12/6/04
The
internet : The last remaining form of reliable news
Tenet
in a speech last week ( note that the press was barred from attending):
Doh!
"I
know that these actions would be controversial in this age where we
still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control
or accountability," he added. "But, ultimately, the Wild
West must give way to governance and control."
The way the Internet was built might be part of the problem, he said.
Its open architecture allows Web surfing, but that openness makes
the system vulnerable...Access to networks like the World Wide
Web might need to be limited to those who can show they take security
seriously"
*sigh*
Who
gets the last lol?
The
CIA is quietly funding federal research into surveillance of Internet
chat rooms as part of an effort to identify possible terrorists, newly
released documents reveal.
In April 2003, the CIA agreed to fund a series of research projects
that the documents indicate were intended to create "new capabilities
to combat terrorism through advanced technology." One of those
projects is research at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy,
N.Y., devoted to automated monitoring and profiling of the behavior
of chat-room users.
- Jordan
The
right are often wrong
While
the people on the right often like to paint themselves as the party
with the high moral values, I often find it interesting that the
facts don't back the claim up.
Lets look at divorce
rates. The right goes on and on about the 'sanctity of marriage'
and how granting gay couples the right to marry and lead a loving
life, will somehow bring on the apocalypse. Yet when we look at
Divorce rates in our country we find an interesting thing. Which
of the 50 states do you think has the lowest divorce rate? If you
would believe the Republicans, it must be a red state. because they
are so interested in marriage and its sanctity right? Wrong. The
state with the lowest divorce rate of all 50 states is..... drum
roll please......
Massachusetts.
That's right. The epicenter of the gay marriage movement is also
the state with the lowest divorce rate in the nation. Think that’s
just some coincidence? I don't think so. 9 of the 10 lowest divorce
rates are blue states. So where are the highest divorce rates? You
guessed it. 10
of the top 10 are red states. Do you see the irony here?
The bible
belt seems to be having sanctity issues.
But lets continue. How about teen pregnancy? For sure the moral
values of the republicans have taught their populations that abstinence
is the only way. For sure this is working in the youth. Right? Right?
Wrong. 10 of the top 10 highest teen pregnancy states are red. Heck
the top 15 are red. So much for moral values right? But hey it makes
for a good sound bite, and to the Republicans, that is all that
matters.
Sources
here
and here
-
Jordan
12/3/04
Things
just got very interesting in Ohio.
While the Kerry campaign is certainly keeping
an eye on the situation in Ohio, it seems some laywers are
getting some real results. A great Daily
Kos diary (note this page now takes quote a while to load,
so I have put most of the information here) alerted me to an interview
on C-Span today where my new hero, Cliff Arnebeck (bio),
an attorney for Alliance for Democracy, who is going to file a suit
sometime between Friday and Monday. They only have until Monday
to recount and finish this up because, under federal law, December
13 is when the members of the Electoral College cast their votes.
This might be why why Blackwell keeps delaying the certification
of Ohio's vote. Mr Blackwell is playing a dual role as Ohio’s
Secretary of State (and thus its chief electoral official) and as
Co-Chairman of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign there. As
Jessie
Jackson puts it "We need to investigate, coordinate,
litigate, recount and recuse," he said, referring to the legitimacy
of the Ohio vote. "Mr. Blackwell cannot be both the owner of
the team and the umpire." Blackwell has gotten some unwanted
attention on this issue. Just recently Conyers and other House
Judiciary Democrats asked Blackwell to explain alleged Ohio election
Irregularities. (PDF) This document is a MUST READ
for anyone interested in preserving Democracy. Pass it on to everyone
you know. They are asking him to explain the following:
Why
did Warren County officials exclude members of the press from observing
vote counting on election night, claiming an FBI agent had warned
of a terrorist threat that was a "10" on a scale of one
to ten, but the FBI has no knowledge of such a warning?
Why did precincts in Perry County apparently record more votes than
voters?
Why did Butler County and a number of other counties record more votes
for an underfunded Democratic candidate for State Supreme Court than
were recorded for the Democratic Presidential candidate?
Why did historically Democratic precincts in Cleveland record up to
twenty-two times more votes for the Constitution Party Presidential
candidate than all third-party candidates combined received in the
2000 election?
Why did voters in Mahong County report that when they attempted to
record a vote for John Kerry their vote was displayed as being cast
for George W. Bush?
Why did there appear to be a shortage of voting machines in traditionally
Democratic precincts on election day, causing up to ten hour delays
for voters, while there was an apparent surplus of voting machines
in traditionally Republican precincts?
But
I digress. Back to Mr. Arnebeck....
What Arnebeck is doing here is important. He is not demanding a
recount. He is saying that he HAS EVIDENCE that the election result
in Ohio is wrong. Let that sink in. Evidence of fraud that could
overturn the election results. This is big. Mr. Arnebeck claims
that he has proof that the Ohio election result is actually the
opposite of what has been reported. His proof will show that Kerry
won 51% of the vote in Ohio.
Listen for yourself. Go to www.cspan.org
under "Recent Programs" and click on "Washington
Journal Entire Program (12/02/04)", if you cant find it there
try this:
Open Real Player, go to open location, and put in this URL:
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/c04/c04_wj120204_arnebeck.rm
Now I just tried it and the servers over there are being hit hard
so here is the relevant bit from a transcript:
"The
only logical explanation is that there was a movement of some 65,000
votes or so that were cast for Kerry into the Bush column. Which created
a margin that is approximately the total margin by which Bush was
reported to have won Ohio. So our current view of the evidence is
that this is where the fix occurred.
There were a variety of other problems in the election. There was
the suppression of black voters in Franklin Co. by shorting machines
in black and high Democratic performance districts. There was what
we would call a precinct shuffle in Summit Co. and Cuyahuga Co. where
a deliberate confusion was created about where people could vote.
They cast their provisional ballots...there were election officials
were telling them that they could vote in any precinct of the county
and it would be counted. And then you've got Blackwell saying they
won't be counted.
Our present feeling is that this is, while a serious conspiracy to
violate the civil rights of a protected class of voters namely those
of the black race, that this is not where the real fix occurred. This
is something we will discuss in the lawsuit, but we intend to focus
very, to hone in very aggressively in full tilt litigation with full
discovery on what we believe is the fraud that occurred in the southern
part of the state with the shift of votes.
Look at the two races. In effect the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court race is a benchmark race for the presidential race because both
of these races were competitive, they were running neck and neck.
All right so this gives you a basis to say "all right what happened
in this situation and how does it relate to the other, the benchmark."
Now a more ingenious approach might have been if you're going to do
this you should have made the adjustment also in the Supreme Court
race too, so this wouldn't stand out. This stands out like a sore
thumb.
I think what happened is, all this civil rights violation was a red
herring intended to stimulate the public interest groups and civil
rights organizations to hone in on this, on this horrendous, horrendous
attack on the rights of black voters. They thought that's what we
would go after, the clock would run out, we wouldn't be able to prove
our case. The real fraud occurred in this switching of votes in southern
Ohio. That's our present view of the evidence."
The
old bait and switch. Smells like Rove to me.
Please
forward this information LIBERALY!
Big
hat tip to LawStudent over at DailyKos.
UPDATES:
Kerry's
campaign joins call for Ohio recount
John Kerry's campaign has joined a lawsuit by third-party presidential
candidates seeking a recount in Ohio. A lawyer for the campaign said
yesterday it does not question the Democrat's loss but wants any counting
to take place statewide.
Kerry's campaign joined the suit filed by Green and Libertarian party
candidates seeking a recount of votes in Delaware County. A judge
issued a restraining order blocking that request, but the order expired
yesterday. A hearing on the request is set in federal court in Columbus
today.
Final
count in Ohio gives Kerry 18,000 more votes
George Bush's nail-biting win in Ohio - the one that forced America
to wait overnight to learn who its new president would be - was even
closer than Election Day results indicated.
John Kerry will pick up about 18,000 votes when Secretary of State
Ken Blackwell certifies final results on Monday, according to county-by-county
totals gathered by The Plain Dealer.
-
Jordan
12/2/04
Robin
Baneth's $100,00 challenge
My
Fellow 'Americans':
I will send a $1,000 cashier's check to the first election official,
politician, statistician, professor, broadcast journalist, blogger,
editor, vote machine manufacturer, programmer, anyone who can convince
me of the superiority of non-paper trail voting to paper-trail voting.
I challenge you, READER; You, Keith Olbermann; YOU my right-wing
brother in Utah; YOU, Jim Baker, YOU, Tom Delay; YOU, David Corn;
YOU, Bill O'Reilly; YOU, Katherine Blackwell. You and you and you
and YOU. Knock this battery off my shoulder. Don't worry, I have
overdraft protection.
Please explain to me why no paper-trail machines are superior to
paper balloting? No matter how this gets spun, you know what ...
we are still talking about the fallibility and tinkerability and
FINANCIAL COST of machines. Why was vote tabulation not the major
issue in the 60s, 70s, etc. that it is today? We have gone backwards,
prehistoric even. A single machine error can turn an election, can
a single paper balloting error do this? Maybe dead people voting
can, but it takes work. The solution seems obvious so I am putting
my money where my fool heart is. My stomach is in knots and I cannot
sleep. My reasons are two-fold: 1) I WANT to give you my money so
I can feel good about this election, and 2) Republicans seem to
understand this over wimpy liberal therapy sessions.
I have ZERO confidence in this last election. I am not the only
one. I am digging in my family history to prove I have Ukrainian
blood. Damn, those people make me proud. Prove I should trust OUR
system....
Canada (the country with no voting controversy) votes with paper
ballots and they find out their results two hours after the polls
close. We use machines and we get Corn's patronizing article and
Blackwell's stonewalling. On and on and on. I now see Palm Beach,
Florida
now creatively proposes to stretch out the whole process
as a cheaper solution to fixing the machine situation we are supposedly
all fo heavily invested in Isn't this called early voting? Wow,
creative geniuses they are. Idiots. Here's an idea, let's get rid
of most of the machines and all Warren County, Ohio and Palm Beach
County, Florida election officials while we are at it. What are
the drawbacks? NONE. Unless I lose my challenge. I will keep you
posted.
- snip -
Would a paper trail kill anyone? This honor system no longer deserves
the benefit of the doubt. 57,000 reports to the GAO? Tossed out
poll tapes in Volusia County, Florida? This same county registered
-16,022 (that's right negative) votes for Gore. A media lockout
in Warren County, Ohio? THESE ARE FACTS. NOT CONJECTURE, FACTS.
Forget that every irregularity favors one candidate over an other,
I won't get into the stats and strange mathematical anomalies that
just seem to muddy a picture that is very clear to me. If you win
I will fax all our congresspeople to "SAVE THE MACHINES with
your arguments."
Please stop defending the insanity. I defy anyone to justify that
no paper trail is better than a paper trail. Did you know Diebold
makes ATMs? You know, those ATMS that print receipts?
The
rest
-
Jordan
12/1/04
fas·cism
(n)
1.
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under
a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition
through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent
nationalism and racism.
2. An extreme form of nationalism that played on fears of communism
and rejected individual freedom, liberal individualism, democracy,
and limitations on the state.
3.
political philosophy or movement that places the nation or the race
above the individual and that stands for highly centralized government
led by a dictator; belief in militarism, racism, and nationalism;
opposition to democracy and human rights.
14
identifying characteristics of fascism.
1.
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans,
symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere,
as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people
in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored
in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to
look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions,
assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the
need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic
or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists,
etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is
given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic
agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively
male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles
are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia
and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes the media are directly controlled by the government, but
in other cases, the media are indirectly controlled by government
regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship,
especially in wartime, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion
in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious
rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even
when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed
to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often
are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating
a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power
elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to
a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely,
or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher
education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other
academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the
arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the
arts.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power
to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police
abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism.
There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited
power in fascist nations
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends
and associates who appoint each other to government positions and
use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from
accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national
resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright
stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other
times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even
assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control
voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation
of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries
to manipulate or control elections.
If
you get a chill reading this then you should read more. Here
is where I found it.
-
Jordan
I
received this from a credible source today:
This is from John Schmidhauser former Congressman (D. IA). Who now
lives in Carpinteria CA.
On Friday I received a phone call from a good friend who works at
CBS - I've known her for years and she is a producer for some of
the news programs, one well known one in particular. She tipped
me off that the news media is in a "lock-down" and that
there is to be no TV coverage of the real problems with voting on
Nov. 2nd. She said similar "lock-down orders" had come
down last year after the invasion of Iraq, but this is far worse
- far scarier.
She said the majority of their journalists at CBS and elsewhere
in NYC are pretty horrified - every one is worried about their jobs
and retribution Dan Rather style or worse. My source said they've
also been forbidden to talk about it even on their own time but
she was pissed and her journalistic and moral integrity as what
she considers to be a government watchdog requires her to speak
out, even if covertly, and she therefore asked me to "spread"
the word...She said that journalism and the truth is at stake. She
said another friend of hers, a producer at MSNBC, said that an anchor
by the name of Keith Olbermann had brought it up on his show on
Friday eve and the axe came down. He's at least fighting back and
talking about it on his "Blog", but she said that people
there are worried that he's going to be fired by higher ups.
She said at this point the only way that the "real news"
was going to be known is if the people started talking about it
and made a big enough stink about it to our elected officials, the
FEC, and "noise" to the international media, that our
own media won't have any choice but to cover it. The only place
you'll see this talked about right now is on the internet and on
AirAmericaRadio.
People and Agencies to Contact regarding this matter:
1)
Your two US Senators &Congressional Representative - here is the
main switchboard number for the House and Senate: 1-800-839-5276 Although
individual numbers are listed below, you can reach all Senators and
Representatives via this 800 number.
2) Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader: 202-225-4965
3) These members are allegedl/reportedly looking into the issue -urge
them to introduce a bill to investigate voter fraud:
Rep. Henry Waxman of CA - 202-225-3976
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of OH - 202-225-7032
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of OH - 202-225-5871
Rep. Tim Ryan of OH - 202-225-5261
4) Democratic & Republican Members of the House Judiciary Committee:
Rep. Robert Wexler of FL - 202-225-3001
Rep. Maxine Waters of CA - 202-225-2201
Rep. Chabot of OH (R)- 202-225-2216
Rep. King of IA (R)- 202-225-4426
5) Democrat & Republican Members (call both) of theSenate Judiciary
Committee:
Sen. Patrick Leahy of VT - 202-224-4242 (Ranking Member)
Sen. Ted Kennedy of MA - 202-224-4543
Sen. Joe Biden of DE - 202-224-5042
Sen. Russ Feingold of WI - 202-224-5323
Sen. Charles Schumer of NY - 202-224-6542
-
Jordan
Just
got back in town
Hope
you all had a great thanksgiving! I will resume posting now that
I am back home. Got a bit of cathcing up to do. Ill start you all
off with this loveley piece:
The
way they used to teach the origin of the species to high school students
in this sleepy town of 1,800 people in southern Pennsylvania, said
local school board member Angie Yingling disapprovingly, was that
"we come from chimpanzees and apes."
Not anymore.
The school board has ordered that biology teachers at Dover Area High
School make students "aware of gaps/problems" in the theory
of evolution. Their ninth-grade curriculum now must include the theory
of "intelligent design," which posits that life is so complex
and elaborate that some greater wisdom has to be behind it.
The decision, passed last month by a 6-to-3 vote, makes the 3,600-student
school district about 20 miles south of Harrisburg the first in the
United States to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design"
in public schools, putting it on the front line of the growing national
debate over the role of religion in public life.
- snip -
The
idea of intelligent design was initiated by a small group of scientists
to explain what they believe to be gaps in Charles Darwin's theory
of evolution, which they say is "not adequate to explain all
natural phenomena. "
-
snip -
"There's a constant impetus by conservative evangelical Christians
to bring religion back into the public schools," said Witold
Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania branch of the American
Civil Liberties Union. "The end goal is to get rid of evolution.
They view it as a threat to their religion."
- snip -
"There's only one creator, and it has to be God," said Rebecca
Cashman, 16, a sophomore at Dover High. She frowned when asked to
recollect what she learned about evolution at school last year.
"Evolution -- is that the Darwin theory?" Cashman shook
her head. "I don't know just what he was thinking!"
There
is more
So
if "life is so complex and elaborate that some greater wisdom
has to be behind it", then God must have created nano-technology
as well? How about fiber optics? Doesn't the same logic apply?
Heck
I could find a "small group of scientists" with real degrees
who will swear up and down that the moon landing was faked. Maybe
we should be teaching that in schools as well.
There
is not even ONE public university teaches Creationism as a valid
scientific fact.
-
Jordan
11/24/04
How
to get the mainstream media to cover election fraud
The answer it seems was easy all along. Just make sure the election
fraud happens in another country. Thats right, even as ongoing investigations
continue on our own election, an event ignored by the media, major
headlines were made all over the country today regarding alleged
election fraud in the Ukraine.
Man, I wish I lived in the Ukraine where they make sure the votes
are counted and raise bloody hell when there is suspicion of fraud.
The sense of power felt by the 100,000 people who headed towards
the parliment in a massive protest must have been amazing. I will
never know that feeling because I live in the united states. You
see here our headlines are dominated by important issues. Like when
programs that should be showing two teams of men beating the crap
out of each-other for entertainment is rudely interrupted by a woman's
bare back. The outrage!
While our media here ignores massive election fraud in the greatest
super power on earth, they jump all over themselves in an attempt
to cover the election fraud in the Ukraine.
As I read the articles I felt like I felt like I was taking crazy
pills. The papers spoke of a candidate who early in the day showed
a huge lead in exit polls. Only to be defeated later in the evening
as the votes were counted. Cries of election fraud sprung forth
soon after.
Sound familiar? For a second there I thought the media had re-inserted
their collective balls and I was reading about our election right
here at home. Alas it was not so. If your itching to read mainstream
news about election fraud, outside out country of course.... You
have many stories to chose from.
Enjoy.
Estimated
200,000 protest in Ukraine to protest election results naming Kremlin-backed
candidate the winner
Although
official results, with more than 99 percent of precincts counted,
showed Yanukovych leading with 49.42 percent to his challenger's 46.70
percent, several exit polls had found Yushchenko the winner, one by
a margin of 11 percentage points.
The
White House statement said it strongly supported an investigation
of the election.
"We call on the government of Ukraine to respect the will of
the Ukranian people, and we urge all Ukrainians to resolve the situation
through peaceful means," the statement said.
German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for "the necessary corrections"
to be made to the vote counting process and France expressed "serious
doubts" about the results. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
said the election appeared "neither free ... nor fair."
The
Government Accoutability Office is going to investigate the voting
irregularities of 2004 elections. Here is the press release
we just received in our email minutes ago:
Government Accountability Office to Conduct Investigation of 2004
Election Irregularities
(Washington, DC) Reps. John Conyers, Jr., Jerrold Nadler, Robert Wexler,
Robert Scott, and Rush Holt announced today that, in response to their
November 5 and 8 letters to the Government Accountability Office (GAO),
the GAO has decided to move forward with an investigation of election
irregularities in the 2004 election. The five Members issued the following
statement:
"We are pleased that the GAO has reviewed the concerns expressed
in our letters and has found them of sufficient merit to warrant further
investigation. On its own authority, the GAO will examine the security
and accuracy of voting technologies, distribution and allocation of
voting machines, and counting of provisional ballots. We are hopeful
that GAO's non-partisan and expert analysis will get to the bottom
of the flaws uncovered in the 2004 election. As part of this inquiry,
we will provide copies of specific incident reports received in our
offices, including more than 57,000 such complaints provided to the
House Judiciary Committee.
“Regardless
of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted…”
For
those of us NOT paying attention to the behind the ecenes efforts,
that quote might seem strange. Read between the lines. The fat lady
is in the green room.
Howard
Fineman, chief political correspondent of Newsweek and since the days
of our old The Big Show an MSNBC analyst, summed up the exact inexactitude
of Kerry and the Democrats about Ohio, on the Monday Countdown. “They
keep saying these little things designed to make clear, at least to
their supporters and the whole blogosphere out there, that they take
the possibility (of a Kerry victory) and the need for a recount seriously.”
Olbermann
continues to be the only journalist covering this story. Go
give him some love.
And
tell the press to start doing their damn job.
This
page has a ton of great information on the election fraud
-
Jordan
XYZPDQ
Hat
tip to Joel
Im
just sayin.....
-
Jordan
11/22/04
TELL
THE MEDIA TO START COVERING THE VOTE FRAUD ISSUE!!
Media contact information
Ohio
Vote Hearings Put Election Results in Serious Doubt
Highly-charged,
jam-packed hearings held here in Columbus have cast serious doubt
on the true outcome of the presidential election.
On Saturday, November 13, and Monday, November 15, the Ohio Election
Protection Coalition’s public hearings in Columbus solicited
extensive sworn first-person testimony from 32 of Ohio voters,
precinct judges, poll workers, legal observers, party challengers.
An additional 66 people provided written affidavits of election
irregularities. The unavoidable conclusion is that this year's
election in Ohio was deeply flawed, that thousands of Ohioans
were denied their right to vote, and that the ultimate vote count
is very much in doubt.
Most importantly, the testimony has revealed a widespread and
concerted effort on the part of Republican Secretary of State
Kenneth Blackwell to deny primarily African-American and young
voters the right to cast their ballots within a reasonable time.
By depriving precincts of adequate numbers of functioning voting
machines, Blackwell created waits of three to eleven hours, driving
tens of thousands of likely Democratic voters away from the polls
and very likely affecting the outcome of the Ohio vote count,
which in turn decided the national election.
Much
much more....
-
Jordan
Saving
Your Right to Vote
Section
two of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution reads,
in paraphrase, as follows: "But when the right to vote at
any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice
President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the
executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of
the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the inhabitants of
such state, or in any way abridged, except for participation in
rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one
years of age in such state." In other words, if a state can't
manage to run a fair election, that state loses Senators or Congresspeople.......
snip
snip .... Nationally, there were more than 1,100 incidents of
electronic voting machine malfunctions. In Broward County, Florida,
election workers were shocked to discover that their shiny new
machines were counting backwards. "Tallies should go up as
more votes are counted," according to the news story. "That's
simple math. But in some races, the numbers had gone down. Officials
found the software used in Broward can handle only 32,000 votes
per precinct. After that, the system starts counting backward."
In Franklin County, Ohio, voting machines gave Bush
3,893 extra votes in one precinct alone. "Franklin County's
unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger
John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B," according to the
news story. "Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in
that precinct. Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County
Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other
13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or
did not vote for president."
In Craven County, North Carolina, a software error
on the electronic voting machines awarded Bush 11,283 extra votes.
"The Elections Systems and Software equipment," according
to the news story, "had downloaded voting information from
nine of the county's 26 precincts and as the absentee ballots
were added, the precinct totals were added a second time. An override,
like those occurring when one attempts to save a computer file
that already exists, is supposed to prevent double counting, but
did not function correctly."
There
is more
-
Jordan
Recount
efforts in Ohio by Kerry intensify
A
top-ranking official with Democratic Senator John Kerry's presidential
campaign told North County News last week that although unlikely,
there is a recount effort being waged that could unseat Republican
President George W. Bush.
"We have 17,000 lawyers working on this, and the grassroots
accountability couldn't be any higher - no (irregularity) will
go unchecked. Period," Kerry spokesman David Wade said.
A verbal firestorm erupted last week between an area supporter
of independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Wade after
the Kerry spokesman derided Nader for creating a "phony wedge
issue between progressives."
Nader has been calling on Kerry and his vice presidential running
mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, to, in his words,
"follow through on their post-election promise to the American
people to make sure every vote counts, starting in Ohio."
More...
-
Jordan
11/17/04
So
much for moral values
GOP
tosses ethics rule so DeLay can keep post
Washington
-- House Republicans adopted a rule change Wednesday that would
allow their powerful majority leader, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas,
to keep his post if he is indicted on state corruption charges
stemming from a fund-raising scandal that has already involved
three of his associates.
Democrats led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco
-- who was unanimously re-elected to her post Wednesday -- assailed
the Republican action as hypocritical and arrogant.
- snip -
The original rule was adopted by Republicans in 1993 when they
were the minority party attacking the Democratic-controlled leadership
as corrupt and arrogant. The rule required House GOP leaders
to step aside if indicted for a crime that could bring a sentence
of at least two years in state or federal prison.
(emphasis
mine)
The
rest
Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) criticizes the DeLay Rule:
"Republicans
have reached a new low. It is absolutely mind-boggling that
as their first order of business following the elections, House
Republicans have lowered the ethical standards for their leaders."
So
the rule is created by Republican to help aust a Democrat and then
retracted when it would apply to a Republican. Moral values my ass.
-
Jordan
Berkeley
once again ahead of the game
My
home town is making me proud:
UC
Berkeley Study Questions Florida E-Vote Count
A
research team at UC Berkeley will report that irregularities associated
with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000 - 260,000
or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in
the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained
discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where
electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional
voting methods. Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise
by chance -- the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research
team, led by Professor Michael Hout, will formally disclose results
of the study at the press conference.
Link
to the report
Wired
News pitches in:
The
analysis -- which hasn't been formally peer-reviewed, but was
examined by seven professors -- showed a discrepancy in the number
of votes Bush received in counties that used the touch-screen
machines and counties that used other types of voting equipment.
The researchers examined numerous variables that might have affected
the vote outcome. These included the number of voters, their median
income, racial and age makeup and the change in voter turnout
between the 2000 and 2004 elections. Using this information, they
examined election results for the Republican and Democratic presidential
candidates in the state in 1996, 2000 and 2004 to see how support
for those candidates and parties measured over eight years in
Florida's 67 counties.
They discovered that in the 15 counties using touch-screen voting
systems, the number of votes granted to Bush far exceeded the
number of votes Bush should have received -- given all of the
other variables -- while the number of votes that Bush received
in counties using other types of voting equipment lined up perfectly
with what the variables would have predicted for those counties.
The total number of excessive votes ranged between 130,000 and
260,000, depending on what kind of problem caused the excess votes.
The counties most affected by the anomaly were heavily Democratic.
Sociology professor Michael Hout, who chairs the university's
graduate Sociology and Demography group, said the chance for such
a discrepancy to occur was less than 1 in 1,000.
"No matter how many factors and variables we took into consideration,
the significant correlation in the votes for President Bush and
electronic voting cannot be explained," he said in a statement.
"There is just a trivial probability of evidence like this
appearing in a population where the true difference is zero --
less than once in a thousand chances."
The
rest
Thanks
to Joel for the link
-
Jordan
11/16/04
Republican
Information Security professional, easily hacks into Diebold
Here
are some pieces of what this fellow has to say. It is quite shocking.
He easily hacked into the Diebold system.
I
got involved with this because I have been against the adoption
of these voting systems for years. It's a dumb-ass idea to implement
them this way - our votes are too important. I wouldn't trust
my Bank with computer systems this insecure; Hell, I wouldn't
keep recipes on a system this insecure. When I saw all of the
documentation regarding Diebold and their heavy partisan leanings,
and then when the results came flooding in with a clear Bush victory
when I seriously expected Kerry to win, I put two and two together.
I am, by trade, a professional White-Hat Hacker, so I know how
easily "secure" systems can be breached, especially
by insiders.
-
snip -
What
I found truly shocked me, and made me physically ill. That's
what is documented on the
other page. It IS that bad. I personally don't
have conclusive evidence that voter fraud was perpetrated, but
I can tell you as an Information Security professional that it
would have been very, very easy to do. If I had to choose between
someone conspiring with exit poll workers nationwide or someone
changing values in an Access Database as the cause of the difference
between the poll numbers and the "actual" results, I'll
go with the easier, more effective option every time. Why choose
the hard way when it's more trouble and you're less likely to
succeed? Again, I'm staying clear of making specific allegations
- I'll leave that to the activists who are gathering data -
but I would be much more surprised if the election weren't hacked
than to find out that it was.
-
snip -
Why
do I call Diebold partisan and unethical, you ask? How's
this:
"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes
to the president." - Walden O'Dell, Diebold's CEO in a fundraising
letter to Republicans, Fall 2003. O'Dell and other Diebold
Senior Executives are Republican "Pioneers", which is
the designation you get when you raise over $100,000. His
brother is President of ES&S, the #2 vote machine maker, and
is also a "Pioneer". Is that partisan enough for
you? Well, what about calling them unethical?
Check this out - No less than 5 of Diebold's developers are convicted
felons, including Senior Vice President Jeff Dean, and topping
the list are his twenty-three counts of felony Theft in the First
Degree. According to the findings of fact in case no. 89-1-04034-1.
-
snip -
To
sum up, he was convicted of 23 felony counts of theft from by
- get this - planting back doors in his software and using
a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection.
Do you trust computer systems designed by this man? Is
trust important in electronic voting systems?
found
this over at Kos
-
Jordan
11/15/04
Bev
Harris is on the f%@king job!
While
we all sit here and discuss how sad it is we lost the election,
there are people out there in the trenches doing the work that could
change the course of history. People this is HUGE! Bev Harris from
Blackboxvoting.org
is the definition of patriot! Here is what she just posed on the
Democratic Underground Message board:
Volusia
County election records just got put on lockdown
Dueling
lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film
crew catching it all.
Here's what happened so far:
Friday
Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne
popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections
official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from
investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections
Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick
up our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for
a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" she exclaimed.
But this is the way it has to be, folks. We didn't back down.
Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked
for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it to us with a smile,
but I noticed that
one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real
ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not
signed by anyone.
I asked to see the real ones, and they told us for "privacy" reasons
we can't have copies of the signed ones. I insisted on at least
viewing them (although refusing to give us copies of the signatures
is not legally defensible, according to our attorney). They said
the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin'
time and we arranged to come back this morning to review them.
Lana Hires, an employee who gained some notoriety in a Diebold
memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes
for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when
the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing us
in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe
suggested we go to the warehouse.
Kathleen Wynne and I showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 this morning.
There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised.
She ordered us out. Well, we couldn't see why because there she
was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes.
You know, the ones with the signatures on them. We stepped out
and they promptly shut the door behind us.
There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. I looked
into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there.
They came out and glared at us. We drove away a small bit, and
then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked
'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors
were slammed.
So, we went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do
next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door.
I decided to go look at the garbage some more. Kathleen videotaped
this. A man came out and I immediately wrote a public records
request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained
ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.
A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. We
then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.
We collected various poll tapes and other information and asked
if they could copy it for us, for our public records request.
"You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his
way."
Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections
officials, and we all stood around discussing the merits of my
public records request.
They finally let us go, about the time our film crew arrived,
and we all trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot
thickened.
We began to compare the special printouts given to us with the
signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some
were missing. We also found some that didn't match. In fact, in
one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the
votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other
Republicans.
Hmm. Which was right? Our polling tape, specially printed on Nov.
15, without signatures, or theirs, printed on Nov. 2, with up
to 8 signatures per tape?
Well, then it became even more interesting. Lana Hires took it
upon herself to box up some items from an office, which appeared
to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. She took
them to the back of the building and disappeared.
Then, voting integrity advocates from Volusia and Broward, decided
now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections
office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some
polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.
So, we compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special'
ones from Nov. 15 given to us, unsigned, and we found several
of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.
So, Kathleen went to the car and got the polling place tapes we
had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not
only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by
six officials.
This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there told us that
bag was destined for the shredder.
By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening
to charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff
they had withheld from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared,
phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone
shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got
the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of
Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit,
discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia
County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the
election in Volusia.
Bev Harris Executive Director Black Box Voting
Together with Andy, and Kathleen. xxxooo
Wow...
Just wow....
-
Jordan
And
so it begins.....
Ohio
To Go Through Statewide Vote Recount After All
A statewide recount of the presidential vote appears inevitable
after a pair of third-party candidates said they have collected
enough money to pay for it.
The recount would be conducted after the election results are
certified in early December.
Libertarian Michael Badnarik and the Green Party's David Cobb
said on Monday they raised more than $150,000 in four days, mostly
in small contributions.
Ohio law requires payment of $10 per precinct for a recount, or
$113,600 statewide.
Badnarik and Cobb said they aren't trying to overturn President
Bush's 136,000-vote victory in Ohio, but just want to ensure that
all votes were counted properly in the face of concerns about
Election Day irregularities.
"Our bottom line is to stand up for the integrity of the
voting process because the voting process is the heart of the
democratic process," said Blair Bobier, spokesman for Cobb.
Bobier said it will be worth the price to ensure the final outcome
can be trusted.
Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell,
said the actual cost to county election boards combined will be
about $1.5 million.
And
meanwhile in Florida.......
Pinellas
ballot box sat ignored in office
Pinellas elections supervisor Deborah Clark will ask the state
for permission to change the county's official results.
The unmarked brown box sat unnoticed in the Pinellas Supervisor
of Elections office until Monday, two weeks after the election,
when an employee cleaning a desk stumbled upon it.
Inside were 268 uncounted absentee ballots.
-
Jordan
Its
good to be Condi
Lets
see, she presided over the biggest
national security lapse in history, she lied
to the 911 commission under oath, she lied about Saddam's
nuclear capability, right before the election, when the preznit
was telling us we were about to be attacked our national security
advisor was... wait for it...... stumping for Bush's re-election.
Looks
like its promotion
time!
Condoleezza
Rice, who will be named as Colin L. Powell's replacement as early
as today, has forged an extraordinarily close relationship with
President Bush. But, paradoxically, many experts consider her
one of the weakest national security advisers in recent history
in terms of managing interagency conflicts.
-
Jordan
11/15/04
CIA
Purge
Welcome
to the 3rd world. In the years leading up to 911 many people in
the CIA had been warning the white house about the dangers of a
terrorist attack on US soil. These same CIA agents also warned the
(s)elected president of the dangers
involved in invading Iraq. Well it seems like it is time
to reward them for good behavior. Bush is firing them all.
CIA
plans to purge its agency
Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers
who were disloyal to Bush
Washington
- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss,
to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal
to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information
to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for
Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.
Bob
Harris notes:
This
is worse than it seems at first. "Disloyalty"
here is the act of disagreeing. And since Bush and his cronies
were wrong and/or lying about damn near everything in the run-up
to the Iraq war, this means that everyone who actually did their
job is in jeopardy of losing it. Which will leave only sycophants,
incompetents, and those who've learned to play the game behind.
And you can be pretty certain that Bush is gonna hear --
and act on -- whatever faith-based apocalyptic nonsense he wants
in the next couple of years.
What that does to American security in the next couple of years...
let's just say it could be very, very loud.
A
daily kos Diary notes
This
is not freaking believable. When I first saw an article about
purges in the intelligence community, I (naively) thought it was
a purge of those responsible for intelligence failures. My mistake.
The story which follows is not unique, only we are used to hearing
about it after military coups in countries whose names many of
us are not entirely sure how to pronounce. But this is happening
right here. I am not one easily given to hyperbole, and I have
avoided words like "junta" in the past, but does this
sound like the behavior of a democratically elected leader of
a free nation?
I
think the low down is, if you were in the CIA and you did a good
job, your fired.
Good
times.
-
Jordan
This
is funny because it is true.
(Warning:
foul language used to make legitimate points)
Thanks
to Joel for the link
-
Jordan
Did
you hear the fat lady sing?
No.
You did not. That is because this election is not over. And I can
prove it faster than you can say "tinfoil hat".
Let
me direct you to this diary post over at Dailykos
(the post has a million comments on it and takes forever to load,
so I will put a good chunk of it below. The rest is here.)
Folks,
it's not over. I don't think the Kerry folks think it's
over either. If I'm right, and if it comes out the way I
think it might, it will be the greatest stealth campaign in the
history of the world, quite frankly.
Let's pull it together. Right now, it's 286-252 in favor
of Bush. Ohio has not even begun to count the provisional
ballots. There are 155,000 or so. Ohio has a history
of provisional ballots, based on state law. In 2000, 90%
of the ballots counted, and of those I understand that 90% were
for Gore. Applying that standard to the 155,000 would give
Kerry 125,550 additional votes, and Bush 13,950. That would
narrow the margin from 132,000 (the 136,000 figure includes the
now-infamous Gahanna 4,000 vote error in Franklin County) down
to about 24,600. Originally, this was why Kerry conceded;
he just couldn't get it done on the provisional ballots alone.
Ahh, but now there's a new development. A recount (or an
"audit," as one diary called it). Fine. Whatever,
call it what you want. But Kerry couldn't ask for it, because
he'd be called a sore loser, Al Gore with a Brahmin accent. The
lawyers are there, they're sniffing around, they're ready to deal
with the shenanigans. But (here's the great part) it's not
Kerry's recount. The media is treating the Cobb/Badnarik
recount request as a joke, but it's not. If the recount
is held, the first thing elections officials have to do is dust
off the 93,000 undervotes on punch cards (dear God, not again)....
Again, look at the history. Traditionally, 90% count, and
the split is about 4-1 for Democrats -- undervotes are almost
exclusively from poor and/or minority areas. Take 93,000,
90% is 83,700. 80% of that is 66,960 for Kerry, with 16,740
for Bush. That 24,600 vote Bush lead after the provisionals
now goes to . . . . fanfare, please . . . . ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the 44th President of the United States, John Kerry,
by a 25,660 vote margin in Ohio.
- snip -
I think that one of the reasons that Bush has been accepting a
lot of Cabinet resignations now, rather than in January, is to
create an inevitability in the minds of the public and the media
that this is a done deal. No one in the media is dealing
with the analysis I set forth herein, which is not my own analysis,
but simply a mathematical exercise gleaned from what little public
information is out there. The media went home on 11/3, and
other than a few smirking "conspiracy" stories since,
has not really addressed the final counting of votes in Ohio or
elsewhere. Bush's lead in New Mexico has been cut from 14,000
to less than 6,000, and they're still counting.
Repeat after me: it ain't over til they count the votes.
Which means it ain't over. Will Kerry win? No
idea. Can he win? Yes.
The
rest
UPDATE:
Recount in Ohio A Sure Thing; Green Party Campaign Raises $150,000
in 4 Days, Shifts Gears to Phase II
WASHINGTON
-- November 15 -- There will be a recount of the presidential
vote in Ohio.
On Thursday, David Cobb, the Green Party’s 2004 presidential
candidate, announced his intention to seek a recount of the vote
in Ohio. Since the required fee for a statewide recount is $113,600,
the only question was whether that money could be raised in time
to meet the filing deadline. That question has been answered.
-
Jordan
11/12/04
Are
voting machines partisan?
All
the voting errors in Ohio and Florida have benefited Republicans.
We know that the people who make this equipment are long time supporters
of the republican party.
We know that they refuse to implement security measures.
We know that ATM machines on the street have more securty than these
voting machines.
We know that when you buy a pair of shoes online, there is more
advanced security measures in place, than there is when you cast
your vote for president.
We know they have fought hard to prevent adding a paper trail.
We know they refuse to let anyone see the source code.
We know that there were a large numbers of errors in this years
election, all stemming from the use of the equipment.
We know that all these errors have benefited republicans. Sometimes
actually reversing the counts so that in a county that is 75% Democratic,
a 75% Republican vote is tallied in the computer.
We also know that one way to detect these discrepancies is to look
at exit polls.
We know the exit polls this year were showing a Kerry
win by a large margin. (PDF file)
We know that just today the GOP has begun an effort to do
away with exit polling all together.
Connect the friggin' dots people.
"I
am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the
president next year." - Walden O'Dell, chief executive
of Diebold Inc.
This is why we need to do hand recounts wherever it is possible
to do so. Because when the recount is done by hand, the Democrats
win.
Case in point:
Computer
Glitch Changes Election Result
(AP)
-- A hand recount of ballots cast using optical scanning technology
gave a Democrat enough extra votes to bump a Republican from victory
in a county commissioner's race.
The erroneous tally was caused when the Fidlar Election Co. scanning
system recorded straight-Democratic Party votes as votes for Libertarians
in southeastern Indiana's Franklin County.
Advertisement
The recount Thursday pushed Democrat Carroll Lanning from fifth
to third in the three-seat commissioners race, while Republican
Roy Hall fell to fifth.
Democrats had suspected a glitch after preliminary election results
included a Libertarian congressional candidate winning 7.7 percent
of the vote in Franklin County, more than four times better than
he did across the entire district.
It
is worth noting that the faulty machine in this case was sold by
Fidlar, but was made by Dieblod.
If
you are like me, you read all this and you ask yourself, "where
the hell is Kerry on all this?" Well don't worry. He is on
the ball. You
should read this.
Click
here if you are wondering you you can help.
-
Jordan
GOP
wants to do away with exit polls
As
many by now have heard, the exit polls in our recent debacle.. I
mean, election, showed a strong Kerry win. The exit polls however
did not match up with the final election results. Oddly enough in
all the areas where there was electronic voting equipment in use,
the exit polls don't match the computer tallies. In areas using
paper ballots, the exit polls match just fine. If you were to cheat
using electronic voting machines in an election, the exit polls
would be the one obstacle in your way. This is because they would
not match up with the numbers in the computer.
If you want to know more about the exit polls check
this out. (PDF file)
In a related
story, the GOP has now begun its attempt to do away with
exit polling all together.
Here
is a teaser:
After
early exit polls in Tuesday's election inaccurately suggested
that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry would trounce
President Bush, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie
is recommending that major news organizations pull the plug on
the prognostications.
In remarks Thursday at the National Press Club, Mr. Gillespie
said he is among those who were stunned by exit poll reports,
which leaked widely on the Internet. "I would encourage the
media to abandon exit surveys on Election Day and do what we do
in the political profession -- look at the precincts and the turnout,
see who's turning out to vote,; Mr. Gillespie said. "Don't
build a model that you try to, you know, build your own thoughts
into of what you expect it to be."
Mr.
Gillespie conceded that the exit polls weren't reported directly
by major news organizations themselves. "But with the Internet
today, we're kidding ourselves, aren't we, to think that everybody
in America doesn't know what the exit data is showing?" he
said.
But
why would they want to do that? That would make it very easy to
cheat.
read
the rest
-
Jordan
My
friends deep
thoughts about the election
I,
for One, Welcome Our New Republican Overlords
I'm beginning to think that all of us who voted for Kerry just
have a bad attitude. Maybe they're right - we are "nattering
nabobs of negativity"**. Well, I'm going to change my tune,
here are things I'm looking forward to from another 4 years of
our beloved President:
1. By cleverly melding the Bible with the U.S. Constitution, civics
classes & Sunday school can be integrated, saving time for
teaching more important subjects like "Creationism Science"
and "A Preschooler's Guide to Modern Urban and Desert Combat."
2. Admit it, having Iraq and Iran side by side on the map was
really confusing. (Hell, til about say 1991, you couldn't remember
which was which anyway.) In 4 years or so, no problem: Say "Hello"
to Haliburtistan!
3. Sure, it will probably disrupt our global food supply leading
to starvation & wars, and yeah, it will definitely result
in even more mass extinctions, but global warming could bring
us a warmer, more tropical San Francisco! (& probably more
hurricanes bashing %$^&*ing Florida)
There
is much more. Check out the deepblog
-
Jordan
11/10/04
Made
many changes to the store
Now
that the election has ended certain designs have been removed. To
make up for it I have added a few new options including these two
oval stickers as well as a T-shirt
design that is more appropriate now, than ever.
Hard
work indeed....
-
Jordan
File
this one under "cool ideas I wish I had thought of"
The
global apology program
I
uploaded one. It is on this
page.
Yes
world, we are sorry :-(
Thanks
to Bob for the link.
-
Jordan
Ashcroft
Resigns From Bush Cabinet
Attorney General John Ashcroft, a favorite of conservatives, and
Commerce Secretary Don Evans, one of President Bush's closest
friends, resigned Tuesday, the first members of the Cabinet to
leave as Bush heads from re-election into his second term.
11/9/04
Keith
Oberman round two
keith
has only just begun. His
blog mentions he has gotten over 6,000 e-mails of support.
Did you send him one? Good times. So Oberman will continue to bring
this story into the light, and I will continue to document said
bringing. If you missed the first bit of coverage you can read my
lil' blurb or you can watch it online.
Watch it here. Watch
it there. Watch
it everywhere. (for now these are all windows media player
files)
Thank
you Keith, Mr. Spinus-Intactus, for having the cajones to go where
no jounalist has gone before.
-
Jordan
Purple
people
Don't
let the TV fool you. Pundits are on TV constantly talking about
the huge swath
of red on the electoral map. Don't buy it. Remember that
many of those red states were won by small margins. Remember the
population difference as well. Most heavily populated states went
blue. But like Obama said, this is not about red states, nor is
it about blue states. We are a purple country baby. The most accurate
map I've seen, adjusting for population density and percentage vote,
county-by-county.is this one:
For
a larger version click
here
For
information on how it was created click
here
Hat
tip to Joel for passing this on
-
Jordan
Keith
Oberman takes a stand
Last night Mr. Oberman became the only journalist to take a stand
on a very important issue. There have been wide spread report of
voting irregularities and Oberman blew the roof off the story with
an amazing piece on his 'Cowntdown' segment of MSNBC's news coverage.
The transcript to the entire bit is available
online but here is a few snippits to wet your pallet:
The
newspaper reports that Warren County emergency services director Frank
Young had recommended the walling
off of the vote count based on information received from the
Department of Homeland Security .. After some negotiating, reporters
were finally admitted to that building around midnight. They
were kept in the lobby. The counting went on unobserved two
floors above them. Warren County‘s polls were among the
last in Ohio to close, thus among the last
to report and thus among the votes that clinched the state and the
election for President Bush.
- snip -
Ohio, whose 20 electoral votes were based on a margin of 2 percent
in the vote, has other problems tonight. The state reports 92,000
presidential votes did not count. Ranging from votes improperly
cast to votes improperly counted. And in Cuyahoga
County, that is greater Cleveland, the official records of
29 different voting precincts show more votes than registered voters
to a total of 93,000 extra votes in that county alone.
As an example, in Fairview Park, 12 miles west of Cleveland, 13,342
voters were registered. 18,472 votes were cast. None of
this even addresses the story we told you about last week in the town
of Gahanna outside Columbus, Ohio. There in a district with
just 800 voters, a voting machine added 3,893 votes to Mr. Bush‘s
total.
- snip -
And the Ohio numbers are straightforward compared to Florida.
Their county totals in Tuesday‘s election might be attributable
largely to largely Democratic districts suddenly switching sides and
all voting for Mr. Bush at the same time, except that the 29 counties
in which that happened were among the 52 in the state that tallied
their votes using paper ballots that were optically scanned by machines
produced by the Diebold Corporation, the Sequoia Company or Elections
Systems and Software. All this data here is from the office
of Florida‘s secretary of state.
- Baker County, Florida, on the Georgia border for instance.
69 percent of voter registered Democrats. 24 percent Republicans.
Yet President Bush got 7,738. And Senator Kerry, just 2,180.
- In Holmes County, in the panhandle, seven Democrats for every two
Republicans in the district. Bush beat Kerry 6,410 to 1,810.
- In Dixie County, 77.5 percent registered Democrats, Bush 4,433,
Kerry 1,959.
- Lafayette County, 83 percent Democratic, Bush, 2,460. Kerry,
845.
- In Liberty County, Bristol, Florida, 88 percent of registered voters
there are Democrat. 8 percent Republican. Bush, 1,927.
Kerry, 1,070.
Five examples in 29 counties with decided Democratic margins that
suddenly voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Bush. In Florida counties
where optical scanning of paper ballots was not used, no such violent
swings were reported. Counties with heavy Democratic registration
voted Democratic, counties with heavy Republican registration voted
Republican. And then there‘s one wild card to add to the
Florida mixture. While the state voted for Mr. Bush and 29 Democratic
counties became Republican strongholds, one extremely liberal state
ballot proposition passed overwhelmingly.
Read
the rest
As you can see, one again there are strange things amiss in Florida.
What Oberman discussed is only the tip of this iceberg. There were 12
counties in florida that registered MORE VOTES CAST than there were
voters to cast them.
Collier:
943 more votes than voters
Duval: 357 more votes than voters
Glades: 742 more votes than voters
Highlands: 7495 more votes than voters
Lake: 187 more votes than voters
Leon: 85 more votes than voters
Miami-Dade: 51979 more votes than voters
Okaloosa: 222 more votes than voters
Orange: 1648 more votes than voters
Osceola: 18589 more votes than voters
Palm Beach: 90774 more votes than voters
Volusia: 19306 more votes than voters
Ohio
also reported counties that turned out more votes than there
were registered voters. Cuyahoga counties were all over the map, with
many simply impossible scenerios as
you can see here.
Hopefully the medias greed for a good story will get them to follow
Oberman's footsteps and start talking about this issue on air. After
all, it's only the integrity of our Democratic process we are talking
about....
- Jordan
11/8/04
More
Moore
Film
maker Michael Moore signed up thousands of people to try to document
voter suppression and intimidation in battleground states. The film
crews concentrated in neighborhoods where the population was mostly
African American, who tend to vote Democratic. Here
is a short sample of the footage that was taken. This is not
leaked Michael Moore footage. As far as we know he has no plans to make
a film with it. This was created by the Ohio volunteers on their own
and the material belongs to them. Anyone wishing to use the original
footage will be able to license it from the individuals who shot it.
-
Jordan
What
the heck is THAT?!
The
reason you do not recognize THIS,
is because it has been a long time since we have seen anything like
it. Yes a rare breed of journalist has risen from the deep to rear its
righteous head on MSNBC. I am of course talking about the rare species
of news reporter called "journalis-spinal-intactis". What
makes this species so important? Well for one it does something different
than other journalists. That is to say -- it does its job. I know. Rare
indeed. Be sure to check out Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and read his Blog.
You can even give him some
love. Reward good behavior.
UPDATE:
This from the DNC blog...
"Let's start by doing at least 1 thing constructive today. Go over
to Democratic Underground Forums, General Discussion, then Keith Olberman
thread. Keith Olberman (CNN in afternoon) is trying to investigate election
voter fraud, but allegedly MSNBC "brass" are trying to "lock
him down". He was going to feature this today & tomorrow to
start.
Send him & MSNBC messages NOW."
Further
more Bev Harris also made this
comment which seems to show the media is indeed not willing
to touch this issue:
"I
was tipped off by a person very high up in TV that the news has been
locked down tight, and there will be no TV coverage of the real problems
with voting on Nov. 2. Even the journalists are pretty horrified.
My source said they've also been forbidden to talk about it even on
their own time, and he was calling from somewhere else. He was trying
to figure out how to get the real news out on vote fraud.This is a
person I've worked with off and on for nearly two years, and the voice
was so somber it really bothered me." - Bev
Harris
-
Jordan
You've
Come A Long Way, Slavery
Thank
you Adam, and Amie for passing this on to me
Timelapse
has a different version
-
Jordan
Computer
voting woes
I
have a HUGE list of links to stories of trouble with computer voting.
Just today I have added about 15. I am keeping them all on the Diebold
page of this site.
-
Jordan
I
was asked to write a piece for The
London News Review
Remember
when we lived in a Democracy?
Man, those were the days.
Whatever happened to this country I love so much? What went wrong? How
can so many people have voted for this dirt bag (my apologies to bags
of dirt everywhere)? It boggles my mind. Seriously, my brain hurts contemplating
this.
I had such high hopes that on Tuesday, we, the people, would make Bush
the first one term president to have never been elected. No such luck.
If what happened in 2000 was a coup -- and it seems everyone in the world
realizes this except the people of the United States -- then what does
that make the 2004 election? Did we willingly oppress ourselves? Did we
just ask to be spanked for another four years? Why yes we did....
Read
the rest HERE
-
Jordan
11/5/04
The
computer ate my vote
Machine
Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes
..Yahoo News
An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra
votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said Franklin County's
unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry
(news - web sites)'s 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show
only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have
been recorded as 365.
Bush won the state by more than 136,000 votes, according to unofficial
results, and Kerry conceded the election on Wednesday after saying that
155,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted in Ohio would not change
the result.
There
is more
-
Jordan
And
now for something completely different
We already know how the election turned out. I see the results on the faces
around me. Like a bad hang over the dread is ever present. But I digress.
Let me look at a different angle. Lets look at how the youth voted.
The map is provided by Music
for America shows a very different picture than what we saw on election
day. With the highest turnout in 30 years, today's youth voted in encouraging
numbers for change. So if what I am feeling like today is an election hangover,
the youth out there are the remedy. The days of the Republican ruling party
are numbered.
Special thanks to Eminem and P-Diddy, who led massive efforts to wake up
our youngsters.
If
you haven't yet seen the Eminem video "mosh" check it out HERE
or HERE
or HERE.
-
Jordan
11/4/04
Live
free. Diebold.
(Diebold
is pronounced "Dee-bold")
There
are a lot of people right now talking about Diebold. I
have been screaming about this issue for so long it pains me. I
will let the many
- other
- sites
- who
- are
- tackling - this
- issue
do it for now, but let me just say this:
The
BIGGEST mistake Democrats could possibly make, is to think that the Republicans
would not do this.
They
have proven time and time again to not play by the rules. Didn't we learn
that in 2000? Didn't Osama just pop up and tell the country we live under
a regime? We live in a dictatorship, most of us are just too dim to realize
this yet.
Now
back to being positive... A poem my mom sent me:
Defenseless
under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
-
Jordan
Mandate
shmandate
Over
at MyDD there
is good discussion going on concerning if Bush has a mandate or not. The
GOP is dancing with glee at the concept. Here is a bit from MyDD's
post:
- This
is the largest number of people who have ever voted AGAINST a president
- 1% more
than 50% is not a mandate but a bare, thin, majority.
- At 80%
approval after 9-11 and guaranteed a landslide election by prognosticators
2 years ago, only half the country supports him
- A president
who leads a divided country owes it to all Americans to lead fairly
or have his party face the consequences begining in 2006. No one else
is here to blame.
Assuming
Bush gets New Mexico and Iowa, he will have gotten the lowest percentage
of electoral votes (54%) of any incumbent running for reelection since
Wilson. If those two states should swing Kerry's way (NM might), it'll
be even lower.
- He will
have won with the lowest percentage of the popular vote (51%) of any
incumbent running for reelection since Truman (who ran in a 4-way race
that included Strom Thurmond)
- He will
have won by the lowest margin of the popular vote (3.5M) of any incumbent
running for reelection since Truman (2.1M, and back then only 50M voted).
- He will
have won the three states that put him over 270 (OH, NM and IA--assuming
the last two go his way) by only 161,989 (not counting the provisional
ballots, absentee, etc.).
Hey
I will take any good news I can find at this point....
-
Jordan
Round
2 *Ding*
Ok
so we continue to fight. Fine. Another 4 year round of fighting for the
good of this country. We fought for the last 4 years and I can fight 4 more.
But what are we fighting now? Bush? Conservatism? What shape does our new
foe take? Fighting Bush starts to make less sense. He can't be re-elected.
Do we still oppose him? Of course. But we need to focus on issues. If Bush
tries to outlaw abortion - we fight that. When he institutes the
draft - we fight that. When he tries to change the constitution to
ban gay marriage - we fight that.
I
shudder to think of what
the world thinks of us at this point. (Thanks for the link Michael).
Bush
will continue to screw us and we will continue to resist said screw-age.
But we need to focus on issues. We need to sell liberal ideals to the country.
We need to get this country to realize that the Republican party has
abandoned them. Gone is the fiscal responibillity. Gone is compassionate
conservatism. We need to get people to see that the true compassion lies
with the left. That Democrats in the past have been the ones to fix this
countries financial woes, not Republicans. It seems (seems or is? I am not
so sure... *cough* DIEBOLD *cough*) as of this moment we, the progressives,
are outnumbered. We need to retake the concept of being liberal. We need
to own it. We need to remove the taint that the right has placed on being
liberal. How do we do that? That seems to be one of many questions.
I
get some comfort in knowing that we tried to do the right thing. In my heart
of hearts I know that Democrats were on the right side. I feel good
knowing that half of this country has their eyes open. This is not a republican
country. It is not a Democratic country. It is not red, nor is it blue.
We
seem to be purple. There is hope.
So
we continue to fight the restrictions the Bush regime puts on us. If chances
to impeach arise we jump (not holding my breath on that score though). As
much as I like to hear Bush 'reach out' to Democrats, I don't buy that for
a second. He is not our new leader. He is the same old walking tragedy he
has always been. We know his policies and his thought process. I am not
about to think he will suddenly act like he gives a crap. I expect more
of the same.
But
the years of the "Clinton excuse" are gone. No longer can he blame
the economy on Clinton. He is in effect inheriting his own economy. The
war, and how it unfolds is all him. Now Bush inherits his own mess and all
excuses are gone. The economy sadly will continue it's limp to recovery.
The never ending war will continue to be waged. But this time Bush... It's
all on you man.
Good
luck with that.
-
Jordan
11/3/04
A
FRESH START
First
just let me say I am (almost) done feeling depressed. It is now time to
move forward. There is work to do. All election related posts have been
moved to the archives. The sad collection
of vote fraud and voter intimidation links have been moved to either the
election page or the diebold
page. It was just too depressing to keep on this page.
This
is a fresh start. I have no doubt bush will start new horrors that we the
people must face. So with that in mind I encourage everyone to buck up and
batten down the hatches. This thing has only just begun. The democratic
party has only been alive and seriously kicking for a few years. We now
have 4 years to perfect our efforts. To strengthen our foundation. And let
me tell you, we HAVE a STRONG foundation! We as a party, no, as a movement
are stronger than ever. We will build on that base. We will move forward.
Thanks
to all the people who have made this page a regular visit. I am touched
when I watch the counter log in hundreds, sometimes thousands of hits in
a day. These numbers are nothing compared to the larger blogs but hey, I
am just a kid in Berkeley doing my thing. Your visits mean a lot to me.
Having
said that, if there is anyone who is interested in bloggin here, I am interested
in expanding this site. if you have read my posts, and feel that your opinion
would compliment this place please let
me know. It requires some time and patience and having a finger
on the pulse of breaking stories. But I want help. I want to expand this
site as well as relieve the burden of running this tiny ship all by my lonesome.
So if you have wanted to blog, but never had a site or the experience to
set one up, please join me. There is room for a few of us I am sure.
If
you are interested let me know.
And
with that let us begin a new cycle:
White
House: Debt Ceiling Must Be Raised (Thanks for the link Jen)
The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it will run out of maneuvering
room to manage the government's massive borrowing needs in two weeks,
putting more pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling when it convenes
for a special post-election session.
Treasury Department (news - web sites) officials announced that they will
be able to conduct a scheduled series of debt auctions next week to raise
$51 billion. However, an auction of four-week Treasury bills due to be
completed on Nov. 18 will have to be postponed unless Congress acts before
then to raise the debt ceiling.
...and
so it begins....
-
Jordan
Someone
E-mailed this to me....
...
and I got a good laugh. So Since few hundred people who seem to check this
site daily might also need a laugh I will share it with you:
So,
I was standing in line at the BofA earlier today when I overheard a fellow
say:
"I want to wire transfer fifty thousand dollars to a bank in Canada"
I know how ya feel brother
Thanks
for that Mo....
-
Jordan
Evidence
of massive shenanigens in OH and FL
Note
that the web pages that have the proof (links within below post) are all being
taken off line at the same time. This is seriously suspicious.
This
is required reading (From Dailykos):
And
so is this diary I wrote last night
It
saddens me greatly to report that the voters in Florida and Ohio are staggeringly
dishonest. They appear to have uniquely lied to the exit pollsters yesterday,
unlike the honest citizens of every other state. This seems the only rational
explanation for the very big discrepancy between (the original) exit poll results
and the outcomes of their (reported) votes.
It is sad when the citizens of such fine states cannot be relied on to accurately
report their votes. It is a good thing that Diebold is there to report
their votes for them.
The assertion by pundits/Bushies that exit polling was 'way off', and thus,
exit polls, which showed an easy Kerry victory in both Ohio and Florida, were
incorrectly skewed and did not represent the electorate, is completely bogus.
If that were so why are the networks CHANGING the numbers AFTER the fact?
This is disproved in minutes by simply noting the entire rest of the suite of
exit polls conducted by AP and distributed to the news media. View here:
AP exit polls [This link no longer works, which
may indicate that they are covering their tracks.]
Notice, if you will, that states with a narrow or wide Bush margin of victory
NOT called Ohio or Florida, project perfectly. Missouri leans to Bush in exit
polls, and leaned to him in the vote. Tennessee likewise was favorable to Bush
in exit polls, and it showed in the final results with a clear Bush margin of
victory. Pick a state, any state, there is not one single exit poll off by more
than a few percentage points in any semi-competitive race. Not one.
Except 2. Ohio and Florida, the latter of which has already been "awarded"
to Bush, and the former, which appears to nearly be a lock for him as he is
up 3 percentage points with 80 percent of the electorate tallied. George Bush's
win in each of these 2 states is nowhere near what exit polls suggest. In Ohio,
Kerry had a small but noticeable lead with both male and female voters, a rare
thing for him as males have tended to favor Bush in this election by a small
margin. Likewise, independent voters clearly broke for Kerry, by a 21 percent
margin, 60-39. This is not anywhere near the result we are seeing now, and along
with Florida, whom I will get to in a moment, it is a clear and blatant sign
of voter fraud. I don't use that most dangerous of "F" words lightly,
but I must call a wolf a wolf and a sheep a sheep, and this whole setup stinks
like Karl Rove after he's ran 15 feet.
. . . While Mr. Kerry had 6 percent less support from his party than Mr. Bush
did, he scored among woman yet again (54 percent of Florida's electorate) by
a 52-48 margin, small but important, while losing men (46 percent of the electorate)
47-52, essentially the same margin. Independents, however, broke heavily for
John Kerry, favoring him a staggering 60-38 over Mr. Bush. At the very least,
this would suggest a very close race, and certainly not the lopsided blowout
it turned out to be.
As Joe Pesci once said, "Something is fishy in Florida."
Ohio too, Joe. Ohio too.
Another analysis of the data also indicates that there is a significant imbalance
between the exit polls and the results. Here is exit polling for Florida (3,824,794
votes for Kerry & Bush)
Male:
52/47 Kerry 46%
Female: 52/48 Kerry 54%
Dem: 86/13 Kerry 38%
Rep: 92/7 Bush 39%
Ind: 60/38 Kerry 23%
3,824,794 votes for Kerry & Bush
2065388 Women (54% of total)
1759405 Men (46% of total)
Bush leads male vote by 5% of M = 87970
Kerry leads female vote by 4% of M = 82615
That
means Bush is ahead by just 5355 votes in exit polling in FL.
More:
6PM
exits Vote Result
Kerry Bush Kerry Bush Difference
PA 53 46 51 49 -2.5
FL 51 49 47 52 -3.5
NC 48 52 43 56 -4.5
OH 51 49 49 51 -2
MO 46 54 46 54
0
AR 47 53 45 54 -1.5
MI 51 47 51 48 -0.5
NM 50 49 49 50 -1
LA 43 56 42 57 -1
CO 48 51 46 53 -2
AZ 45 55 44 55 -0.5
MN 54 44 51 48 -3.5
WI 52 47 50 49 -2
IA 49 49 49 50 -0.5
Another odd thing
is that there are more Reps then Dems in Florida by 1%, which is not expected.
Either there are more voting Republicans in FL than Democrats, a first and not
matching known statistics, or more Republicans were exit polled than Democrats.
If the exit poll is off by just 1% that's a difference of 382479 more voters
who are Democracts.
The results being posted however show Bush ahead 326,000 actual votes. This
is simply not possible from the exit polling numbers. Even skewed for a 5% higher
Republican vs. Democrat turnout from 2000, it doesn't add up.
When you add this to the stories about the changed
exit polls in the middle of the night after polls had long closed, there
appears to be some dishonesty somewhere. It's a good thing that EarlG at DU
was farsighted enough to do a screencapture
[ this link has gone dead... it was up last night The Democratic Underground
Message board that had the screen captures, the PROOF, on it has been down all
morning. Not sure what is going on. Someone is covering their tracks I think]
of the earlier posted exit polls for comparison.
Now the interesting comparison for statistical wonks out there will be the exit
polls in counties with old fashioned voting in OH and FL against counties with
blackbox voting. If our fellow citizens who lied to the exit pollsters are highly
concentrated not just in Ohio and Florida but in counties with Diebold machines,
then we will know something truly worth knowing. It will also be interesting
to compare the recorded numbers of voters in these districts as reported by
the election observers with the recorded votes.
I'd hate to think ill of so many fellow citizens . . .
Exit
polls showed Kerry winning. Exit polls turned out to be similar to vote returns
in locations where electronic voting was not used. The CEO of the company that
makes the software told Republicans in Ohio at a recent fund-raising letter
that he is "committed
to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
Need
more evidence?
Oh
and this is just dandy
I
am in my happy place.
Fluffy couds.
Puppies.
Cotton candy.
My fiance.
Flowers and sunshine.....
Obama
/ Clinton '08
11/1/04
CNN
just changed their Ohio exit poll page
The exit polls were showing a kerry lead. Then what happened?
It's
been showing the following all night:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/images/homepage/cn...
Kerry up 2 amnog men, up 6 among women.
At 1:41am they changed the results to favor Bush:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/images/homepage/cn...
Now Kerry is suddenly down 5 among men, tied among women...
The media is trying to steal this for Bush.
If
you look at the MSNBC exit polls, Kerry won both females and males in Ohio.
He also won the national popular vote in the exit polls.
I've watch repeatedly how the Bush camp were dejected when they saw the exit
polls and were relieved when the actual vote was tabulated.
Are we to believe that people lied to the pollsters, or were the exit polls
that pathetically off? Think about it. These exit polls are the one thing the
republicans CAN'T HAVE if they want to sell us a Bush win. The exit polls we
saw in FL and OH DO NOT match what we are seeing. The media has been caught
CHANGING these numbers in battleground states AFTER THE FACT!
I hope the Kerry camp is loaded for bear right now. I'm pissed off!!!!
Live
Free. Diebold.
NBC just reported that Collier county's votes from their electronic vote
screens doesn't match the number of voters who voted. Canvassing board thinks
it may be a software glitch. Don't know whether it's just specific. People are
still in line in Florida as well.
Tv
is trying to tell me that youth didn't vote. I don't believe that for one second.
Telling me the 20-34 ge bracket voted LESS than in the 2000 election. Think
about that. I don't but it.
Electronic
voting machines malfunctioning in every state they are in use
FromSalon
(registration-restricted).
Among
the election snafus around the country, voters in 39 states reported problems
with e-voting machines, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
the Verified Voting Foundation. That's every single state that uses electronic
voting machines, including swing states, such as Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.
One
unanticipated glitch: Voters didn't always accept the backup plan when voting
machines failed. When offered paper ballots as an alternative, some voters
refused to use them, saying they'd come back when the computers were up again,
said Matt Zimmerman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation on a conference
call from Miami with reporters. "Voters seem to find the backup ballots
suspect."
In
South Florida, the EFF and Verified Voting Foundation had several reports
of voters choosing one candidate - and finding that another one had been selected
on the screen. In Palm Beach county, some voters trying to cast their ballots
found that the answers had been pre-selected before they ever voted.
Florida
hasn't seen anything like the voting problems it did in 2000, according to
our correspondent Farhad Manjoo there. But the 2004 election's e-voting machine
breakdowns exacerbated the long wait times in some counties, according to
Zimmerman.
But
New Orleans holds the dubious honor of being "the worst voting situation
in the country with electronic voting," according to Cindy Cohn, also
of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. So many machines didn't work there
that election protection attorneys have filed suit to demand that the polls
be held open later.
More
states
No
surprises:
Bush wins OK, IN, AL, TN, GA, KY and WV.
Kerry wins IL, VT, ME, MA, CT, NJ, DE, MD, DC.
The battlegrounds are all too close to call.
<grain
of salt>
AZ...45.....55
CO...48.....51
LA...42.....57
PA...60.....40
OH...52.....48
FL...51.....48
MI...51.....47
NM...50.....48
MN...58.....40
WI...52.....43
IA...49.....49
NH... 57.....41
</grain
of salt>
As
the polls close in the east....
Bush
wins Georgia.
Bush wins Indiana.
Bush wins Kentucky.
Kerry wins Vermont.
Isakson (R) wins GA Senate seat.
Here
are the most recent exit polls, to be taken with a grain of salt....
.. .Kerry ...Bush
PA
.. 53 .. . 46
FL ... 51 .. .
49
NC ...48 .. .
52
OH ...51 .. .
49
MO...46 .. .
54
AK .. 47 .. .
53
MI ...51 .. .
47
NM .. 50 .. .
49
LA ...43 .. .
56
CO .. 48 .. .
51
AZ ...45 .. .
55
MN .. 54 .. .
44
WI ...52 .. .
47
IA ... 49 .. .
49
Mat Drudge (drudge
report) is a goober.
....Developing....
Poor Drudge (right wing
gossip monger) is blowing a gasket looking at the exit polls. I almost feel
sorry for him.... Almost....
I
will be watching these 3 states very close
click:
PENNSYLVANIA
FLORIDA
OHIO
If
kerry can get 2 out of 3, we got this thing in the bag
For
what it's worth
Zogby just made his official prediciton
Zogby's
5:00PM Prediction: 311 Kerry - 213 Bush
zogby.com
Just
got back from voting (california)
Seemed like a good turn out. Lots of youth in black hoodies Moshing the vote.
Watch the news tonight and look for people waiting in line to vote wearing black
hoodies like in the Eminem video. The idea was born at Dailykos
last week and word spread fast.
They
had Diebold (boooo hissss) machines where I voted and so I asked for a paper
ballot. About half the folks were using paper ballots.
I
am feeling good!
-
Jordan
Exit
polling round 2 *DING*
NV CO NC PA OH FL MI
NM WI
Kerry 48 46 49 54 50 50
51 50 51
Bush 50 53 51 45 49
49 47 48 46
GOP
scare tactics go into overdrive
Charleston County election officials cautioned South Carolinians on Friday to
steer clear of a fake letter that threatens the arrest of voters who have outstanding
parking tickets or have failed to pay child support.... The one-page letter
poses as a message from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People. The Rev. Joe Darby, vice president of the state NAACP chapter, said
he received the letter at his home in Charleston. It had Columbia postmark with
no return address. He said the letter was an attempt to scare minorities from
voting Tuesday because the author of the message assumes black people are in
trouble with the law. "This is old South Carolina politics," said
Darby. "I don't think anybody will fall for this."
Last
minute effort by republicans to scare new voters Republicans have placed thousands
of automated calls to newly registered voters, warning them that if they vote
Democratic that there will be a draft. Kerry
Campaign has the audio if you are curious.
Early exit polling numbers.
AZ CO LA PA OH FL MI NM MN WI IA NH
Kerry 45 48 42 60 52 51 51 50 58 52 49 57
Bush 55 51 57 40 48 48 47 48 40 43 49 41
Remember,
early exit polling is often not very precise. Last year they early exit polls
favored Bush.
An
experience with a 'challenger'...
I live in a working class neighborhood of one of the smaller midwestern battleground
states... understand our town was historically 'all white'. But like much
of America, the demographics are changing and our neighborhood is one of the
areas where this is most readily 'observable'...
I guess it is not a coincidence then that for the first time in MY memory
we have 'challengers' at the polling places... Here is my my account of the
'interaction' I had with him...
Voter
intimidation in Virginia
"I ended up at the door to the voting room standing beside a GREAT BIG
MAN (much bigger than me), who was wearing a shirt that side "Kerry is
a Traitor" in BIG letters on the back, and some obsenities about Kerry
on the front. He wore a Veteran's cap with pins. He also wore a U.S. State Department
Government ID (name/photo) around his neck, and held a U.S. State Department
jacket on his arm so you could see the Government emblem. I looked at the U.S.
State Department ID, and wrote down the man's name. He told me that I better
vote for bush*. I told him that I would vote for anyone I wanted to. He told
me that he was a U.S. State Department Employee, and that he better not see
me again in the City of Alexandria. He also claimed that Kerry voters were traitors,
and that they'll hear from his boss."
Bush
calls for quick end to election deadlock
President George W. Bush expressed concern that a decisive result to the US
election must be quickly announced as he voted, publicly confident of securing
a new four-year term. "My hope, of course, is this election ends tonight,"
said Bush who had to wait 36 tense days before being declared winner of the
2000 election as Republicans and Democrats battled over the result in Florida.
"I think it's very important for it to end tonight.
OHIO:
How to CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGERS
In Ohio and Pennsylvania, the law allows ONLY "qualified electors"
to serve as challengers. My guess is the same kind of law applies everywhere.
The Sixth District Court of Appeals in Ohio overturned a Federal Court ruling
requiring provisional ballots to be counted even if they were cast in the wrong
precinct. They based that decision on a reading of a qualified voter being one
who is registered in the proper precinct. Make sure these people LIVE IN THE
PRECINCT, and if they do, force these scum to OPERATE IN THE SUNSHINE by demanding
their name and address, and then LETTING YOUR NEIGHBORS KNOW WHO IS TRYING TO
SUPPRESS THEIR VOTE.
Federal
judge rules South Dakota Republicans and Thune campaign workers must stop
trying to intimidate voters on Indian reservations in the state. Specifically,
folks from the Thune camp may not write down license plate numbers of Indian
voters or follow them home from the polling places.
In
Michigan, phony phone calls using homophobia to suppress the black vote and
others telling people to go to the wrong polling places. And the polling place
shenanigans are happening in Ohio too.
All according to the Detroit Free Press.
Get
the champaign on ice
-
Jordan
11/1/04
Sick
of flash animations yet?
No?
Good. Because this is one of the best I have seen. Check it out and pass it
to your friends.
http://www.knife-party.net/flash/barry.html
-
Jordan
The
final projection
electoral-vote.com
is experiencing massive traffic today, so just in case you could not get to
the site here is the final projection for the electoral vote:
So
this is what hope feels like......
-
Jordan
Hooray
for our side!
Two
federal judges deny voter challenges at polls
A federal judge issued an order early Monday barring political party challengers
from polling places throughout Ohio during Tuesday's election.
U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott found that the application of Ohio's statute
allowing challengers at polling places is unconstitutional.
She said the presence of challengers inexperienced in the electoral process
questioning voters about their eligibility would impede voting.
Dlott ruled on a lawsuit by a black Cincinnati couple who said Republican
plans to deploy challengers to largely black precincts in Hamilton County
was meant to intimidate and block black voters.
-
Jordan
10/30/04
On
November 2nd, Democracy is on the ballot
So
just a day after Osama (who?) pops back up to bitchslap Bush and remind us all
that we live under a dictatorship, but were just too stupid to figure that out,
we get this chilling example of just how fair the Rethugs want this election
to be....
White
House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, September 1, 2004 ''It struck me as I was
speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this
president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said.
''I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children." "...The comment
underscored an argument put forth some by political pundits, such as MSNBC
talk-show host Chris Matthews, that the Republican Party has cast itself as
the ''daddy party." : "There
there, little voters, Papa Ashcroft and Daddy Bush will sort out those nasty
little vote fraud disputes." - Bush Adm. sues to give Ashcroft authority
over voting disputes under the HAVA Act. "...would reverse decades of
precedent..... Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone
to federal court to enforce their right to vote.....in legal briefs filed
in connection with cases in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, the administration's
lawyers argue that the new law gives Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft the exclusive
power to bring lawsuits to enforce its provisions."
-
Jordan
10/29
/04
You
are checking the column on the left for all the new stories of voter intimidation
and fraud right?
You are telling your friends right? We are not going to get fooled this time
right?
Hello?
<---------
Truth
-
Jordan
LONDON
(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violence since
the U.S.-led invasion last year, American public health experts have calculated
in a report that estimates there were 100,000 "excess deaths" in
18 months.
The
rise in the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of it was caused
by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities. "Making conservative assumptions,
we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the
2003 invasion of Iraq (news - web sites)," said Les Roberts of the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by
The Lancet medical journal. "The use of air power in areas with lots
of civilians appears to be killing a lot of women and children," Roberts
told Reuters. The report came just days before the U.S. presidential election
in which the Iraq war has been a major issue. Mortality was already high in
Iraq before the war because of United Nations (news - web sites) sanctions
blocking food and medical imports but the researchers described what they
found as shocking.
This
is sickening. That we could think this war was anything but a travesty of epic
proportions.
3,000 americans died on 911. We were attacked for no reason and boy were we
pissed. So we fought back. Our hearts were in the fight and people were willing
to die for this cause. Our country, for a moment was united in the effort to
make those responsible for attacking us on our soil with no justification, pay!
The taliban had to go.
Now we are in iraq. Wrong fucking war.
100,000 dead civilians in Iraq. Compare that to 3,000.
Why do you think the 'insurgents' are fighting our troops?
You think they don't love their country? Weren't they ALSO attacked for no reason?
You think average Iraqi citizens aren't JUST as united as we were?
You think those 100,00 dead have not touched the population and encouraged them
to fight?
Think about it. Iraq was also attacked for NO REASON. They also are also FIGHTING
BACK. Their hearts too are in this. They too are willing to die for their cause.
Why do Americans have the audacity to think we have a copyright on patriotism?
what are we doing in iraq anyway?
-
Jordan
10/28
/04
I'm
George Bush and I will censor this message
-
Jordan
10/27
/04
Making
sense of the GOP's efforts to suppress the minority votes
The
vote suppression tactics I have been talking about here (and in the column to
the left) are very easy to understand once you supply the context. And Kevin
Drum supplies just that in his Washington Monthly piece:
THE
MINORITY VOTE
Republican
pollster Tony Fabrizio has just finished a survey of 12 battleground states
and finds Bush and Kerry tied with 47% of the vote apiece. But when he weights
for minority turnout based on the 2000 exit polls, Kerry is ahead 49.2%-45.7%.
And when he further updates the weighting to take into account the most recent
census results, Kerry is ahead 49.9%-44.7%.
As Fabrizio blandly puts it, "It is clear that minority turnout is a
wildcard in this race and represents a huge upside for Sen. Kerry and a considerable
challenge for the President's campaign." More accurately, if Fabrizio
is right -- that Kerry is ahead by 5% overall in the battleground states --
Kerry is a sure winner on November 2.
Suddenly the Bush campaign's obsession with challenging voters in minority
neighborhoods makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Their own internal polling
is probably telling the same thing that Fabrizio's poll says: unless they
somehow manage to keep the minority vote down, they're doomed.
-
Jordan
The
nine most important reasons to vote for Kerry
From
Bob Harris:
Salon
reports that, despite most media accounts, Rehnquist may be gravely ill:
Numerous
medical studies only mention tracheotomy -- in which surgeons cut a hole into
a patient's windpipe to aid breathing -- as a treatment for a rare form of
thyroid cancer called anaplastic carcinoma. According to the University of
Virginia Health Center, "anaplastic carcinoma is an extremely serious
and aggressive thyroid cancer which often results in the death of the patient
… within several months of diagnosis."
And
from the Los Angeles Times:
The
most dangerous form is anaplastic... "one of the most malignant types
of cancer known to humans," said Dr. Yuri Nikiforov, a pathologist and
thyroid expert at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine... Fatality
rates top 95 percent in the first year after diagnosis...
A tracheotomy indicates that the tumor threatened to obstruct Rehnquist's
windpipe, and that the tumor is fast-growing, according to several outside
thyroid specialists. "At his age, having had a tracheotomy, the
first thing that comes to mind is... anaplastic thyroid cancer," said
Dr. Peter Singer, chief of clinical endocrinology at USC's Keck School of
Medicine.
Make
no mistake: we are likely about to decide the balance of the Supreme
Court for a generation.
John
Paul Stevens, age 84. Cancer survivor.
William Rehnquist, age 80. Currently hospitalized for thyroid cancer.
Sandra Day O'Connor, age 74. Cancer survivor.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, age 71. Cancer survivor.
Antonin Scalia, age 68
Anthony Kennedy, age 68
Stephen Breyer, age 66
David Souter, age 65
Clarence Thomas, age 56
Only
Thomas is below conventional retirement age. And while Bush has played
coy about whom he would appoint, his record is clear.
Charles Pickering, for example, has been consistently hostile to civil
rights and voting rights issues while siding with cross-burners (literally)
and advocating increased enforcement of Mississippi's laws making interracial
marriage a crime.
Bush announced his appointment, in defiance of Congress while they were recessed,
on the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.
Bush's other recess appointment that weekend was Alabama's William Pryor,
who has called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law
in our history" -- even when pressed to consider the Plessy v. Ferguson
separate-but-equal ruling or the Dred Scott black-have-no-rights-at-all decision.
Spend a little time researching Pickering and Pryor. Please don't take
my word for it. Google around. See what Bush really considers important
in his judges.
And don't lose sight of the wink-at-his-base symbolism involved: Bush appointed
these two horrific nutjobs... on the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.
You can almost hear him snickering.
Fortunately, because Pickering and Pryor were end-run recess appointments,
they expire at the end of the year. We're not stuck with them forever... yet.
But make no mistake. Giving George W. Bush another shot at one, two, or
three seats on this court would change the course of civil rights, voting rights,
women's rights, and every issue most Americans dear for a generation.
-
Jordan
10/26
/04
Mosh
Not
a big Eminem fan, but what he has done with this new rap song is powerful. This
is in effect a free anti-Bush ad that millions of today's youths will be seeing
on MTV. The message is great and the animation (by folks over at GNN)
is awesome. This message getting out to this demographic is a HUGE plus for
our side.
See
the video here
Heres
a sample of the lyrics:
Now
this is our final hour; let me be the voice and your strength, and your choice.
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise. Try to amplify, times
it, and multiply it by sixteen million people, all equal at this high pitch.
Maybe we can reach al-Qaida through my speech. Let the president answer our
anarchy. Strap him with AK-47. Let him go fight his own war, let him impress
daddy that way. No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on
our soil. No more psychological warfare to trick us to thinking that we ain't
loyal if we don't serve our own country; we're patronizing a hero. Look in
his eyes, it's all lies. The stars and stripes? They've been swiped, washed
out and wiped, and replaced with his own face. Mosh now or die.
If I get sniped tonight, you'll know why: ‘Cause I told you to fight!
Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness, as I provide just enough
spark that we need to proceed. Carry on, give me hope, give me strength, come
with me and I won't steer you wrong. Put your faith and your trust as I guide
us through the fog, till the light at the end of the tunnel. We gon’
fight, we gon’ charge, we gon’ stomp, we gon’ march through
the swamp; we gon’ mosh through the marsh, take us right through the
doors. Come on!
And as we proceed to mosh through this desert storm in these closing statements
… If they should argue, let us beg to differ as we set aside our differences,
and assemble our own army to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we
call our president, for the present … and mosh for the future of our
next generation, to speak and be heard … Mr. President? Mr. Senator?
-
Jordan
The
republicans will do anything to with the election - Except get the most votes
From
MyDD
George
Bush repeatedly talks about the need to spread freedom around the world. However,
here at home, his own campaign has engaged in a nationwide effort to keep people
from casting votes. Across the country, in important swing state after important
swing state, Republicans want to reduce the number of people who vote in the
upcoming election:
In
Colorado, they do not want you to vote.
In Florida,
they do not want you to vote.
In Minnesota,
the do not want you to vote.
In
Nevada, they do not want you to vote.
In Ohio,
they do not want you to vote.
In
Oregon, they do not want you to vote.
In Pennsylvania,
they do not want you to vote.
In West Virginia,
they do not want you to vote.
In Wisconsin,
they do not want you to vote.
By
contrast, Democrats have worked tirelessly to register as many new voters as
possible and increase national participation in the political process nationwide.
In state after state, Democrats have registered tens of thousands more new voters
than Republicans. One party wants you to vote; one party does not. This is something
voters need to know.
-
Jordan
10/25
/04
380
tons of peaches and cream
If
you would believe Bush, our country is peaches and cream. He claims we are safer
since we invaded Iraq. He claims the war there is going swimmingly. He claimed
mission accomplished. Well today the story is out that when we invaded we failed
to secure 380 TOND of highly explosive materials. And now they are gone. Just
to put this in perspective, 1 pound of this can, and has been used to take down
an airplane. One pound. 380 TONS of this stuff went missing. As we invaded and
our troops set out to secure the oil fields, these explosives faded into the
hands of the insurgents. Did we hear about it? Did the bafoons in the white
house try to track this stuff down? Of course not. Because it is election time.
And we are safer. And Iraq is peaches and cream.
Huge
Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq
The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international
nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives
- used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons
- are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military
control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently
as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives
for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the
explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.
The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing.
It is unclear whether President Bush was informed.
"It
is unclear whether President Bush was informed"
Im going to go out here on a limb and say, as a general rule it is a safe bet
to say our president is uninformed. This shows HUGE amounts of incompetence
in our leaders. They are running their entire campaign based on safety and security.
They have the cajones to tell voters Kerry will make us more vulnerable to a
terrorist attack.
- Jordan
10/24
/04
GET
YOUR ELECTION INTEGRITY MONITOR T-SHIRTS
If
you have a cafe press store or want to make your own shirts, I am giving you
permission to distribute this artwork. Download
it here.
Orlando
Sentinel Endorses Kerry!
Our
position: The Bush presidency has disappointed us on almost all counts.
Four years ago, the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Republican George W. Bush for
president based on our trust in him to unite America. We expected him to forge
bipartisan solutions to problems while keeping this nation secure and fiscally
sound.
This president has utterly failed to fulfill our expectations. We turn now
to his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, with the belief that he is
more likely to meet the hopes we once held for Mr. Bush.
Our choice was not dictated by partisanship. Already this election season,
the Sentinel has endorsed Republican Mel Martinez for the U.S. Senate and
four U.S. House Republicans. In 2002, we backed Republican Gov. Jeb Bush for
re-election, repeating our endorsement of four years earlier. Indeed, it has
been 40 years since the Sentinel endorsed a Democrat -- Lyndon Johnson --
for president.
But we cannot forget what we wrote in endorsing Mr. Bush in 2000: "The
nation needs a leader who can bring people together, who can stand firm on
principle but knows the art of compromise." Four years later, Mr. Bush
presides over a bitterly divided Congress and nation. The unity following
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- the president's finest hour -- is
a memory now. Mr. Bush's inflexibility has deepened the divide.
-
Jordan
10/23/04
Got
a few new items in the store.
You
can still get an order in time to wear to the polls. Check out the new
design.
Then
come back here and check up on all the republican efforts to stop Democrats
from voting. Read the story below and the stories in the left column. I will
be adding more as they come in.
GOTV
-
Jordan
Its
official. This election is a debacle. And it has only just begun...
The
Rethuglicans are up to seriously dirty tricks in Ohio. This is the same shit
these people pulled in Dade County four years ago. They are up to it in all
the swing states. The growing list (in the left colum lower on this page) of
voter fraud, and intimidation links is already a sad testimate to that. Republicans
should be ashamed of the reports we are hearing from these battleground states.
This article in Time is unbelievable.
Full
article: Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge Voters at Polls in Key State (times
requires regestration so this link goes to the Dailykos copy)
Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands
of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications
of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
Party officials say their effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising
from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new
voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the Nov.
2 elections.
Election officials in other swing states, from Arizona to Wisconsin and Florida,
say they are bracing for similar efforts by Republicans to challenge new voters
at polling places, reflecting months of disputes over voting procedures and
the anticipation of an election as close as the one in 2000.
- snip -
The Democrats, who tend to benefit more than Republicans from large turnouts,
said they had registered more than 2,000 recruits to try to protect legitimate
voters rather than weed out ineligible ones.
Republican officials said they had no intention of disrupting voting but were
concerned about the possibility of fraud involving thousands of newly registered
Democrats.
"The organized left's efforts to, quote unquote, register voters - I
call them ringers - have created these problems," said James P. Trakas,
a Republican co-chairman in Cuyahoga County.
Read
the rest. Pass it on...
Let
me be very plain. The Rethugs HAVE to win Ohio. They have to. They know that
Democrats have had a HUGE drive for new voters. Many believe that a large portion
of newly registered voters will be Democratic. All the polls you see, the ones
that show such a tight race, NONE of them include these new voters. The intent
here by Republicans is to *slow the voting process down* and hopefully get people
to turn away from the lines.
"Our
concern is Republicans will be challenging in large numbers for the purpose
of slowing down voting, because challenging takes a long time,'' said David
Sullivan, the voter protection coordinator for the national Democratic Party
in Ohio. "And creating long lines causes our people to leave without
voting.''
....
In
Cuyahoga County alone, which includes the heavily Democratic neighborhoods
of Cleveland, the Republican Party submitted more than 14,000 names of voters
for county election officials to scrutinize for possible irregularities. The
party said it had registered more than 1,400 people to challenge voters in
that county.
They
will be challanging as many as they can. This is beyond low. This is beyond
dirty. This is shameful.
People
voting in these areas should be very aware of the possibillity that they will
be challenged when they attempt to vote. be aware that there is only a few things
that they can challenge you on
Ohio
election officials said that by state law, the parties' challengers would
have to show "reasonable" justification for doubting the qualifications
of a voter before asking a poll worker to question that person. And, the officials
said, challenges could be made on four main grounds: whether the voter is
a citizen, is at least 18, is a resident of the county and has lived in Ohio
for the previous 30 days
If
you are in battleground states tell others in line. Prepare people. Bring ID.
Bring several forms of ID. Bring things that prove you have lived in the area
for over 30 days. AND BRING A VIDEO CAMERA. This behavior can backfire.
People know in their hearts that this is wrong. Can they try to disrupt the
elections? Yes, but then they will be doing the very thing that they warn
us that the terrorists would like to do. Some Republicans will see this. Some
won't. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the other tactics we
have heard about include:
1.
Democrat registrations thrown out (by now an old story- NM, PA, OR, OH)
2. Democrats receiving calls telling them their polling place has changed
when in fact it hasn't (Ohio)
3. Republicans in charge of election procedures attempting to actually
change polling places at the last minute (Pennsylvania).
4. Republicans attempting to prevent enough Ballots from being available
on election day in Democratic areas (Minnesota)
5. People collecting absentee ballots from the elderly in Democratic areas
and never turning them in (Florida)
6. Republicans prohibiting the recount of electronic vote logs (Florida)
7. Republicans in charge of election procedures not providing enough early
polling places in Democratic areas (Florida)
8. Providing a tailored list of Felons who are kept from voting (Florida -
old story, I know, but has the list actually been verifiably changed?)
The
one good thing I can take away from all this, is the fact that this shows pure
desperation. I think they are worried about a kerry landslide...
Here
is the entire article as well as a good discussion on how to help out
-
Jordan
v
10/22/04
Our
own October surprise
Here's
what we do.
The CIA is hiding a report that names names for Bush's failure on 9/11. Been
on the news & pundit shows recently.
A great way to stir shit up is to call your Democratic congressperson, if you
have one, and beg them to make a huge fuss out of releasing the report before
the election.
It's a no win situation for them, if they withhold it, they look like they're
hiding something which they are. If they do release it then Chimpy is toast.
Call your congressperson right now! Stop reading CL for a moment and call them
or email them.
And PLEASE email this to everyone you know and have THEM call or write, too.
Look up your Senator here:
www.senate.gov
Look up your Representative here:
www.house.gov/writerep
National
Media List
SUGGESTED TEXT:
Dear
,
The CIA is withholding a report that Congress demanded over two years ago
and which is said to have been finished in the summer.
The Bush campaign is engineering the burial of this report before the election.
I would like to strongly urge you to make a big public fuss that is sure to
get on the evening news and the pundit shows, a fuss demanding the release
of this report before the election.
If they do not release it, the country will realize that the GOP machine is
hiding vital facts from them in order to affect the election.
If they do release it, we voters will know whom the CIA holds responsible
for 9/11
-
Jordan
Pamphleteering
If
you are doing some door to door action, and need some fact filled flyers to
hand out to people please use these links.
http://udecide.org
http://winningargument.blogspot.com
http://www.thenation.com
-
Jordan
The
computer ate my vote
Already
we are hearing about many cases of computer voting problems. I have been talking
about this for a year. This will be a huge issue if we are not careful. If you
live in California know that you can request
a paper ballot when you sign in at the polls. In the column to the left
(below the video downloads) I am collecting stories of voter intimidation, election
fraud, computer troubles and every other possible way the GOP can try to stop
us from exercisingour right to vote.
-
Jordan
10/21/04
As
the elections approach I am changing this front page a bit.
Some
of the information located on other pages of this site will be moved to the
front in an attempt to get the most vital information to the most people. So
take a look around to see what is new. Check out the 'Bush Record' to the right.
Check out the sadly growing collection of vote suppression and vote fraud links
below and to the left. Some new charts and graphs are up front as well. Pass
this information around. Because when you have all the facts, you tend to vote
Democratic. Oh yeah and you can all stop squinting. I made the text bigger.
If
you have some facts or figures or links that you feel are vital
e-mail them to me.
-
Jordan
Breaking
News! Delay gets served!
Here
is the AP report
House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) was subpoenaed in Houston to an October 25,
2004 deposition concerning his role in the controversial dispute between Democratic
Legislators and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) during last year's
redistricting struggle. Texas State Representative Lon Burnam (D--Fort Worth)
subpoenaed DeLay in his ongoing lawsuit challenging DPS's use of public funds
to achieve political ends and for its destruction of documents following the
exodus of Democratic Legislators from the State to prevent a quorum in a redistricting
effort that Democrats claim was illegal.
Burnam's subpoena of DeLay comes just days after the Republican House Majority
Leader was officially rebuked by the House Ethics Committee for his inappropriate
use of government resources in an effort to track down and arrest House Democrats--including
Burnam--who went to Ardmore to block redistricting efforts of the Texas Republicans.
Burnam's lawsuit alleges that the DPS destroyed documents regarding their
efforts to apprehend the Legislators and that DPS had no lawful authority
to arrest Democratic members who went to Ardmore. A number of high ranking
DPS officials have given their depositions, as has Burnam in the case. An
Austin Appeals Court recently held that Burnam's case on the open records
issue could go forward.
"Questions have been raised about Majority Leader DeLay's role in directing
both DPS and Homeland Security personnel in the use of the state and federal
funds in the search for House Democrats. We believe these funds were improperly
used for political gain and House Majority Leader DeLay should be required
to testify about his role in the matter," said Fort Worth lawyer, Art
Brender, who together with Austin lawyer Catherine Mauzy represents Burnam
in the case.
"I believe DeLay's testimony is especially important in light of the
Supreme Court's recent decision ordering a reconsideration of the redistricting
plan to determine whether it was overly partisan," Burnam said. This
Monday, October 18, 2004, the United States Supreme Court reversed the three
judge lower federal court ruling that upheld the Republican drawn congressional
lines and remanded the matter back to that court in light of the Supreme Court's
ruling in a similar case in Pennsylvania.
The
rest is here
-
Jordan
94
Reasons NOT to vote for Bush
Here
are the first 10. The rest are here
1.
Former President Bill Clinton briefing President-elect Bush on security issues
in December 2000: "I think you will find that by far your biggest threat
is Bin Ladin and the al Qaeda. One of the great regrets of my presidency is
that I didn't get him [Bin Ladin] for you, because I tried to." Source:
Testimony by Clinton, published in the 9/11 Commission Report
2. Upon taking office, Bush proposed cutting more than $500 million in counterterrorism
funding from the Justice Department. Source: "Condi gets a reality check,"
Center for American Progress, April 8, 2004
3. On Sept. 10, 2001, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected an appeal
from the FBI for more money to fight terrorism in the 2002 budget. Source:
Toronto Star, April 13, 2004
4. On Sept. 11, 2001, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice planned to
deliver a speech about national security that made no mention of Osama bin
Laden, Al Qaeda or Islamic fundamentalists. Source: CNN.com, April 1, 2004
5. National security advisor Condoleezza Rice: "The title of the [Aug.
6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing] was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack
Inside the United States." Source: Testimony before the 9/11 Commission,
April 8, 2004
6. George W. Bush, April 11, 2004: "The P.D.B. was no indication of a
terrorist threat." Source: The New York Times, April 12, 2004
7. On July 24, 2001, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on
commercial jets and started traveling only on chartered government planes.
When asked about the change, Ashcroft cited a "threat assessment"
by the FBI. Source: The Village Voice, April 13, 2004
8. In the week after Sept. 11, 2001, at least eight planes carried 140 passengers
out of the country. Many of the passengers were Saudi Arabian royalty, while
about 24 of them were members of the bin Laden family. One of the flights,
on Sept. 13, took off from Tampa to Lexington, Ky. The White House denied
that the flight ever took place, but records produced in June under a Freedom
of Information Act request prove that it did. Sources: The Boston Globe, April
11, 2004; St. Petersburg Times, June 9, 2004
9. An agency of the Treasury Department assigned to blocking the financial
resources of terrorists has five times as many agents investigating Cuban
embargo violations than it does tracking Osama bin Laden. Source: Associated
Press, April 29, 2004
10. In April, the State Department announced that terrorism incidents worldwide
had dropped from 198 in 2002 to 190 in 2003. In June the State Department
announced that it had made a mistake, and that terrorism incidents had actually
risen, from 205 in 2002 to 208 in 2003. Source: The New York Times, June 23,
2004
The
other 84 reasons are here
-
Jordan
10/20/04
Kerry
in a LANDSLIDE
-
visualize it -
This
is a wholesale rip from a post over at Dailykos.
I'm
sick of the fake confidence from the wing-nuts. And those meaningless
national polls (many of which Kerry has tied up). We need to start making
it part of our mindset AND our discussions with everyone (including fellow Dems)
that our boy is winning. We need to BELIEVE! And we need America
to BELIEVE! And, of course, the numbers back it up.
We have the momentum right now in the state polls, so lets use it! In
fact, we have emerging evidence that we may have a Kerry landslide on our hands.
Let's breed the momentum! Make people start expecting a Kerry landslide!
Let the Dems know they need to get out and vote for the winner! Let
the undecideds know that if they back Kerry, they back a winner!
Kerry
is winning Ohio
Kerry is tied up and surging in Florida
Kerry is building on his lead in Pennsylvania
Kerry is CRUISING in New Hampshire
Kerry is up with momentum in Iowa
Kerry is up with the big mo in Wisconsin
Kerry is CRUSHING Bush in Minnesota
Kerry is CRUSHING Bush in Michigan
Kerry is CRUSHING Bush in Oregon
Kerry is CRUSHING Bush in Washington
And
this is just with the states where Kerry is up. I'm setting aside the
RED states where he's in striking distance in latest polling (like AR, VA, NC,
CO, NV, WV - all of which have one or more polls showing Kerry w/in 5 points)
Thread in the emerging stories that major newspapers (including
many that backed Bush in 2000) and prominent Republicans
are backing Kerry (or snubbing Bush) ! It's part of the tidal
wave!
Read
the rest here including all the specifics on recent poll numbers
UPDATE:
this is from MyDD
Electoral-Vote.com
Kerry 284, Bush 247, 7 tied (October 19)
2.004k.com Kerry 289, Bush
232, 17 tied (October 19)
Race 2004.com Kerry 218, Bush
205, 115 too close to call (October 19)
Sam Wang:
Kerry 300, Bush 238 (October 19)
Rassmussen 16-State
Kerry 48.8, Bush 46.1 (October 19)
Slate Kerry 284, Bush
254 (October 19)
MyDD Kerry
316, Bush 222 (October 19)
Get
hyped! We are going to win this! (as long as the votes get counted anyway...)
-
Jordan
Is
Bush losing his base?
Pat
Robertson, the man who just may represent the farthest right portion of the
GOP, met with Bush and warned him about the situation in Iraq. This is the man
who just this January was saying "I
think George Bush is going to win in a cake walk."
Well
he should know, what with him and God being all cozy and what not. God tells
him that Bush is going to win, did God also tell him to pass on to Bush his
concern about the troop casualties?
The
Lord has just blessed him," Robertson
said of Bush. "I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out
of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him
up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."
Well
Pat is whistling a different tune now as this CNN article shows
"And
I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings.
And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American
people for casualties.' "
Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going
to have any casualties."
Robertson, the televangelist who sought the Republican presidential nomination
in 1988, said he wishes Bush would admit to mistakes made.
"I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy,"
Robertson said. "I warned him about casualties."
More than 1,100 U.S. troops have died in Iraq and another 8,000 troops have
been wounded in the ongoing campaign, with the casualty toll significantly
increasing in the last six months as the insurgency there has deepened.
Democrats
would do well to take note of this little exhange because it represents something
very important. Bush has hijacked the Republican party. and some republicans
are letting him know. If Pat Robertson is showing his misgivings about Iraq
then we have a situation here! This is a chance to take some air out of Bush's
base. There is a great DNC comercial in this if someone cas the footage of the
exchange. Lets use this to knock W out of the ring! Because God, Pat and all
of us are right. Iraq is FUBAR, and Bush has to go.
How many more deaths?
Here
is a transcript of the Pat Robertson CNN interview
Oh,
and reward CNN for good behavior
-
Jordan
10/19/04
Is
Bush hiding a report that shows his administration was negligent in preventing
911?
The
9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket
The agency is withholding a damning report that points at senior officials.
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11
until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by
the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not
been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated
the study almost two years ago.
"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were
not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed,"
an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the
report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it
makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in
holding people in the government responsible afterward."
When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic
member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman
Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered.
"We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report,"
she said. "We are very concerned."
According to the intelligence official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity,
release of the report, which represents an exhaustive 17-month investigation
by an 11-member team within the agency, has been "stalled." First
by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss, the former
Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently
was appointed CIA chief by President Bush.
The official stressed that the report was more blunt and more specific than
the earlier bipartisan reports produced by the Bush-appointed Sept. 11 commission
and Congress.
This
is serious stuff.
Read
the whole article and pass it on. (requires registration)
Or
read the rest here
-
Jordan
10/18/04
WATCH
STREAMING VIDEO OF GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY
http://www.kerrysupport.com/upriver/upriver.ram
Know
any swing voters? If so send them this. They will no longer be so confused.
-
Jordan
GOP:
Suppress the vote
Here
we go again. 2 weeks until the election and already problems in Florida have
begun.
Problems
Crop Up in Fla. Early Voting
In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years
ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee
ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen
machines. Several voting sites in Broward County had problems with laptops
connected to elections headquarters. And a brief computer system crash in
Orange County paralyzed voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs. A steady
flow turned out Monday morning at more than a dozen sites in Palm Beach County.
Patrick Flanagan, who went to the county's election headquarters to cast his
ballot, said he voted early because he wanted to avoid the long lines expected
on Election Day. He said he's voted on the touch-screen machines once before,
and both times have gone "very smoothly." "I'm a computer-phobe,
and it seemed easy enough to me," said Flanagan, who added that he had
no concerns about his vote being counted. Steve Perez, 44, said he went early
to cast a "protest vote" for Ralph Nader (news - web sites). "What's
important is that you vote. I didn't want to get in all the hoopla with all
the turnout in Election Day," said Perez, a substitute teacher.
Computer
problems reported at Broward early voting sites
Problems were being reported at nine of 14 early voting sites in Broward County
on Monday morning.
Gisela Salas, of the Broward Elections Office, said workers were having problems
with a live database connection that is used to verify that a voter is properly
registered. ...
Voters at several sites said poll workers told them the problems started 20
minutes to 30 minutes after the early polling stations opened at 8:30 a.m.
The stations close at 6 p.m.
At the Tamarac branch public library, where voting stopped after the computer
glitch, Sally Zwanger, a poll watcher for the Kerry campaign, claimed the
problems reflected on the inability of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration to fix
voting problems left over from the 2000 election.
"The worst thing to hear was, 'I support Kerry, but I can't wait in this
line,'" she said. "We are having a repeat of 2000, and it's only
in Florida that this could happen. This administration would do anything to
ensure that he [Bush] stays in office."
Problems
Crop Up in Fla. Early Voting
With memories of 2000 and the state's bitter fight over ballots still fresh,
Floridians began casting votes Monday and within an hour problems cropped
up.
In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years
ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee
ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen
machines. And in Orange County, the touch-screen system briefly crashed, paralyzing
voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs.
A steady flow had turned out Monday morning at more than a dozen sites in
Palm Beach County. Patrick Flanagan, who went to the county's election headquarters
to cast his ballot, said he voted early because he wanted to avoid the long
lines expected on Election Day. He said he's voted on the touch-screen machines
once before, and both times have gone "very smoothly."
"I'm a computer-phobe, and it seemed easy enough to me," said Flanagan,
who added that he had no concerns about his vote being counted.
Also coming out of the polls on Monday, Steve Perez, 44, said he came early
to cast a "protest vote" for Ralph Nader.
"What's important is that you vote. I didn't want to get in all the hoopla
with all the turnout in Election Day," said Perez, a substitute teacher.
State Rep. Shelley Vana was not so happy. She said the paper absentee ballot
she was given at a Palm Beach County site was missing one of its two pages,
including the proposed amendments to the state constitution. She said election
workers were indifferent when she pointed out the oversight.
Looks
like there is trouble in Ohio as well. Funny how these 'mistakes' all happen
in swing states
Kerry
left off some absentee ballots
Some absentee ballots distributed to Hamilton County voters do not include
the name of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, local election officials
confirmed today.
(snip)
"The tragic thing is that even though I think we will have a very fair
and accurate count here, this will cause people to question the accuracy of
our operation."
(snip)
"It's unfortunate it happened," Williams said. "But I don't
think there's any reason for people to worry about the accuracy of the election."
Same
dirty tactics, different Election.....
-
Jordan