(Imagine What We Could Have Done if the GOP Gave US the Million Dollars That Thor Had?!)
By Brad Friedman on 6/7/2007, 3:12pm PT  

St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter/columnist Jo Mannies follows up on her report from yesterday on the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) "voter fraud" scamster Thor Hearne, the high-level GOP muckety-muck, below-the-radar "grass roots" propagandist, Bush/Cheney '04 national general counsel, and top-order Democratic vote suppressor.

You'll recall that yesterday's report from Mannies had paraphrased Hearne's comment to the effect of his "most vocal critics also are Web-based liberal blog sites." As it turns out, Hearne had actually mentioned The BRAD BLOG by name in her interview with him, according to what Mannies told us yesterday when she called seeking comment. As she hadn't been able to reach me the day before, she didn't want to mention us in that piece specifically until she was able to get comment in response.

For whatever reason, Mannies is the only member of the media right now to whom Hearne seems willing to talk since his operation was forced underground in the glare of the U.S. Attorney Purge spotlight. Hearne has refused comment to all manner of MSM-types seeking interviews --- even begging off, along with his other ACVR partners in crime, from an NPR piece yesterday which covered Hearne and his scam. (Their report kindly included a brief clip from an interview with us, pointing out that we broke the story on these cretins two years ago and have been keeping up the drumbeat ever since.)

Mannies told us yesterday that "Thor says he's in the spotlight because some of the blogs, particularly yours, which he mentioned by name, have put him there." So much for the old Republican saw about taking personal responsibility for oneself. But whatever. While she was unable to find the direct quote from her interview with him for her follow-up piece today, she did manage to name a few names in it --- ours.

Here's that entire follow-up from today's Post-Dispatch...

blogger takes on st. louis lawyer

St. Louis lawyer Thor Hearne has singled out one blog site in particular — Bradblog — for initiating many of the accusations that Hearne, a prominent figure in the national vote-fraud debate, is linked to last year's Justice Department firings of U.S. attorneys.

Hearne has denied any role in the dismissals, which many of those lawyers have tied to GOP complaints that they failed to pursue vote-fraud cases.

Bradblog challenges Hearne's denials, and blogger Brad Friedman says he'll continue to do so.

By the way, Friedman is a freelance investigative reporter and commentator who is a native of University City and graduated from Horton Watkins High School in Ladue.

Friedman, who now lives in California, takes issue with Hearne's assertions that he's a liberal. Friedman says he's simply a critic of the GOP's vote-fraud assertions, and among the Internet cadre raising questions about the trustworthiness of electronic voting machines.

A couple of minor points for accuracy in response. The most noteworthy of which is that I didn't "take issue with Hearne's assertions that [I am] a liberal." I took issue with Mannies's assertion, since I presumed it was hers as used in the original story. And on that, I merely pointed out, as I always do when it comes up, how bemused I am by the apparent need for such blanket label assertions from the MSM when describing us. NPR did the same in their report yesterday, as have the New York Times and others when referencing The BRAD BLOG.

Never mind that these folks rarely, if ever, bother to ask about my personal political inclinations, or support their assertions of the "liberalism" of this blog, the practice itself simply bespeaks of the MSM's internalization of the phony GOP-propagated Red/Blue, Right/Left, Conservative/Liberal, Republican/Democrat, Good/Evil dichotomy that continues to ill-serve political discourse and journalism in this nation. Even if the practice does help to forward Republican interests for dividing and conquering by any means necessary. (Even unsupported ones, such as claiming their party represents a "conservative" agenda.)

And just for hometown accuracy --- as the question of which high school one attended is a big topic for St. Louisans --- we didn't actually graduate from Horton Watkins High School in Ladue (where Hearne lives, by the way) as we left before Junior year to go to school in Michigan.

Those points covered, the only one which really matters is the pride we take in Hearne's recognition that we've had any part in helping to fuck up his insipid agenda to defraud American voters, and that we have every intention to "continue to do so" even if we don't have the nearly one million dollars of mystery money that he was given to ply his anti-American trade.

You're welcome, Thor!

Coffee this summer when I come to St. Louis to visit family? We'll be happy to buy!

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR "Voter Fraud" scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.
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