You choose your leaders and place your trust

Our good friend Brad Friedman (BradBlog) is at it again, going HiDef and nationwide. He was mentioned tonight on Catherine Crier's CourtTV show about election irregularities in the CA-50:


Says Brad:

Wow…CourtTV's Catherine Crier on Crier Live just covered virtually everything we've ever discussed on this blog in one fell swoop! Had I known it was possible, I would have used 5 and a half minutes to tell all these stories instead of the past two years!

As well, she included several incredibly kind words about both The BRAD BLOG and yours truly (and a picture of me to boot, sorry about that!) generously urging folks to visit this site:

If you want to learn about the state of our election process, I urge you to visit BradBlog.com. Brad Friedman has worked doggedly on this issue, amassing tons of valuable news and information on this subject.

She covered loads of stories that we've been secretly reporting here where the rest of the MSM could never ever notice… From the recent Busby/Bilbray Diebold voting machine "sleepover" fiasco to the Hand Count Fee scam that's followed, to the video-taped testimony of vote-rigging whistleblower Clint Curtis naming Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) as the rigger, to Bush-appointed former EAC commissioner DeForest Soaries' exposure of the cruel federal hoax, to now-disgraced Monterey County, CA Registrar of Voters Tony "Trust Me" Anchundo who faces 43 criminal counts and much more!

I was contacted recently by the show and they informed me they have been BRAD BLOG readers for quite a while. Their report this evening demonstrates that quite clearly. They managed to show, very smartly and in a single report, how all of these items we've been reporting on — for what seems like forever — actually all tie together. (What, no Ann Coulter Voter Fraud to boot? Maybe next week…)

I'd pull out some quotes, but it won't do her report justice. See the full video (courtesy of David Edwards, natch) or text transcript which are both available below.

I've been asked to appear on the show next week, and we're trying to work out the dates to see if it's possible, since — theoretically — I'm supposed to be hitting the road for a long-planned and much-needed vacation for several weeks after appearing at this weekend's DemocracyFest! in San Diego. But hopefully we'll work something out…

Sometimes these nuts-and-bolts issues get lost in the bigger dynamic of politics. Iraq, Guantanamo, stem cell vetoes, Rove's latest victim, all these play large across the TV screen and the country. And people get excited about candidates, trying to send Joe Lieberman a message by rallying for Ned Lamont.

But it all comes down to this: does your vote count? If it doesn't, all the blogs (and the required blogger ethics panels), all the YearlyBlog meetups, all don't mean a damn thing. We can parade in the streets, donate to our favorites, call, whine, bitch, protest, canvas, and at the end of the day, if your vote doesn't count, then YOU don't count.

It's that simple, and that cruel.


Update: Broken link fixed.