And we can't say we didn't enjoy it. Probably a whole lot more than Matthews did...

LATE UPDATE: E&P's Greg Mitchell describes the interview as "worth waiting a decade for."

Tomorrow's NY Times features an article describing Rush Limbaugh as the "Latest Victim" in the "War of Condemnation" following his characterization of Iraq War vets calling for a pull-out as "phony soldiers." Limbaugh's comment was made to his 14 million or so listeners across America and on Armed Forces Radio.

In the last graf of the Times piece, discussing whether or not the U.S. House will vote on a resolution to condemn Limbaugh --- just as they voted to condemn MoveOn.org for asking whether Gen. Petraeus should better be described as "General Betray Us?" in a single Times ad (seen by millions, only due to the "Conservative" Media exploitation of it), Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is quoted thusly:

Well gosh golly gee willickers, Mr. Hoyer. Shouldn't that have occurred to you before you allowed a vote on a resolution condemning MoveOn? A resolution, we should add, which you voted in favor of?!

P.S. Jane Hamsher is absolutely right. Limbaugh should be taken off of Armed Forces Radio immediately. What should be done with Hoyer is another question entirely.

As we near the one year mark since some 18,000 votes inexplicably disappeared in Sarasota County, Florida, on the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines used in the U.S. House Election for the state's 13th Congressional District, more study is still needed to determine whether or not the voting machines were at fault, according to the report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Even with the additional testing, the GAO admits, it will be impossible to determine for certain whether the touch-screen machines caused the extraordinarily high undervote race in the election.

The GAO's report [PDF] was presented to a Congressional task force investigating the challenge brought by Democratic candidate Christine Jennings, under the Federal Contested Elections Act, after the certified tally between her and her Republican opponent, Vern Buchanan, was reported by the state to be a slim 369 vote margin.

No reasonable explanation for the massive undervote --- found only in that particular contest, only in the Sarasota portion of the race, and only on the touch-screen ballots there (as opposed to the paper-based absentee ballots) --- has yet been proven by anyone.

The GAO has asked the task force to allow them to conduct further testing of the ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machines, in three specific areas, though they admit while "the proposed tests could help provide increased assurance, they would not provide absolute assurance that the iVotronic DREs did not cause the large undervote in Sarasota County."

Determining for certain whether the machines caused the problem would be "impossible," according to the GAO analysis, because they are "unable to recreate the conditions of the election in which the undervote occurred." Ah, the trouble with touch-screens.

As well, the report determined that "some of the prior tests and reviews conducted by the State of Florida and Sarasota County provide assurance that certain components of the voting systems in Sarasota County functioned correctly, but they are not enough to provide reasonable assurance that the iVotronic DREs did not contribute to the undervote."

While the Congressional task force has given permission for the GAO to proceed with their additional testing of the DREs, Jennings has already announced her intentions to run again in 2008 and Buchanan has voted for almost a full year with the Republican House caucus. And Democrats in the House prepare to vote on legislation which would allow the same faulty technology to be used in further elections.

QUESTIONS ABOUT ES&S CONTINUE

Among the unanswered questions in any of the FL-13 reports so far, is whether or not the source code reviewed in previous studies was the same as the code actually in use in the machines on Election Day. Recent news out of California demonstrates that ES&S has a prior history of playing fast and loose with different versions of hardware and software used on their machines in elections.

As well, reading past the summary section of the GAO report reveals another troubling disclosure by the nation's largest voting machine vendor...

Anita Hill (Ah, those were the days! When Senate Judiciary Committee hearings actually made it onto network TV, and in prime-time no less!) writes in tomorrow's NYTimes that Clarence Thomas is still full of shit...

She goes on to detail a few of the "blatant inconsistencies" that Thomas is still selling --- this time in hardback, and in an unprecedented hour-long Rush Limbaugh interview --- as well, she offers a reality check on progress since 1991 when it comes to the seriousness with which complaints like hers, of sexual harassment in the workplace by superiors, are taken.

Hill, now a law professor at Brandeis University and a visiting scholar at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College, notes the character attacks which are still de rigueur against such complainants. She goes on to warn: "Our legal system will suffer if a sitting justice’s vitriolic pursuit of personal vindication discourages others from standing up for their rights."

You go, girl. 16 years on, however, and we still have no answer as to who placed that pubic hair on Clarence Thomas's Coke can. Little wonder he stays so quiet on the bench.

Good god. Hypocrisy in Texas? In the State Legislature? Whoddathunkit?!

Behold Republican TX State Rep. Debbie Riddle, who --- despite any substantive evidence to demonstrate that citizens are voting more than once in her state --- is the author of a disenfranchising Photo ID law that would do little more than keep lawfully registered voters (mostly Democratic-leaning voters) from being able to cast their votes.

When it comes to her own vote, however, and those of her colleagues in the state legislature, the rules are apparently quite different. Incredible...

Thanks to all of those who sent the link to this video to us.

And to Ms. Riddle, who has all kinds of excuses as to why her colleagues don't have time to vote --- excuses which apparently do not also apply to actual working citizens on Election Day, which also happens to be a work day --- please kindly go Cheney yourself.

Guest Blogged by Arlen Parsa of The Daily Background

Recently, John McCain gave an interview to a religious website called Beliefnet. The only topic of conversation was religion. At right is a short mashup of the most egregious moments from the interview.

As you can imagine, it's created, um, a bit of a hubbub. And rightfully so- the New York Times ran the headline McCain Casts Muslims as Less Fit to Lead; Carpetbagger went with McCain sees Constitution establishing a ‘Christian nation.’

In brief statement issued by his campaign, McCain is hoping to clear up any confusion. "I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and defend our political values," the Senator is quoted as now saying.

And yet, as can clearly be seen in the above video, McCain states the following about what he thinks the number one prerequisite for being president should be:

And yet now he claims that he'd be okay with voting for a Muslim candidate?

As Steven Benen says today at TPM, apparently the Senator "was for discrimination before he was against it."

We're back again tonight filling in as Guest Host during drive-time for the good John Scott on the "Progressive News" program on San Francisco's Air America affiliate Green 960am (formerly "The Quake").

Tonight we'll be joined by NAOMI WOLF, author of The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot, on the rapidly creeping fascism in American society.

We'll also have news from the Republican and Democratic debates this week, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly fighting to save their asses (again), America's shameful turn into a "Bed-Wetter Nation" and the question of who you fear more, Iran's President or America's?

Plus another Green News Update from our own Desi Doyen, more Daily Voting News from VotersUnite.org's John Gideon and your calls at 1-866-960-5753.

Agent 99 will once again host an Open Thread here during the show (Hit the Comments link below, and then post and refresh to your heart's content.)

Please join us for another rip roaring two-hour BradCast at 4pm PT (7pm ET)! Listen up on-air at 960am in the Bay Area or LIVE streaming online here!

POST-SHOW UPDATE/ARCHIVES

HOUR 1: Guests Naomi Wolf scaring the crap out of us, and John Gideon with today's daily voting news.
Download MP3 or listen here...

HOUR 2: CA Sec. of State Debra Bowen gives us a call, plus Desi Doyen's Green News Update and a rant on American cowards.
Download MP3 or listen here...

[ED NOTE: Rogers has now posted his story, and our suspicions about who the name of the previously unnamed Congressman was correct! See update at bottom of article for more details! Also: The bad code that caused this article to freeze up in Microsoft IE has now been corrected.]

Investigative journalist Mike Rogers of PageOneQ and BlogActive promised us a scoop during this evening's "Progressive News." We're Guest Hosting the show for the vacationing John Scott today and tomorrow on San Francisco's Air America affiliate, Green 960am.

The man who outed the not-yet-resigned Sen. Larry Craig delivered his tantalizing scoop during our final minutes on today's show. (Full show details, archive here.)

"A United States Congressman who, while he was living in one place and claiming a tax break for that fact was registered and was voting in an entirely different state," he told us.

"The person owned the house with another man," Rogers teased, adding "the man that he owned it with, when you found out what he did, it almost makes this Congressman look like an angel."

LA Times is reporting tonight that the good guys may have won one for a change...

The scam of the attempted Electoral College coup was best exposed in August by Hendrik Hertzberg at New Yorker and more recently found by SF Chronicle to have been backed by a mysteriously funded Missouri(!) front group tied to Rudolph Giuliani.

More at the Times' blog, though we'd urge caution. GOP attempts to steal 2008 any way they can will not end here, not by a long shot, even if this particular initiative really is dead.

A leading opponent of the measure, Democratic consultant Chris Lehane, told the Times, "We want to to make sure this is not the Freddie Kruger of initiatives...that comes back to life. We'll continue to monitor it."

As will we. Good on the Dems for (maybe) nipping this one in the bud...for a change.

This is somewhat amusing.

Describing himself (without apparent intended irony) as "we, real people," former exceedingly powerful Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey stammers and stumbles through a quick video pitch (seen at right) to members of his FreedomWorks mailing list for the awkwardly named "Pick Dick Armey’s YouTube Flick Contest."

The premise, if we're understanding the seemingly drunk Armey correctly, is for "normal" people to decide what question they will allow Armey to ask for them, on video, for the upcoming Republican CNN/YouTube debate. Or something.

It would seem the point of such a debate is for actual "we, real people" to submit questions without the help of bloated former Texas power brokers like Armey. So we'll hope that his question, whatever it ends up being, gets no preferential treatment from CNN, who selected a few dozen from among thousands submitted for the Dem version of their YouTube debate a couple of months ago.

That is, if he can even get through such a question. What really leaves us chortling aloud here, is that old Dick apparently couldn't get through his 48 second pitch without flubbing it up, several times, making this video funnier with each viewing. Hope you real people will enjoy it as much as we did.

We're delighted to fill in as Guest Host during drive-time tonight for the good John Scott on his "Progressive News" program on San Francisco's Air America affiliate Green 960am (formerly "The Quake").

My scheduled guests tonight include: Congresswoman SUSAN DAVIS (D-CA) on her effort to amend the Rush Holt Election Reform Bill to include a restriction on the use of DRE touch-screen voting machines; ERIC BOEHLERT of Media Matters on Dan Rather and CBS, the truth about Dubya's National Guard service (or lack thereof) and other colossal MSM failures; and our big gay blogfather, MIKE ROGERS of PageOneQ and BlogActive on his "outing" of Sen. Larry "I Am Not Gay" Craig and much more. (Mike promises to break another congressional scoop for us tonight as well!!!)

Plus a Green News Update from our own Desi Doyen, Daily Voting News from VotersUnite.org's John Gideon, your calls at 1-866-960-5753 and whatever the hell us comes up or breaks between now and then that I feel like covering.

As usual, this blog item will be an Open Thread during the show, hosted by the frequently gruff but always lovable Agent 99. (Hit the Comments link below, and then post and refresh to your heart's content.)

The two-hour BradCast begins at 4pm PT (7pm ET)! Listen up on-air at 960am in the Bay Area or LIVE streaming online here!

POST-SHOW UPDATE/ARCHIVES

HOUR 1: Guests Rep. Susan Davis and Eric Boehlert, plus Green News Update from Desi Doyen.
Download MP3 or listen here...

HOUR 2: Guest Mike Rogers (with an exclusive scoop!) and John Gideon with breaking Daily Voting News. Plus a few laughs in our top of the hour news with Sebastian Koonz...
Download MP3 or listen here...

Whatever they have to do to win. And given the odds against them in '08, expect them to pull out every stop imaginable between now and the election in order to "win."

Add this to our "DoJ is the New ACVR" article last week, describing how the DoJ has now institutionalized "vote caging" at the federal level via, among other things, a recent letter sent to 10 states ordering them to purge their voter rolls. While Thor Hearne's ACVR is no more (at least officially) and the RNC is barred from minority-targeted caging by a court-ordered consent decree, state parties can do whatever the hell they damn well please, according to our friend Greg Gordon at McClatchy today...

See Gordon's complete report for more details.

As well, we'll have more on all of this Thursday and Friday while Guest Hosting for "Progressive News with John Scott" on San Francisco's Air America affiliate Green 960am (formerly "The Quake"), where we'll be bringing these issues to drive-time listeners (4p-6p PT) in the Bay Area! Hope you'll tune in! (See "Media Appearances" box at top-right for more details.)

We're getting really tired of picking on Democrats. But with clueless Senators like Nebraska's Ben Nelson, it seems like we continue to have little choice.

Picking up from where we left off yesterday regarding this morning's vote in the Senate Rules Committee on whether or not to send a recommendation for approval on the FEC nomination of the DOJ's GOP "Voter Fraud" flim-flam operative, Hans von Spakovsky, to the full Senate. Again we again defer to Paul Kiel's TPMMuckraker report that the Democrats, thanks to a defection from Nelson, were unable to reject the nomination outright and will have to pick up the fight on the Senate floor, where the GOP (unlike the Dems) will march in lockstep to get what they want. Even from the minority...

More on the evil von Spakovsky here.

More details on today's negotiations here, including Feinstein's statement: "I don’t feel that this is an unbiased individual." Minority Leader Mitch McConnnel's (R-KY) hardball in return: "None of these nominees will move across the Senate unless they move together."

In related your-right-to-legally-cast-a-vote-is-under-attack news, as Arlen Parsa covered for us in a bit more detail earlier, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Democratic challenge to Indiana's voter disenfranchising Photo ID law.

The very smart Election Law Blog's Rick Hasen sees this as good news for opponents of such laws, but we've got our money on a 5 to 4 ruling in favor of the GOP law, created (by Thor Hearne and Friends) in the hopes of keeping Democratic voters from being able to cast their votes on Election Day. We hope we're wrong, but Bush's Supreme Court hasn't given us much to be hopeful about.

You'll note the supporters of the restrictive, Jim Crow-type legislation have been unable to offer a single case of a voter in the state voting as someone else at the polling place.

Perhaps Sen. Ben Nelson would like to issue a resolution in support of such laws? Idiot.