FILIBUSTER-PROOF MAJORITY NOW LINING UP FOR U.S. SENATE DEMS

[BradBlog]

Source: BRAD BLOG

FILIBUSTER-PROOF MAJORITY NOW LINING UP FOR U.S. SENATE DEMS
Still-Outstanding Races in AK, MN & GA May Well Add Up to 60 Seats for Democrats IF The Elections Are Counted As Per the Voters' Intent...

In case you haven't been able to keep up with the barrage of reporting here over the last 48 hours --- concerning serious election irregularities in various races around the country --- allow me to connect at least the dots that may well add up to a fillibuster-proof Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate.

Now that challenger Jeff Merkley (D) has been declared the winner (at least by the media) over incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith (R) in Oregon, the Democrats have currently been named the winner in enough elections U.S. Senate races that they will have at least 57 seats when President-elect Barack Obama takes office next January.

There remains, however, three U.S. Senate races still in serious contention, all of which, there is very good reason to believe, may end up going to the Democratic candidate if serious attention is given to issues of election integrity in each of those races. Setting aside whether or not a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate is a good or bad thing, the undecided races at this hour -- in Alaska, Minnesota and Georgia -- are quickly summarized below, along with links to more detailed coverage, for your convenience...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6645


Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6645

[asksam]

1. That's fantastic news! Let's make sure the Rethugs don't steal any...

... of those three elections!

[roguevalley]

16. they are stealing the alaska election. keep praying.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. Let us pray.....

even the atheists this time! We fucking need this!

[last1standing]

3. Don't be insulting to Atheists.

Atheists don't ask you to stop believing in a god, stop asking them to start. :mad:

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. No insults intended.

Pray to God, a flying pan of spaghetti, be dyslexic and talk to your dog.... whatever works for ya, as long as we get 60 Senators. :)

[tbyg52]

30. I will "pray" to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

And wish, wish, wish, hope, hope, hope.

Plus I sent a little $ to the Franken recount fund. I think that counts for more than prayer...! ;) :hi:

https://secure.alfranken.com/page/contribute/EM2008

Edited for traditional stupid typo.
Edited again to add link.

[AndyTiedye]

35. One Can Focus One's Will, One's Energy and One's Hopes

whether or not one chooses to involve any higher power in the process.

[Eric J in MN]

4. 'The same ballots run through the same machines, yielded different results each time'

It would be nice if you could tell us how much the votes change when ballots are re-inserted.

[FSogol]

5. That is pretty optimistic. Remember the Creigh Deeds AG recount in VA?

A statewide recount of all ballots only changed about 200 votes. The margin off difference was less than 1%.

[JJ]

6. Imagine if the machines that banks used to count money

got a different result each run.

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. Remember that Superman movie with Richard Pryor?

Ever wondered what really happenned to all the half-cents?

A lot of ATM machines are made by DIEBOLD, so who knows?

[KelleyKramer]

7. Does that count include Lieberman with the Dems?

Sheesh, I hope not.

[Sebastian Doyle]

10. Unfortunately, yes

We really need 61 to get rid of him once and for all :(

[maddogesq]

11. How sad that Benedict F*&&turd Joe could hold the cards.

His ego-ridden self musta know this was a possibility all along.

[Libertyfirst]

12. I still say Lieberman has to go. Let's turn a moderate Republican.

[Wednesdays]

14. Is there such a thing anymore?

:shrug:

[clear eye]

15. The Senators from Maine n/t

[BradBlog]

13. WHO KEEPS MOVING THESE REPORTS?! THIS IS NOT "ELECTION REFORM"!!!

I posted this in Breaking News, because it's BREAKING NEWS. It is NOT "Election Reform" so why the hell has it been moved here?! An earlier report on the Senate race in Alaska was moved to "GD: Presidential".

What the hell?!!

Please REC and KICK this one to make up for it's misplacement here in "Election Reform" please!!!

[ObamaDaMan]

19. Well, nothing personal......

With all due respect Brad, you can't blame them for moving your thread. There are too many questions with the Clint Curtis story, your affiliation with the convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin, and with your close affiliation to David Benjamin Burch. Perhaps most troubling is that your #1 blogger, John Gideon, is a bigwig with VoteTrustUSA. VoteTrustUSA is part of the Verified Voting Foundation. They are advocates for electronic machines with paper receipts. That contradicts your advocating for the removal of the electronic machines. Plus, it probably doesn't help your cause that bozosRnot4Bush is also a friend of yours. And what's up with that username of his? Does that mean that "Bozos" are for Democrats? Huh? Wow! That guy has been one of the prime tools bashing Obama the last half year or so. He has been posting with the kingpins for spreading disinfo smear on Obama, Larry Johnson of No Quarters and Cannonfire.

The same thing happened to "Fintan Dunne." I believe everything he now posts gets immediately tossed into the 9/11 dungeon. I'm not saying that this forum is a conspiracy forum either. Maybe DU can't afford to have you posting in any section other than this one? Maybe a new policy has been put in place so the things mentioned above do not tarnish this board's reputation.

[BradBlog]

20. Wow...talk about complete disinfo...

I don't even know where to start. Given the amount of complete and utter bullshit in that post, I won't even bother, since clearly, that's little more than an attempt at swiftboating, versus anything legitimate.

BTW, John Gideon will be surprised to hear of his "affiliation" with VoteTrust, and I'll be surprised to hear of any "questions with the Clint Curtis story", but not from you, since clearly, you're a scam artist.

Keep up the bad work, chief.

[ObamaDaMan]

22. Here's Your Proof

votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=96&Itemid=84





I'm actually more interested in your support of Bozos and why Larisa of RawStory covered up for Kimberlin. She said he was a political prisoner and how it wasn't true that he was a convicted bomber. Or maybe she'd like to retract what she wrote here years ago?

The Curtis story has been debunked by others. No need to reinvent the wheel on that one. People can decide for themselves, if they want to do the legwork.

You're denying the Obama bashing done by No Quarters, Cannonfire and your buddy Bozos?

I guess you were out of the loop for Gideon being at VoteTrustUSA just as you were for OnTheOtherhand being Mark Lindeman?

'
DU deserves to know the truth. Everyone deserves the truth and some closure for all the stuff that's been going on with the "electoral integrity movement."

[tbyg52]

34. Brad, FWIW, all the posts re election reform since it went mainstream (at least here)

Should have gone in ERD, where they would be easy to get to for historical purposes. I thought about mentioning it, but decided it was just nice that they got mainstream attention (at least here).

Thank you very much for what you do. :hi:

Edited for traditional stupid typo.

[lala_rawraw]

37. The guy is likely

The same guy who set up scamdy.com... don't your recognize the badly phrased structures being passed off as sentences? Seems like someone is a bit jumpy now that Bush is leaving office.

[OnTheOtherHand]

24. maybe I should grab some popcorn?

My admiration for Brad knows bounds. But the idea that John Gideon and Verified Voting "are advocates for electronic machines with paper receipts" does not compute (pardon the dumb pun).

I've always thought that guilt by association can't strengthen a progressive movement -- but it can produce some weirdly interesting train wrecks.

[ObamaDaMan]

32. It seems that Brad doesn't agree with you

If you had read my post more closely, you'd have seen that I never said that Gideon was for electronic machines with paper receipts. I simply showed that he was closely affiliated with such people. Ok, Sir, if VVF is not for those things, then what exactly are they fighting for? They are clearly not for authentic paper ballots. You yourself also appear to be for machines with paper receipts and limited audits. Now instead of people like me conjecturing, why don't you just once and for all explain what exactly you think are the solutions to our electoral problems. Other than harping on and on about exit polls and astroturfing that Bush won in 2004, I haven't really seen any statements from you clearly spelling out what the answers are to ensure our democracy is no longer in a constitutional crisis.

You appear to be for limited audits. *My answer is below.*

Brad says Gideon quit VTUSA because of their propensity to not support paper ballots. If you guys could simply answer questions sincerely instead of jumping to conclusions about messengers, perhaps this wouldn't seem like such a closed, scripted shop.

Now we find out that Stephenson was a co-founder of VTUSA. We are not talking about mickey mouse associations here. Brett Kimberlin and Brad are co-founders of Velvet Revolution. How can Brad's reputation and integrity not be linked to that of the convicted bomber?

And Brad also went on to dismiss every point I made. Why is he covering up the Larry Johnson spook campaign against Obama? Why did Larisa lie for Kimberlin? People at least have the right to know about these connections. Bozos and Brad have met in person. Bozos has been acting as a gatekeeper trollbuster for years.

Those guys were saying they had videotapes of Michelle Obama making racist comments. They have posted about Obama giving the finger to McCain at a debate. They have come up with so much crap that we could make a 500 post thread on it time permitting. Why doesn't anyone want to get to the bottom of this one while it's still fresh? Are we meant to wait until all the scrubbing and pruning takes place?

Are you aware of Larry Johnson, Bozos, and Cannonfire with that spooky campaign gnawing at democratic principles? Do you want some links?

*The answer is hand counted paper ballots. As someone from Canada wrote, we could do it like they do, just multiply the number of workers and polling stations. How come we have all this money to waste on illegal wars, corporate swine, NASA and the rest of the military-industrial complex, and all forms of insidious government, yet we don't have the money to ensure that every vote is counted?*

[lala_rawraw]

36. Nothing personal

Hon, you have done nothing but blog about Brad since you got on this board. Seems to me like you are making it very personal. The question is why? Seems like you owe DU members are reason for these attacks and not just from the voices in your head. But sourced evidence.

[mhatrw]

17. Thanks! n/t

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. I'm with you, Brad. Why the hell election fraud doesn't warrant front and center position

is way beyond me. Thanks for all of your work!

:thumbsup:

[BradBlog]

21. For the record...

...My reports usually earn such front and center placement at the top of DU's homepage.

Today (and today only), however, there seems to be a concerted effort by a few disinfo trolls to try and change that I guess. DU has been very good about coverage of such stuff, including my news items I try to run over here when time allows.

So hopefully, whoever's behind today's nonsense won't be at it for very long.

[ObamaDaMan]

23. Let's All Relax And Face The Music

I hate to use a line commonly used by freeper trolls, but is everyone who disagrees with you some sinister, secret, government agent?

I noticed someone from Oregon was supporting vote by mail and disagreeing with your vehemence against it.

Maybe the following screenshots will help clear up even more confusion.



http://novbm.wordpress.com/the-long-links-page/

What is NOVNM?



Notice the Illinois above the Director of NOVBM? Ben Burch is from Illinois. He was buddies with Andy Stephenson. Is there a connection between Gentry and Stephenson? Heck yeah!



Just to make things clear, NOVNM is:



The No Vote By Mail Movement


Now I find it surprising that Brad didn't know about Gideon being a bigwig with VoteTrustUSA which is part of the Verified Voting Foundation. I admit that I could have worded myself better above, that I had proof that Gideon was at the least once a bigwig with VoteTrustUSA. But then again, maybe Brad could've corrected me at the time instead of calling me a disinfo scammer.


But it gets worse.

What does one think of when they think of Andy Stephenson? Mike Vreeland? Probably not so much. They think of how he was for paper ballots. If I am mistaken for anything, I apologize. I was under the impression that Stephenson was all for the paper ballot.

Now would it come as a shock if it turned out that Stephenson co-founded VoteTrustUSA? Would that be as big a shock of learning about Brett Kimberlin?




<i>Truth Even Unto Its Innermost Parts</i> Judge Brandeis

[BradBlog]

26. Let's all tell the truth, and stand up to thugs, liars and disinformation agents

I have no problem with anybody disagreeing with me. Ever. If you have any questions about that, see comments at The BRAD BLOG where we have a very open policy that encourages disagreement and good discussion.

I do have a problem with Wayne Madsen-like smears by association, and thus, find no need to dignify your inaccurate and irresponsible allegations.

For the record, John Gideon who was once a key player at VoteTrust, stopped working with them when they refused to stand up for paper ballots by supporting the Holt Bill.

Get your facts straight before you start smearing people with bullshit, chief.

[BradBlog]

27. And, btw, welcome to DU...

Since you have written just 3 posts here at DU, ever. And all of them seem to have been within the last 24 hours, and in attacks against me, uh, yeah, I'm sure it pains you to use "line(s) commonly used by freeper trolls".

Have a nice day, and keep up the bad work. I'll keep fighting for your democracy whether you care to undermine it or not.

[ObamaDaMan]

31. Settle Down Francis

The # of posts one has shouldn't matter. Now you are clearly insinuating that I am a freeper troll. People can see exactly how anti-social and evasive you are being with your reactions. You need to make up your mind. Are you going to ignore me, like you implied you would with your first answer, or are you now going to go this hypocritical route of evoking authority and demanding obfuscation?


*** Your silence on Kimberlin speaks volumes. Same goes with your non-comment on that Bozos/Larry Johnson spook campaign against Obama. Whenever someone asks you decent questions you don't want to answer, you always mention Wayne Madsen. That's getting quite stale. Where did Kimberlin get all this money to throw around? Are you aware that Bozos, Johnson, and Cannonfire appear to be paid fakes? Have you seen any of that rubbish? Are you aware of Ben Burch's insidious internet presence?


*** Attacking the messenger and not the messages has never been more transparent, Sir.

*** I have an idea why you call me a scam artist. No scam artist would ever use that line, perhaps? Or let's have someone appear crazy like "Fintan Dunne" call you out for being intel influenced, then it can't possibly be true? By calling me a scam artist, insinuating that I am a freeper troll, and avoiding certain topics until you are compelled to answer, perhaps you are playing some kind of mind games? Why not just answer the questions to the best of your abilities when they are asked? This is a public forum. This isn't the Brad Friedman Show whose ultimate goals are to raise funds and gatekeep the electoral integrity movement.

You first answered that Gideon had no association with VTUSA, but then I proved otherwise. Then you answered.

These are not smears by association. These are your colleagues and close associates. Years ago Larisa Alexandrovna posted here outright lies about Kimberlin's past, even going so far as to call him a political prisoner.

There was an old thread at your place and your moderator with the strange username of Agent99 said she didn't understand the BozosRnot4Bush name. Then you came in with the bs that these were two different John Deans. Back then you couldn't even answer an easy question. Do you know that this guy you've had dinner with has been part and parcel of a spooky campaign to bash Obama? People are not stupid, Sir. It would take anyone ten minutes to start to figure that one out. That type of activity had everything to do with disrupting electoral integrity. Party Unity My Ass? And now you act dumb about the whole thing.


*** Finally, you are now directly tied to Andy Stephenson and subsequently Ben Burch with this Gideon connection. I am not pulling things out of nowhere. Your hostile responses, Sir, seem to indicate I have hit raw nerves.

[lala_rawraw]

38. No, we just think you are garbage...

Does that work better for ya hon? Now go back to your shrink and let them know that the meds are not working. You can't even lie well hon, which means you are not only crazy (and/or a troll), but that your insanity is not even interesting. See Brad is a respected member of the DU community. Andy is a hero. You think you can just show up and pretend to be an interested bystander trying to set the record straight? We have seen this before and it usually ends with banishment from civilization.

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. There's been some panicky-sounding posts about the 2004 election, too, Brad.

Some individuals are obviously fearful of facing criminal proceedings. Evidence of all kinds was so voluminous, it seemed farcical to try to po-hoo it.

[Kolesar]

25. What "memory cartridges" are used with optically scanned ballots?

"Two of the three largest counties use the same Diebold op-scan machines which miscounted huge numbers of ballots in the January NH primary (among other elections), were used to hack a mock-election in HBO's Emmy-nominated Hacking Democracy, and, by Diebold's own admission, regularly drop thousands of votes when memory cartridges are uploaded to the central tabulator."

[tblue37]

29. But does this include Lieberdweeb? Is that why we can't just

boot him out?

[Kurovski]

33. I'm just passing through, but...

what's all this about 100,000 less voters in Alaska than the last election? ( 400,000 last time, 300,000 this time.) Any explanations yet?

I done heard it on the TEEVEE. But they just let the info sit there all alone. Such an odd lack of curiosity in the matter.

(never mind, I just speed-read the article)

Thank you.