The filter is gone. This is the No Spin Zone...

Listen all the way to the end to Mayor Ray Nagin. Heartbreaking.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Cable news networks are setting ratings records. More people are tuning in than ever to see coverage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. All the cable news shows have suspended their normal topics to focus on the crisis.

For example, on a given night it is not unusual to hear thinly veiled racist undertones on one of Lou Dobbs regular reports about immigration issues. Seldom, if ever, has Dobb's bigotry been as obvious and disturbing as it was on tonight's broadcast concerning race, class and the failure of emergency management during the the current crisis.

Is it just me or is Lou totally missing the point? I was going to title this piece "Lou Dobbs is a fucking racist" but "we report, you decide"...

Watch the video of CNN's Lou Dobbs and decide for yourself (Windows Media). The transcript is here.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Thanks to our great engineer Otie Maclay (who we found on the side of the road on our way to Crawford), this Saturday Night's BRAD SHOW will feature many of the highlights from our 50+ hours of LIVE daily broadcasts from on the ground at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas.

Highlights to include interviews with: CINDY SHEEHAN, JOAN BAEZ, REP. JOHN CONYERS, RANDI RHODES, Goldstart Mom KAREN MEREDITH, Iraqi Vet TOMAS ANDREWS, plus musical highlights and much much more!

And yes, your DONATIONS are still greatly appreciated to help us pay for the Radio Miracle that was "Operation Noble Cause"!

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this historic series of broadcasts possible!

Guest Blogged by Winter Patriot

This just in from CTV:

New Orleans rocked by blasts, military move in

There's more!

Guest Blogged by Winter Patriot

As reported by RAW STORY:

Yikes! Shoot-To-Kill! I ask you, What's wrong with this picture?

Guest blogged by David Edwards

MSNBC Photojournalist, Tony Zumbado, spent the morning filming at the New Orleans Convention Center. He assumed that some news reports had been exaggerated. Zumbado wanted to see and film the victims' situation first hand.

Allison Stewart asked him about the experience:

Watch Tony Zumbado's film of the New Orleans Convention Center in Windows media format or Real media format.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Brad wanted to get this message out ASAP...

Please get the word out that there are now families in Houston needing help from fellow Americans!

Guest Blogged by Winter Patriot

As usual in the case of a "natural" disaster, I've seen plenty of ideas lately --- good ideas, bad ideas, ugly ideas --- and one of the best ideas I've seen in a while came to me from MoveOn.org. Here's the message; they said to forward it to anyone who might be able to help, and I'm happy to pass it on:

Free Shelter for those In Need!! What a progressive idea, no?

Please help MoveOn.org on this one, if you can!

Guest Blogged by jaime

Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert (R - IL), in a dazzling display of idiocy grumbled and groused over the funding of future rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. Preferring to bulldoze most of the city damaged by Katrina rather than rebuild it, Hastert exposed his coal black heart.

Hastert's callousness didn't stop there, he also took a swipe at other places existing in 'dangerous' areas:

Stubbornness.

So then...Damn those Californians living in earthquake prone...California. Or how about those idiot Floridians, Alabamans, Texans, Mississippians, Georgians, North and South Carolinians and Virginians for living anywhere near the coast. Hurricanes hit the coasts, don't you know. Maybe we should be leery of those midwesterners that build their homes in Tornado alley. The Southwest suffers droughts...can't live there.

As refugees pour out of New Orleans carrying suitcases filled with their most valuable posessions;While the poor folks left behind ransack grocery stores for survival; And as a 400 year old city of historical, financial, and cultural significance is submerged at Atlantis level proportions, it's good to know the conservatives in Congress are exhibiting that fiscal restraint they're famous for. If only Hastert and the boys were this concerned with the $300 Billion black hole called Iraq.

Congratulations Speaker Hastert, you too are an A-1 Jackass!

CRAWFORD, TX - Driving his own pickup, with two trucks blockading both sides of the street, Bush Administration Senior Political Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove made a surprise sunset visit/photo-op Tuesday night to the half dozen or so Bush supporters camped across the street from "Camp Casey" in Crawford, Texas where Cindy Sheehan --- whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq --- originally made her stand requesting a meeting and an explanation from George W. Bush, The BRAD BLOG has learned from eye-witnesses.

According to supporters from both the Bush and Sheehan sides of the street at the makeshift protest sites, Rove's visit occurred as the bulk of Sheehan supporters and volunteers were enjoying a final "thank you dinner" down at the larger Camp Casey II several miles down the road on Tuesday evening.

The BRAD BLOG has obtained exclusive photographs from Rove's quick glad-handing and back-patting with the few pro-war, pro-Bush stalwarts who were manning a counter-protest site across the street from Sheehan's original camp.

Rove did not meet with any of the dozens of Iraq and Afghan war vets, nor the Gold Star Family members who'd lost loved ones in those wars who were present in Crawford to support Sheehan's request to meet with Bush for an explanation of the "noble cause" that he's suggested their loved ones had died for.

After nearly 2,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives in the sands and streets of Iraq, and even while scores of thousands of U.S. citizens were fighting for their lives in the face of devastating flood waters encroaching into New Orleans, Rove laughed, greeted and thanked those who came to Crawford to attack a mother who'd lost her son in the cause of George W. Bush's unexplained "noble cause."

Bush's top political advisor completed his quick early evening photo-op, after which several "Bush Supporters" who reportedly were present especially for the occasion, promptly got in their vehicles and left the Bush side of the street according to one of the volunteer security guards who was standing watch at the Sheehan camp while most supporters were enjoying their final evening in Crawford at a group dinner in Camp Casey II.

Will Marean of Minneapolis, a blogger and right-wing activist who voted for Bush in 2004 and spent several nights camping with Bush supporters across the street from Sheehan's camp, described the event to The BRAD BLOG and provided our exclusive photographs.

Rove first reportedly drove through Camp Casey without stopping on his way to Crawford from the Bush vacation ranch. "He was in Bush's truck," said Marean, "a White Dodge RAM extended-cab pick-up truck. He was driving it himself."

"He came by slowly...and he rolled down the window, leaned out and gave us the thumbs up and drove by," explained Marean. "Everybody in the camp was really excited."

Rove then came back approximately 45 minutes later, sped by the camp without stopping, but then turned and returned to greet supporters a few minutes later.

Marean said, "We were all happy --- we were literally giddy --- to meet Karl Rove. And then he proceeded to say he was glad that we were there and we were happy to say that we supported our President and supported our troops."

It had been reported to The BRAD BLOG that prior to Rove's surprise visit several new signs had been added to the side of the street that Bush's pro-war supporters have dubbed (apparently with a complete lack of irony) "Camp Reality".

An inspection of the site conducted by The BRAD BLOG later in the evening revealed that in fact there appeared to be several new signs, including the addition of a dozen or more new "Support the Troops" and "This is Bush Country" signs than had been there the previous evening.

The newly added signs were identical to the ones that lined one side of the street leading to Camp Casey opposite the quarter mile or more of crosses that were placed on the other side of the road as part of a memorial created by combat veterans who stood in support of Sheehan.

The nearly quarter mile of memorial crosses on one side of the street, juxtaposed with the "This is Bush Country" signs on the other, was apparently just one more piece of overlooked irony by the handful of squatters in the ditch that is "Camp Reality".

Despite the presence of officers from the Mclennan County Sheriff's department, Rove, who is allegedly responsible for the unprecedented outting of a covert CIA agent by a Senior White House official was not arrested by police. Neither was he beaten to a bloody pulp for either his shameless disregard for the security of the United States of America, nor for his arrogant disrespect for the men and women that serve in America's armed forces.

Yet.

(BRAD BLOG has been in Crawford, TX for the past several weeks to present a special LIVE daily "Operation Noble Cause" broadcast of The BRAD SHOW via RAW RADIO. Though we are no longer broadcasting from Crawford, highlights of our 50+ hours of live coverage --- with more coming online --- are currently available at www.BradShow.com.)

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

You have to read this piece. I can't tell you why. I can only get you started.

Read the whole thing!. Then come back here and talk to me!

I think we should give Larisa Alexandrovna a Big BRAD BLOG Award for this epic piece of blogging, but I can't decide what we should call the award ... and I'm also looking for a suitable inscription. So please help me out here. All suggestions welcome, as usual.

(NOTE to LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALL readers and the other Rightie blogsites who parrot that one with misleading headlines like "Bradblog: Don't Donate to Bush States". You may (or may not) wish to know that the following BRAD BLOG Guest Blog item by Joseph Cannon has been entirely misquoted to you out of context by your blogmasters.

Like your "President", your blogmasters seem only interested in misleading you and ensuring that you stay in the dark by giving you only the selected-out-of-context information which meets their own political agenda.

We invite you to read Mr. Cannon's entire blog item before you add your two cents in the comments section here whatever they may be. Unlike LGF and the bulk of the other rightie blogs that have misquoted this article in hopes of avoiding accountability where it belongs for this national disaster, our comments section is open and requires no pre-registration, which LGF no longer seems to allow anyway.

As to LGF's misleading update to their misleading item describing my comment here as "an uttlerly craven excuse," I promise to scratch my head and ponder for the rest of the evening what "excuse" it is they are referring to. Even LGF's reply to my comment is wholly bereft of anything that represents actual information, honesty or reality. LGF and other rightwing blogsite readers, along with all Americans, deserve much better. All opinions here are welcome. Even those with which we don't agree. BF)

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

I'm not going to post the piece I started to write.

My original reaction to the Katrina catastrophe was going to be: "NOT ONE DIME."

For an hour or so, I contemplated the idea of turning it into a crusade: No-one in the blue states (where the money is) should give one dime of aid to the victims of this hurricane, which devastated Bush-friendly regions.

Why did I flirt with such a callous attitude?

"I came here bitter and angry, but this is a place where the anger turns to hope. And you know why it turns to hope? Because of Camp Casey, we remembered something we forgot. We own this country. This is our country."
-- Cindy Sheehan, in closing remarks to supporters and volunteers on the final night at Camp Casey II
Crawford, TX, Aug. 30th, 2005

The BRAD SHOW via RAW RADIO's "Operation Noble Cause" carried Sheehan's final remarks to volunteers at Camp Casey II in Crawford, Texas. Exclusive audio here [MP3]...

(Many more highlights from The BRAD SHOW's "Operation Noble Cause" coverage in Crawford can be heard here with more to be made available soon!)

As The BRAD BLOG has been reporting for months, the recount of the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election was gamed by Ohio elections officials and voting machine company employees who violated state laws requiring a random recount of precincts in order to determine if a hand recount of entire counties would be necessary.

Reports that county officials and voting machine companies colluded to assure the hand recount would match with the initial machine recount have been reported for months and yesterday the first indictments were handed down.

According to today's Cleveland Plain Dealer...

Amongst the reports on this matter that The BRAD BLOG has carried since last November, is the case of Hocking County election board worker Sherole Eaton, who filed a sworn affidavit that an employee from voting machine company, Triad had offered a "cheat sheet" to her and other county officials on how the recount might be carried off to assure the entire county would not need to be recounted by hand. He also allegedly removed and restored a harddrive from the county's central tabulating machine prior to the recount, according to Eaton, also in violation of Ohio state law. Eaton is currently challenging her firing as improprer.

Ohio law calls for a random selection of 3% of a county's precincts to be carried out by hand. If that random recount doesn't match the initially reported count, a full recount of the county would then be necessary. Eaton was subsequently fired from the board after making her claim public (our BRAD SHOW interview with Eaton is here [mp3]).

As well, RAW STORY had reported last January that several recount witnesses had testified to stickers having been placed over Kerry/Edwards votes on ballots before they were fed into vote tabulators during the recount in that county. (Our BRAD SHOW interview with two of those witnesses, Stephen Spraley and Eric Gifford, is here [mp3]).

(Hat tip Ray Beckerman!)