Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Word just in! Francine Busby will be on the radio with Peter B. Collins beginning at 8:15pm Eastern time. That's 7:15 Central, 6:15 Mountain and 5:15 Pacific, of course.

If you're in (or near) Monterey, Sacramento, Eureka or Phoenix, you can listen via broadcast radio.Otherwise your only option is a streaming webcast.

Either way, click here for more details.

UPDATE: A recording of Francine Busby's interview with Peter B. Collins is now available. Click here to download it (MP3).

We now have a transcript, courtesy of Emily Levy. That's below the fold.

We're also trying to get the audio for Busby's appearance on The Stacy Taylor Show on KLSD this morning, too. Will post it when/if we get it.

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

Under pressure from activists Blackwell has decided to stop any plans to destroy 2004 voting records for several months at least. This seems to be a win for those who are still looking going through the mounds of data. / Ballot access (whether a person or party have the right to be named on the ballot) issues seem to be picking up in the courts. / Summit Co. Ohio has no money left to run the Nov. general election. They are asking for $1.7M from the county but they are getting a lot of questions in return. ...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Today's New York Times has a front-page article called Ohio to Delay Destruction of Presidential Ballots, which starts like this:

The article gets around to mentioning the secretary of state in Columbus by name, but it never quite manages to point out that in addition to supervising the electoral process, Kenneth Blackwell co-chaired the Bush/Cheney '04 Ohio campaign.

Can the NYT spell "conflict of interest"?

More widespread irregularities than previously known? Yikes! We already knew so much!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Monday's New York Times included a long article about the alleged "liquid bombing plot", which --- as you may recall --- was reportedly broken up by British authorities three weeks ago.

The article "claims to reveal new information", and would certainly have been of great interest to NYT readers in Great Britain.

But they couldn't read it!

Guest blogged by Joy Williams

Hello folks, here's the next in my series of Democracy in Crisis... I hope you can attend this!

I emailed David Swanson after hearing him describe Camp Democracy on a few different shows on Air America, and asked him for a few minutes of his time to explain to me the plans for this event in our nation’s capital. He happily agreed, so here’s the interview. Let’s spread the news about this far and wide so as many people can attend as possible.

From David Swanson’s website...

David Swanson is the Washington Director of Democrats.com and of ImpeachPAC.org. He is co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, creator of Progressive Democrats of America. He serves on the steering committee of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice and on a working group of United for Peace and Justice.

He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson serves on the Executive Council of the Washington Baltimore Newspaper Guild. He obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.

His website is www.davidswanson.org.

Stay tuned following the interview below for more information and specific details on Camp Democracy for those who'd like to come on out...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

According to Mike Malloy's website:

And now you know as much about this as I do.

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

Foreign-born, US citizens have filed a suit in Ohio against a law that could require that they provide citizenship papers at the polls when they go to vote. This seems to be a violation of their right to equal protection. Included in the group bringing suit is the wife of an ex-Governor. / In Missouri a state auditor candidate has requested a state-wide hand recount of his race. The state and county clerks want to do a machine recount only. / Ex-GOP Congressman Bob Barr speaks out against voting machines ...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Well, OK ... I'm not really a King ... but I would like to see another open thread!

{So... poof! He made it so. --99}

Blogged by Brad from the road...

"It's outrageous," says Francine Busby, "that this judge just said the state of California doesn't have jurisdiction over our own elections, over this election."

Busby's remarks, in a report today by William Finn Bennett in the North County Times, were a suprising departure from her previously guarded stance concerning the challenge of the June 6th U.S. House Special Election between herself and Brian Bilbray.

"What happened today should be of concern to all voters," Busby reportedly said.

Bennett's coverage of yesterday's debacle in the San Diego County courtroom where Judge Yuri Hoffman dismissed the election contest in support of the defendants' arguments that the U.S. House, not the voters or courts of California, have jurisdication to adjudicate election challenges after the House has already seated a member, is quite good. Indeed, it was a refreshing departure from previous sloppy, sometimes wholly inaccurate and occassionally entirely partisan North County Times reports and commentary on the case (see this embarrasing commentary from Jim Trageser for the most egregious.)

Bennett's report today, on the other hand, quite fairly describes the court's atrocious decision which we reported on in detail yesterday. Here's a sample from his coverage...

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

A federal judge ruled against Florida governor Jeb Bush and struck down a Florida law that imposes hefty fines on third parties that take too long to submit voter registration forms, saying it threatens free speech rights and unfairly exempts political parties. As reported by the Brennan Center this ruling may affect similar laws in Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and Georgia. / It appears that Franklin Co. Ohio intends on putting all voting files on line so anyone who wants can download all of the ballots and audit the election themselves. Of course, this is probably subject to change if they find that their ES&S machines had problems and it will happen following all audits and election certification. ...

A judge in the San Diego challenge to the Francine Busby/Brian Bilbray U.S. House Special Election in California's 50th Congressional District has found in favor of the defendants' motion to dismiss the case based on jurisdictional grounds, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

We have covered the defendants' argument, that the swearing in of Bilbray --- just seven days after the election and a full 16 days prior to certification by San Diego County --- effectively transferred power to decide any election challenges from the California courts to the U.S. House of Representatives. Those arguments are discussed in detail in several previous BRAD BLOG articles (here, here, here and here.)

The defendants' attempts to force plaintiffs to cover the cost of attorneys fees (a so-called "SLAPP back" motion) was denied by Judge Yuri Hofmann based on the same jurisdicational arguments used to dismiss the case, according to the plaintiffs' attorney, Paul Lehto. Since the California court has no jurisdication to adjudicate an election contest for a California U.S. House election, according to the court's opinion, it also has no jurisidiction to find against plaintiffs in the "SLAPP back" motion, explained Lehto.

VelvetRevolution.us is now collecting donations to help defray the cost of an appeal of this ruling.

Extended EXCLUSIVE comments on the judge's ruling today, from attorney Paul Lehto are below, followed by Hofmann's ruling in its entirety...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Judge Yuri Hofmann of the California Superior Court is expected to rule this afternoon on the arguments presented Friday.

The plaintiffs in the CA50 Election Contest are asking for a manual count of ballots from the June 6th House special election, which was held to replace former Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who resigned after being unable to contain the fallout from a major bribery scandal.

The defendants are arguing that California no longer has any jurisdiction over the election since the Republican U.S. House went ahead and swore in Brian Bilbray just 7 days after the election, with thousands of votes still uncounted, and certification still several weeks away...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

I have three Katrina-related items for you, from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Greg Palast, respectively.

NYT: Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

We have two news articles and some analysis from Mexico:

BBC: Mexico court rejects fraud claim

Guest blogged by Emily Levy

You know by now that Brian Bilbray was sworn in as Congressional Representative before the June 6 election in San Diego County, CA was certified. You might even remember reading on The BRAD BLOG that the official swearing in was preceded by a public "mock" swearing in. You learned last week that this premature act is now being used by the defendants in the Busby/Bilbray election contest as an attempt to nullify the election in California's 50th district. But today (drum roll please) Michael Collins of Scoop Independent News reveals that it was Assistant California SoS Susan Lapsley (seen in photo) who provided the election results to the House.

Collins points us to the Congressional Digest...