Senator John Kerry (D-MA) has written a letter, signed by nine other Senate Democrats, asking Senators Roberts (R-KA) and Rockefeller (D-WV) of the Senate Intelligence Committee to deliver their promised investigation on the political use (or misuse) of pre-war intelligence in light of a "new urgency" due to revelations in the Downing Street Documents. Roberts had promised that investigation would occur after the election, but so far, he hasn't delivered a damn thing.

RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna, who has been one of the major driving forces in verifying and reporting on the Downing Street Documents in America, has an exclusive on the leaked letter from Kerry et al.

Another notable item from HuffingtonPost this week (where they've recently removed BRAD BLOG from their blogroll for reasons unknown to us, but probably known to Scoop@HuffingtonPost.com), this time from Alex Keyssar, a Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Keyssar was in Chicago a week or so ago for a Rainbow/PUSH conference where Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) spoke about his Right to Vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as H.R. 28 and currently co-sponsored by 55 other House Members. That's right, you have no constitutional right to vote in this country...just in case you didn't realize it.

In covering the event where Jackson and Howard Dean spoke on the proposed constitutional amendment, Keyssar had the following observation pinpointing precisely where it is that the Mainstream Corporate Media in this country is failing America...

And so it goes. Nothing new there. Just a reminder of what most BRAD BLOG readers know all too well already.

If only a young blonde white girl had introduced a Right to Vote amendment in America before being kidnapped! Perhaps then the Mainstream Corporate Media would have decided such an issue was worth letting Americans know about. The abysmal record of the MSM continues...

We've been attempting to track down Kristen Breitwesier, whose husband was killed on 9/11, for this weekend's BRAD SHOW. So far, we haven't been able to get in touch with her, but in the meantime, she posted an open letter to Karl Rove concering his "Understanding of 9/11" yesterday at HuffingtonPost.

The entire letter needs to be read, since quoting just a few grafs here can't convey the full message of her letter. Nonetheless, here are a just a few highlights from her response to Rove's latest obnoxious, divisive and opportunistic statements as he continues his desperate attempt to help Bush divide the country in an effort to shore up a failed Presidency by using the carnage of 9/11 for their own reprehensible political gain...

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Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Hi again, gang! It's me again, your lowly and nearly frozen guest blogger, with another public service announcement:

I'm sure you'll all remember our friend Steve. He's been playing the role of central planning coordinator for the rapidly approaching Blogathon, which as I am sure you will all remember is slated for early next month --- July 8-11 ... Write that down, BradBloggers!

Please take a minute to read --- and a few minutes to act on --- Steve's latest message:

{UPDATE}: our friend Torqued has created a web page and a JPEG image, so that those of us who cannot handle WORD documents can still join in the fun. Click here for the web page and/or here for the JPEG.

Thanks, Torqued!

We love this. Crooks and Liars and Jesus' General have combined forces to form Operation Yellow Elephant. One of their first actions was to purchase the following ad in the program for the upcoming Young Republicans National Convention in Vegas (July 6-7 for those who wish to participate):

We are simply shocked...shocked!...to learn that the Young Republicans turned down the ad with the following comment:

Cowards and hypocrites. But no surprises yet.

The liars and hucksters of the "American Center for Voting Rights" are at it again.

As those who remember our series exposing this phony Republican front-group will recall, the ACVR calls themselves a "non-partisan" group and claims a tax-exempt status in exchange for it.

They are, however, comprised of two key high-level GOP operatives: Mark F. "Thor" Hearne, the General Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04, Inc., and Jim Dyke, the Communications Director for the RNC.

ACVR has yet to produce their legal 501(c)3 paperwork --- which allows them tax-exempt status --- to us as they had promised, and when Thor Hearne testified at a Congressional hearing just three days after the creation of his phony organization in March, he identified himself only as a "long time voting rights advocate". Apparently he forgot to mention his or Dyke's direct connection with Bush/Cheney and the RNC.

In response to today's long-await report, "Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio", from the DNC on the problems, including massive voter disenfranchisement and other chicanery in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential Election, the ACVR has just released another smokescreen in favor of Voter Disenfranchisement, this time in the form of a Press Release in response to the DNC report.

Get a load (and we do mean load) of this:

It must be made clear that these guys are snake-oil salesman of the highest order. Note how they disingenously make the point to appear as if they are in general agreement with the DNC report, but quickly slide the focus elsewhere, away from Ohio where the disenfranchisement and electoral chicanery was at maximum impact courtesy of a crooked Secretary of State and Ohio Bush/Cheney Co-Chair (both in the name of J. Kenneth Blackwell). In Ohio, Blackwell still refuses any real investigations of the machinery or of the criminal allegations.

From there, the press release slithers predictably over to the notion of voter fraud which, by our count, has resulted in two --- that's two --- cases in the entire state of Ohio of anyone fraudulently casting a vote last November. Contrast that to the thousands of documented cases of provisional ballots discarded, electronic votes flipped from Kerry to Bush, hours-long lines and too few machines in Democratic precincts only, and legitimate voters surprised to find they'd been purged entirely from the voting rolls.

(CORRECTION: It was not two cases of voter fraud in the state of Ohio as we originally suggested above. We've found the information we had recalled, but couldn't find at the time we filed this report originally. According to a June 15, 2005 story headlined "Rampant Voter Fraud a Myth" from Cleveland Plain Dealer, the actual number of fraudulent votes in the state of Ohio was not two. It was four. The article begins: "Of 9,078,728 votes cast in Ohio in 2002 and 2004, only four were fraudulent, according to a new review by a pair of voter advocacy groups." The BRAD BLOG regrets the error.)

Nonetheless, as these operatives move to encourage the enactment of Voter ID laws which will disproportionately disenfranchise millions of minority, elderly and urban Americans (read: Democratic voters), through backchannel political manipulation, they continue to misrepresent their phony "non-partisan" creds. More from Dyke's release...

In this 40th Anniversary year of the Voting Rights Act, there are few Americans as despicable as those who use the cynical veneer of presenting themselves as "Voting Rights Advocates" when they are anything but. The are, in fact, the complete antithesis of those brave advocates and activists who have given so much --- including their lives --- in the fight for a right to vote in America. Not to mention those Americans who have been sent to fight and die right now around the globe under the premise of "spreading democracy" by the paymasters of Hearne and Dyke of the ACVR.

The ACVR clearly has both the money and political pull, however, to make great strides in this area. Real Voting Rights groups were not called as witnesses by Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) trumped up Congressional Hearing on the Ohio Irregularities, but Hearne was. That, just three days after his organization appeared on the World Wide Web with a snailmail address at a P.O. Box in a UPS Mailbox Etc. store in Houston, TX, which nobody for the organization has yet to claim as their own. (Hearne is from St. Louis, MO, Dyke now lives in North Carolina).

As well, the cooked Baker/Carter Commission on Election Reform --- headed appallingly by Bush Family crony, James Baker, who successfully ensured that American citizens would not be allowed to have their votes counted in 2000 --- has Thor Hearne sitting as a member of their "Advisory Panel". No real Voting Rights groups have been invited to sit on that commission or its advisory panel.

It pays to have unscrupulous friends in high places.

And, just in case you have any further questions about the sort of unrepentant, un-American, opportunistic phonies these guys really are, take a look at this short video clip --- from ACVR's own website --- of Hearne testifying to Ney's committee last March wherein he avers that it was John Kerry's team that systematically attempted to misinform voters about when Election Day actually was.

Perhaps this is one of the letters (courtesy of FreePress.org's book "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election: Essential Documents") that Hearne suggests, in his video testimony, that the Kerry campaign was sending out to trick voters into not voting:

These guys --- both the sort who would send the letter above and those who make up the ACVR --- are vermin. And it all serves as a good reminder of why it's so important to continue everything that we're doing here. There is a special place in hell waiting for these creeps. May God save America from cretins like these.

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

As presented to DNC Chairman Howard Dean this morning, the DNC Voting Rights Institute has finally released its long-awaited report entitled "Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio".

We're currently reviewing the report, which is available for download in full or by sections at the DNC website.

Donna Brazile, the chair of the Voting Rights Institute introduced the report at a press conference this morning as reported by The BRAD BLOG late last night. In her opening statements she said that the report "was five months in the making and represents an exhaustive review of public documents."

The BRAD BLOG has obtained Brazile's complete opening statement, available here. Here are some of the highlights from that statement [emphasis added]...

As presented to DNC Chairman Howard Dean this morning, the DNC Voting Rights Institute has finally released it's long-awaited report entitled "Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio".

We're currently reviewing the report, which is available for download in full or by sections at the DNC website.

Donna Brazile, the chair of the Voting Rights Institute introduced the report at a press conference this morning as reported by The BRAD BLOG late last night. In her opening statements she said that the report "was five months in the making and represents an exhaustive review of public documents."

We will make her full opening statement available here shortly. Here are some of the highlights from that statement [emphasis added]...

...DEVELOPING...

Great video up on Conyers' site of his delivery of the 560,000+ signatures from American citizens asking for answers concerning the Downing Street Minutes.

Go to his letter page (which you can still sign if you haven't already), and the link to the video is on the top-right.

We previously posted photos of the delivery, but the video really brings the moment alive. Driving home the fact that the longest serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives, along with 9 other members of Congress, are not currently welcome in the White House. So much for that "People's House" thing we heard so much about when the wingnuts were so damned disturbed about Clinton having "soiled it". Guess they were just kidding.

And because he deserves it, here's one last victory lap for Chairman Conyers...

This release came via Email too late this evening to verify the details, but as it syncs with information we'd received last week from highly placed sources concerning this report --- which we were told at the time was "due within days" --- we believe the following information is good...

Various sources have referred to this report as "explosive" and/or "will knock your socks off" and that the focus of the report is to be on Ohio and Florida. However, we'll wait until we see it to determine if our socks are indeed to be knocked or exploded off.

Either way, we thought you'd appreciate the heads-up.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Here's an invitation [and a challenge!] to all '6 or 7' BradBlog readers:

Some of my friends and I have been quietly working on a very quiet little be-the-media campaign.

We're ready to go. And you can help.

Psst! A great journalist can explain it better than this lowly blogger. Here's Chris Floyd:

Chris gives me too much credit, but otherwise he's spot-on, I think. It's a great idea, isn't it? It's an old one, tried and tested.

What's new is the implementation. But I can't even take credit for that. The Whispering Campaign stands on the earlobes of giants.

Here's how you can stand there with us:

Join The Whispering Campaign! Print the articles, make copies, and spread them around ...

Send quiet messages to all your friends, post silent messages on all your favorite blogs, do any quiet thing you can think of to help publicize The Whispering Campaign and help good information move along its rightful path.

It's not enough just to boycott the major media. We have to take over their job! We owe it to our fellow citizens to share good information with them. And this is an easy way for you to help make it happen.

Are you ready, you 6 or 7 feisty souls? Good! Now Let's Start Whispering!!

A number of pressing items on the plate in the background. May mean I'm quiet here for a bit (though we'll see)...For now, I'll leave it to you to make some noise about what's going on out there. Open thread! WARNING: Don't Feed the Trolls!

SOME QUICK HITS...

Uh, oh...

Why does Chuck Hagel hate freedom?

Personally, we think this item is more than siren-worthy, but as we already mentioned this story as it broke last night on The BRAD SHOW, we'll leave it you guys to add the noise to it.

So...The house of cards tumble is now officially underway. What month does the Impeachment begin? Or is it derailed by a new "terrorist attack" or a new "war"?

Discuss...

P.S. If you're in or near Santa Monica, CA, stop by and say hello to Bob Fritrakis and me at his book tour event for "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election: Essential Documents"! Tonight (Sunday, June 19) at 6pm @ Venuce United Methodist Church, 1020 Victoria Ave!

P.P.S. Bob's donated some books to us, that we'll ship to you --- personally signed by him --- for a supportive donation of $100 or more! It's an amazing 700+ page book! And we can certainly use the support right now!