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Latest Featured Reports | Friday, September 9, 2011
w/ Brad & Desi
TODAY: In exclusive leaked audio, climate denial kingpin Koch reveals privately meeting with NJ's Gov Christie before before a major greenhouse gas move; PLUS: Much more!...
Previous GNRs: 9/6/11 - 9/1/11 - Archives...
There's No Doubting Thomas at the LA Times
Softball profile props up U.S. Supreme Court Justice, completely ignores rapidly growing body of evidence suggesting both criminal and ethical violations...
SPECIAL COVERAGE: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Plot
Click for more U.S. Chamber Plot coverage...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
(All times listed as PACIFIC TIME unless noted)
  • WEDNESDAYS, 3:30-4:00p: KPFK/Pacifica (90.7FM Los Angeles, 98.7FM Santa Barbara, 93.7FM N. San Diego, 99.5FM China Lake)
Media Appearance Archives...
Special Coverage Archives
Wisconsin 2011 Supreme Court Election Debacle
It Isn't Journalism: Woeful MSM Coverage of Wisconsin's Supreme Court Election 'Recount'
Corporate media fails to tell story of massive irregularities, e-vote failures...
Japan Quake/Tsunami/Nuke Emergency
6/4/11: Fukushima Radiation at Highest Level Since Crisis Began
Germany announces plan to dismantle all nukes by 2022...
5/12/11: TEPCO Admits Unit 1 Reactor 'Meltdown', Fuel Rods Exposed
Radiation believed leaking through hole in bottom of containment vessel...
3/30/11: AUDIO: Brad on KPFK w/ Fukushima News and More...
Joined by the lovely Desi Doyen of the Green News Report...
3/29/11: 'Maximum Alert': Crisis Continues, TEPCO Prez Hospitalized
PLUS: A glimpse at living conditions for the heroic plant workers...
3/29/11: 'Green News Report' - Special Coverage: Japan Fallout
Fukushima's nuke disaster leads to political shift in Germany; Congressional concerns about US nuke evacuation plans...
3/27/11: TEPCO 'Very Sorry': Radiation Spikes, Work Remains Perilous
Plant operator apologizes, again; AP reports they 'all but disregarded 3,000 years of geological history' in designing safe-guards'...
3/25/11: 'Grave And Serious': More Comparison to Chernobyl Levels
Rupture feared; Workers contaminated; New evacs 'recommended'...
PLUS: German study uses French data to corroborate findings from Austrian, U.S. scientists, suggesting Fukushima disaster should be reclassified as 'level 7' accident, on par with Chernobyl...
3/25/11: Brad on 'Randi Rhodes Show' on Disaster, US 'Fallout'
Breaking developments and speculation on the supposed 'nuclear renaissance' previously scheduled for the US...
3/24/11: 'Step at a Time & a Few More Steps': Disturbing New Science
Stabilization continues, as new data suggests 50% of radioactive cesium released by Chernobyl already released by Daiichi's reactors...
3/24/11: 'Green News Report'- Special Coverage: Japan Disaster
Death toll rising; Tap water warning lifted in Tokyo, spreading elsewhere; Radiation hospitalizes workers; Support for nukes drops in US; PLUS: Struggling to maintaining tradition amidst disaster...
3/23/11: Brad's KPFK Intvw w/ VOA's Steve Herman in Tokyo
'Neutron beams', water 'panic', black smoke and the public responses from TEPCO, the government and the people of Japan, LIVE from Tokyo...
3/23/11: Setbacks: Black Smoke, Evacuations, Tokyo Tap Water
'Panic' reported as stores run dry of bottled water after government says iodine in metropolitan water unsafe for infants...
3/22/11: 'Razor-Thin Margins', Positive Progress at Fukushima
Control room re-opened as some power returns, workers attempt to restore cooling systems; U.S. NRC offers mixed signals...
3/22/11: 'Green News Report' - Special Coverage: Nuclear Crisis
Fukushima on edge; Japan's wind farms to the rescue; New US nuke reviews; PLUS: Oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico...
3/20/11: 'Closer to Bringing Situation Under Control': Sun & Mon
Stabilization precarious; UPDATED: Gray smoke forces evacuation...
3/19/11: Some Reactors 'Stabilized' as War Breaks Out Elsewhere
PLUS: Radiation detected in food, water; New Gulf oil slick discovered; War protesters arrested; Slow news week continues...
3/18/11: 'Renewed Nuclear Chain Reaction Feared': Friday Fukushima
Spent fuel rod danger; Fallout detected in S. California; Wind 'saving Japan's ass'; Coulter: Radiation 'good for you'; PM's office tweets...
3/17/11: Brad Interviews Palast: TEPCO Plans for New Nukes in TX
Govt fraud investigator on "bankrupt, corrupt, criminal" nuke companies...
3/17/11: 'Green News Report' - Special Coverage: Crisis in Japan
Compounding natural, humanitarian and spiraling nuclear disasters - desperate measures to hold off a nightmare...
3/17/11: VIDEO: Close-up Aerial Footage of Crippled Plant
TEPCO offers most detailed view yet of ravaged Fukushima reactors...
3/16/11: Desperation: Helicopters Drop Water On Hot Nuke Reactors
Def Minister: 'We could not delay further'; Four risky drops on Unit 3; Water said in Unit 4 fuel pool; Water cannon trucks next | VIDEO...
3/16/11: Dozens of Countries, Not U.S., Tell Citizens to Leave Tokyo
UK, Germany, France more worried than us. Who ya gonna believe?...
3/15/11: SMOKE BILLOWS FROM FUKUSHIMA'S REACTOR 3
Workers evacuated as radiation levels rose quickly; Govt's chief spokesperson says smoke believed to be radioactive steam...
3/15/11: 'Green News Report': Japan on Brink of Nuclear Disaster
Natural, humanitarian and now man-made disaster, as 50 nuclear plant workers stand in the way of nuclear meltdown...
3/14/11: PM: RADIATION DANGER, EVACS WIDENED, 'STAY CALM'
Explosions at Reactors 2 & 4; Fuels Rods at Unit 2 'Half Exposed';
All but 50 workers evacuated from plant...
3/13/11: EXPLOSION AT FUKUSHIMA'S NUKE REACTOR UNIT 3
U.S. 7th Fleet repositioned after exposure to radioactive cloud
Sunday live blogging 2nd EXPLOSION at Fukushima...
3/13/11: VIDEO: From Within the Tsunami, a Town Engulfed
Watch as a town disappears in minutes...
3/12/11: EXPLOSION ROCKS FUKUSHIMA NUKE REACTOR UNIT 1
Cooling System Fails at Unit 3 | Govt: 'Partial Meltdown' Under Way Saturday day, night live blog following 1st EXPLOSION at Fukushima...
3/11/11: NUCLEAR EMERGENCIES AT 5 REACTORS
Friday day, night live blog until EXPLOSION at Fukushima reactor...
3/11/11: 'Big Government Tyranny' Saved Countless Lives
Strict building codes in Japan likely impossible now here...
3/11/11: 8.9 QUAKE, TSUNAMI STRIKES JAPAN - VIDEO
Unprecedented disaster strikes, towns washed away in seconds...
WikiLeaks / Julian Assange...
O'Keefe / Breitbart ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax...
Judge Rejects O'Keefe, Giles '1st Amendment' Defense in Civil Suit Brought by San Diego ACORN Worker
Another setback for Rightwing scam-artists...
ACORN Scammer Giles Tosses Fellow Scammer O'Keefe 'Under Bus'
O'Keefe's CNN 'Sex' Scam May Violate MD's Felony Wiretap Laws
NYTimes New Public Editor, Meet NYTimes' Old ACORN Problem
'Crimes Caught on ACORN Tapes! O'Keefe's!' Maddow Covers Lawsuit
Former ACORN Employee Files Suit Against O'Keefe and Giles
NYT Public Editor, 'Weasel' Pens Farewell Column
FAIR Echoes Our Critique of ABC, Stephanopoulos Fail
ABC's Stephanopoulos Quotes Discredted NYT w/ O'Keefe/Breitbart
FBI: Details on O'Keefe's 'Wiretap Plot'
O'Keefe Pleads Guilty in New Orleans
O'Keefe Dressed Down by Judge, Allowed to Avoid Trial
'Loser' O'Keefe 'Celebrated' in Song
What? No Pulitzer Prize for Dirty Tricks?!
AP: Breitbart's Newest Video Deception
Brad Interviews ACORN CEO Lewis
Duplicate Anti-ACORN 'Editorials' Astroturfed in Rightwing Papers
Maddow Airs Unedited 'Pimp' Tapes: 'Firestorm Pure Manure'
NYT's ACORN 'Pimp' Finally Goes Missing?
Maddow Video: ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax 'Triumph of Fake Politics'
CA AG: VIDS 'SEVERELY EDITED', SHOW 'NO VIOLATION OF LAW'
No, NYT, O'Keefe Didn't 'Pose as a Pimp' Either
NYT PARTIALLY CORRECTS ACORN 'PIMP' MISREPORTS
NYT'S HOYT ADMITS: 'TIMES WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG'
McClatchy/SacBee Corrects Cvrge of ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax (Hint: NYT!)
'Yes Men': O'Keefe, Breitbart 'Sad, Pathetic, Assholes'
Superstar GOP Atty Gets O'Keefe Felony Rap Reduced
AUDIO: Brad on S.F. Public Radio's 'Friday Media Roundtable'
GritTV: NYT's Belated Correction 'Way, Way, WAY Too Late'
VIDEO: Brad on Russian TV re: ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax, NYT Fail
It's About the Democracy & the Media, Stupid
GOP 'Mission Accomplished: ACORN to Close Doors
More Media Condemnation for NYT 'Pimp' Hoax Coverage, Excuses
Media Watchdog FAIR Slams NYT Coverage as 'Wildly Misleading'
VIDEO: 'The Times Botched the Story': Author on 'DN!'
Another Legal Victory: Judge Finds Funding Ban 'Unconstitutional'
Real Targets of GOP ACORN Smears: Truth, American Democracy
Transcripts Show O'Keefe & Giles 'Buried the Truth'
ACORN STRIKES BACK! Demands 'Accountability' from NYT, Others
NY D.A.: 'No Criminality' in 'Highly Edited' ACORN Videos
Toon Depicts NYT Editor 'as Weasel' for ACORN Emails
VIDEO: Breitbart Says 'Had No Idea' About 'Pimp' Hoax
NYT's Public Editor Accuses BRAD BLOG of 'Political Agenda'
Exclusive: NYT Public Editor's Remarkable 'Pimp' Hoax Emails
Giles Confirms on Video: 'He Wasn't Dressed Like a Pimp'
VIDEO: Stephen Colbert Mocks ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax
Vote Fraudster Ann Coulter Jumps Into 'Pimp' Hoax Lying Game
Take Note NYT!: How to 'Edit Video to Meet Your Agenda'
NYT Exec Editor in '05: 'Fact-checking is our responsibility'
Breitbart 'Apologizes' for 'Apparent' ACORN 'Pimp' Lie
Giles Admits O'Keefe, Breitbart ACORN 'Pimp' Story a Lie
Breitbart Lied About 'Pimp' Claim in Own News Column
Group Demands NYTimes Retract O'Keefe 'Pimp' Reports
Breitbart Contradicts Self on O'Keefe Salary
Rightwing Blogger Attacks Our Coverage, Shoots Self Instead
ACORN Reacts to Times Editor Emails: 'Troubling, Disturbing'
Follow-Up, Quick Summary of NYT's O'Keefe Story FAIL
Exclusive: NYT Editor on False O'Keefe 'Pimp' Stories
Race Obsessions of O'Keefe; Twitter Tantrum of Breitbart
Questions for Breitbart, AP Investigates, NYTimes Fawns
O'Keefe/Breitbart Have Lame Story, Sticking to It
VIDEO: 'Orly Taitz' Andy Self-Destructs on MSNBC
Breitbart is a Criminal, According to Breitbart's Logic
ACORN Defund Bill 'Unconstitutional' After GOP Scam
Anti-ACORN Videographer Arrested at Senator's Office
SC Dem U.S. Senate Primary Mystery...
Sibel Edmonds Disclosures...

Bush Officials Give (Ironic) 'Denials' to Charges
Perle: Edmonds chasing 'imagined demons'
FORMER FBI EXEC SEEKS 'SPECIAL COUNSEL' PROBE
Corroborates several key Edmonds allegations
More Special Coverages Pages...

June 24th, 2011


As a new report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) [PDF] is released today, documenting a rapid rise in U.S. Islamophobia and asserting that anti-Muslim rhetoric in this country has doubled between 2009 and 2010 for some odd reason, I'm reminded of one of my favorite calls from the past week sitting in as guest host of the nationally syndicated Mike Malloy Show on radio.

"Josh", a Right-leaning caller from Madison, WI and a self-identified "civil" and "very fair" person was incredulous that Wisconsin's new voter-suppressing polling place Photo ID restrictions would actually disenfranchise any voters, since they would have a year, he said, to get themselves one if they didn't already have one.

Most telling, though, was the way "Josh" --- a seemingly nice guy, but one who has been used and abused by the folks on the Right who are playing him for an idiot --- began his call explaining what a fair person he was because, as he informed me, he "used to have a Muslim co-worker" with whom he was able to "sit and talk". They even "used to be able to debate" without, presumably, the Muslim co-worker trying to blow him up or, I guess, vice versa!

Here's my amusing/distressing conversation with "Josh" from the Tuesday, June 21 Mike Malloy Show. [Appx 4.5 mins]...

Sigh...

* * *

By the way, here's some information on those 80- and 90-year old nuns turned away from the polling place in 2008 for lack of Photo ID, as I mentioned in reply to "Josh" during the call. And here are the remarkable hoops those nuns, and everybody else in Indiana, must now jump through in order to keep their vote from being completely thrown out if they don't happen to have an Indiana-issued Photo ID on Election Day.

Ironic, all of that, particularly in light of Charlie White, Indiana's new Republican Sec. of State (charged with overseeing the state's election laws), who is currently facing 7 felony indictments, 3 of them for voter fraud, which, curiously enough, were not detected or deterred by Indiana's draconian, voter-suppressing, polling place Photo ID restrictions. But, I guess, he's not a 90-year old nun, a student, or a WWII veteran.

By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2011 1:15pm PT  


January 26th, 2011


The Windy City relies on 100% unverifiable e-voting systems, tied to Hugo Chavez, with a track-record of infamous failure
Just ask Oprah!...

[Update 1/27/11: IL's Supreme Court has determined Emanuel meets the residency requirements to run for Mayor in Chicago, overturning the lower court's ruling referenced below. Not that any of that makes any difference in regard to the details about Chicago's voting system as offered in the following article. So please read on.]

Perhaps you've been keeping up with the kerfuffle over the past day or two over former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's bid to be on Chicago's ballot in the upcoming February mayoral race there. On Monday, a court determined his residency status was not sufficient and ordered him removed from the ballot, while on Tuesday the court of appeals has temporarily stayed that order, leaving him on the ballot for now, after agreeing to hear his appeal.

But in modern-day Chicago, "appearing on the ballot" is not quite as straightforward as one might think, given the 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems now forced on hundreds of thousands of voters in the Windy City.

Over the years, we've covered specific failures of the very same Sequoia e-voting systems that are used in Chicago and elsewhere across the country, as well as the remarkable duplicity of the company's top officials. So it seems like this would be a good moment to remind folks of the most disturbing Sequoia/Chicago related incidents.

One involves Oprah's "lost" vote on the Sequoia touch-screen systems used there in the 2008 Presidential general election, the other involves the CEO of Sequoia Voting Systems simply lying to Chicago officials about his company's direct business partnership with a Venezuelan e-voting firm tied to Hugo Chavez, and the fact that the Venezuelan firm, Smartmatic, still owns the intellectual property (IP) rights to the e-voting systems used by Chicago voters --- even as the new owners of Sequoia continue to lie about it...

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

By Brad Friedman on 1/26/2011 6:05am PT  


January 24th, 2011


Examining the need for a realistic progressive challenge by way of 2012 Democratic primaries...

Guest editorial by Ernest A. Canning

In a recent article, "The Left Has Nowhere to Go", Chris Hedges joins Ralph Nader in attributing the quadrennial failure of third party candidates to muster a meaningful challenge to the two-party system to a "cowardice" of the left.

Hedges, who described a 2008 vote for either Nader or Cynthia McKinney as "an act of defiance," quotes Nader as stating that "the more outrageous the Republicans become...the more the left has to accept the slightly less outrageous corporate Democrats." Hedges adds:

Nader fears a repeat of the left’s cowardice in the next election, a cowardice that has further empowered the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, maintained the role of the Democratic Party as a lackey for corporations, and accelerated the reconfiguration of the country into a neo-feudalist state. Either we begin to practice a fierce moral autonomy and rise up in multiple acts of physical defiance that have no discernible short-term benefit, or we accept the inevitability of corporate slavery.

While Nader and Hedges have accurately described the existing "lesser evil" paradigm as coming into play during each Presidential election, where only one Republican and one Democrat are perceived as "viable" options, neither Nader nor Hedges acknowledges the extent to which their own tactical inflexibility has reinforced the existing paradigm.

Nader himself would be wise to reflect on that reality in advance of the 2012 primary season...

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

By Ernest A. Canning on 1/24/2011 1:48pm PT  


January 3rd, 2011


Scary black man with weapon outside a polling place somewhere!!! It's a scandal!!! A "voter suppression" outrage!!! And Obama's scary black men are coming to get you next!!!

I don't care much about this silly story and, apparently, neither did any voters. Not a single one of them filed a complaint of "voter intimidation" during the 2008 "incident" captured on video for a minute or so outside a polling place in a largely minority area of Philadelphia and then played endlessly on Fox "News" ever since. Naturally, the footage is always accompanied by some sort of pretend "outrage" from the Fox host in each instance.

As the incident has even less relevance to the lives of Americans as the death of Natalie Holloway, we haven't covered it more than once or twice here, most recently last July when Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander took the bait in support of his paper's regard of the non-story as some sort of "political bombshell".

But, with the death-by-fake-scandal of ACORN, the Republicans need something on which to hang their fake, vaguely "voter fraud"-related, very much black people-related investigations in Congress as they take over the majority in the House. So, get used to it. We're all gonna be forced to hear about this silly story --- over and over again --- whether we like it or not, in the coming months (and, probably even years!) as the GOP hold hearings and "investigations" on this story, rather than on ones which actually matter.

So to that end, if you're not already familiar with the ridiculous "scandal" concerning the "intimidation" by two jackasses from the so-called "New Black Panther Party" at a polling place in 2008, Adam Serwer's summary at WaPo today (of all places) has you covered. He's even honest enough to take his paper on directly for the ink they continue to give to the non-story courtesy of their Rightwing columnist (one of many) Jennifer Rubin.

Gosh, I wonder if, when the GOP hold their hearings on "voter intimidation" at the polling place, they'll also be demanding that Eric Holder prosecute this guy as well. Somehow, I'm doubting it.

By Brad Friedman on 1/3/2011 6:48pm PT  


November 8th, 2010


Charges of 'intimidation' dismissed by Republicans as 'baloney,' highlights hypocrisy of ginned-up Fox 'News'/GOP New Black Panther Party 'scandal'...

From suburban Illinois' Daily Herald...

Democratic operatives took pictures Tuesday of Lawrence Moretti near a polling place at 848 N. Mill Road in Addison wearing a black jacket and a blue cap with bright yellow letters emblazoned with the letters "ICE," the logo of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"First of all, that polling place is located in a heavily Hispanic area," said DuPage Democratic Party Chairman Bob Peickert. "He had choices between hats that he could have put on his head and he chose one that could lead someone to conclude he was a law enforcement officer. What motivates him to stand out in front of that place if for no other reason than to intimidate?"

Local GOP officials in heavily Republican DuPage County say charges that Moretti's presence for hours in front of a heavily-Hispanic polling place wearing an "ICE" cap amounts to any kind of "intimidation" are baseless. Of course, this is the same county where the far Rightwing Republican Party operative, Dan Curry, who runs a blog called ReverseSpin.com is actually paid $3,000 a month by tax-payers [PDF] to serve as Public Relations director for the shamelessly partisan county Election Commission, as we described to the editors of the Naperville Sun following one of Curry's hit pieces on behalf of the Commission in 2008.

The issue also serves to put a long-manufactured and ginned-up Republican/Fox "News" charge of "voter intimidation" from 2008 in an interesting new light.

Here's the GOP's remarkable response to the charges of "intimidation" by Moretti in the Daily Herald...

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

By Brad Friedman on 11/8/2010 2:10pm PT  


October 2nd, 2010


Not to say "we told ya so," but we did tell ya so, the day after Obama's election in 2008...

Anyway, now he's gone. Perhaps this will be the change we can believe in. Though we are not holding our breath.

By Brad Friedman on 10/2/2010 1:12pm PT  


September 27th, 2010


The political positions of those describing themselves as sympathetic to the "Tea Party" represent a vast minority view, far outside of the mainstream positions represented by 2008 voters, according to a new poll commissioned by Project Vote.

The study finds self-described "Tea Partiers," and their political concerns, are far outweighed by the views of everyone else, despite the absurdly out-of-proportion coverage granted to them by the corporate mainstream media.

Analysis of the findings from around the net also underscores what we've long argued here at The BRAD BLOG: the Tea Baggers don't actually give a damn about "the deficit" or even the Constitution. If they did, they wouldn't have waited until after Republicans lost the elections in 2008 to start marching and decrying the deficit explosion (and supposed concerns about Constitutional rights) brought about under the previous Administration. They would have been out marching along with the real Tea Partiers, those who supported Ron Paul as long ago as 2007, and his concerns about unbridled deficit spending and the trampling of Constitutional rights during the eight years of the Bush Administration.

Here are some of the key findings from the new poll. In them, we learn what every MSMer should have endeavored to figure out and take into account long ago, before granting so much free exposure to the radical extremist fringe represented by these people...

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

By Brad Friedman on 9/27/2010 4:02pm PT  


August 31st, 2010


Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

This November, after all that we've learned over so many years, twenty percent of the nation will still engage in blind-faith voting on DREs that are 100% unverifiable, with or without a so-called "Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail" (VVPAT). Elsewhere, the vast majority of Americans will feed paper ballots into easily hacked optical scan systems and then quietly accept the results that the machines spew out without demanding a hand count of the paper ballots.

The corporate media will dutifully publish the reported "results" without so much as mentioning that in most jurisdictions not a single ballot will have been counted by a human being.

With Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen off enjoying some much needed R & R, I thought some levity was in order, courtesy of this hilarious, if somewhat dated, Onion video.


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

* * *

UPDATE FROM BRAD 9/6/10: Now that I'm almost back on the grid, a quick addition here to note that we ran this same video back on February 25, 2008. That it still has resonance and meaning today --- after all that we've learned about the 100% unverifiable nature of such systems --- says a great deal, since we're still foolishly using these things all across the country, as Ernie pointed out. Also related from The Onion, as we ran in November of 2008, there's this: "Sequoia Touch-Screen Elected 44th President".

By Ernest A. Canning on 8/31/2010 2:17pm PT  


August 26th, 2010


Former Wall Streeter seeks votes by attacking Attorney General Brown's refusal To appeal Judge Walker's ruling
Oath of office not designed to blindly follow whim of 'perceived' majority but to support and defend the constitution...

Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

In Meg Whitman, Wall Street, 'Billionaire Sociopaths' and the Media 'Substance Deficit' I reported:

Californians have been drawn within the cross-hairs of a propaganda blitz bought and paid for by Meg Whitman, the billionaire former CEO of eBay, who, since declaring her intent to run for governor in February, 2009, has already contributed $59 million of her own money to her "campaign" --- a one-sided political phenomenon which has seen a stealth candidate, with disturbing connections to Goldman Sachs, soar to the top of the polls because the electoral process has been emasculated by the absence of mandatory debates and meaningful investigative journalism.

Apparently Whitman now feels that campaigning exclusively by way of paid-for propaganda (political ads) will not be enough to evade scrutiny of her economic "plan" to "rescue" California's economy (a rehash of Bush tax cuts for wealthy people and business, the elimination of climate change regulations and imposition of further draconian spending cuts to a state government already operating on life support --- a plan which a group of economists, including Stanford University's Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate, have derided as policies which would "deepen California's budget crisis and are likely to reduce employment and economic growth").

Whitman has now pandered to what she may mistakenly believe was a majority of Californians who voted against marriage equality in passing Proposition 8...

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

By Ernest A. Canning on 8/26/2010 11:06am PT  


August 21st, 2010


Same systems to be used by millions of voters this November...

This is your Sequoia touch-screen voting machine....

This is your Sequoia touch-screen voting machine with Pac-Man hacked onto it without disturbing any of the "tamper-evident" seals supposedly meant to protect it from hackers...

Any questions?...

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

By Brad Friedman on 8/21/2010 12:48pm PT  


August 13th, 2010


Guest Editorial by Ernest A. Canning

Sorry, Mr. Gibbs, but your description of a "professional left" whose critiques of your boss, President Barack Obama, should be disregarded as the "crazy" musings of "people who ought to be drug tested" reflects that you are both authoritarian and out-of-touch.

The vast majority of citizens who supported the President in 2008 favor positions on policies that are far more progressive than anything which has emerged from either the corporate-controlled Democratic "leadership" in Congress or the Obama White House. The majority of Americans are by no means obligated to ignore the "democracy deficit" or the betrayal of the President's promise to bring "change we can believe in."

While one can readily agree that many of the Obama administration's policies are an improvement over those which are advanced by the reactionary fascist billionaires, and their mindless "Tea Party" followers, there are many instances in which the policies of the current administration threaten more harm than those of its predecessor. E.g,, those documented by a recent ACLU report (see Democracy Now video below) in which the current administration has created policies that may "enshrine permanently within the law policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful during the Bush administration."

Perhaps most disturbing is that the President's zeal to please his true constituency --- corporate America, Wall Street and the military-industrial complex --- comes from the same Presidential candidate whose soaring and lofty, yet deceptive campaign rhetoric gave rise to hope in so many that Election Day 2008 would mark a return to economic fairness, transparency, a restoration of the rule of law, an end to the fear-driven perpetual "war on terror," and a restoration of nature's ecological balance.

The title of Studs Turkel's powerful book is Hope Dies Last.

Even during the darkest days of the Bush/Cheney cabal, there was the hope that the foundering American ship of state could be righted by way of the electoral process. By raising the hopes of the American people during the course of the 2008 campaign, only to dash those hopes by betraying his own rhetoric, President Obama has, in some measure, caused more harm than the Bush/Cheney regime...

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

By Ernest A. Canning on 8/13/2010 8:45pm PT  


July 19th, 2010


If you didn't already know that the latest Fox "News" fake "outrage" about the jackass from the New Black Panther Party who was caught on video standing outside a Philadelphia polling place with a nightstick in 2008 was another predictably trumped-up Rightwing scam story, Jamison Foser will help you understand why that is.

But as with the phony ACORN "Pimp" Hoax, the most unsettling part of this latest scam is not just that Fox is promoting a phony story, round-the-clock, to rile up and scare their gullible viewers. That's what they do. We all know that by now. Or should. What's disturbing is that so-called Ombudsmen at major, theoretically non-wingnut "liberal media" outlets have yet to figure any of that out.

This time around, it's Washington Post's Ombudsman Andrew Alexander who takes the bait --- hook, line, nightstick, and phony whistleblower --- in support of his paper's coverage of what they shamefully headlined as a "political bombshell." Hoax Accomplished. Again.

Media Matters' Simon Maloy predicted this story would play out in exactly this way back on July 2nd [emphasis ours]:

1. Right-wingers shout loudly about bogus story.
2. Fox News picks up bogus story, reports on it incessantly.
3. Right-wingers and Fox News start complaining that "liberal media" are ignoring bogus story.
4. Other outlets are shamed into covering bogus story, mini-frenzy ensues.
5. Pundits credit Fox News for "being ahead of the curve."
6. Responsible media outlets determine bogus story is bogus long after damage is done.
7. Repeat.

See Foser for details, so we can go back to (hopefully) ignoring this ridiculous non-story.

By Brad Friedman on 7/19/2010 12:23pm PT  



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