Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 05.23.06 - Its TOP TEN List Nite

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HEY Kids it’s a TOP TEN LIST!

Top 10 List: Why the media avoids election fraud stories, especially stolen election 2004?

10. They didn’t really pay much attention to the election since they’re CM (corporate media) and it really won’t affect them.
9. They have a really popular diary on DKOS (which banned talk of fraud;)
8. They’re election thief moles.
7. Their owners forgot to take them for a walk and they’re ancy to chase to play frisby. No time.
6. Warren Mitofsky and told them so and he’s a fine fellow.
5. They have a pedicure scheduled for tomorrow and need plenty of rest.
4. They’re Republican moles.
3. They didn’t really pay much attention to the election since they’re CM (corporate media) and it will really won’t affect them.
2. They own a boat load of Diebold stock.

AND, the top reason the media avoids election fraud stories, especially stolen election 2004?

1. IT MIGHT INVOLVE ACTUAL WORK.

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.
Denying that 2004 was stolen is like denying global warming.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News May 23, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.
Please

"Recommend"

for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

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1. NYT: The “new” Concept for Election Fraud – “Media Election Fraud!!!”

NYT: The “new” Concept for Election Fraud – “Media Election Fraud!!!” It’s happening!

Tonight we expand the notion of “election fraud” to include misleading media reports on elections.

How could we have missed that definition. Well, how could I have missed it, many of you understood it for some time. The media presents biased reporting on Democrats, remember Gore in 2000, and codes reports with skanky terms that they just love to drop. It doesn’t matter if it’s a “liberal” paper like the NYT (ask an Iraqi how “liberal” they are), or if it’s your run of the mill Murdoch operation. They ALL present misleading information and thus it’s a fraud on the public based on the election process. If this catches on, I will proclaim myself the Diederot of DU!

Note the terms and phrases in ITALICS. What story is being told here?


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

]In a Fight Against the 'Governator,' California Democrats Lack a Superhero

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/us/23calif.html

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

SAN FRANCISCO May 19 — As a rule, when the goal is to unseat a governor recognized in every nation where televisions are sold, who has enjoyed moments of wild popularity, and whose locution includes phrases like "girly men," it is good to avoid references to "procurement reform."

But it is this sort of earnest stuff — plus promises to repair California's budget, improve its education system, protect the environment and pressure businesses to provide health insurance — that makes for the Democratic primary campaign here.

Two fixtures of Democratic politics — Phil Angelides, the state treasurer who made a fortune as a real estate developer, and Steve Westly, the controller who made even more money as an early employee of eBay — are in a battle to take on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, in November.

For each of the Democrats, the challenge is not simply to convince voters that it is time to evict Mr. Schwarzenegger from Sacramento, but that they should return the tutelage of the state to a person with a political résumé not so unlike that of Gray Davis, the humdrum party insider recalled from office in 2003.

OK, analysis: The Democrats are policy wonks and proably "girly men" to boot. Their primary is boring. AND they're just like Gray Davis. Thank you Jennifer. Go to the head of the class.

This reporting has NO bearing on anything. It's misleading. Deceiving...

[Peace Patriot]

16. The WAR PROFITEERING CORPORATE NEWS MONOPOLIES (corpRAT media,

for short) ALSO create fraudulent elections by focusing on dimwit phrases ("girly men," "humdrum party insider") and People Magazine personality conflicts among WAR PROFITEERING and/or CORPORATE CANDIDATES, while completely, totally, relentlessly, arrogantly BLACK-HOLING alternative candidates and their ideas, most especially leftist (i.e., mainstream) candidates and their intelligent proposals for PEACE, JUSTICE, FAIRNESS, LAWFUL GOVERNMENT, THE COMMON GOOD, WORKERS' RIGHTS, UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, BUSTING UP CORPORATIONS (including news monopolies), TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS, SAVING THE PLANET, REDUCING THE MILITARY BUDGET (no more wars of choice!), REDUCING THE PRISON POPULATION (biggest fascist boondoggle in the country), and so on and so forth. Alternative ideas--and often the best candidates--never have a chance in the monopolitical newsstream.

For instance, in the California governor's election, there is a GREAT DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE--Michael Strimling--SEE WWW.MICHAELSTRIMLING.COM--who would make a FABULOUS GOVERNOR, but who is not even permitted to be part of the political conversation in articles like this by the NYT. He doesn't exist. The voters are thus denied a choice from the get-go, both in the primary, and, of course, in the general election by which time it's ALL ABOUT MONEY and larding the war profiteering news monopoly TV beast with zillions of dollars in campaign ads.

-----

California Democrats, vote for MICHAEL STRIMLING for Governor, in the primary. Visit his we web site. You won't believe how wonderful he is!

-----

As for the Gray Davising of Angelides and Westly, it's partly their own damn fault, and it's partly Enron--the BIG THEFT--which the corpRAT media doesn't want to talk about. Enron/Texas energy giants stole EIGHTY BILLION DOLLARS from California. Schwarz is a tool of the fascist cabal that, a) committed this theft, and b) wants to do to California what the Bush junta has done to our national government--gut it, loot it, and destroy everything useful and good that it does.

Angelides and Westly are "playing the game," just as Davis was, thinking they can defeat these fascist thieves and government wreckers from WITHIN the Corporate Ruler establishment, and never thinking outside of that narrow box. They are OF the Corporate Ruler establishment. They are liberals ("corporate trickle down") rather than leftists ("the workers create the wealth!"). They don't SEE how radical and extremely dangerous the Bush junta is. They want to revert to the Gray Davis days. But it was THAT corrupt, Corporate Ruler-affiliated, Democratic Party establishment that facilitated the first $80 billion theft, because of their stupid corporate game-playing.

Westly and Angelides don't seem to understand what the Bush junta has in mind for California. For instance, they are paying NO attention to what Schwarz's appointed Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is doing re: Diebold (he's a Diebold shill--into complete destruction of Calif election transparency). We DO have a great, Calif Democratic Party-endorsed candidate for Sec of State--almost miraculously:

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California Democrats, vote for DEBRA BOWEN for Secretary of State. Bowen is excellent on transparent elections. We couldn't ask for better. And the other candidate in the Dem primary (Ortiz) is very corrupt on electronic voting (is, or might as well be, a Diebold shill).

-----

In sum: The NYT doesn't give their readers a goddamned clue what the REAL ISSUES are in California. That is clearly their purpose. So, in addition to Diebold/ES&S giving Bushite fascists a 5% to 10% advantage in elections, we have the NYT and the entire war profiteering corporate news monopoly establishment SEVERELY LIMITING political debate, and FOCUSING SOLELY on "don't rock the boat" candidates who play the Corporate game.

The REASON the Democratic Party primary for governor SEEMS devoid of substance is that they DON'T EVEN MENTION Michael Strimling or his views. The substance is THERE. They DIDN'T REPORT it. They black-holed the best candidate in the race.

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27. As a "native son" of the Golden State, I must agree.

Imagine that, a candidate who actually supports causes that benefit the state and nation.

Of course CM is ignoring him. He should stick around because in about four years, CM will be on
the ropes ready to go down for the count. How do we think the anti Iraq War consensus developed?
It happened on the internet(s) -- free thinkers gathering and spreading information about the terrible
lies we were told and the great suffering. Condi couldn't even speak at Boston College! This had
nothing to do with NYT, WaPost, CNN, MS-whatever stories or their local papers...it's from an
thirst for the truth.

The only thing I don't like about the bio is the "judge pro tem" thing. His face looks awfully
familiar...;)

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2. FL: This Just About Sums Up Florida Elections

John Aravosis over at AMERICAblog.com is a great news hound, like Joseph Cannon at CannonFire. He broke the Jeff Gannon case, BROKE IT. This is hilarious but also right on target from his blog today. It’s always worth a trip over there.


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

AMERICAblog..com

A great nation deserves the truth

Monday, May 22, 2006
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/pastor-claims-jesus-has-already-picked.html
Pastor claims Jesus has already picked Florida's next Governor
by Joe in DC - 5/22/2006 07:03:00 PM

Sounds plausible that Jesus would spend time worrying about who the next governor of Florida will be. But, he has spoken -- or some pastor in Florida claims that Jesus has spoken:
The Rev. O'Neal Dozier said that before the dream he did not know Crist, nor had Crist made known his plans to run for governor.

"The Lord Jesus spoke to me and he said 'There's something I want you to know,'" said Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. "'Charlie Crist will be the next governor of the state of Florida.'"

Since then, Dozier has spent time with Crist and talked with him at length about policy. He told the group that Crist would be uncompromising in his Christian faith.

"I introduce to you, as the Lord Jesus has said, the next governor of the state of Florida, Charlie Crist," Dozier said.

Does this mean they can just cancel the election? It's not like they actually count the votes there anyway.

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3. KY: State Officials Call for Clean Election (oh, now they want a clean el

OK, it’s official, it’s all called “election fraud.” The stories that used to describe “vote fraud” – stealing at the retail level now use “election fraud” to describe fake signatures, voting twice etc. Vote fraud has little impact non elections now. It’s real ELECTION FRAUD that has the impact. Nice move Republicans, change terminology so the “election fraud” you charge is the same name as our term, which of course impacts the entire nation.


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

APPALACHAIAN News Press
State officials call for a clean election

BY LINDSAY LANCASTER
http://www.news-expressky.com/articles/2006/05/09/news/01clean.txt
STAFF WRITER, 05.23.06

State officials are calling on Eastern Kentuckians to help them prevent vote fraud.

“We are working to rid Kentucky of election fraud and have taken a number steps to do so. We now turn to citizens and ask them to report anything that they may find unusual concerning the election,” said Secretary of State Trey Grayson during a visit to Pikeville yesterday.

Grayson met with Attorney General Greg Stumbo and Ken Taylor, chief election fraud prosecutor for U.S. Attorney Amul Thapar, to discuss vote fraud prevention efforts and monitoring during the May 16, 2006 primary election.

The three stressed that vote fraud will not be tolerated in the May 16 election, which has the highest number of candidates on the ballot in Kentucky's history. They say they are determined to do away with the association of voter fraud and Kentucky.

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4. Democratic Party: Great Article by Director of “Counting Democracy”

Why, let me see…TOP TEN LIST TIME…see above


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

Why is the Media Downplaying Our Voting Scandal?

By Danny Schechter

“Compared to corporate machinations, or even military-industrial decisions, politics is over-covered, and yet the actual process of voting—the machines, the counting, the verification, and the questions raised by well informed journalists and analysts about voting fraud seem to bore the punditocracy.

I know this because I made a film, “Counting on Democracy,” about what actually happened in Florida during one of the most controversial elections in our history, with Gore winning the popular vote and Bush winning the election. 175,000 votes went uncounted. Once it was decided that the GOP won, most of the media lost interest. Very few journalists looked into what the American Civil Liberties Union called “the tyranny of small decisions” that affected the vote.”

<snip>

Fast forward to 2004. I was covering the Democratic Convention in Boston. So were Michael Moore and Greg Palast and several others who were concerned that the 2004 election could become a repeat of 2000. I attended a breakfast at the Florida delegation, who assured me that their problems most decidedly had not been fixed. Palast, who studied the way felons and others were disenfranchised in 2000, warned that those forces who want to fix our elections were more sophisticated than ever. Everyone expressed concerns that Ohio could turn into the Florida of 2004. Oddly, the Democratic Party and its candidate didn’t take the concerns seriously, or prepare for the predicted eventualities. It was business as usual.

We filmed the concerns being expressed in Boston with no response, and then for “Balance” went to the GOP love fest in New York, where we were told there was nothing to worry about. We edited a new beginning to our award winning film “Counting on Democracy” and went back to the Independent Television Service, which helped to fund the film and got it on PBS to see if public television stations would re-broadcast it.
“Counting on Democracy” Film – Web site
http://www.itvs.org/countingondemocracy/

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5. Film: “Counting Democracy”

This is one of the first films to really lay it out.


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.




COUNTING DEMOCRACY A Film by Danny Schechter

The story of what happened in Florida during the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential race plays like a drama in many acts. From election night, when the three networks erroneously called the state before the polls closed, to 36 days later when the Supreme Court made the highly controversial decision to halt the recount and call the election for George W. Bush, Americans were stunned by what they saw. As the confusing stories piled up - of voter fraud, "dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads," African Americans whose names were purged from the rolls, Jewish Palm Beach retirees who were horrified to learn they had voted for Pat Buchanan - both candidates swiped at each other, each seeming less presidential as the days dragged on. But concern, outrage and continued investigation of the debacle became a casualty of September 11th. The New York Times wrote, "The Florida debate shifted from 'who won' to 'who cares.'"

Before the fiasco in Florida, most Americans assumed that the votes they cast would be counted in accordance with one of the fundamental principles of American democracy, yet 175,000 votes cast in that state, largely by the working poor and people of color, were uncounted. COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY asserts that a systematic pattern of behavior on the part of the state's various election boards, overseen by a compromised elections department, resulted in a myriad of lost votes. Thousands of African American voters were purged from the voter rolls and, in some counties, African Americans were required to present three forms of I.D.; in other counties, none. In communities with large Spanish-speaking populations, translators and bilingual ballots were unexplainably absent. In communities with large Jewish populations, confusing ballots made what looked like a vote for Al Gore actually a vote for Pat Buchanan. The film also shows how both sides responded to the situation - with schoolyard bullying and taunts of "sore loser," by sending busloads of protesters (actually the party faithful) to disrupt the recounts, by each candidate calling for recounts only in precincts they expected to win, and by fighting against recounts in precincts they thought they would lose. What emerges is a shocking but very clear picture of political interests cynically ignoring and overriding the will of voters. As 1960s Civil Rights Leader Rep. John Lewis says in the film, "People struggled, people died for the right to vote. And there are people saying we should forget about it, we shouldn't make too much of it. How can you sweep it under the rug like it didn't happen? It did happen."

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6. Internet: Internet TV Service ITVS

Check this out. Looks interesting and LIBERAL


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.



http://www.itvs.org/shows/

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7. TPM Café: Advocates for Mail In Voting Make Case

OK so who watches the counters? Who deals with the machines? Oops, forgot that. I’m for voting by mail but the security has to be ultra tight and there needs to be a hand count AND the hand count and tabulation needs to be FULLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

WHY THE HECK CAN’T THE LEFT GET IT – IT’S NOT ABOUT EFFICIENCY, BITS AND BYTES, CODE, ETC., IT’S ABOUT VOTER RIGHTS, CITIZEN RIGHTS TO SEE THE WHOLE DAMN PROCESS!!!!!!!!!!


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

Voting by Mail: Ending Long Lines & Hanging Chads

By Nathan Newman | bio

http://www.progressivestates.org/content/266/05222006-stateside-dispatch-voting-by-mail-ending-long-lines-hanging-chads-paperless-elections">From today's Progressive States Dispatch

In a Nation article right after the 2004 election, scholar James Galbraith denounced the long lines in Ohio that prevented so many people from voting. "It is an injustice, an outrage and a scandal--a crime, really--that American citizens should have to wait for hours in the November rain in order to exercise the simple right to vote."

Those rainy Ohio lines in 2004 joined the hanging chads of 2000 as symbols of dysfunction in our voting process. The results of both have been explosive political battles across the country over which voting machines and procedures will protect people's right to vote, yet work efficiently as tens of millions of people converge on understaffed polling stations on election day.

But there is an alternative: voting by mail – which has delivered higher voter turnout with less expense than traditional polling booths in states and local jurisdictions that have used it in recent years.

[Kurovski]

8. DUer triana calls it the "corpRAT" media, which is a nice turnabout

on the old "democRAT" meme.

Yeah, they're pretty lazy. It's much easier to get stories pre-written off a fax machine than it is to check into stuff, investigate, ask a buncha people a buncha stuff and junk like that there.

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9. OH: NEVER FORGET – “The Ohio Project” – Ohio Fraud (formerly Fairness)

Ray Becker man is a :patriot: patriot :patriot: without any doubt. He saw what happened in Ohio in 2004 and began a blog called Ohio Fairness. He then changed it to link: fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/|Ohio Fraud (Formerly Fairness) after what he saw. In addition, he has the Ohio Election 2004 Project. This is quite a collection. I highly recommend his web site as well. I check it often.

Ohio Election 2004
By Ray Beckerman

The purpose of this site is to collect, organize, and make available to investigators, scholars, and interested citizens information relating to (a) evidence and (b) legal events concerning the Ohio election of 2004, especially relating to issues of fraud, disenfranchisement, voter suppression, vote machine tampering, and recount obstruction. If you have evidence, legal documents, or other material which you would like to share with this web site and my blog, please email it to me at
[email protected].
http://ohioelection2004.com/evidence.htm

[mod mom]

17. Absolutely, Ray Beckerman is a patriot! His site is amazing! I went there

the other day and found new evidence I haven't seen before (there is so muchit's amazing)

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10. LAW: Stirring Words -- The Essence of Voting Rights -- 2006

Land Shark, DU, can really turn a legal phrase. This is from his original suit against Sequoia Voting Systems. I wrote earlier that Land Shark had chased Sequoia out of Washington (they left shortly after the Board of Supervisors in suburban Seattle tossed their machines). I’ve come to find out that the story is a little different and Lawyer Shark (synonyms hmmm…) actually chased them out in his 1966 iCadillac Convertible, but we’ll tell that story a little later. THESE ARE GREAT WORDS. They sum up the a crucial segment of our election system problems. Remember, it’s all about citizen rights, transparency, our ability to observe and confirm.


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.



Lehto and Wells v. Sequoia and Snohomish County

The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.

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11. GORE: "There may some day come a time when I speak on that"

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.


BRADBLOG
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002861.htm

'No Intermediate Step Between Supreme Court and Violent Revolution'

'No Intermediate Step Between Supreme Court and Violent Revolution'
From this week's issue of New York magazine... Does he, like many Democrats, think the election was stolen? Gore pauses a long time and stares into the middle distance. "There...

From this week's issue of New York magazine...

Does he, like many Democrats, think the election was stolen?

Gore pauses a long time and stares into the middle distance. "There may come a time when I speak on that,” Gore says, "but it’s not now; I need more time to frame it carefully if I do.” Gore sighs. "In our system, there’s no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and violent revolution."

Later, I put the question of Gore’s views on the matter to David Boies, his lawyer in the Florida-recount battle. "He thought the court’s ruling was wrong and obviously political," Boies says. So he considers the election stolen? "I think he does—and he’s right."


(Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG reader Sarah M.)

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15. AL GORES DEVASTATING INDICTMENT OF BUSH 01.16.06 D.C.

(Permission for extended quotation granted by the author, me.)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0601/S00122.htm

Al Gore’s Devastating Indictment of President Bush
CALLS FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL
Quiescent Congress and Judiciary Enabling Tyranny

Special for Scoop Independent News
From Washington, DC
Michael Collins
January 16, 2006

Al Gore delivered a devastating indictment of President George Bush today in a major speech before three thousand cheering citizens at Washington DC’s Constitution Hall. (See... Al Gore: America's Constitution is in Grave Danger )

He provided a detailed specification of crimes against the U.S. Constitution and concluded by calling for the immediate appointment of a special counsel by Attorney General Gonzalez whose position is sorely compromised by conflict of interest. The future of the American experiment in rule by laws rather than men, the Constitution rather than tyranny, is at stake. Gore made the case that Executive Branch abuses of the Constitution represent rule through tyranny.

Gore quoted former Congressman Bob Barr who said, “The President has dared the American people to do something about it. For the sake of the Constitution, I hope they will.” Gores bill of particulars included the following actions:

1. Appointment of a special counsel immediately to investigate gross violations of the U.S. Constitution. Gore said, “Patrick Fitzgerald has, by all accounts, shown neither fear nor favor in pursuing allegations that the Executive Branch has violated other laws.” The specific investigation should “pursue the criminal issues raised by unwarranted wiretapping of Americans by the President.

2. “Whistle blower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrong doing” by the President and his team.

3. The Senate and the House should hold hearings “into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President.”

4. “The Bush proposals for the Patriot Act “should under no circumstances be granted unless and until there are adequate and enforceable safeguards to protect the Constitution and the rights of the American people against the kinds of abuses that have recently been revealed.”

5. Gore called on “any telecommunications company” providing the government with access to private communication to “Immediately cease and desist their complicity in that apparent illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens.”

6. Finally, going off of his prepared test, Gore said that any candidate for public office in 2006 should face a litmus test, regardless of party, based on their support for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the President’s transgressions against the Constitution.

Bush: “…a threat to the very structure of our government.”

Gore began his speech with an example of disregard for Constitutional safeguards. He recalled the case of Martin Luther King and his victimization by the FBI. Through illegal surveillance, the government tried to end his effectiveness as a civil rights leader, destroy his marriage, “and blackmail him into committing suicide.” Gore pointed out that J. Edgar Hoover’s intimidation and threats to FBI staff caused them to perform illegal wire taps and engage on spying activities that they clearly knew were wrong. Then in a stunning indictment of former CIA Director, George Tenant by saying that “much the same thing” had happened in the delivery of intelligence, clearly false, to the President to justify the Iraq war. The crowd came to its feet for one of six standing ovations during the speech.

The author of the attack on the Constitution was clearly named, the President of the United States. Gore cited the example of unauthorized National Security Agency (NSA) “spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages and other internet traffic inside the United States.” Bush’s assurances that nothing like this was happening without appropriate judicial processes was cited as an example of false statements to serve the ends of executive power.

Bush: Assumes powers that “the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution – an all powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free.”

Gore cited Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Thomas Paine to make his case. He quoted Madison’s argument that the accumulation of “all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands...” is ‘the very definition of tyranny.’” This was a critical point that the former Vice President returned to throughout the speech: the United States was established with the goal of rule by law and not by men, rule by participation not tyranny. His presentation made it very clear that Bush represents a new form of despotism that seeks power to meet its ends rather than competing for power in the political process.

Gore was clearly referring to Bush when he said, “A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.” As his central point, he focused on the case of domestic spying on Americans by the NSA for four years without any judicial authorization or legal basis. Gore illustrated the President’s all out power by citing additional acts of executive malfeasance. He accused Bush of arguing for “a heretofore unrecognized inherent power to seize and imprison any American citizen that he alone determines to be a threat to our nation…” and denying those citizens the rights to talk to a lawyer or even challenge the basis for the arrest. Gore left his prepared text at this point and said “No such right exists…it is foreign to our Constitution.”

Gore noted the Bush claim that “he has the authority to kidnap individuals in foreign countries and deliver them for imprisonment and interrogation….” He quoted the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan who said that the material obtained from torture was “useless. We are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful.” He then cited Yale Law School’s Harold Koh who says that the chief executive who assumes the power to commit torture “…has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution.”

“The Executive Branch has now put our constitutional design at grave risk. The stakes for America’s representative democracy are far higher than has been generally recognized.

<snip>

One of the boldest political speeches in decades.

Today’s speech was no ordinary political event. It represented one of the boldest political attacks on the President by a major leader since the Civil War. A former Vice President, Senator, member of the House of Representatives, has just accused the President of the United States of willfully lying to the people of the United States in order to accumulate unconstitutional powers, subvert the Constitution, and change the face of American democracy from a government that seeks the rule of law to one that relies on the rule of men, in this case President George W. Bush. Lincoln was attacked for trying to ruin a way of life and accused of destroying the fabric of the constitution. Roosevelt was charged with trying to create a welfare state. Nixon was accused of specific crimes which violated his oath of office. But no President since the Civil War has been accused by a former Vice President or President of deliberately trying to end Constitutional rule through the unlawful accumulation of power; trying to impose tyranny on the people of the United States.

It was a remarkable speech that will send shockwaves across the political spectrum for years to come.

**** END ****

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12. AL: Paying $200,000 per voting machine...BRILLIANT!!! Feed the machines.

ok, Here's the plot. People evicted from their homes due to the lousy economy are given voting macines to live in. Don't laugh, in Ohio, they buy individual safes for each machine. That can be pretty warm in the winter. You get the government you choose. Congratulations!!!


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

Ballot-marking machines cost nearly $200,000
Fancy rigs supposed to aid handicapped, mandated and paid for by fed government
By Jim Cox
http://www.clarkecountydemocrat.com/news/2006/0518/Front_Page/049.html
Courthouse Custodian James Walker runs a test ballot through a marking machine as Probate Judge Becky Presnall watches. Photo by Jim Cox
Thirty-two handicapped voting machines have been purchased for Clarke County and will be placed at each of the voting precincts in the county for the June 6 primaries.

The cost of the 32 machines is $192,000.

Probate Judge Becky Presnall said thankfully the county isn't paying for them. The tab is being picked up by the state with money allocated from the "Help America Vote Act." The new machines are part of other reform measures prompted by the dispute in the presidential election of 2004.

The machines, in simple terms, are ballot markers. People who are not able to physically mark their own ballots can request to use the special machines. It offers a video display for the hearing impaired and headphones speak the ballot and instructions for the blind. Computer controls are also in Braille for the blind.

A voter requesting to use the machine will be given a ballot just like any other voter by a pollworker and directed to the machine. The ballot is fed into the machine and it recognizes it (either Democratic or Republican for the primary and the correct ballot style for that box) and displays the races on a video screen. The voter presses appropriate buttons to mark the ballot for each race. At the end, a review screen is offered so the voter can check their selections. If the voter is satisified, they press the select key and their marked ballot exits the machine and can then be fed into the ballot tabulating machines just as any other voter would

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13. OH: Another Outrage Against Democracy & the Truth...just another day...

More stupidity. No comment necesssary. See last paragraph.


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
Posted on Mon, May. 22, 2006

Summit analyzes primary ballots
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/14638334.htm%20

The official count of primary election ballots on Tuesday is expected to reveal how accurately new high-speed ballot counting machines work at the Summit County Board of Elections.

<snip>

Because the tabulators, made by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., work at such a high speed, there is some concern that they may not have counted every ballot, said Marijean Donofrio, elections board deputy director.

On Election Day, the machines also rejected more than 300 absentee ballots as unreadable. When elections staff fed the ballots into the smaller ballot scanners used at the polls, all but five were accepted. Those five had ink smudges on them.

What is unclear to elections officials, however, is whether some of those ballots may have been counted twice -- once by each machine, Donofrio said.

<snip>

...and now for the "kill shot" for democracy, this stunner. A 'recount' would answer the question. There are 6000 ballots. Any two of us could do that. But will they have a recount. We are ruled by people who don't care about democracy.

``The one way to find out is to get a recount,'' he said. So far, no races have been deemed close enough to warrant an automatic recount under state law, although the final count may show that a Summit County Council race falls within the state guidelines for the automatic recount.

[autorank]

14. WI: More Neonlogisms on the Path to Tyranny -- Nite!

Oh, please! Don't do anything rash like vote on a safe system that can be truly monitored...PAPER


Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in voting rights news.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=425895

Voting machines raise security concerns
Group warns of tampering; firm deems risk low
By MIKE JOHNSON
[email protected]
Posted: May 21, 2006

Some Wisconsin counties are looking at purchasing touch-screen voting machines that a non-profit election group warns are vulnerable to tampering.


The security issues are easily the most serious voting machine flaws we have seen to date.


If the total number of people it would take to pull off a conspiracy like this simply voted, they could sway an election.

- David Bear, Diebold Election Systems spokesman
Election Investigation
Archive: Previous coverage of the investigation into Milwaukee's Nov. 2, 2004 election
Election 2006



Security concerns about the Diebold Election Systems electronic machines spurred the Winnebago County Board last week to reject the purchase of 49 of the machines.

Other counties, including Ozaukee, Kenosha, Racine, Washington and Walworth, still are considering the machines, which have been approved for use by the State Elections Board. Several county clerks said they have confidence in the Diebold equipment and believe tampering won't be an issue because of security protocols.

Diebold officials have termed the tampering risk "low." State Elections Board officials agreed but issued security recommendations for clerks to follow to ensure that the machines are not compromised, including using a "tamper-evident seal."

The board also is working on security procedures for other electronic voting machines, including Election Systems & Software's AutoMARK, which Milwaukee County will use, and Sequoia Voting Systems, which Racine and St. Croix counties will use. Waukesha County is considering Sequoia. Scrutiny of Diebold comes after Black Box Voting Inc., a non-profit, non-partisan, consumer protection group for elections, released a "security alert" about the firm's touch-screen machines. It says they have "several vulnerabilities," including a memory card that can be removed and reprogrammed with different software.

The report states that the "defects" could "cast a serious question over the integrity of the vote." Someone could attack the system to "selectively disenfranchise groups of voters through denial of service," states the report, by computer expert Harri Hursti

[rumpel]

19. WI: County sets forum on touch-screen voting (Diebold)

The Northwestern

Posted May 23, 2006
By Alex Hummel


of The Northwestern


Elections and technology committees of Winnebago County's Board of Supervisors will meet June 14 to separate fact from fiction on controversial touch-screen voting machines.


Last week, the county board rejected the $294,000 federal-grant-assisted purchase of 49 Diebold Elections Systems touch-screen voting machines amidst concerns about the machines' security and their ability to produce a reliable paper record authenticating a voter's ballot.


One machine would have been placed in each of the county's urban and rural polling places to comply with the Help America Vote Act.


Wisconsin State Elections Board and Diebold Election Systems officials will be invited to attend the meeting.


The Help America Vote Act was intended to improve accessibility to the election process to disabled Americans. Winnebago County, like several others around Wisconsin, already uses older Diebold technology to gather and transmit vote results on election day. So, the Diebold touch-screen machines were seen as the lone compatible choice.


But concerns about the Diebold led to county board questions and, ultimately, rejection of the grant.

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060523/OSH0101/605230370/1128/OSHnews

[rumpel]

18. CA: LATimes: Voter Registration in 43rd Assembly Race Examined

By Jill Leovy, Times Staff Writer
May 23, 2006

An inquiry into possible voter registration irregularities allegedly engineered by state Assembly candidate Paul Krekorian's campaign has been referred to prosecutors, county officials said Monday, and Krekorian's opponent in the race for the 43rd Assembly District seat has been quick to cry fraud.

With just two weeks left before the June 6 primary, candidate Frank Quintero's attorneys sent a letter to the registrar of voters Monday demanding swift action against Krekorian. "We have every faith that the D.A.'s public integrity unit will prosecute this to the fullest extent of the law," said Phil Giarrizzo, Quintero's campaign consultant.

But Krekorian's campaign was just as quick to dismiss the affair as the losing side's effort to get a political boost from normal glitches in applications sent in by inexperienced voters. Zealous efforts by the Krekorian campaign to register these new voters is what is behind the fracas, said Eric Hacopian, Krekorian's campaign consultant.

"I know what they want," Hacopian said, referring to Quintero's camp. "They want a headline in the L.A. Times so they can send out a flier in three days that says, 'Krekorian investigated for vote fraud.' "

Quintero's campaign won't be the one to suffer if the absentee ballots being questioned aren't approved, Hacopian added. "Our voters are the ones being disenfranchised," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-assembly23may23,1,1976720.story?coll=la-news-politics-california

[rumpel]

20. OH: Election problems fuel dispute

Vindy.com

Published: Tuesday, May 23, 2006

A voting machine vendor has 'serious payment problems with the county.'

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Board of Elections officials say the failure to pay $601,000 to the county's voting machine vendor adversely impacted the May 2 primary.

Elections Director Thomas McCabe said the county commissioners failed to make the payment to Election Systems & Software, the county's election machine vendor.

County Administrator George Tablack said the election board didn't comply with state law to provide purchase orders for the work, and that's why the bills weren't paid.

"I don't want to pass the buck; I take full responsibility for the problems we had, but the lack of funding for the company is one reason we had trouble," McCabe said after a Monday elections board meeting. "It's no way to run elections. We had problems with our vendors because vendors didn't get their bills paid."

The board submitted purchase orders for a majority of these expenses, McCabe said. Tablack checked Monday with the county's central purchasing office and found no purchase orders related to the voting system going back two years except for one for $70,000 related to "voter tabulation."

"Someone else's crisis isn't our emergency," Tablack said. "Everyone needs to manage money properly. Violating budget laws is a chronic problem with the board of elections."

http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/292377332576076.php

[rumpel]

21. Elsewhere...Bangladesh - Fake Voter Rolls

Mon. May 22, 2006

Registration staff confined for hours over fake roll
Staff Correspondent

Several hundred people, whose names had been excluded from the draft voter list, demonstrated at Shyampur in the capital and confined the local assistant registration officer (ARO) for hours yesterday on the last day of registering complaints and claims regarding the voters roll in preparation.
The demonstrators, mostly leaders and activists of the opposition Awami League (AL), alleged that enumerators involved in the voter registration process intentionally excluded them and registered a huge number of fake voters who are loyal to the ruling alliance.

Angry demonstrators in processions went to Muradpur Government High School at Lal Miah Sarkar Lane, where the list was supposed to be displayed.

They kept the school under siege for about three hours since 10:00am as the school authorities, assigned by the Election Commission to prepare the voters roll and to display it, declined to show the list.

Police intervened to calm the angry crowd by assuring them of correcting the list.

ARO Mohammad Julhas Uddin also the headmaster of Muradpur Ideal High School said, "There might have been some errors and we are working to correct the list."

"Hundreds of genuine voters of the locality were not registered," local ward unit AL president Ruhul Amin, who was leading the demonstration, told The Daily Star. He said the Election Commission assigned people of the ruling BNP and Jamaat and their front organisations to prepare the voter list. "They enlisted only their people," he added.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/05/22/d60522011812.htm

and



No polls with fake voter list: Hasina

STAFF REPORTER

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has said there will be no election in the country prior to removing the fake voters from the voter list.

"I have every belief that the people of the country will build united resistance against the BNP-Jamaat alliance government’s bid to hold farcical polls with the fake voter list prepared by the partisan Chief Election Commissioner (CEC)," she said while speaking at the representatives’ meeting of Janata Bank Employees Council at the auditorium of the Institute of Diploma Engineers in the city yesterday.

The Leader of the Opposition said the Election Commission would be compelled to repay Tk 164 crore which it spent to prepare a fake voter list.

snip

"Create awareness among the people that voting is their constitutional right and it was earned at the cost of blood of many people in movements for years," the Awami League chief said adding that the alliance government has hatched the conspiracy to hold election with this voter list to enjoy the thousands of crores of taka they had amassed though corrupt practices over the past four years and seven months of its misrule.

snip

Terming the alliance government as enemy of the people, Sheikh Hasina hoped that the people would free the country from the hands of the corrupt, terrorist and incompetent government soon.

Sheikh Hasina said those who are playing with the fate of people will not get any place in the soil of Bangladesh. (my nomination for the quote of the day -if such exists, rumpel)


http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/may/22/22052006pl.htm

[rumpel]

22. AR: Fellow DU'er: Today I DEMANDED a paper ballot!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2643099

vote her up in GD Politics


:toast:

Arkansas Democrat (125 posts)

[Kurovski]

23. Done.(nt)

[FogerRox]

24. KNR good one Auto--- jack this thread up to greatest greatest page

[autorank]

26. Oh, I agree and Dave and the folks at the "central office" will be pleased

;)

[autorank]

25. Sire, to what do I owe the honor of your presence?

You wouldn't be here to kill my thread?
...or would you. :evilgrin:

[Kurovski]

30. Milord, thou knowest the angel of death be ever in my wake...

but I think he's on a coffee break right now. :evilgrin: :hi:

[understandinglife]

28. K&R.

Peace.

[Liberty Belle]

29. A few of us ARE reporting on this issue:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1270554