MONITOR: Susan Pynchon on NH's recount; Dave Zirin critiques sports

[Pokey Anderson]

The Monitor
www.TheMonitor.wordpress.com
It's your world. Understand it!
www.KPFT.org
February 3, 2008

Today's Guests & Commentary:

-- SUSAN PYNCHON, on what happened in the NH Primary recount

-- Commentary by KEITH OLBERMANN on Bush and surveillance

-- Sportswriter DAVE ZIRIN casts a critical eye at sports culture


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<> 6:00 pm CDT - Headlines

ANNOUNCEMENT: Deadline to register to vote for the Texas primary is Monday!
Houston Votes is a coalition of groups working to register the estimated 1 million eligible people in Harris County who are not registered to vote. Tomorrow, February 4 is the last day to register for those who want to be able to vote in Texas' primary election in March. Options (1) Go to the website for a list of places, or how to get registered: http://www.houstonvotes.org . (2) Or, go here to download your own form, and mail with a postmark by Monday, to be registered in Harris County: http://www.hcvoter.com/voter/voterapp/acquirevoterapp.asp . (3) Or, take yourself to The Breakfast Klub, a restaurant in Midtown, right on the Metrorail. 3711 Travis, 7 am to 7 pm on Monday. Houston Votes will help you register. (4) Or, go to WalMart at 9460 W. Sam Houston Toll between Beechnut and Bissonnet, and Houston Votes will help you register, 10 am to 10 pm Monday.


<> 6:15 pm CDT -- Susan Pynchon, on what happened in the NH Primary recount


PHOTO by Black Box Voting, compiled at BradBlog.com

As the nation turns its eye toward Super Tuesday, The Monitor continues to examine what happened in New Hampshire.

Previously (January 13), Monitor co-host Pokey Anderson and guest Dori Smith looked into the little-known private vendor that supplies voting equipment in New England; LHS Associates. LHS provides Diebold optical scan machines that count over 80% of New Hampshire's votes. LHS has unfettered access to voting machines before elections; they program the memory cards, and they take custody of them after the election. Sometimes, LHS even replaces memory cards DURING an election. Memory cards are the crucial brains of the scanning/counting machine.

Today, we will play an interview with SUSAN PYNCHON. Susan founded Florida Fair Elections Coalition, but she recently travelled from sunny Florida to snowy New Hampshire to observe the recounts there, after their early, crucial presidential primary. This interview was generously shared with us by Mary Ann Gould, who hosts Voice of the Voters, a show in the Philadelphia area.

Susan Pynchon:

"I really never dreamed that I'd see what I saw in NH when it came to election integrity. ... We couldn't help but wonder if that election isn't actually being run by organized crime. ... There was event after event ... I think if people follow along with these different videos , it will become pretty clear that SOMEthing is going on in New Hampshire that is not a pretty picture at all."

In NH, Susan and other observers saw transported ballots in beat-up cardboard boxes that had been slit open. Election officials were pointing to "seals" as preserving the safety of the boxes, but those so-called seals, the observers discovered, were actually more like Post-it notes or Saran Wrap -- they could be peeled off and replaced, with no trace. Susan says that LHS picks up the memory cards right after the election and erases them. All of this points to a chain of custody of ballots that looks more like Swiss cheese than a secure election.


PHOTO by Black Box Voting

"Butch" and "Hoppy" pick up ballots from 230 locations in NH and bring them to one central location. These two sped up to 75 mph on windy, snowy NH roads while being followed by election integrity observers.

Thanks again, to Mary Ann Gould of PA, Susan Pynchon of FL, Dori Smith of CT, Brad Friedman of CA, and Bev Harris of WA for their work.

WEBSITES and MORE INFO:

PREVIOUS MONITOR COVERAGE OF NH:
"Who Counts in New Hampshire?
And, are Diebold memory cards forgetful?"
Pokey Anderson interviews Dori Smith
Aired January 13, 2008, The Monitor, http://themonitor.wordpress.com
KPFT Radio, Houston
Transcript: http://www.votersunite.org/info/WhoCountsNH.asp
Audio: http://archive.kpft.org -- go to The Monitor for 1-13-08, then hit DOWNLOAD to play.

Black Box Voting -- www.BlackBoxVoting.org

Florida Fair Elections -- www.FloridaFairElections.org

Mary Ann Gould - "Voice of the Voters" radio show - www.CoalitionforVotingIntegrity.org

BradBlog coverage of NH- Portal to many NH stories: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5538
Notably:
(Butch & Hoppy) + Post-It Notes = NH's Chain of Custody
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5586 (originally published at BlackBoxVoting.org)

New Hampshire 2008 Primary Analysis by Election Defense Alliance
http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/new_hampshire_2008_primary_analysis


<> 6:26 MEDIA COMMENTARY: Keith Olbermann discusses surveillance, telecoms, and the Bush administration.

Congress is discussing whether to give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who have secretly cooperated with government surveillance efforts. In this prerecorded commentary, Keith Olbermann aims his own special brand of shock and awe at Bush administration surveillance and secrecy.


<> 6:35 Sportswriter Dave Zirin casts a critical eye at sports culture


Photo by Jared Rodriguez

Monitor co-host Mark Bebawi interviews sportswriter Dave Zirin about corporatism and militarism in sports, specifically the NFL.

They will take a look at the SuperBowl half-time sponsor, Bridgestone/Firestone, and its exploitative labor practices in Liberia. Other topics include Pat Tillman, and also how sports culture has changed since the days of Muhammed Ali.

Dave Zirin was Press Action's 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the Year, has been called "an icon in the world of progressive sports" and Robert Lipsyte says he is "the best young sportswriter in the United States." He is a regular contributor to the Nation Magazine, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times.

His book "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports" has been called "the sports primer for our time." Sports Illustrated wrote that Terrordome is "a provocative, sometimes chilling, look at sports and society right now."

He is a weekly television commentator for The Score, Canada's number one 24-hour sports network. He has also been on numerous national radio programs including National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation; Air America and The Laura Flanders Show; Radio Nation with Marc Cooper; ESPN radio; Stars and Stripes Radio; Pacifica's Hard Knock Radio, and many others. He is also the Thursday morning sports voice on Pacifica station WBAI's award winning "Wake Up Call."

Dave is also working on "A People's History of Sports in the United States," part of Howard Zinn's People's History series for the New Press.

ARTICLES:
"Super Bowl Slavery"
By Dave Zirin
http://www.edgeofsports.com/2008-01-22-311/index.html

"Pat Tillman, Our Hero"
By Dave Zirin
The Nation
Oct. 6, 2005
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/zirin


BOOKS:
Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports

What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States



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CO-HOSTS: Mark Bebawi, and Pokey Anderson
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February 3
-- SUSAN PYNCHON, on what happened in the NH Primary recount
-- Commentary by KEITH OLBERMANN on Bush and surveillance
-- Sportswriter DAVE ZIRIN casts a critical eye at sports culture

January 27
-- ALI ABUNIMAH on Gaza, relations between Hamas and Egypt and the current border issues
-- Investigative journalist JEREMY SCAHILL on the mercenary army Blackwater

January 20
-- AMAAD RIVERA on who got hit by the subprime loans

-- Investigative reporter DAVE LINDORFF on the proposed economic stimulus, & more

January 13
-- DR. JOHN RATEY on exercise and your brain
-- Journalist DORI SMITH investigates: Who counts in NH?

January 6
-- ELLIOT COHEN on electronic threats to privacy and democracy
-- On the ground in IOWA and NEW HAMPSHIRE with volunteers for two campaigns

December 30
-- POKEY ANDERSON's montage of poetry, music and humor
-- RN JOYCE RILEY on illnesses affecting Gulf War veterans
-- Architect RICHARD GAGE looks at the collapse of the World Trade Center towers

December 23
-- HARVEY WASSERMAN with new evidence on the Ohio election; also, a look at nuclear plants
-- ELLIOT COHEN on electronic threats to privacy

December 16
-- DC journalist ROBERT PARRY on current news
-- PROF. ROBERT JENSEN on masculinity and pornography (Part Two)

December 9
-- Ms. Magazine publisher ELLIE SMEAL looks back at feminism
-- PROF. ROBERT JENSEN on masculinity and pornography

[Wilms]

1. "Butch" and "Hoppy"?

Hey Pokey. You're better than that.

[stillcool]

2. and the Republican recount continues...

http://www.sos.nh.gov/recountresults-rep.htm

[troubleinwinter]

3. Thank you for this.