I was on Thom Hartmann’s Big Picture TV show last night to discuss the arrest of the RNC operative in VA last week after he was caught destroying voter registration forms, and revealing that he was working for notorious GOP operative (and paid Romney consultant) Nathan Sproul’s Strategic Allied Consulting, which the RNC had claimed to have fired several week ago, after apparently fraudulent forms were turned in by the company in a dozen Florida counties.
The discussion then turned to talk about Chuck Todd of NBC’s weekend charge that reporting on concerns about the Romney/Bain folks’ recent acquisition of Hart Intercivic, the nation’s third largest voting machine company, is “conspiracy” talk along the lines of “Trump birther garbage”, and also about Think Progress’ still-uncorrected, direct smear of The BRAD BLOG yesterday, inaccurately describing our reporting on the matter as “conspiracy theory”…
As we noted in yesterday’s response to Think Progress, which includes our posting of the incredible emails from TP’s Senior Editor Judd Legum, I guess we’ll now have to count OH’s former Democratic Sec. of State Jennifer Brunner as one of those “conspiracy theorists” as well! Last night, she told MSNBC (after my appearance on Hartmann’s TV show): “You’d be right to call out Romney and his son for having a financial interest in this company. It doesn’t look good.”
I also made a short appearance on brand new “conspiracy theorist” and MSNBC host Ed Schultz’ radio show this morning to speak to several concerns about the Romney/Hart Intercivic issue, after he spent much of the show discussing those concerns with Ohio officials and others. Here’s that appearance [appx 5 mins]…
The BRAD BLOG on the Air 10/23/2012My Thom Hartmann TV Appearance on Sproul/RNC Voter Registration Fraud Scandal and Chuck Todd/Think Progress ‘Conspiracy Theories’ | PLUS: A quick appearance on Ed Schultz' radio show discussing concerns about Romney/Bain control of Hart Intercivic voting machine company in OH, elsewhere... · · · · · My Thom Hartmann TV Appearance on Sproul/RNC Voter Registration Fraud Scandal and Chuck Todd/Think Progress ‘Conspiracy Theories’ | PLUS: A quick appearance on Ed Schultz' radio show discussing concerns about Romney/Bain control of Hart Intercivic voting machine company in OH, elsewhere...0:00 0:00
http://agonist.org/rigged-elect...ey/#more-95831
I’m not certain Ed Schultz fully grasped what you were telling him Brad, but if there is some way for you to appear and discuss this issue with him on MSNBC sometime between now and the election, it would shine a much needed light on the question of election integrity.
Hi Brad, I figured out what is going on today when I heard that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz refused to answer questions about this today on the Stephanie Miller show and said ‘I will leave that for the conspiracy theorists’.
This jogged my memory back to 2008 when the same kind of stories about vote manipulation were coming out.
The Democratic Party is AFRAID that if these stories come out is will depress the vote because voters will think their vote will not count and therefore not show up to vote.
So if Mitt Romney himself owned 100% of a voting machine company and was seen in a precinct with a screwdriver in his hand and the back of a machine open, the Democratic party would deny it happened. It is not the GOP denying these stories, it is the Democratic party, acting out of fear, again!
I just spent time at a KOS diary leading people here because a lot of commenters were asking ‘why isn’t the media covering this?’ I have heard the KOS will ban people for vote rigging conspiracy theories. A few commenters did label this CT because Tagg just has a few shares or there are only 2 counties out of 88 that have these machines, etc.
It makes me sad that this happened in 2008 and now again. The Democratic party has failed to address these issues over the last four years to their detriment.
Wwooow!
GREAT job, Brad. Aces. Air tight. Agree w/ Ernest that Ed seemed a little…er…”reflexive” in some of his responses to you, but hey – he’s only recently just come out of the Election Fraud closet. We’ll have to give him some time to absorb it all and have you back on – which I sincerely hope he does in the coming days and weeks.
(I swear I could almost hear the points in the interview when he mentally shut down / couldn’t accept any more info.)
You’re handling this crazy election year with such grace and dignity, Brad. I can’t believe what we’re seeing, news breaking faster than I can read it, don’t know HOW you’re managing to write it all up; great hope it this, if ya ask me. Never seen so many well-informed responses on-line to the kind of “conspiracy theory” horseshit being shoveled at you right now (and us, by proxy.)
You, Victoria Collier, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Bev Harris – all with breaking election news this year, outstanding journalistic investiations that’re (finally) trumpeting down the MSM walls of Jericho on this forbidden fruit of an issue.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Assbagian Chuck Todd and the supercilious TP attack have doubled-down at precisely the wrong time, on the wrong side, and against the wrong fella.
Thanks and Mad love.
(Still tweeting CHUCK TODD – David Lasagna has been posting some real winners to my FB page! Won’t stop, till after the election.)
I’m so proud of you in this election year, I’m almost forgetting to be terrified. What a nice change of pace that is.
Love what you do, Brad, but you continue to intimate that Hugo Chavez might be involved in voter fraud. You’ve done it more than a few times over the years. It’s silly of you. Stop mentioning him in your good works. The Carter Center and numerous human rights groups have said Chavez’s elections were totally fair. Until you stop maligning him, I will not take you seriously. And I would prefer to take you seriously for your other good deeds!
Kurt, as I humbly understand it, Brad was maligning voting machines as unreliable, not personally attacking Mitt Romney or Hugo Chavez per se. Good for you, having whatever political stance, but Brad wasn’t commenting on that. As Brad said, this is not about right or left but right or wrong.
I would third Ernie and Jeannie Dean that Ed has not grocked the implications, yet. But I was amazed you were even on there, cuz I think this subject has been out of bounds for him.
I’m a big fan of Hugo Chavez, too(I tend to side with those who stand up to bullies), but it just ain’t appropriate for ANYONE to be in a position to manipulate our election process.
I was pleased to hear Brad mention Hugo Chavez on the Ed Schultz radio show because it takes the partisan legs out from underneath what should be and is a non-partisan issue. Even though Democrats are usually on the receiving end of the chicanery in the end, and we already seeing symptoms of this now, vote flipping will end badly for everyone regardless of party affiliation.
Sadly, it is just too late to do anything about the voting machines for the 2012 election. This is a subject that should be thoroughly investigated by a Democratic Congress if we ever get one again.
Ed hung up on me when I brought up the dangers of electronic voting.
I am also sick to death of the use of the term “conspiracy theory” in a derogitory light. We are falling into a censorship trap. There are conspiracy theories that stand up to independent scientific forensic evidence and there are conspiracy theories that do not. Unfortunately there are events when the “official conspiracy theories” can be proven to be nothing more than official myths.
You are missing two important links in both clips: the fact that the machines are easily manipulated and have been demonstrated to be insecure and that the private companies program and service the machines. After all, paper ballots are printed and purchased from private corporations — there is just not much they can do to manipulate the vote with them.
How can anyone Think Progresscan be made toward restoration of democracy in this country if “progressives” refuse to hear about all of the tools that are used to manipulate election results?
It seemed odd to me that Romney people would be so blatant as to acquire a voting machine company when the prior right-wing owners could be relied upon to rig the vote for him against Obama anyway. Then it hit me — they needed control to defeat Santorum IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY!! The mathematically impossible “Romney Shift” occurred in both Ohio and Wisconsin.