Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (for whom we readily admit having a crush since having met her at the National Election Reform Conference in Nashville - see swooning photo of both of us at right) discussed the latest chililng Diebold hack conducted several weeks ago by BlackBoxVoting.org in a BuzzFlash article by Matthew Cardinale published today.

The hack they performed was very important, and raised some serious hackles from the friendly folks of Diebold Inc. They of the promise to "deliver Ohio" for George W. Bush, and coincidentally, the world's largest Voting Machine Company.

If you're not familiar with the Diebold hack done by BBV (and you may be, since we've be woefully remiss in reporting on it here) or the angry response that Diebold sent to the election supervisor who allowed the experiement, you'll want to read the whole article...

This is from a Reuters article we'd missed last week. It seems that there are still George W. Bush supporters who are gullible enough to believe he actually gives a damn about their tax burden and the way in which their money is spent. Apparently such folks will believe anything.

Yet since Bush didn't feel it important enough to broach this subject last night in his report to the American People on how well things are going in Iraq, we suspect this news --- even a week old --- is still notable enough that we should help get out the word about what's actually happening in Iraq...

Not sure where they picked it up, but yesterday Editor & Publisher covered the planned Guest Blogging duties here of Tribune Media Services' Bob Koehler for the upcoming BRAD BLOGathon. Their quickie item on it is right here.

This one is difficult for me to write about as I'm the main beneficiary of the effort and yet have not been in on much of the actual planning of the event (see this latest guest blog from Winter Patriot with more details including other notable Guest Bloggers scheduled for the event), but I'm glad that E&P picked up on the matter since I think the effort is actually newsworthy. Not so much the actual coverage of a fundraiser for this blog, but the general idea of readers organizing to raise funds for the Independent/Alternate Voices they appreciate as a counter to the Corporate Media.

I know that Dr. Steve Viele (one of the main ringleaders in the effort) has mentioned to me that he hopes this will serve as a model for other blogs out there, and I hope that he's right. Advertising and donations throughout the course of normal daily blogging here only go so far to cover the costs for the time and effort this gig now takes. Very few, if any, of us bloggers have major corporate sponsorship, and that's probably a good thing. But then how do we continue to do the important work that needs to be done without regular sponsorship or subscriptions if we can't pay our bills?

Don't know if Dr. Steve's model will work or not (the Blogathon is scheduled for the weekend of July 9, 10 & 11) but I think it's worth watching, and I hope that other blogs and blog readers keep an eye on it if only to see if they may be able to organize similar efforts for those other bloggers out there who find themselves in the same position/predicament that I do.

It seems there are a lot of folks --- political players with lots of access to money --- who complain about the bias and laziness of the Corporate Media. Many of them are more than willing to toss tons of bucks to Political Candidates every two or four years. But when it comes to opening their pocketbooks to support the work of the folks who are actually in the trenches every day trying to counter the Corporate Media Bias on a daily basis, those big money players are nowhere to be found.

If those monied folks who toss $50/month or more to their Cable Company without batting an eye realized how important even half of that amount would on a monthly basis to folks like the bloggers on the ground, there would be a lot more of us, and we'd have the resources to do alot more of this work...Anyway, sorry to natter on...I just hope the effort makes a difference. For me, yes, but even more so for so many others out there like me who are trying, against all odds, to do similar work. To that end, don't forget our friends at RAW STORY continue their ongoing fundraiser through tomorrow, and yes, our own PayPay Link is always open.

American Hero, Paul Rieckhoff, founder of OpTruth.org who quit his job on Wall Street after 9/11 to go fight in Afghanistan, (here's a link to our first-ever blog item on him from May of '04) responds to Bush's speech tonight.

Here are just a few of the highlights....

As they say at OpTruth, "Really support the Troops! Listen to them!"

Apparently the AP received the same couple of paragraphs from the White House about Bush's speech tonight that we did. However, we didn't bother to use their Press Release to write an article about a speech that hasn't yet occured. And to write it as if it already did occur! The AP, however, has done exactly that.

And they say we're too tough on the Mainstream Corporate Media for merely repeating instead of reporting...Give us a break!

UPDATE: The complete White House Press Release, from earlier today, is below so you can compare it to the article as run by AP...

Tomorrow, in Houston, the day prior to the Baker/Carter Commission's 2nd and Final hearing on Election Reform, ElectionAssessment.org is holding their own alternate hearings featuring many of the Experts and Advocates that the Baker/Carter Commission should have asked to testify at their own hearings!

Velvet Revolution has created a webletter allowing you to inform the Baker/Carter Commission about these alternate hearings!

Unfortunately, the Baker/Carter Commission has now irrevocably discredited themselves by stacking the deck with Partisan Operatives and Voting Machine Company Representatives as we have reported here many times. So it's up to groups like ElectionAssessment.org to present the honest testimony required for any commission to make real recommendations for Election Reform in the United States of America!

Please click here to send an Email Immediately to Baker/Carter Commission Members about ElectionAssessment.org's Hearings...

As time is now short, please use the "Email it to Someone" link at the bottom of this item to let your frirends know about this!!!

The superb set of real witnesses and experts scheduled to give testimony tomorrow include the following...

The BRAD BLOG has learned that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and a number of other Congressional Members will announce their intention to hold open Town Hall Meetings across the country on July 23rd to discuss the "Downing Street Documents" with constituents.

The meetings, to be held on the same day around the country in the members' various Congressional Districts, will mark the third year anniversary of the creation of the original Downing Street Minutes document. That document, released nearly two months ago, revealed that the Bush Administration had determined at least eight months prior to the War on Iraq that they intended to topple Saddam Hussein through military means, and planned to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy.

Earlier this month, a letter was delivered to the White House signed by 122 Congressional Members and more than 560,000 American Citizens asking George W. Bush to answer a number of questions concerning the information contained in the minutes written by the head of British Intelligence, Richard Dearlove. The White House has still refused the courtesy of a reply to that letter.

MORE: We are told that "at least" 10 U.S. Congressional Members will be holding these Town Hall Meetings, and that --- unlike Bush and Cheney's phony Town Hall Meetings --- the forums will actually be open to the public for discussion. No loyalty pledges to be required before attending. The number of Congressmen and women to hold hearings is expected to increase in the days and weeks ahead prior to the July 23rd date.

AND MORE... AfterDowningStreet.org is helping to organize the Town Hall Meetings, and offers quite a few links on how you can help from your home town!

AND STILL MORE... Conyers has now released further details on his blog, including a link to sign up for information, help with hosting house parties on the day of the Town Hall meetings and an email address to send questions and suggestions for the event.

He goes on to say, in his blog item, that this event is a "follow up to our hugely successful hearing we held in the basement of the Capitol Building on June 16." Perhaps it should be suggested that all such July 23rd House Parties be held in basements or storage closets just to get into the spirit of things!

Since Ohio seems to be doing a fine job collapsing on itself politically, we haven't waded too much into the entire mess. Suffice to say, the Buckeye State seems to be imploding without much help from us, so far be it for us to get in its way.

We're fairly certain that the evil J. Kenneth Blackwell (OH Sec. of State and, by complete fluke of nature, Co-Chair for Bush/Cheney '04) will be sucked irrevocably into the vortex of criminal political corruption now unravelling in Ohio. Hubris has its way. The only unclear question is whether the entire national Republican Party will be sucked in as well.

Either way, we congratulate Ohio on overtaking Florida --- for the moment --- as the filthiest political state in the union! It seems a sure bet that any state responsible for delivering George W. Bush a "victory", is most likely corrupt from top to bottom. Ohio has yet to disappoint in that regard!

We also have a feeling, as Jolson used to say, we ain't seen nothin' yet!

As reported today by AfterDowningStreet.org...

The letter to colleagues from Conyers, Waters and Lee is here...

UPDATE 6/28/05: Plan for speeches on the floor rescheduled for Thursday...

As usual, on Monday morning, after taking a few hours off yesterday, I'm beseiged with stuff that I must catch up on. I'm doing my best to do so, and hope to be making some noise here soon. In the meantime, a couple of personal mop-up items from the weekend...

Not sure what happened, but somehow GreyMatter (the software we use here) overwrote a short entry from Friday pointing to my weekly guest appearance that day on Tony Trupiano's swell show. We had a few fun wing nut callers, always fun, with guest host that day Sean (Tony shows up near the end of the show after returning from a gig on Fox "News"). Here's a link to the MP3 once again, since the first one disappeared for reasons unknown.

This evening, I'll be in-studio at 6pm PT with Barry Gordon for his show on LA's News Talk KRLA 870am, so those of you in town can listen on your actual radios, if you're so inclined. Otherwise, it'll be streaming live for the hour. If you're so inclined. (UPDATE: See this item for some post-Barry Gordon Show thoughts, and a link to the archive of the hour.)

We were able to get a clean copy of last night's fine BRAD SHOW over to the network so that this mornings "Re-BRADcast" was clean and without the technical glitches and drop-outs that occurred LIVE last night. Very frustrating, but such is the way of the technical world in these matters from time to time. We believe we know what caused it, and should be able to avoid the problem again in the future.

We now have clean versions of all of last night's interviews and ther mayhem on the BRAD SHOW ARCHIVES page soon in case you missed anything, or want to hear anything that dropped out due to the technical probs.

I thought the interview with Vincent Fry of the DNC Voting Rights institute was enlightening, the one with John Amato of Crooks & Liars hilarious, with Green Party Presidential Candidate David Cobb energizing and uplifting, and with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz fascinating and encouraging! They're all now up in the archives for your listening pleasure.

Thanks again for all of your support!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

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It must be Friday. Just breaking from the AFP...

Meanwhile...Dick Cheney remains in Fantasy Land and wants us to know that there's nothing to worry about, since Gitmo prisoners are "well fed" and "living in the tropics"...

We can only hope that Mr. Cheney finds himself taking advantage of such enjoyable digs himself some day.

(Hat tip Desi for the usual keen Friday eye!)

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...