The BRAD BLOG has obtained the official transcript of last week's congressional hearings on warrantless NSA wiretapping as authorized (on at least thirty occassions) by the Bush Administration. The event was officially titled, "CONSTITUTION IN CRISIS: DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE AND EXECUTIVE POWER".

The hearing, chaired by ranking House Judiciary Committee minority member, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), was held in the basement of the Rayburn building last Friday after the Republican leadership once again (as they did for hearings on the "Downing Street Documents" last year) refused the Democrats a formal hearing room to conduct the congressional oversight forum. That, despite the House having been in recess on Friday and the official hearing rooms otherwise vacant.

C-SPAN carried the hearings live as seven House members sat on the panel to hear testimony and question the following expert witnesses:

As The BRAD BLOG reported in an exclusive prior to the hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has defended the Administration's warrantless wiretapping of American citizens on U.S. soil as "legal", despite the prohibition against such activity as outlined by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), was invited to give testimony as well in defense of the Administration's position. He declined to appear, as did any other representative from the Bush Dept. of Justice.

On the day prior to the hearings, however, the DoJ issued a 42-page document declaring the warrantless wiretaps of American citizens on U.S. soil to be "legal". Judiciary Committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke to that document during the hearings, commenting that "making their argument longer did not make it any better." The statement received laughter from the hearing room. Van Hollen followed up by charging:

Some remarkable testimony was given by each of the witnesses at the hearings. It's all now available in full, via the complete 122-page transcript.

-- Complete Transcript of House Democratic Hearings on Warrantless NSA Wiretaps [PDF]

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Several of "The Jersey Girls," who were widowed in the 9/11 attacks, have issued a statement in response to the Bin Laden audiotape released last week which excoriated Bush for his failure and apparent disinterest --- "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him ... I truly am not that concerned about him." --- in hunting him down "dead or alive", as he once acted like he was promising.

Further, they criticize him for having "sanctioned the torture of individuals, breached constitutional safeguards regarding the privacy rights of U.S. citizens and started an illegal war in Iraq."

Not to mention their enumeration of the various 9/11 Commission recommendations that Bush has all but ignored to this day, some four years and four months since the deaths of their husbands.

This graf however, in particular, caught my eye:

While we agree with the general sentiment, we have just one quibble: Bush should resign now for his unprecedented Constitutional transgressions. There is no reason to wait for the next attack, and indeed it would be insane to do so. Especially as this rubber-stamp Congress will do everything in their power to avoid an impeachment --- as appropriate as would be right now --- in deference to their Political Party's "Commander-in-Chief".

Bush would never have the courage or fortitude or integrity or simple manliness to stand up and face down any impeachment proceeding. He'd go running away with his tail between his legs like the chickenhawk he is, once it became clear that virtually any such impeachment proceedings would have him dead to rights.

So why not show some sense of honor and dignity now, Mr. Bush, by leaving the office which you have tainted and stained beyond even Bill Clinton's wildest wet-dreams?

It's time for Bush, and his criminal co-conspirator Dick Cheney, to resign from office immediately in order to save this country from one more day of inexcusable exposure to attack from terrorists, but even more so, for Bush/Cheney's demonstrated and unmitigated loathing of American Values, their unapologetic failure to uphold their oaths of office to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", and, once and for all, to put an end to the metastized cancer of the unprecedented Executive Shame they have brought to the great United States of America.

VIDEO - Stephanopoulos Interview with John Kerry

Guest blogged by David Edwards

If only words alone could protect our civil liberties and restore democracy for the people.

UPDATE: Pam, from TheDemocraticDaily.com has highlights from, and links to the complete transcript. As well, she's got the RNC's "in a tizzy" response to Kerry's interview. All here...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

This weekend PBS' The McLaughlin Group discussed the growing call for impeachment. There is a lot of talk but as long a Congress continues to defer power to the Executive Branch, public outrage will grow. The majority party in the House of Representative must be changed to realistically pursue impeachment.

Three Questions:

1. Can negative perceptions of the Bush Admin. suppress the "Rove base" while motivating the anti-Bush crowds at the polls?

2. Can this country conduct fair and untainted national elections?
3. If the answer to #2 is "no" then does #1 really matter?

Brad noticed this clip first so he may have some comments to add...

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

UPDATE: David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org/CensureBush.org sends us these thoughts on the above video...

Last month, we reported how the George W. Bush administration has effectively gutted the beloved, 40-year old Voting Rights Act. He has done so by allowing political appointees in the Department of Justice to override the recommendations of career attorneys in the Voting Rights division who had recommended against the Georgia Photo ID Requirement Law and Tom Delay's Texas Congressional Redistricting Scheme.

In both cases, the career attorneys at DoJ had written lengthy memos opposing the new laws --- 4 out of 5 of them in the GA case, 8 out of 8 in the TX case --- only to be overruled by Bush's political cronies. Dan Eggen of The Washington Post broke both of those stories, with some exemplary reporting, after obtaining the leaked memos.

Later, the DoJ mandated that no such written opinions would be allowed in the future.

Eggen, on Page A1 of Monday's WaPo, now has more on the fallout and allegations of politics being played with the VRA within DoJ, as Bush continues to dismantle as many American Values as he can before leaving office...Here's some highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be)...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The January 16 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

Compiled and Guest Blogged for The BRAD BLOG by Pokey Anderson, co-host of "The Monitor", a weekly news and analysis show at KPFT Radio in Houston.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Too late to filibuster Alito? Not if what Senator Dick Durbin says is true.

In her first BRAD BLOG Guest Blog, Pokey Anderson lends the Dems a hand, by helping them build their case...

ALITO'S EXTREME VIEWS ARE OUT OF STEP WITH AMERICANS
Samuel Alito, if confirmed, could serve on the US Supreme Court for the rest of your life. At age 55, his life expectancy from now is an additional 28 years or, in other words, the equivalent of 7 presidential terms. Instead of occupying a centrist position, like Sandra Day O'Connor, he would move the court far to the right.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor "provided the swing vote 77 percent of the time. If confirmed, Alito would tip the high court's delicate balance radically to the right. Nearly always favoring the government, corporations and universities, Alito has ruled against individual rights in 84 percent of his dissents."
-- Marjorie Cohn, "Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights", t r u t h o u t, January 10, 2006

With Judge Samuel Alito, the Senate Judiciary Committee faces its most consequential Supreme Court confirmation hearing in a generation. Not since Robert Bork has the Senate encountered a nominee whose long record and fully articulated views so consistently challenge decades of progress on privacy, civil rights and control of corporations. And never in memory has a single nomination so threatened to redirect the Court as Alito's. [His] fifteen years of rulings ... demonstrates that Alito is at odds with the interests of ordinary Americans.
-- "The Case Against Alito", The Nation, editorial | posted January 5, 2006

Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, in Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, places Alito to the right of Justice Roberts, and between Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
-- New York Times, January 12, 2006

"After a careful study, University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein described Alito's record of appeals court dissents as 'stunning. Ninety-one percent of Alito's dissents take positions more conservative than his colleagues...including colleagues appointed by Presidents Bush and Reagan.'"
-- "The Case Against Alito" The Nation, editorial | posted January 5, 2006

"The debate over Judge Alito is generally presented as one between Republicans and Democrats. But his testimony should trouble moderate Republicans, especially those who favor abortion rights or are concerned about presidential excesses."
-- "Judge Alito, in His Own Words", NY Times Lead Editorial: January 12, 2006

WHAT IF ALITO IS DEFEATED? WON'T THERE JUST BE A WORSE NOMINEE?
"The White House is banking on fear that if this second nominee goes down, Bush will nominate someone even worse. This argument ignores history: When in 1969-70 President Nixon nominated and lost both Clement Haynsworth and Harrold Carswell, the result was not "someone worse" but the pragmatic, humane Judge Harry Blackmun, who later wrote Roe v. Wade; when Bork was Borked, his replacement was Anthony Kennedy, who in 1992 joined fellow Reagan nominee O'Connor to reaffirm Roe. Alito defeatism also ignores today's political climate: As the midterm elections draw closer, as the Iraq War scandals deepen, Senate Republicans are falling over one another to distance themselves from the Administration and the far right."
-- "The Case Against Alito" The Nation, editorial | posted January 5, 2006

ISN'T THIS NOMINATION A SHOE-IN? A DONE DEAL?
No. It's not. Inside sources are telling me the situation is quite fluid...

We're torn between complaining about Washington Post's delinquency in covering anything to do with our crumbling electoral system and jumping for joy that they've actually filed a credible report on the problems we (and many other "conspiracy theorists", "sore-losers", "tinfoil hat wearers", "anarchists" and "insurgents") have been yelling and screaming about for months --- if not years!

Given our endlessly optimistic nature, however, and the dearth of honest-to-God reporting by the Mainstream Corporate Media on these matters since...well, forever...we'll go ahead, slap a siren on this item, and focus on the "victory" side of things!

In tomorrow's paper, page A6, in a "Special to The Washington Post", Zachary Goldfarb covers the matter of last month's hack of Diebold optical scan machines in Leon County, Florida which completely flipped the results of a mock election test without a trace being left behind.

As well, for the first time, WaPo even discusses some of the findings of the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) 107-page report on the failures of electronic voting machines which was released last October!

The story cannot be good news to Diebold and the other voting machine vendors, however. They've all had it pretty easy up until now as the Mainstream Corporate Media has played into their "company line" that such concerns were the stuff of "conspiracy theorists" and "sore-losers". Goldfarb even recognizes the fact, even if he doesn't call WaPo on being one of the media outlets who have contributed to Diebold and Friends' appalling ability to marginalize Election Integrity advocates with such insultingly dismissive and democracy-loathing remarks:

Well, there it is. In plain black and white WaPo ink! Go figure!

Goldfarb goes on to make the case quite clearly concerning the Diebold hack as pulled off by Finnish computer security expert Harri Hursti, including Diebold's pathetic response to it:

Well, God Bless America...Perhaps the Mainstream Corporate Media is finally paying attention! Go read the whole thing with your own eyes!

We've heard tell of another major news organization that may soon roll out legitimate coverage of these matters as well.

Can it be that we are finally not alone? Stay tuned...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Maybe it's good; maybe it's bad but there is very little voting news today. The article from Yolo County, CA is interesting. The article from VA talks about actions that residents can take to ensure they have verifiable elections in the future. The rest is pretty much business as usual....

Such was the sometimes contentious, sometimes exasperating atmosphere, apparently, in Sacramento this week when State Senator Debra Bowen, transparent election champion and Democratic candidate for Secretary of State convened a hearing on the current electoral mess in the Golden State. The hearing was held by the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee which she chairs.

County Election Registrars from all over the state were called to give a report on how things are going (not well, apparently) and Election Integrity advocates filled the gallery to witness the goings on.

There was actually quite a bit of coverage by the media, some better than others, but overall, it's nice to see an open forum for oversight and discussion of the state of democracy in this state. All the while, so much that is involved with the most fundamental element of democracy --- the vote --- has been done in secret corridors of power, darkened Boards of Election back rooms, Private Corporation board rooms, and of course, inside the uninspected, none-of-your-business software of completely untrustworthy, unaccountable electronic voting machines.

Articles hit late this week on Wednesday's hearings in the LA Times, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Vallejo Times Herald and elsewhere. While the "facts" offered by some of the reports were at times less than accurate, we note that it's remarkable how many Journalists deign to cover such issues when they are granted "legitimacy" by an officially sanctioned Government Inquiry. (Just a thought to those of you who actually get paid for this sort of thing, from someone who doesn't...but we've long advocated Journalists cover what is newsworthy. Not only what politicians have instructed them to be newsworthy.)

Let's take a look then at some of the coverage, including our own on-the-air conversation on Friday evening with Bowen...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The circus in Maricopa County, AZ is still going hard and strong. This is a true story of election fraud and cover-up. Some PA counties are starting to talk about how much money they are going to lose because the counties have not had a chance to choose their voting systems. It's clearly a scare tactic....

Regarding my previous very strong suggestion that Democtrats fillibuster the Supreme Court confirmation of Samuel Alito, it looks like things may be changing from the conventional wisdom that he definitely would not be filibustered.

This from the Chicago Sun-Times today:

And just to short-circuited the Wingnuts when they (inevitably) trot out their misinformation concerning the Republicans approval of Ruth Bader Ginsberg during the Clinton Era...Unlike that case, Bush did not bother to get Democratic approval for Alito, the way Clinton did with Ginsberg:

Keep those calls, emails and faxes going folks! See comments in the previous item on this for a few phone numbers and website addresses!

Chris Bowers of MyDD.com adds these thoughts:

UPDATE: Here are some toll-free numbers to get through to the Senate: 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. Also, be sure to read comments in this item, for several other phone numbers and links to petition efforts, etc!

UPDATE 1/22/06: Guest Blogger Pokey Anderson builds the case for filibuster...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Rove's tone is more moderated than in the past. We suspect that this is due to a variety of mounting troubles for the GOP along with waning public support. Republicans will want to project positive perception of their candidates while again using 'Swift Boat' tactics for the negative attacks.

UPDATE FROM BRAD: I'll somewhat disagree with the good David Edwards, only to say (at least from the clip posted) it doesn't seem that Rove has "moderated" much. He continues to smash up Democrats with the same misleading and factually incorrect horseshit that he (and Bush and Cheney) have been using for quite a while. Including the inaccurate characterization of scores of Democratic Party positions. Will the "Uniting, Not Dividing" ever stop?!

And, on one more thought, he talks about the remarkable economy of 2005. Bad timing, I guess, since the Dow just plummetted 213 points today, wiping out most of the gains from 2005 in a single day.

UPDATE: New York Times article:

Election Reform advocates have been turning out in droves at several recent public hearings in State Senates around the country. This week, official hearings were held in both California and Arizona concerning the unparralleled mess in which each state now finds itself in regards to Elections and Electronic Voting.

We'll cover the hearings in California shortly, where, as in Arizona, Election Reform advocates (read: citizens who have little to gain other than hope for the ultimate restoration of integrity to this nation's democracy) filled the galleries to capacity in order to witness the astonishing spectacle of public election officials sputtering, spewing and admitting to all in attendance that they haven't a clue how to manage the mess that is referred to as "democracy" in America.

On a side note: One can't help but wonder if we'd even be in the predicament today were it not for the complete abdication of duty by the mainstream media, who has ignored every facet of this issue beyond cursory and insulting smears dismissing such fundamental questions as little more than "conspiracy theory". There is no longer any doubt that those of us who understood the issues at stake here, long ago, were 100% right about it. As well, those who marginalized and dismissed us and the matter were 100% wrong. In the bargain, their delinquency in reporting on these matters in any substantial way has resulted in an unprecedented crisis of confidence in our democracy by the electorate. Such a crisis threatens our way of governance in ways that Osama bin Laden could never have conceived, much less found a way to cause himself.

Anyway, on to the most recent revealing and remarkable chapter in Arizona's Shameful Republican vs. Republican Primary Electoral Fraud Circus, in Maricopa County's Legislative District 20...