Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

You have to read this piece. I can't tell you why. I can only get you started.

Read the whole thing!. Then come back here and talk to me!

I think we should give Larisa Alexandrovna a Big BRAD BLOG Award for this epic piece of blogging, but I can't decide what we should call the award ... and I'm also looking for a suitable inscription. So please help me out here. All suggestions welcome, as usual.

(NOTE to LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALL readers and the other Rightie blogsites who parrot that one with misleading headlines like "Bradblog: Don't Donate to Bush States". You may (or may not) wish to know that the following BRAD BLOG Guest Blog item by Joseph Cannon has been entirely misquoted to you out of context by your blogmasters.

Like your "President", your blogmasters seem only interested in misleading you and ensuring that you stay in the dark by giving you only the selected-out-of-context information which meets their own political agenda.

We invite you to read Mr. Cannon's entire blog item before you add your two cents in the comments section here whatever they may be. Unlike LGF and the bulk of the other rightie blogs that have misquoted this article in hopes of avoiding accountability where it belongs for this national disaster, our comments section is open and requires no pre-registration, which LGF no longer seems to allow anyway.

As to LGF's misleading update to their misleading item describing my comment here as "an uttlerly craven excuse," I promise to scratch my head and ponder for the rest of the evening what "excuse" it is they are referring to. Even LGF's reply to my comment is wholly bereft of anything that represents actual information, honesty or reality. LGF and other rightwing blogsite readers, along with all Americans, deserve much better. All opinions here are welcome. Even those with which we don't agree. BF)

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

I'm not going to post the piece I started to write.

My original reaction to the Katrina catastrophe was going to be: "NOT ONE DIME."

For an hour or so, I contemplated the idea of turning it into a crusade: No-one in the blue states (where the money is) should give one dime of aid to the victims of this hurricane, which devastated Bush-friendly regions.

Why did I flirt with such a callous attitude?

"I came here bitter and angry, but this is a place where the anger turns to hope. And you know why it turns to hope? Because of Camp Casey, we remembered something we forgot. We own this country. This is our country."
-- Cindy Sheehan, in closing remarks to supporters and volunteers on the final night at Camp Casey II
Crawford, TX, Aug. 30th, 2005

The BRAD SHOW via RAW RADIO's "Operation Noble Cause" carried Sheehan's final remarks to volunteers at Camp Casey II in Crawford, Texas. Exclusive audio here [MP3]...

(Many more highlights from The BRAD SHOW's "Operation Noble Cause" coverage in Crawford can be heard here with more to be made available soon!)

As The BRAD BLOG has been reporting for months, the recount of the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election was gamed by Ohio elections officials and voting machine company employees who violated state laws requiring a random recount of precincts in order to determine if a hand recount of entire counties would be necessary.

Reports that county officials and voting machine companies colluded to assure the hand recount would match with the initial machine recount have been reported for months and yesterday the first indictments were handed down.

According to today's Cleveland Plain Dealer...

Amongst the reports on this matter that The BRAD BLOG has carried since last November, is the case of Hocking County election board worker Sherole Eaton, who filed a sworn affidavit that an employee from voting machine company, Triad had offered a "cheat sheet" to her and other county officials on how the recount might be carried off to assure the entire county would not need to be recounted by hand. He also allegedly removed and restored a harddrive from the county's central tabulating machine prior to the recount, according to Eaton, also in violation of Ohio state law. Eaton is currently challenging her firing as improprer.

Ohio law calls for a random selection of 3% of a county's precincts to be carried out by hand. If that random recount doesn't match the initially reported count, a full recount of the county would then be necessary. Eaton was subsequently fired from the board after making her claim public (our BRAD SHOW interview with Eaton is here [mp3]).

As well, RAW STORY had reported last January that several recount witnesses had testified to stickers having been placed over Kerry/Edwards votes on ballots before they were fed into vote tabulators during the recount in that county. (Our BRAD SHOW interview with two of those witnesses, Stephen Spraley and Eric Gifford, is here [mp3]).

(Hat tip Ray Beckerman!)

Guest blogged by David Edwards

New Orleans ex-mayor, Sydney Barethemly, pleads with President Bush to allocate the resources to save New Orleans and make it a safe place once again. He says that the president must focus and make saving the city and the 80,000 trapped people a priority. He believes that if we do this on the President's schedule then it may be too late.

Video from CNN American Morning (Windows Media)

To find more information about the organizations that are coordinating efforts for New Orleans, Democratic Underground has provided an excellent list of Hurricane Disaster Relief Resources.

In another RAW STORY exclusive, our good friend Larisa Alexandrovna has some very interesting words from retired U. S. Army Colonel Michael Pheneger, whose credentials seem quite impressive:

More importantly, he makes a ton of sense, especially when he says things like:

and

I've been saying the same sorts of things for how long now? When is Larisa going to interview me??

I'm kidding of course but I can't help it; this is so repulsive, and it has been so blatant, and it has been going on for so long, if I didn't bring some humor to the discussion I could never force myself to write about it at all. No, it isn't funny. It's atrocious and it's outrageous and it's very serious ... and seriously, it's encouraging to see someone with the credentials and experience of Colonel Pheneger, telling it like it is!

So a big BRAD BLOG thank-you to retired U.S. Army Colonel Michael Pheneger and another big thank-you to the very lovely and extremely talented Larisa Alexandrovna.

You can read all of Larisa's interview with Colonel Michael Pheneger here.

We'll be wrapping up tonight, LIVE from Camp Casey II as the big tent comes down.

Most of the folks have now moved on from Crawford and the tent is filled with many of the volunteers, bloggers, vets and families who will be here until tomorrow's final move out of town.

We'll be back on the air (Listening links at www.BradShow.com) tonight at 9pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT), for a final wrap-up during the "talent show" of the volunteers and those other die-hards who are still here at Camp Casey II.

Join us, as we broadcast LIVE from Crawford, TX for what (we hope) will be the last time...If the Radio, Democracy and Internet Gods permit us.

Please consider this an Open Thread for tonight's show, and spread the word where ya can.

{UPDATE from Winter Patriot: DONATIONS are still badly needed. If you can help in this regard, we'd certainly appreciate it. You can Donate via Credit Card or PayPal or you can Donate via Snail Mail and if those options don't appeal to you then you can always do some gift shopping at The BRAD STORE. Thanks to you and your financial support Brad is still on the air. Gasp! Sigh! And thanks again!!}

And yet another UPDATE from WP with a summary of your live listening options:
The IBC Radio Network
WhiteRoseSociety (Option 1)
WhiteRoseSociety (Option 2)
KPFTX.org
OmRadio.com
RadioPower.org

Open thread blogging below, as usual. Please join us if you can!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The BRAD SHOW returns, LIVE and RAW and coming to you direct from Crawford, Texas. As usual, the show is scheduled to start at High Noon Central time, 1pm Eastern, 11am Mountain, 10am Pacific. That's 6pm in London, and 7pm in Paris and Prague [we think!] ... So please join us this morning, afternoon or evening, as the case may be.

THIS IS SCHEDULED TO BE THE FINAL DAY of BRADcasting from Crawford, Texas. As Brad has written:

LISTEN LIVE via:The IBC Radio Network
or at WhiteRoseSociety (Option 1)
or WhiteRoseSociety (Option 2)

Once again we remind you that The BRAD SHOW is still supported primarily by listener donations, and we need more listeners and more contributors! So please pick up the phone, or send some e-mail, and tell all your friends about The BRAD SHOW. You (and they) will be glad you did.

But as always, we depend on you. How can you help? You can Donate via Credit Card or PayPal, or Donate via Snail Mail, or shop at The BRAD STORE. We thank you for your support.

LIVE OPEN THREAD BLOGGING below: click on the "comments" link at the bottom-right corner of this item to join in.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Psst! As the "front man" for The Whispering Campaign, I get all kinds of stuff via e-mail, including a couple of news summaries compiled by people and/or organizations who have nothing to do with Brad or The BRAD BLOG ... they found The Whispering Campaign as soon as we went public and they offered to send us things and we said "sure" and it comes to me ... I read some of this stuff and scan the rest, usually, if I have time, but I never quite know what to do with it. My first impulse it to share it... but the quantity poses a bit of a problem, because I can hardly even find time to read it, let alone blog about it. I mean there's just all this stuff happening every day. Or every week. As the case may be.

I call it "the blizzard". You can only examine so many snowflakes before you freeze to death standing up. [Apologies to any matsodons in the audience; I agree it was a tasteless joke.] So mostly I just scan this stuff and say "thanks" under my breath, and keep going ... you know how it is: Life in the fast lane, Surely make you lose your mind, mm, Are you with me so far?

... and ... I've been thinking it might be good to find some snippet of one of these newsletters and post it, to see what BRAD BLOG readers think of it ... but what to post? and when? and how to "package" it? and so on ... a lot of questions remained unanswered ... until I saw that somebody with no known connection to The BRAD SHOW or The BRAD BLOG ... someone who, to my knowledge, had never even heard of The BRAD SHOW or The BRAD BLOG... had sent me a news compilation that mentions ... very prominently ... are you way ahead of me here??

Look, here's a short excerpt [with a wee bit of emphasis added]:

There's more, of course.

Brad and our favorite Crawford photo-blogger, AlaskaGyrl, on the air Sunday in our state-of-the-art broadcasting facilities in Camp Casey II...

She left today. We miss her already.

(NOTE: Thanks to Ben Burch at WhiteRoseSociety.org, The BRAD SHOW's special coverage from Camp Casey is re-airing all night long here or here!)

Guest blogged by David Edwards

On Sunday evening, Martin Sheen took the stage at Camp Casey II in Crawford to express his support for Cindy Sheehan and the cause that has brought so many protestors to President Bush's doorstep.

The Brad Show, the only radio show with live coverage of the evening's events, has part one of Martin Sheen's speech in available in the Operation Noble Cause archives.

The photo is from AlaskaGyrl.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The BRAD SHOW returns, LIVE and RAW and coming to you direct from Crawford, Texas. As usual, the show is scheduled to start at High Noon Central time, 1pm Eastern, 11am Mountain, 10am Pacific. That's 6pm in London, and 7pm in Paris and Prague [we think!] ... So please join us this morning, afternoon or evening, as the case may be.

LISTEN LIVE via:The IBC Radio Network
or at WhiteRoseSociety (Option 1)
or WhiteRoseSociety (Option 2)

On today's show, Brad hopes to interview several Bush supporters ... and that should be fun!

Once again we remind you that The BRAD SHOW is still supported primarily by listener donations, and we need more listeners and more contributors! So please pick up the phone, or send some e-mail, and tell all your friends about The BRAD SHOW. You (and they) will be glad you did.

But as always, we depend on you. How can you help? You can Donate via Credit Card or PayPal, or Donate via Snail Mail, or shop at The BRAD STORE. We thank you for your support.

LIVE OPEN THREAD BLOGGING below: click on the "comments" link at the bottom-right corner of this item to join in.