Decrying the "Millions of Americans [who have] lost faith in our elections" due to the secret counting of our public votes by the private companies who now peform the governmental function of counting America's votes --- in secret --- two-time Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader has joined Velvet Revolution's "Divesture for Democracy" campaign!

Nader joins Green Party Candidate David Cobb as the second 2004 Presidential Candidate to join the campaign! As well, 23 U.S. House Members have also endorsed by sending strongly worded letters to the nine major American Voting Machine Companies vowing to withhold all government funding from companies who do not voluntarily adapt the VR recommendations!

In his letters, Nader declares it "shameful" that "our country has lost its moral authority" in the process of the companies insistence upon keeping their software secret and adding to the collapse in confidence by American's in their electoral system.

As well, in a letter to Velvet Revolution Co-Founder, Brad Friedman (author and editor of The BRAD BLOG), Mr. Nader --- who has taken on Corporate America before, and won! --- vows to "support the next step of divestiture in the event these companies fail to do the right thing."

Read Nader's full letters to the companies and to VR here...

With two of the five major 2004 Presidential Candidates, we await word on who may be next. Paging Mr. Badnarik...Senator Kerry..."President" Bush?...

It'll be little surprise to BRAD BLOG readers who are by now aware of the phony "non-partisan" "voting rights" group recently created by high-level Bush/Cheney/RNC officials, but the coordinated strategy for smoke-screening what really happened in Election 2004 now seems to be in full swing.

In an Email sent yesterday by the RNC Political Director, Mike DuHaime, members of the huge RNC Email list are pointed to the 31-page hoax report [PDF] created by the three day old Talon News-like, tax-exempt, self-proclaimed, "voting rights" group, American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR).

The ACVR is anything but "non-partisan" and their so-far known ringleaders are actually Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, the National Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc. and his partner-in-crime Jim Dyke, the RNC's Communications Director. (Click here for our Special Coverage page on the ACVR for more details.)

The ACVR report was presented by the GOP front group to Congress in a U.S. House Adminstrative Committee hearing on the Election Mess in Ohio. The then-three-day old group, masquerading as a "voting rights" organization, was the only such group called as witnesses in the hearings convened by the committee's Chairman, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH).

As well, the creation of the ACVR seems to be smartly-timed with the creation of a supposedly "bi-partisan" blue-ribbon commission convened to study and recommend solutions for Electoral Problems in 2004. The Commission was seated in secret, announced on Thursday at 2pm, and lauded in a Press Release published by ACVR just 24 minutes later!

The commission, as announced, is set to be co-chaired by James A. Baker, III, the mastermind and architect of the 2000 Bush/Cheney strategy to ensure that votes were not counted in the state of Florida. The other co-chair is former-President Jimmy Carter who led a similar commission with respected elder statesman, former-President Gerald Ford after the 2000 Election debacle led by Baker on behalf of the Bush Family.

The RNC email, sent to believers on Tuesday, described the ACVR report as "document[ing] massive amounts of voter intimidation by Democrats and their third-party allies".

Of course, the report doesn't. Neither does it document the thousands of verified instances of real election fraud, irregularities, intimidation, disenfranchisment, miscounted and uncounted votes that occurred in Ohio and elsewhere in the last general election. Many of the real documented reports of evidence of went actually went wrong last November are contained in a 102-page report submitted to Congress after months of investigation by the minority staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

But in GOP Land, where black is white, wrong is right and where Republicans seem to have divorced themselves from reality...simply saying something makes it so. The Email and the link to the report is even now being circulated widely on Rightwing blogs and "centrist" newspapers and news services.

Here is a copy of the disingenous and misleading email sent yesterday by the RNC Political Director about the "non-partisan" report created by the RNC Communications Director and Bush/Cheney '04 Inc.'s lead attorney...

Our hope when speaking to Cybercast "News" Services' Kathleen Rhodes about the recent BRAD BLOG special coverage exposing the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) as little more than a bogus front group created by desperate high-level GOP operatives to create a smoke-screen for the real problems in the 2004 general election, was that the clear evidence for the sleaziness of this obvious and cynical bunch would be impossible for even a Rightwing "news" service to cover for.

Apparently we were wrong. Is there any GOP turd that can't be polished by their friends in the "Conservative" media?

The CNS article out this morning is exactly what we've come to expect from the hard-right groups who deceptively label themselves as "news" services in hopes of swindling a gullible American populace and inculcating them with "conservative" propaganda.

On that level, Ms. Rhodes and CNS have succeeded spectacularly!

Displaying an apparent contempt for the sacred privilege of casting a vote in the world's greatest democracy, she succeeds in minimizing and apologizing for the known ACVR ring-leaders' active ties to the RNC and Bush/Cheney '00/'04 Inc., attempts to legitimize the tax-payer subsidized status of the ACVR as a "non-partisan" 501(c)3 corporation, recharacterize them as a "Voting Fraud Watchdog Group" and attempt to villify those who would criticize them for their cynical and brazen attempts to undermine democracy in America.

We have sent the following letter to the Editors and Ms. Rhodes at CNS...

Bush Family friend, loyalist, operative and architect of the 2000 Bush/Cheney strategy to keep American's votes from being counted has no place as Co-Chair of bi-partisan commission with esteemed former-President Jimmy Carter!

Velvet Revolution calls for Baker's immediate removal from the Commission! VR's Full Statement...

The Lone Star Iconoclast, the newspaper in George W. Bush's "hometown" of Crawford, TX, has jumped into the "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) fray by reporting on the nascient self-proclaimed "Voting Rights" group (actually a GOP front group staffed by Bush/Cheney/RNC employees) and their testimony before a U.S. House Committee just three days after appearing out of nowhere (Talon News-like) on the Internets.

Their article, headlined "Crashing The Party? - Mystery Surrounds ?American Center For Voting Rights' Group" is right here.

The Iconoclast covers many of the bases that we've covered so far here at BRAD BLOG, the key articles for which can now be easily tracked for reference at this BRAD BLOG Special Coverage page.

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.

Over my head today on at least ten or twenty fronts...Therefore, your turn to save democracy for a bit. Until further notice...Open thread, baby!

The National General Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc., Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, II gave testimony on behalf of his three-day old "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) last Monday at a U.S. Congressional Hearing. He represented the only "Voting Rights" group at the hearing --- called by Republican Bob Ney (R-FL), Chairman of the U.S. House Administration Committee --- purportedly investigating the '04 Ohio Presidential Election mess.

Hearne didn't bother to mention that he worked for Bush/Cheney '04 as their top attorney in his testimony. We're not positive, but fairly certain that no high-level Kerry/Edwards employees were invited to testify, whether they represented a phony "non-partisan" group like the ACVR or not.

Despite the claims of tax-exempt non-partisan status by this Talon News-like outta-nowhere GOP front group, the two known ring-leaders (that we've been able to identify so far) of this phony "Voters Rights" organization masquerading as if they are not-an-insult-to-real-Voters-Rights-groups-everwhere, are both currently veryactive partisans.

Jim Dyke, the group's press spokesman and website administrative and technical contact who, as well as being the 2004 Communications Director for the Republican National Committee, is also a current Fox News GOP Analyst according to Joseph Cannon (though he mentioned to us that, so far, he was unable to confirm that information). He does, however, offer a fine analysis of just one of the likely true missions for this group, and why they have suddenly appeared. And for the record, Cannon made note of this nascient and suspicious ACVR popping up the day before we did!

Meanwhile, Ron Brynaert, a frequent BRAD BLOG commenter, and editor of Why Are We Back in Iraq? has been digging into more on our friend Thor (here and then here) and has uncovered, amongst other chestnuts, Hearne's featured speaking engagement at the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) shindig down at the Florida Chapter's 2005 kick-off on April 14th!

According to the Republican Party-sponsored RNLA's website...

The Coral Gables reception --- where they will no doubt continue the fiction that it was voters not lawyers who who decided the election --- is said to be "free" on the RNLA website! Wanna go and say hello to the non-partisan Thor and his Republican National Lawyers Association friends? The website says, "Please RSVP by emailing despain@republicanlawyer.net or calling 703-719-6335 by April 12th"

We might suggest you actually call or email prior to April 12th, as we have a feeling this "free" event is about to become a very closed-to-the-public event.

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.

Click the logo for more details and/or see the just issued press release here. And start printing!

When even the Wall Street Journal leaves the reservation to call out one of its own, you know there is trouble afoot...

Jesse at Stakeholder has more...

Heard Franken mention this morning that the only problem with DeLay's potentially upcoming fall from his many self-inflicted wounds, is that he'll be removed too quickly to take down the entire Republican leadership with him! Oh, well. There's always more Republican Tom's where that one came from.

My Thursday interview with Alan Nathan on Battle Line was a hoot. He calls himself a "centrist" because he has some extreme views on both the Right and the Left. Not my idea of a "centrist". And I assure you, he's on the hard Right when it comes to the Election Irregularities of 2004, even while he agrees we need paper trails on E-voting machines. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a recording of the interview, but Nathan has promised he'd get one to me, and I'll post it when/if I get it.

On Friday, however, I was on Radio Liberty with the charming Dr. Stan Monteith. Wasn't sure what to expect prior to the interview, but it ended up being one of the most enjoyable I've done. Dr. Stan is a REPUBLICAN (a real, live Conservative! Not a fake one!) who gets it in regards to the voting machines and our crumbling democracy in their wake. He's also a delightful fellow...Really enjoyed this one and was surprised to find him bashing the U.S. Government and the Administration far more than I ever do!

Just under 50 minutes (first minute or two was cut off), and you get to hear "God Bless America" played about 8 times in the bargain! Streaming RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or MP3 Download.

Tom DeLay may set the news agenda for every broadcast network, cable "news" channel, newspaper and blog in America (certainly the wingnut blogs, but too many of the blogs on the so-called left have also fallen prey to his trick as well), but he doesn't set our news agenda here at BRAD BLOG. He never has, and he never will.

To that end, we've had very little to say about what DeLay might prefer us to talk about over the past week. Instead, we've brought to light a few items that are much more important to the American people (scroll on back if you don't know what we're talking about).

That said, Randi Rhodes' hit a nail or two on the head about DeLay's newly found fascination with defiling the Sanctity of Marriage (remember, married couples are each others guardians).

But it was her producers who hit out of the ballpark with a few recorded opening montages this past week. Here's two of them worth a listen. (Hopefully .MP3 works for everyone, they should be short enough. Let us know if you need other formats.):

...And now back to the stuff that actually matters to you, your children, your grandchildren, and the rest of the (theoretically) free world...

P.S. This is amazing.

P.P.S. So is this. (Thanks, Jaime!)

The entirely and purposefully misleading 31-page report on Election Problems in Ohio that was produced by the fake "voting rights" group calling themselves the "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) is now serving it's purpose by being propagated on Rightwing blogs and Internet sites who either don't bother to look into something before posting it, or (perhaps more likely) look, but don't care.

You are now needed to counter this dis-info!

A Google search for "American Center for Voting Rights" will produce several sites which are now running this report and which refer to this group as "non-partisan" (which all BRAD BLOG readers should know by now is a scam...See this, this, this and this if you don't already know that!)

One example is this entry from Blogs for Bush.

I've left a comment on that item to counter their purposeful disinfo, though --- as is the case on many Rightwing sites which even bother to take comments, many don't --- the comment will have to be "approved" before it's posted. We'll see if it ever gets "approved".

That said, here is what I posted. Feel free to copy and post it, or anything you like, there and elsewhere. It's important that you guys don't let this disinformation --- from this fake group purposely formed to do exactly this --- get disseminated throughout the Rightwing Echo Chamber! Take Action NOW to Counter their Disinfo!

Perhaps I also should have added how this fake "Voting Rights" group is an extraordinary insult to all the real voting rights groups and advocates who have put their lives on the line and have been killed in the process of trying to achieve true voting rights in America for centuries.

Perhaps I also should have mentioned the thousands of Americans now putting their lives on the line for true voting rights around the world, and how this ACVR group and their disinfo campaign is an affront to our American troops who are --- right now --- dying for this very cause.

Get to work! Start making some noise out there! I can't save democracy all by myself, ya know!

The indefatigable John Conyers --- one of America's few true elected freedom fighters --- wants your input on what he can next do to move Election Reform forward. Give him some. He actually listens.

Yes, I hate to ask as always, but as my work continues to build exponentially here, the money does not. Your DONATIONS are just about the only thing that keeps this place rolling. Please feel free to DONATE if you haven't in a while.

No, I still do not have a PO Box set up (for those who don't like PayPal). I do intend to do so, but frankly, it's been the work here that has left me with little time to do anything but investigate, report, take action and talk about it on the radio! Virtually 24/7 these days! (Which also makes it next to impossible to accept unrelated paying gigs as well. But it seems to me this is the most important thing I can do right now.)

So thanking you in advance for any help you can offer.

UPDATE: Due to popular harranging, I've now finally gotten a PO Box set up to allow for snail mail donations by check/money order. Address:

Brad Friedman
7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594
Los Angeles, CA 90028

...Thanks to those of you who've been both patient, and on me about this for a long time. I just hope the new box will be large enough to accept all those checks pouring in at once!

Once again, the fine folks from Air America's Unfiltered program spent a decent chunk of time yesterday morning chatting about some of the latest BRAD BLOG news. Last time we heard about them going on about us, it was about ourClint Curtis/Raymond Lemme story. This time, they picked up on our new friends Thor and Dyke of the American Center for Voting Rights (the phony GOP front group pretending to give a damn about the rights of voters).

Host Rachel Maddow and her guest, Isaac Davey Aaronson (we hope that's how it's spelled!), chat it up for about 10 minutes and have some very nice things to say about The BRAD BLOG in the bargain.

Here's your pick of the litter: Streaming RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or MP3 Download.

By the way, we'd still be happy to guest on Unfiltered if they'd like the latest skinny from the actual horse's mouth. Feel free again to suggest it to them! Or to Randi Rhodes or to Al Franken or all the rest of 'em!

(Hat tip to the several folks who shouted out to us about it and to AirAmericaPlace.com for making the bulk of AAR's shows available in the archives!)

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.