quite clear over the last few days with coordinated lock-step efforts via newspapers, blogs, talk radio and congressional action to attempt to discredit the CIA. The latest strategy is now seen dropping unsupported accusations across the media spectrum to the effect that the intelligence agency's assignment of Ambassador Joseph Wilson to look into the now-discredited Iraq/Niger/uranium claims were all part of a long-term insidious scheme to try and discredit the Bush Administration.

Yesterday, I wrote about Carol Platt Liebau's recent efforts at HuffPo to fight back on behalf of the Bushies by attacking the CIA's motives in both sending Wilson on the mission and in releasing the information that they had requested a DoJ investigation into the outting of his wife Valerie's identify as a covert CIA op.

Liebau did little more in a blog item yesterday at HuffPo, titled "A 'Rogue Agency'" than copy and paste directly from an op/ed by Deborah Orin on these matters from the Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post.

My reply to Liebau's article has yet to be posted on HuffPo. I'll update this item with the link once it's posted over there.

Today, Liebau is at it again. This time, she copies and pastes from an article from the wingnut Powerline blog, with further questions about the CIA's motives for the Wilson assignment and the recent information revealed by Washington Post concerning secret CIA prisons overseas.

Meanwhile, both talk radio and congress has also joined in the rightwing fatwa against the CIA.

Editor & Publisher is reporting today that Senator Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have requested a congressional inquiry into "the leaking of classified information" which led to the article about secret al-Qaeda prisons run by the CIA in Europe. RAW STORY has obtained the actual letter requesting the inquiry by Frist and Hastert.

This morning, Rush Limbaugh continued the lockstepped new front in the war to salvage the Bush Administration by spending the first several hours of his radio show blasting the CIA for the exact same issues discussed by Liebau, Orin, Powerline Blog, Frist and Hastert.

He also let slip that "you won't be hearing George W. Bush speak about this directly," as if to indicate that this is "a war" to be carried out by Bush's advocates in the media so that Bush himself can remain above "the fray" while his sycophants carry out his dirty work for him.

What the effectiveness of this new P.R. effort will be remains to be seen. But when the wingnuts all get together and march from the same page of the same rulebook, the propoganda effect on the nation has proven to be very effective. Unfortunately, the Left simply doesn't have the same kind of organized media network that the Right does in order to effectively and quickly rebut such a coordinated all-out attack.

But at least you now know about it. Make no mistake: The effort to fight back by directly attacking the messengers --- in this case, the CIA (along with those of us who dare point out what really occurred in the TreasonGate matter) has now become very clear. It will be yet another phony war. This time, the CIA vs The Bush Administration.

UPDATE: Inquiry into who leaked info on secret prisons may bite Republicans in the ass. Trent Lott reports that it was a leak by a Republican after a meeting held recently with Dick Cheney and Republican Senators. Says Lott, "He was up here last week and talked up here in that room right there in a roomful of nothing but senators and every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper." RAW STORY has more...




By Brad Friedman on 11/7/2005 1:25pm PT  

Catching up on a few items from over the weekend that I didn't get to as I took the opportunity to take a few hours off here and there... (what was I thinking?!)...


  • Here's a smartly done text transcript (with photos) of the on-stage interview I recently did with Clint Curtis at the "Summit to Save Our Elections" in Portland, OR. The audio is available there as well. (Thanks to the Oregon Voting Rights Coalition both for organizing the summit, and for making this transcript available online!) If you don't know who Clint Curtis is, here's a quick summary of his amazing story.
  • In re: my recent rants both here and over at HuffPo about the complete mainstream media blackout on any reporting of the recent GAO Report confirming the security problems et al with Electronic Voting Machines and the accompanying bi-partisan press release --- I failed to notice and mention a very good early piece on it all over at HuffPo by Michelle Pilecki. As well, Editor & Publisher's Dave Astor covered my call for coverage --- any coverage --- by the MSM. While I'm pleased that E&P picked up that much, it would still be much more useful if they took it upon themselves to do some actual reporting on the matter to find out what explanation every single wire service and every single mainstream American newspaper has for not devoting even a paragraph to a report so vital to the most basic element of our American democracy. Their email address is still Letters@EditorAndPublish.com.
  • HuffPo is now running my latest rant at the NY Times for Richard W. Stevenson's shitty article Sunday on TreasonGate, in which the "paper of record" continues to help George W. Bush distance himself from any wrong-doing in the affair.
  • Read the incredible tale here of how Republicans are pulling out all stops all over the country to try and disenfranchise Democratic-leaning American voters. It's their latest strategy (I can't imagine who might be behind it) and in this one instance, in Seattle at least, it seems they got caught red-handed. Much more detail on this story from a diarist at DailyKos.
  • Much more to come this week, of course. Especially with elections set for tomorrow in various states around the country, including a "Special Election" that Arnold has called out here to push through a bunch of initiatives to consolidate his power, and by-pass the Democratic state house in California...




    President refuses to support torture ban
    By David Edwards on 11/7/2005 8:42am PT  

    Guest blogged by David Edwards

    President Bush took a few questions while speaking today in Panama.

    While campaigning in October of 2000, Bush said "We will ask not only what is legal but what is right. Not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves." Today Bush was asked if he had upheld this promise to the American people. Instead of offering a straightforward answer, the president stonewalled with the familiar "We are cooperating with the investigation..." deflection.

    Bush was also asked if the Red Cross would be allowed to inspect the "secret prisons" which have been recently reported in the Washington Post and other publications. While the president didn't answer this question directly, he took the opportunity to strongly imply that he supported torture as long as it was conducted via legal methods and loopholes. He seemed to give the impression that torture was necessary tool when used to protect the American people.

    Video in Windows Media format...
    Video in QuickTime format...




    Warren Beatty and Annette Bening crash Schwarzenegger rally
    By David Edwards on 11/7/2005 7:42am PT  

    Guest blogged by David Edwards

    Over the weekend, Warren Beatty and his wife, Annette Bening, followed Gov. Schwarzenegger to several rallies. It was an attempt to bring attention to some negative aspects of the Governor's "reform" agenda.

    Warren Beatty is troubled that the Governor will not debate anyone on the issues. Beatty says, "As near as I can tell, the broken system that he wants to change is called 'democracy'".

    Since Schwarzenegger is not willing to debate anyone on his "reform" agenda, CNN put together a short virtual debate between Warren Beatty and the Governor.

    Video in Windows Media format...
    Video in QuickTime format...




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