Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The depth and pressure of all of the news reports about electronic voting issues must have finally built up so much that the Associated Press 'dam' finally burst and they had to respond! Today they even mentioned the GAO report, well over a month after it was issued with much bipartisan fanfare from members of Congress.

"E-voting under scrutiny as federal compliance deadline looms", by AP Technology Writer Brian Bergstein, correctly says that some states are in trouble and will not be able to meet some mandates of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Bergstein runs through the gamut of problems that have been reported in the past few days and some that happened in past elections. With regards to the GAO report he says:

Bergstein also discusses yesterday's report from North Carolina where Diebold was told to 'put up or shut up': either meet the state law that requires them to put all their source code into escrow, or forget about doing business in North Carolina.

It's almost as if Bergstein had been reading The BRAD BLOG because he also picked up on the California hack story and got an update on that from the SoS spokeswoman, Nghia Nguyen Demovic.

Unfortunately Bergstein didn't report on the "Deadline" and what that means to many states. California is one of many states that will not meet the January 1, 2006 deadline for having accessible voting systems. This is going to be a nationwide problem. Yesterday, the Sacramento Bee had this to say:

We are happy to see the Associated Press finally coming out of their shell with regard to voting technology. Is this something that will last or is it just a passing phase?

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

As usual, there's a great deal of important new material on the blog at the moment and I wouldn't want to distract you from it. But on the other hand I thought you might like to know [even a bit belatedly] that Buzzflash has published the second installment of Maureen Farrell's three-part essay about the history of modern America.

As loyal BRAD BLOG reader and frequent commenter Robert Lockwood Mills pointed out last week, when the first part was published, it's "anecdotal history, not a narrative. But if even half of the dots connect it's very, very scary."

In my opinion, the number of dots that connect is way more than half.

If you've already read the first part, you'll have some idea of what to expect. If you haven't, please consider this a friendly reminder.

Below, a few short excerpts from part two:

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A typical Wed. newsday today. Lot's of news. In Venezuela three political parties dropped out of the legislative elections because they do not think the elections are being fairly administered. There is a lot more from California regarding the now infamous 'hack' but you really need to go to BlackBoxVoting.Org to get the whole story. There are recounts planned in a few states but most of them will be done on DREs so they are really a waste of time. And, there is a comprehensive article from the AP about the HAVA deadline. This article actually mentions the GAO report which is pretty much a first for the AP...

I'm addressing folks on Election Reform issues tonight at an event organized by Global Exchange/Ventura County. It's a FREE event, so come on by if you're in the 'hood and say hello! It's at 7pm PT with a Q&A after. Here's more info, and there are specific location details as well at the top of the BRAD BLOG Front Page right now.

If I'm available on time, I may be on Trevor Carey's show on KFKA News Radio (1310am in Greeley/Fort Collins, CO) along with Lydia Cornell at 9:30p PT as well. I believe she'll be there either with or without me if you listen online or call in to say hey.

Otherwise, in the meantime, consider this an Open Thread to your heart's desire...

Joe Cannon has some choice words about Ann Coulter in light of her recent indefensible violation of BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger Lydia Cornell's privacy. A spot-on passage or two from some CannonFire worth taking in full:

And while you're there, also check out Cannon's interesting eagle-eyed observation about one overlooked point in the Cunningham/MZM mess and how it might --- like so many other GOP Scandals d'Jour --- eventually find its way into the White House...

Dave Astor of the excellent and respected Editor & Publisher covers two matters we've discussed here recently.

Last night he did a quick item on the Ann Coulter/Lydia Cornell outrage. For the record, Coulter still has Lydia's private information posted publicly on her website some 48 hours after it was posted there. She has been asked politely to remove it. She has chosen not to.

As Cornell pointed out in her response yesterday, that sort of thing helped Bill O'Reilly blow his stack recently when he thought (incorrectly, of course) that a "liberal" group had posted a private email address on their website. Of course, it doesn't take much for the increasingly unstable O'Reilly to blow his stack these days.

As well, Astor covered Robert Koehler's latest Tribune Media Services' "Poll Shock" column that we briefly reported on last week. His coverage gathers additional comments from both the Dispatch Public Affairs Editor Darrel Rowland and Koehler on the "staggeringly impossible" results of Ohio's recent Nov. 8th 2005:

I love that. It's the exact same thing we heard after the '04 Presidential Election: Once someone else finds the "solid evidence" the media will be happy to report on it. Note to Mainstream Media: It's your job to investigate the smoke and find out if there's a fire! Otherwise, what the hell do we need investigative reporters for at all? Oh, yeah. Apparently, we don't. The bloggers will do it for you. (But don't come running to us wondering why it is that your readership is falling over a cliff in the meantime!)

Koehler's reponse to Rowland in E&P:

Go Bob. And thank you, E&P.

UPDATE: And speaking of Koehler, this just in from his latest column which will be published tomorrow and available then to read at this location:

In North Carolina, Diebold had been attempting to get a special court order allowing them to get around NC's law requiring that Voting Machine Companies hand over their source code for their secret software to be kept in escrow in the event of a problem later. North Carolina has had many recently, including the complete loss of some 4500+ votes in Cartaret County during the Nov. '04 Presidential Election which led to a Re-Vote in the county.

Thanks to efforts by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the court has now ruled against Diebold's requested dispensation from state law. Now Diebold claims they are going to have to get out of the state entirely. Glad to hear it. If it's true. Other Voting Machine Companies have complied with the law, apparently, so what's Diebold's problem? Do they have something they wish to hide in that source code?

We may never know...AP reports:

You'll pardon me, but I'm a bit of a computer programmer myself, and I understand the difference between providing source code that one has written versus source code for an entire operating system (like Windows) and/or third-party tools which are used to perform various generic tasks called by the program itself.

If Diebold had nothing to hide or fear, they would simply turn over their full source code to the state to be put into escrow, with the explanation that they do not have the access to (or legal permission to provide, even if they did) the source code to copyrighted third-party software. The state of North Carolina wasn't asking for that as far as I can tell, and an open admission to that --- as allowed by the state law --- should more than have covered Diebold from any liabilities concerning that third-party software.

That said, I'm glad to hear of their apparent threats to pull out of North Carolina entirely. And with that, I hope every other state in the union will immediately apply the same requirement in their state and let Diebold get back to the business of making ATM machines with open software which provides a paper record of every transaction. Apparently, they're quite good at that.

UPDATE: Jamie at IntoxiNation has more along the same lines...

Guest Blogged by Lydia Cornell

(NOTE FROM BRAD: Lydia has been overwhelmed with notes, media interviews and yes, phone calls, since her original BRAD BLOG article on Ann Coulter and certainly since Coulter decided to post her private information on her website. It's been nearly 24 hours, and --- incredibly --- Coulter has yet to remove Lydia's personal information from her website. If you happen to read this in time, Lydia will be on Bob Kincaid's Head-On radio show at 6pm PT if you care to tune in or call in. You can listen online here.)

I have received so many wonderful letters of support, since posting my original article about Ann Coulter here on BRAD BLOG there is no doubt in my mind we are on the right path, shining light on hatred and perversity. Her personal attack against me as posted on her website last night seems to confirm that notion.

My phone has also, unfortunately, been ringing off the hook from people who call and just hang up. Thank you, Ann.

I see that Bill O'Reilly referred with outrage to Media Matters as having "violated your privacy by putting out your personal e-mail address" when in fact, according to this website, they hadn't actually posted anything but a public email address.

Since Brad reported on Bill O'Reilly's Enemy List today, I wonder if he'll add Coulter to his list, or at least show Ann Coulter the same kind of outrage --- and call her a "Zombie" as he did Media Matters --- for violating my privacy next time he has her on his show.

However, the news is still good and my hope for the country is unshaken. Only one out of every 20 letters I've received has been a hateful one. Here's an incredibly cruel letter from someone (whose email address and name I have removed!)...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It was an interesting day today. California media are still talking about the 'hack', or no 'hack', and now the SoS is talking about doing a 'hack' on all voting systems. This should be interesting and we will continue to watch as this all develops. Also getting media attention across the country is the court decision in North Carolina. This could have national implications for Diebold because other states require source code escrow. If Diebold is not willing to do it in NC, how are they doing it elsewhere?...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

This report from David Schuster of MSNBC's Hardball provides a review of the corruption investigations heating up in Washington D.C.  Schuster concludes:

Video in Windows Media format...
Video in QuickTime format...

On November 14th, on his Fox "News" program The O'Reilly Factor, smear merchant and alleged sex offender Bill O'Reilly promised to "post the names" of those who were critical of his radio comment encouraging Al Qaeda to blow up San Francisco. Crooks And Liars has the video here.

O'Reilly had said, on his radio program, after the city voted against allowing military recruiters in public high schools and colleges there in the November 8th election:

Today, O'Reilly has finally posted his promised Enemies List on his website which he catagorizes as a list of "Media Operations that traffic in defamation." At this time, his list includes just three media outlets which he identifies as "the worst offenders". Though O'Reilly gives no specific details on why the outlets made his list, all three had been critical of O'Reilly in the past and reported on misinformation he had given to his television viewers and listeners of his radio show.

Here is the complete text from his promised McCarthy-esque list.

Arianna Huffington on her Huffington Post website has been requesting names of those who'd like to be on O'Reilly's list. She has promised to "hand deliver them" to O'Reilly.

The BRAD BLOG regrets not making O'Reilly's list, but promises readers that we will endeavor to continue our accurate reporting on well-paid media character assassins like O'Reilly in hopes of some day rating the honor of being on such a list.

UPDATE: Crooks and Liars has a clip from O'Reilly's radio show today, which begs the question: Has O'Reilly simply gone bonkers?

Media Matters, a non-profit progressive-leaning media watchdog organization, has launched a campaign today on their website calling on CNN to stop giving Republican author and talking head Ann Coulter airtime on the cable network.

Citing 10 appearances on CNN since early 2004, the group, founded by one-time Conservative author turned Progressive David Brock, is asking why the cable news channel continues to host her on the air, giving her a continuing international outlet to spread her threatening hate speech, irresponsible smears, character assassinations and otherwise wholly incorrect information.

Media Matters has tracked false and misleading statements by media personalities such as Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and scores of others, along with news outlets such as all three broadcast networks, all three cable news channels along with dozens of other mainstream newspapers, organizations and journalists.

On their webpage calling for the discontinuation of Coulter as a guest on CNN, Media Matters cites several hateful quotes from the acid-tongued blonde such as her question pondering if it would be better "to impeach or assassinate" Bill Clinton and expressing her "only regret" that Oklahoma City bomber Timother McVeigh "did not go to the New York Times building."

On last Friday's edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN, Coulter charged that Democrats are "gutless traitors" and "long to see U.S. troops shot."

In 1997 Coulter was fired by MSNBC for comments she made on air, according to Media Matters' report. She continues to be a regular guest on the Fox "News" Channel.

The Media Matters campaign points readers to this CNN contact page where they can send CNN opinions about giving Coulter air time. The page at Media Matters announcing the campaign has much more information.

Last night Coulter seemed to have sunk to a new low by posting a personal email address and phone number along with a personal email on her website which was sent to her by BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger, author and actress Lydia Cornell. The astounding lapse in both netiquette and decency was in apparent retaliation for an article Cornell wrote here about her attempts to get more information on a speech Coulter recently gave in Florida calling for the repression of speech by Democrats. The entire shameful incident, in which Coulter wrote that "Death is sexier than Lydia Cornell" is reported in this previous BRAD BLOG item.