The BRAD BLOG

ELECTION DAY: Wrong Ballots, Technical Malfunctions Reported in More Ohio Counties...

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.

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

ELECTION DAY: Touch-Screen Problems in Virginia...

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.

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

ELECTION DAY: Problems With New Touch-Screen Machines Reported in Ohio...

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.

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

Wingnuts Declare War on CIA to Retaliate, Defend Against, Take the Offensive in TreasonGate Charges...

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...

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

Post-Weekend Round-Up...

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...

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Bush Avoids Questions About CIA Leak and Secret Prisons

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...

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VIDEO - Senator Bullworth Debates The Terminator

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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Democracy Toon of the Moment...

By Brad Friedman on 11/6/2005 9:23am PT

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

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Daily Show: Has Gay Marriage Ruined Massachusetts?

By David Edwards on 11/5/2005 12:34pm PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

A year after the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, Ed Helms investigates to find out if the critics' worst fears have come true. Has gay marriage ruined Massachusetts?

Streaming Video in Real Media format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Video in QuickTime format...

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Article Categories: Massachusetts, Rights And Freedoms, U.S. Constitution, Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, Marriage Equality, LGBTQ

Uniting-Not-Dividing the World Over!

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 6:01pm PT

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us." --George W. Bush, Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University Oct 11, 2000

10,000 Argentinians would like to welcome you to Argentina, Mr. Bush...

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

DoJ Subpoenas Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) for Docs in Abramoff Case

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 4:10pm PT

The Hill has today's story. The BRAD BLOG reported on Ney up to his eyeballs in the Abramoff investigation recently, and last May when it was reported that he was under investigation by the DoJ.

But we found the following phrase, in today's report, had a somewhat familiar ring to it...

Ney said he could not comment on the specifics of the DOJ investigation.

"I believe�that although the government's investigation of Mr. Abramoff has been well-publicized through other sources, it is inappropriate for my office to comment in any detail about an ongoing investigation," he said.

...Hmmm... Now where have we heard that same phrase recently? These guys are getting a lot of use out of those words lately!

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

AUTHOR: 'Kerry Said Election Was Stolen!' KERRY: 'No I Didn't!'

ALSO: Senator Claims to Know Nothing About Recent GAO Report Confirming Problems with Electronic Voting Machines...

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 3:39pm PT

On today's Democracy Now, Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), claimed that he was personally told by John Kerry last Friday that Kerry felt 2004 Presidential Election had been stolen.

RAW STORY reports on a denial by Team Kerry of Crispin's report...

Miller told Democracy Now Kerry "told me he now thinks the election was stolen. He says he doesn't believe he is the person that can be out in front because of the sour grapes question. But he said he believes it was stolen. He says he argues with his democratic colleagues on the hill. He said he had a fight with Christopher Dodd because he said there's questions about the voting machines and Dodd was angry."

Miller was shocked to hear of Kerry's denial.

"I call that contemptible," Miller told RAW STORY. "That's completely false."

Indeed, Miller carried the RAW STORY report on his blog today with the headline "Contemptible".

Miller had previously blogged about his meeting with Kerry last Friday:

So I spoke briefly with him just as he arrived, and handed him the book, saying, "You were robbed, Senator." He said, "I know!" with a clear gesture of extreme frustration, and then said that he can't get any of his colleagues on the Hill to face the issue. Said that he had lately had an argument about it with Chris Dodd, who didn't want to hear about it. Kerry tried to tell him about all the problems with the electronic touch-screen machines, but Dodd refused to listen, saying that he had looked into it, and that "there's nothing there." (In bringing the subject up with Dodd, Kerry was not influenced by the GAO report, which he didn't even know about until I mentioned it to him. Indeed, he seemed mightily impressed that the GAO had come out with a strong report.)

That Kerry was unaware of the GAO report [PDF] is no great surprise. We first broke the news of the non-partisan GAO report and it's accompanying bi-partisan joint news release originally here at BRAD BLOG a full two weeks ago. Since then, we've opined about a complete failure to even mention the report at all, by any of the Mainstream Corporate Media (all wire services, all mainstream newspapers, all cable news channels failed to even mention it) both here at BRAD BLOG and late last night at HuffPo (where the item is currently a featured blog and has more comments than any other featured blog item listed on the front page!)

Miller gives more details, in his blog item, on his conversation with Kerry:

I urged him to spearhead a major senatorial investigation into what went down last year, in the spirit of his best work in that chamber, when he led inquiries into Iran/contra and BCCI. He said that, given his position, he doubts that he can be the one to go out front about the issue, because of the "sour grapes" factor. I appreciate his dilemma, but still think that he must embrace the issue of electoral reform, for the country's sake. (I also think that it would be the only way in which he might redeem himself for his deplorable concession just a year ago.)

Now, however, Senator "Never Surrender" completely denies the conversation ever took place. You may remember that he also claimed he would ensure that "every vote was counted" last year. You decide.

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New Poll: 53% of Americans Support Bush Impeachment!

Margin of Support Grows 19% Since June!

Mainstream Media Continue to Avoid Coverage...

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 1:44pm PT

Last June, 42% of Americans in a Zogby poll felt that Bush should be impeached if he lied about the War on Iraq while 50% opposed.

Earlier this month, in a new poll by Ipsos, a majority of 50% were in favor of impeachment, while just 44% were opposed.

And today, the latest poll from Zogby asking the same question, says 53% support impeachment of Bush while just 42% oppose.

In the meantime, even while the Mainstream Media were relentlessly discussing impeachment every day, wall-to-wall, about Bill Clinton back in September and August of 1998 (while hardly mentioning it today in relation to Bush) "only 36% supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported actual impeachment and removal" according to a study of 16 major polls which asked the question back then (versus the 3 major polls now, 2 of them which had to be funded by American citizens donating to AfterDowningStreet.org.)

ImpeachPAC.org, a new organization from the AfterDowningStreet.org folks (of which The BRAD BLOG is an affiliate) have begun raising money for Congressional candidates who support impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. They have much more on all of the above.

UPDATE: Two commenters have taken us to task for what they consider to be a misleading headline on this item, noting that the 53% who "support Bush Impeachment," as the headline states were answering whether or not they would do so "if President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq."

Though we did make that point clear in the first sentence of the article, the commenters (one of them an habitual troll here at BRAD BLOG, but we do not discriminate) still had a problem with the headline.

When we posted this article, what we didn't delve into (mostly due to lack of time) was what the sponsors of the poll --- who similarly headlined their article announcing the results as "53% of Americans Support Impeachment," by the way --- also discussed how many Americans feel already that "Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq."

From their article:

Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact lie about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll found 52% of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately misled the public before the war," and 57% say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons." Support for the war has dropped significantly since June, which suggests that the percentage of Americans who believe Bush lied about the war has increased.

Thus, 53% of Americans support impeachment "if Bush did not tell the truth" and anywhere from 52% to 57% believe he did not tell the truth.

Do the math. We stand by the original headline. (And still hope Bush gets a blowjob so impeachment proceedings may begin.)

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Article Categories: Iraq War, Impeachment, Mainstream Media Failure, Accountability

Dear Wingnuts and Christian Conservatives...

How Does It Feel To Be Played For Chumps?

By Brad Friedman on 11/4/2005 1:10pm PT

From testimony by Republican fundraiser Michael Scanlon at Wednesday's Republican-run Senate hearings:

In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it.

Do you people get it yet? You're the "wackos" according to your own people.

You've been played.

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Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

Favorability Rating of the Moment...

PLUS: American Don't Care About TreasonGate? Think Again...

By Brad Friedman on 11/3/2005 6:24pm PT

Incidentally, from the same poll (and especially for all those wingnut radio hosts who have told me that they don't talk TreasonGate because "Americans don't care about the issue"), here's the numbers of those who found the following scandals to be of either "Great Importance" or "Some Importance" and, parenthetically, the dates on which the polls were taken:

Watergate (5/73): 78%
Iran-Contra (2/87): 81%
Whitewater (3/94): 49%
Clinton-Lewinsky (1/98): 62%
CIA Leak (now): 86%

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