From Charlie Savage in today's Boston Globe...

I began to try and pick and choose a few grafs to highlight from this extensive article. Upon reading it in full, however, I was generally so sickened I had no idea where to start.

Suffice to say, that --- unless someone can offer some alternative view to the situation about which Savage adeptly reports --- those so-called "Bush Haters" who've been saying for years that we are on a clear trajectory, hurling towards full-blown tyranny and/or fascism and/or dictatorship, were far more correct than I'd ever given them credit for.

Without some mitigating information in reply to Savage's work, the article suggests we are in a gravely serious Constitutional Crisis in this country. Far above and beyond what I believe has generally been understood. At least by me.

Please read the full article...

(A non-registration-required version here.)

By John Gideon Executive Director VotersUnite.Org and Information Manager VoteTrustUSA.Org

When asked by a reporter, "Which is harder to manage, your two children or ES&S?" Marion County, Indiana Clerk Doris Ann Sadler told the Indianapolis Star this week, "Oh, ES&S, definitely. My children are really very easy. In fact, at times I think my children would have done a better job with the voting machines. And they're (ages) 7 and 4."

The Electronic Voting Machine Vendor locomotive is still running away down the track at an alarming speed. However, this week some states and county election officials seem to be beginning to notice and are now sending out signals that they intend to either stop the train or � barring that --- at least ensure that companies such as Election Systems and Software (ES&S) do not profit too much from their arrogance, ineptitude and now epidemic failures.

Legal complaints against the company were filed this week in West Virginia and Indiana to add to the one previously under way in Oregon. Threats have been heard from Texas, Arkansas, Ohio and elsewhere. Election officials have been forced to change voting procedures in many states and counties to accommodate for ES&S' growing array of failures.

Meanwhile no one seems to be talking about the people who will be most affected by this train wreck; the voters�

It looks like The LA Times dropped "The Boondocks" some weeks ago --- we noticed no explanation given --- even while they continue to Fox "News"-ize themselves and add insipid, unfunny, and disinformative "comics" like "Mallard Fillmore" to their line-up. What the hell is up with that?! We guess they prefer to ensure their circulation keeps dropping. (letters@latimes.com)

UPDATE: Several readers have written to let us know that The Boondock's creator Aaron McGruder is on sabbatical. Darrin Bell, Candorville's creator, confirms in an email he just sent us:

That's good news. In the meantime, at least they still carry "Candorville". For now...

Another one follows...

Editor & Publisher has more...

Crooks & Liars has the second half of the video (wherein Bush pats Colbert on the shoulder on the way out without saying a word.) We'll see if we can get the whole thing soon.

UPDATE: Complete text transcript of Colbert's presentation, along with links to the full video both available here...

UPDATE: Colbert's entire presentation as streaming video now available here...

Washington Post is reporting today...

As long as the investigation is widening into Ney's wrongdoing with Abramoff and friends, might we suggest the prosecutors look into this part of it.

Thanks!

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

Indiana has announced that they are filing a legal complaint against ES&S for problems that have caused havoc and caused counties to be in breach of state and federal laws. West Virginia counties are faced with problems with their ballot programming software which will delay the results in the primary later in May. Two counties in North Carolina will be using hand-counted paper ballots on Tuesday but are they really doing this with an ulterior motive? ...

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

Today is successes and failures. New York activists are generally pleased with the new voting machine policy adopted for the state. Meanwhile a judge in Allegheny County has found in favor of the county and will allow them to go forward with the use of the ES&S voting machines. Ireland has finally declared the Liberty voting machines they have as being a "dead duck". Time for us to go buy them cheap and begin using them. They can't be much worse than iVotronics, TSx, etc. Legal complaints have been filed against ES&S today, in Indiana and West Virginia. And, no surprise, MicroVote was certified by the state of Indiana....

Today is successes and failures. New York activists are generally pleased with the new voting machine policy adopted for the state. Meanwhile a judge in Allegheny County has found in favor of the county and will allow them to go forward with the use of the ES&S voting machines. Ireland has finally declared the Liberty voting machines they have as being a "dead duck". Time for us to go buy them cheap and begin using them. They can't be much worse than iVotronics, TSx, etc. Legal complaints have been filed against ES&S today, in Indiana and West Virginia. And, no surprise, MicroVote was certified for use in Indiana....

Today is successes and failures. New York activists are generally pleased with the new voting machine policy adopted for the state. Meanwhile a judge in Allegheny County has found in favor of the county and will allow them to go forward with the use of the ES&S voting machines. Ireland has finally declared the Liberty voting machines they have as being a "dead duck". Time for us to go buy them cheap and begin using them. They can't be much worse than iVotronics, TSx, etc. Legal complaints have been filed against ES&S today, in Indiana and West Virginia. And, no surprise, MicroVote was certified for use in Indiana....

Rush Limbaugh today became the latest in a long line of arrested Republicans smiling for their mugshots, though he made a deal to avoid being "sent up" unlike the little people who can't afford the expensive attorneys that he can. From AP...

It's not about the sex drugs, it's about the lying.

Additional coverage:
-- RAW STORY...
-- CBS News...
-- Sun-Sentinel...

It looks like old Rush is gonna have to think about much more than just Florida drug rehab programs at this point! Sounds like he needs to be, to use his words, "convicted" and "sent up". That might be rehab for us all!

Neil Young's new protest album, Livining With War, which includes "Let's Impeach the President" and other anti-war/anti-Bush tunes, is now released for listening online at NeilYoung.com.

It's also available, if you have any problem streaming from Young's site, at Justice Through Music (their version is handy, since it also allows you to pause listening, if needed.)

Jim Cirile provided an exclusive early preview of the album for The BRAD BLOG last weekend. Feel free to leave us your review here in comments!

UPDATE: "LET'S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT" ONLINE HERE
Though we recommend listening the whole album, as you're required to do on the Neil Young site, etc. (we've now done so twice and the whole thing kicks ass), here is a streaming version of "Let's Impeach the President" only...

"Let's Impeach the President" in Streaming Flash format...

Care to sing along?

Let's impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
He's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war...

Complete lyrics here...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Audio in MP3 format...

Earlier this week, a European Parliament committee released a report saying that the CIA had illegally detained people and used secret 'rendition' flights to transport them to other countries or secret CIA prisons where they were expected to be tortured.

Several members of European Parliament met in Macedonia today to investigate the story of Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen, who was abducted by the CIA. After being kidnapped, he was then 'rendered' to a U.S. prison in Afghanistan and held for 5 months.