Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 11/17/05

[Wilms]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

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=203x397093

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.


If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

Link to All previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm


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

[texpatriot2004]

1. K & R in appreciation of your thread nm

[Wilms]

2. WPR: Mark Crispin Miller Radio Interview

Mark Crispin Miller Radio Interview

Thursday, November 17, 2005 at 9:00 AM (Cental Time)
The show gets archived as well.

After nine, Kathleen Dunn is joined by political commentator Mark Crispin Miller, who says it wasn't "moral values" that swung the 2004 presidential race... it was fraud. And he says it will happen again.

Guest: Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media studies, New York University. Author, "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why Thy'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)" (Basic Books)

http://wpr.org/kathleendunn/index.cfm?strDirection=Next&dteShowDate=2005%2D11%2D16%2022%3A00%3A00



http://wpr.org/webcasting/live.cfm



http://wpr.org/webcasting/ideas_audioarchives.cfm?Code=dun


ER Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x401714


GD Discussion Thanks to dragonlady

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5378599

[Wilms]

3. OH: Vote machine decision due by end of month

Vote machine decision due by end of month

By Lisa A. Abraham

Beacon Journal staff writer

By the end of the month, Summit County will know what kind of voting machines it will get, and by January those machines should be at the Board of Elections.

It was a tie when the board voted in September on whether county voters would use touch-screen voting or pencil-marked paper ballots fed into optical-scan machines.

Democrats voted for the touch screens made by Diebold Election Systems of Green, while Republicans chose optical-scan machines by Election Systems & Software of Nebraska. It's up to Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to break that tie, which is expected ``very soon,'' according to Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo. ``By the end of November, the tie will be broken on the local voting machines,'' LoParo said.

At a meeting Tuesday, Summit elections board Director Bryan Williams said he had heard that a directive may be coming from Blackwell's office forbidding the use of punch-card ballots after Jan. 1.

snip/more

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6349

[Wilms]

4. NY: "Full Face Ballot" Law Does Not Limit Elections Officials' Choice

Brennan Center Finds "Full Face Ballot" Law in New York Does Not Limit Elections Officials' Choice of Voting Systems

Calls on State Board of Elections to Allow Local Elections Officials to Choose from Full Array of Available Voting Machines

WASHINGTON - November 16 - Today, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law released a legal memorandum analyzing the actual requirements of the provision of New York State law often referred to as the “full-face ballot” law.

New York State is on the verge of replacing every one of its voting machines across the State to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act. Tragically, the choice of available voting machines is being severely and unnecessarily constrained by the State Board of Elections’ misinterpretation of New York State election law known as the “full-face ballot” law. Unless the State Board changes its interpretation immediately, New Yorkers will all be hurt by inferior and less user-friendly voting machines that cost two to three times as much as other voting machines.

It is commonly believed that the “full-face ballot” law requires all voting systems certified and purchased within the State to present the candidates for all offices and ballot questions on a single face or display at one time. This understanding of the law has led the State Board of Elections to include a version of such a requirement in the draft Voting System Standards issued on November 2 of 2005. The State Board plans to finalize those Standards after a 45-day comment period that started this month. The State Board will only certify for purchase by county elections officials those voting machines that comply with these Voting Systems Standards.

A careful review of both the original legislative purpose and the language of the statute establishes, however, that no such requirement exists in New York law. Rather, a proper reading of the statute indicates that it merely requires the contents of the “ballot” to be presented in such a way as to make certain that any given screen or page does not exceed the boundaries of the “frame.” This requirement ensures, for example, that the voter has before her at one time all of the candidates for an office, and no candidate is disadvantaged by being left off the same display as the other candidates.

snip/more

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1116-08.htm

Memorandom pdf

http://www.brennancenter.org/presscenter/FFB%20Legal%20Memorandum%20Final.PDF

[Wilms]

5. Uncounted ballots found in Detroit

Uncounted ballots found in Detroit

Nov 16, 2005, 20:08 GMT

DETROIT, MI, United States (UPI) -- Thirty percent of Detroit`s precincts in the Nov. 2 election have vote tally discrepancies that include boxes of not-yet-counted ballots, a report said.

Michigan Director of Elections Chris Thomas said changes in Detroit`s vote counts will take place this week or next because of the errors and found ballots, the Detroit News reported.

However, a Thomas spokeswoman said the revisions are not expected to change the election outcome.

Uncounted ballots include a box that was found Tuesday, the newspaper reported.

snip/more

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1062599.php/Uncounted_ballots_found_in_Detroit

[Wilms]

6. MI: Hand count samples sought

Hand count samples sought

Detroit election director aims to ease vote concerns

November 16, 2005

BY BEN SCHMITT

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

State elections officials are debating a request by Detroit Elections Director Gloria Williams to hand-count a sampling of votes from last week's city election.

The request came during a two-hour Board of Canvassers meeting Tuesday during which the public raised concerns about computer glitches, electronic ballots and vote-tampering rumors.

Williams said she wants to allay all residents' suspicions that something went wrong in the election.

"The only way we're going to dispel those worries is to do a hand count," she said Tuesday.

State Elections Director Chris Thomas said any hand count is tantamount to a recount and he doesn't think that's necessary. Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, who also attended the meeting, agreed. The board is required to certify the election by Nov. 22 or Wayne County will begin overseeing the process.

snip/more

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051116/NEWS01/511160446/1001/NEWS

[Wilms]

7. CO: Hand count of ballot required in 10 counties

Hand count of ballot required in 10 counties

By Rocky Mountain News

November 16, 2005

Secretary of State Gigi Dennis today announced she is requiring 10 counties to conduct a manual hand count of ballots.

It was discovered that one model of tabulation equipment may be tallying votes inconsistently, she said in a press release. The problems were discovered during the post-election audit.

"I am asking the county clerk and recorders using the Optech III-P Eagle equipment to do their due diligence and conduct a manual hand count of these ballots," Dennis said. "I am requiring this to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the election."

snip/more

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_4244493,00.html

[Wilms]

8. Opinion: Voting machines leave room for fraud

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Voting machines leave room for fraud

Stephen M. Williams

As I walked into the polls, I was suprised to see our venerable lever machines replaced with the "WinVote" touch consoles for voting. As I was called up to one of the consoles, an attendant walked up with me carrying a card. He stuck it in a slot, then removed it and backed away from the voting area.

It was not a paper "confirmation card" he was carrying but a key card that initializes the machine to record a vote.

Although I was a little out of touch with the timing of the introduction of these devices, I was under the impression that Virginia was requiring a literal paper trail for its electronic voting machines. Apparently it is not. The lack of any way to verify that the votes recorded were the votes cast is very disturbing. How will I ever have any confidence that my vote is counted for those I actually voted for?

snip/more

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/wb/xp-40768

[Wilms]

9. KY: Hiring probe stalls felons' voting rights

Posted on Wed, Nov. 16, 2005

Hiring probe stalls felons' voting rights

Critics say backlog is proving new rules are unmanageable

By John Cheves

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher has restored voting rights to few felons since the state hiring scandal broke, as his lawyers -- who supervise the process -- now spend much of their time fighting prosecutors in Franklin Circuit Court.

Fletcher has restored the rights of only seven felons since June, compared to 232 felons for the same period in 2004, according to the secretary of state's office.

Fletcher imposed stricter rules last year for felons who want to vote again after serving their sentences. Felons must submit an application, three character references and a written statement for his Office of General Counsel to review. The lawyers also consult local prosecutors on every case.

The process can take weeks or months, and it has nearly ground to a halt since Attorney General Greg Stumbo convened a grand jury in June to investigate the Fletcher administration for allegedly giving state jobs on the basis of politics.

snip/more

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/13178813.htm

[Wilms]

10. LA: Senate nixes plan to change law on absentee voting for evacuees

Senate nixes plan to change law on absentee voting for evacuees

By MARSHA SHULER

Capitol news bureau

The Senate derailed legislation Tuesday aimed at allowing more displaced hurricane evacuees to participate in upcoming elections.

Under the proposal, residents who registered to vote by mail but have not yet voted in person could have cast absentee ballots -- something that opponents said could lead to voter fraud.

Current law requires mail registrants to vote in person the first time so their identity can be verified.

When the vote came, 16 senators voted for the proposal while 20 opposed it, so it did not pass. Another three senators didn't vote.

Similar legislation is pending in the House, where it squeaked out of a committee on a 5-4 vote.

snip/more

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/111605/pol_absentee001.shtml

[Wilms]

11. TX: Justice Dept. Pushing County To Sign Voting Rights Agreement

FortBendNow

Justice Dept. Pushing County To Sign Voting Rights Agreement

by Bob Dunn, Nov 15, 07:27 pm

The Justice Department is pressuring Fort Bend County officials to take specific actions to comply with bilingual requirements in the Voting Rights Act, FortBendNow has learned.

Officials from the Voting Section, within the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, recently crafted a legal document outlining a list of actions to be taken by county election officials under the Act.

That document was presented to the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court last week in executive session, but commissioners did not sign it.

“They did present an agreement to the county that they asked us to sign off on,” Fort Bend County Elections Administrator Steve Raborn said Tuesday. “And that’s why they had the closed session.”

snip/more

http://www.fortbendnow.com/article/384/justice-dept-pushing-fort-bend-county-to-sign-voting-rights-agreement

[Wilms]

12. Internal DOJ Documents on Georgia Voter ID Requirements Leaked to WaPo

Election Law Blog

snip/more

by Rick Hasen

November 16, 2005

Internal DOJ Documents on Georgia Voter ID Requirements Leaked to Washington Post; Show Career Attorneys Opposed Preclearance

The Washington Post offers a front page report, Criticism of Voting Law Was Overruled; Justice Dept. Backed Georgia Measure Despite Fears of Discrimination. It begins: "A team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters, but they were overruled the next day by higher-ranking officials at Justice, according to department documents." The newspaper has posted the 51-page memorandum in pieces.

This is significant not only for the Georgia i.d. question (the analysis in the memo will surely be seized upon by plaintiffs in their current suit pending before the 11th circuit after a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction holding the law an unconstitutional "poll tax"). It also highlights the question, raised by Nate Persily, Dan Tokaji, and others whether it makes sense for Congress, in renewing the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, to retain DOJ as the approving agent in light of a perceived increasing politicization of the DOJ's preclearance decisions. Dan has a recent post on this topic that predates the current revelations,

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/11/can-justice-be-trusted.html

but builds on an earlier Post story on upheaval in the DOJ.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/12/AR2005111201200_pf.html

snip/more

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/004454.html





Criticism of Voting Law Was Overruled
Justice Dept. Backed Georgia Measure Despite Fears of Discrimination

By Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page A01

A team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters, but they were overruled the next day by higher-ranking officials at Justice, according to department documents.

The Justice Department has characterized the "pre-clearance" of the controversial Georgia voter-identification program as a joint decision by career and political appointees in the Civil Rights Division. Republican proponents in Georgia have cited federal approval of the program as evidence that it would not discriminate against African Americans and other minorities.

But an Aug. 25 staff memo obtained by The Washington Post recommended blocking the program because Georgia failed to show that the measure would not dilute the votes of minority residents, as required under the Voting Rights Act.

snip/more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602504.html


Department of Justice Documents

Section 5 Recommendation Memorandum

This Aug. 25 Department of Justice memo shows that a review team decided 4-1 that Georgia's voter identification program should be halted. The next day Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his aides granted pre-clearance to the program, allowing the initiative to go forward before it was blocked by the courts (PDFs).

Links

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/11/16/CU2005111601869.html

[Wilms]

13. The NYT Editorial Page on Judge Alito and One Person, One Vote

Election Law Blog

November 16, 2005

by Rick Hansen

The NYT Editorial Page on Judge Alito and One Person, One Vote

In Ignore the Man Behind the Memo, the New York Times editorial page writes: " noted his 'disagreement with Warren Court decisions' in many important areas, including reapportionment. The reapportionment cases established the one-person-one-vote doctrine, which requires that Congressional and legislative districts include roughly equal numbers of people. They played a key role in making American democracy truly representative, and are almost uniformly respected by lawyers and scholars."

I think this is somewhat of an overstatement. While I believe there is near consensus that Baker v. Carr was correctly decided, there has been a great deal of criticism of the one person, one vote rule in recent years from both the left and right. I have already written about Judge McConnell's criticisms. But there have also been thoughtul pieces by Sandy Levinson, Grant Hayden, Richard Briffault, myself and others who can't be characterized as conservatives, questioning at least in part the implementation of the Supreme Court's one person, one vote rule.

snip/link to NY Times Editorial

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/004452.html


November 15, 2005

Some Evidence One Person, One Vote Will Get Some Play in Judge Alito Hearings

Rick Hasen

See this fact sheet from the Alliance for Justice. A snippet: "Judge Alito should say whether he continues to believe that the Constitution provides no right to abortion, contains no 'one person-one vote' principle, permits religious prayer in school and forbids affirmative action."

Fact Sheet pdf

http://www.supremecourtwatch.org/factsheet.pdf


http://electionlawblog.org/archives/004445.html

[Wilms]

14. LA: With friends like FEMA, who needs Jim Crow?"

Election Law Blog

"Voter Disenfranchisement by Attrition; With friends like FEMA, who needs Jim Crow?"

by Rick Hasen

November 16, 2005

In These Times offers this very important report, which begins: "When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, it destroyed half the city’s voting precincts and scattered 300,000 of the city’s residents, most of them black, across the country. With citywide elections still scheduled in February and March for 20 key public offices—including mayor, criminal sheriff, civil sheriff and all city council members—restoring the city’s democratic capability might seem an urgent task to some, but not to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)."

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/004451.html

[Wilms]

15. GAO takes a big bite out of the Bush clique’s pretense of legitimacy

Government Accounting Office takes a big bite out of the Bush clique’s pretense of legitimacy

by Joe Baker Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005 at 12:03 PM

How much will it take before people rise up and force the Repugs in Congress to impeach this dangerous thief? Secret CIA torture gulags, now secret Shiite torture chambers in Iraq. At least two stolen US elections. It boggles the mind.

GAO report upholds Ohio vote fraud claims

By Joe Baker, Senior Editor

As if the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby wasn’t enough to give the White House some heavy concerns, a report from the Government Accounting Office takes a big bite out of the Bush clique’s pretense of legitimacy.

This powerful and probing report takes a hard look at the election of 2004 and supports the contention that the election was stolen. The report has received almost no coverage in the national media.

The GAO is the government’s lead investigative agency, and is known for rock-solid integrity and its penetrating and thorough analysis. The agency’s agreement with what have been brushed aside as “conspiracy theories” adds even more weight to the conclusion that the Bush regime has no business in the White House whatever.

Almost a year ago, Rep. John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the GAO to investigate the use of electronic voting machines in the Nov. 2, 2004, presidential election. That request was made as a flood of protests from Ohio and elsewhere deluged Washington with claims that shocking irregularities were common in that vote and were linked to the machines.

snip/more

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/11/1783843.php

[Wilms]

16. NJ: Freeholders choose the Sequoia Advantage for Essex elections

The vote is in for a new voting machine: Freeholders choose the Sequoia Advantage for Essex elections

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

By ERICA ZARRA
of The Montclair Times

snip

The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders has opted to purchase 700 touch-screen machines from Sequoia Voting Systems, which has manufactured nearly 64 percent of all election equipment in New Jersey.

snip

But not everyone was sold.

Freeholders Ralph Caputo, Carol Clark and Muriel Shore contested the purchase, saying they had not received sufficient time to review the contract with Sequoia of Oakland, Calif.

They were not alone.

Dozens of political activists packed the Freeholder Chambers in Newark on Nov. 10 to protest the purchase, claiming that Sequoia technology is outdated and therefore vulnerable to computer malfunctions.

Many of those in attendance were from the Essex County Task Force on Voting, a citizens group of concerned residents from Montclair and other municipalities. The group has campaigned for months against the Sequoia Ad-vantage.

snip/more

http://www.montclairtimes.com/page.php?page=10827

[Wilms]

17. Sorry, I got the date wrong.

It's THURSDAY, 11/17/05

[Wilms]

18. Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy

Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy by upholding ex-felon vote ban

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
November 16, 2005

With nary a peep from the mainstream media, the US Supreme Court has stabbed yet another partisan knife into the American electoral system.

This time the court has let stand Florida's infamous 137-year-old ban on voting rights for ex-felons. It was this same Jim Crow ban that the GOP used to disenfranchise thousands of Floridians in 2000, providing the margin by which George W. Bush took the presidency. The ruling continues to take the vote from millions of African-Americans and non-violent offenders----and, in practice, others who have broken no laws at all. It is highly likely to strengthen the lock of the Republican party and its future candidates on the US presidency.

In Florida 2000, Republican Governor Jeb Bush used the ban as a pretext for disenfranchising tens of thousands of mostly black voters who committed no crime at all, but whose names allegedly resembled those who did. In the lead-up to his brother's test at the polls, Bush hired a Republican computer firm to compile a dubious list which Bush then used to deprive perhaps 120,000 Floridians, perhaps more, of their right to vote.

It has since been shown that thousands of those who lost their vote had never been convicted of anything. According to the Sentencing Project, the number of alleged Florida ex-felons effectively deprived of their right to vote in 2000 may have been as high as 600,000, roughly a thousand times as many as allegedly gave George W. Bush his margin of victory.

snip/more

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1574

[Algorem]

19. a letter to editor

Hacked Off

Somebody's PC may not be so PC: I am responding to your article "Knocking the Vote" . Right after the election of 2004, I asked my son whether he thought that the vote could be hacked. He works in computers, and I thought he might have a knowledgeable answer. Without any hesitation, he said, "Yes, of course they can be hacked."

What can be done about what is happening in our country? You mention the word "Republican," and all you can think of is fraud. From Tom DeLay right on up to Scooter Libby and Karl Rove, and Cheney and Bush lying about the WMD.

Our country is going down the tubes fast. Thanks for a great article!

Marcia Bracciano
Monroe, Michigan

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/mostrecent/letters.html


one from the other Cleveland weekly-

THE LEFT’S ENEMY WITHIN
This is an open letter to those people who in the past have voted for Nader, the Green Party or any other left-leaning party. In 2006, all progressives will have a unique opportunity to take back Ohio, but more importantly, begin to take back their country.
Republicans have totally controlled both state and federal government for the last six years. What has it brought us? Ohio has had unprecedented corruption by Republican cronies like Tom Noe, and a sitting governor convicted of a crime for the first time in its history. Nationally, the Republicans have fear-mongered terrorism for cheap political gain. They have endangered the lives of our undercover intelligence operatives for the same reason. Republicans started an illegal and immoral war to steal another country’s oil and to enrich their pals like Halliburton. They have trampled on our civil liberties and raped our environment. Finally, they have caved in to religious whacko old white men who want to tell women what to do with their bodies.
So progressives can continue to vote Green and maintain your ideological purity. Or you can hold your nose and vote for the candidate who stands the best chance of ending this fascist Republican junta. If it involves voting Democrat for the first time in your life, do it! Your very future hangs in the balance.

Scott Dotson
Cuyahoga Falls

http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2790

[Algorem]

20. OH-Taft e-mails released:aide asked Noe about job candidate

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051117/NEWS24/311170001/-1/NEWS

E-MAILS RELEASED
Taft aide asked Noe about job candidate
Input sought in 2003 to fill ODOT position

By JAMES DREW
and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

COLUMBUS - A high-ranking aide to Gov. Bob Taft asked Tom Noe for his advice on the administration's decision to hire a new deputy director for the Ohio Department of Transportation district in Bowling Green, e-mails released by the governor's office this week show...

The Ohio Ethics Commission has referred its investigation of Mr. Moormann to prosecutors for review. No decision has been made whether to file charges against Mr. Moormann, who received a $5,000 loan from Mr. Noe in 2004 after he had left the governor's office, said Stephen McIntosh, chief prosecutor for the Columbus city attorney's office...

"What in the world is it the business of Tom Noe, the rare- coin dealer, who gets hired at ODOT?'' said state Sen. Marc Dann, a Youngstown-area Democrat who is seeking his party's nomination to run for attorney general next year. "It shows how grateful Taft was to get his campaign contributions."...

w● Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett responded to questions from House Minority Leader Chris Redfern (D., Catawba Island) about how the Republican leader planned to handle the Lucas County officials who have been alleged as conduits in the Noe money-laundering investigation. Mr. Bennett, in a letter, accused Mr. Redfern of trying to "exploit" the investigation, and told the Democrat to "take steps to clean up the corruption in your own party."...


RECENT RELATED ARTICLES

• Taft aide asked Noe about job candidate | 11/17/2005
• House agrees to ax coin-sale deadline | 11/17/2005
• GOP chief won't ask 2 officials to resign | 11/16/2005
• Deadline lifted for sale of state's coins | 11/16/2005
• 'Stupid' defense won't work | 11/16/2005
• Deadline lifted for sale of state's coins | 11/16/2005
• GOP chief won't ask 2 officials to resign | 11/16/2005
• Moyer says $1,000 may be a donation laundered by Noe | 11/12/2005
• Feds identify local figures as ‘conduits’ | 11/12/2005
• A Caribbean connection? | 11/12/2005
• Federal investigators identify local figures as ‘conduits’ | 11/12/2005
• Moyer says $1,000 may be a donation laundered by Noe | 11/12/2005
• Examiner says ex-BWC leader kept troubles silent | 11/11/2005
• Letter claims Noe had link to bank in Caribbean | 11/11/2005
• Examiner says ex-BWC leader kept troubles silent | 11/11/2005
More related articles »

[Algorem]

21. OH-Scandal-ridden workers' comp to fire 69 investment managers

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1132256650221400.xml&storylist=cleveland

1/17/2005, 2:37 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A committee overseeing Ohio's scandal-ridden insurance fund for injured workers voted Thursday to fire 69 managers of investment funds to allow the agency to shift money to more secure investments while it retools its financial policies...

In a 90-minute meeting that focused on the agency's future, the commission voted to fire six international and 44 domestic managers of equity funds, or funds that invest primarily in stocks...

Workers' comp officials say the fund managers did nothing wrong(?) but it was easier to dismiss them all so the agency can start with a clean slate.

The agency has been overhauling its financial strategy since revelations last spring that it lost more than $300 million in investments, including $13 million in rare coins and $215 million in a hedge fund.

[GuvWurld]

22. GuvWurld Joins Call For Media Coverage of Month-Old GAO Report

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/11/guvwurld-joins-call-for-media-coverage.html

GuvWurld Joins Call For Media Coverage of Month-Old GAO Report

On Oct. 20 a report condemning the security of U.S. elections was issued by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report was added to the GuvWurld News Archive but I did not blog about it. It is unfortunate, but I do not have time to write about everything I see as important. Instead, GuvWurld is and always has been a vehicle for advocacy journalism where I write about the things I am DOING to bring about change, and writing in order to contribute to achieving that change. And so it is a reaffirmation of this blog's mission, today, to join the call for all media to end the blackout of the GAO report.

As is often the case lately, BradBlog.com was the first place I saw writing about the GAO report. About 10 days later, Brad lamented the lack of coverage the report had received (giving due credit to the few links to be found). Brad tagged his column with a specific appeal to Editor and Publisher, who promptly took note of the call without doing the substantive reporting suggested. I should point out that upon release of the GAO report, a bi-partisan group of six Congressmembers issued a statement in support of its findings. It is just all the more absurd that this continues to be ignored. Today the Green Party of the United States has issued a press release calling for the GAO report to be covered.

Now consider for a moment, what would be the impact of a media industry that routinely kept such important information from the public? Why, under such circumstances, we might be lead to war by a false threat; we could conceivably fail to investigate a deadly attack despite contradictory and scientifically impossible elements of the "official story"; and the possibility would have to exist that election conditions designed to produce inconclusive results would also produce something short of unanimous consensus about the outcome.

Both by what is reported and not reported, the corporate media contribute greatly to defining reality. Don't miss the pattern here. The reality being defined is quite often one of inherent uncertainty. Thus, instead of investigative reporting, often we see information surface, an attack smearing the messenger, and then a report on the he said-she said without determination of the validity of the original charge. Inherent uncertainty then remains to cause public disagreement about what constitutes reality.

In Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution I argue that this rift in the perception of reality is one example of the intentional divisiveness that has launched a Cold Civil War between the reality-based community (so-named by the administration in the NYTimes) and the faith-based community (not necessarily the religious but the unquestioning citizens who accept the official line, on faith).

More recently in the GuvWurld blog I wrote We Are Being Set Up: The Manchurian Nation. This commentary described some of the innocent ways that many pillars of our society are indoctrinated into believing their harmful actions actually serve the greater good. That includes local law enforcement trained to regard peaceful protest as terrorist activity; schools where it is assumed student information should be available to military recruiters; elections officials placing expediency over transparency and verifiability; and media no longer interested in being watch dogs over the powerful.

These actions reinforce the foundation of the faith-based community. To reality-based citizens it is like watching a Trojan Horse, inside duped public figures carry out their implanted missions like the movie about that Candidate. The infrastructure of the faith-based community is populated by the Manchurian Nation. No longer should we apologize for the nice folks we know who run the local paper or work at the elections office. They have to hear loud and clear: STOP SELLING US OUT. Stop right now. Today. Immediately. Cover the GAO report and stop impeding election reform.

[MelissaB]

23. A Decreasingly Funny Joke

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-mamet/cartoon-a-decreasingly-f_b_10836.html



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