READER COMMENTS ON
"EXCLUSIVE: ELECTION SECURITY BREACH - CHICAGO'S ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION DATABASE DISCOVERED VULNERABLE TO HACKERS!"
(36 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
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Joseph Cannon
said on 10/23/2006 @ 4:47 pm PT...
Incredible. I've been saying for a while that voter registration roles should be much more secure, but even I, in my most captious moment, never considered that such things were possible.
There is no reason why the master list of registered voters should be stored on a computer with any network connections of any sort. Such a file should be treated as a "Holy Grail" --- no unauthorized person should be able to acquire that data.
Even if the data remains un-tampered with, consider the possibilites for mischief. We know that the imported Republican bully-boys tried to do in Texas in Ohio in 2004. They did not really carry out their intimidation plans, no doubt because the angry voters initimidated the intimidators.
But subtler methods can prove devastating.
Lots of people are losing their houses. Our less fortunate citizens may soon have to choose between keeping their new addresses secret --- which most people would prefer to do, if they are trying to avoid creditors --- or being registered to vote.
Registration information must be kept sacrosanct. Surely there is a paper trail copy of that data somewhere? Surely the electronic data --- which may already be hacked --- can be checked against a paper list?
And how do we know that this has not happened in a host of other counties?
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
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Grizzly Bear Dancer
said on 10/23/2006 @ 5:41 pm PT...
3 cheers for electronic voting!!!
Let's bow our heads for a moment and thank REPUBLICAN CRIMINALS and their Democratic enablers holding political office for letting our votes be cast on these bushit voting machines with one outcome in mind.
To keep the treasonous Fascist Anti-Environmentalists in the bushit administration in power and take the voice and choice away from "WE THE PEOPLE".
Go Bears..you guys better help save the grizzly and win a championship this year because i'm coming to get you!
Destroy the WARMONGER BUSH ADMINISTRATION the same way they took down building #7 of the World Trade Center which was not hit by an aircraft, fell over 10 hours later although located over a block away? Where were those passport waving boxcutting Arabs Dick Cheney/Condolezza Rice/GW Bushit/Donald
Rumsfeld???? How bout some Chicago style physics with that controlled demolition!
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 10/23/2006 @ 5:45 pm PT...
How much more has to happen before the corporate mainstream media NOW revisits that the 2000 election was stolen, many 2002 senatorial elections were stolen, and the 2004 election was stolen??? Millions of people were disenfranchized...the people who did this hack could've disenfranchized tens-of-thousands if they wanted to...they were nice...they just "pointed it out"...
When will the Dems fight fire with fire, and hack the Dems into power? Then EVERYONE will be against electronic voting machines. Sadly, those that are now benefitting are looking the other way...they wouldn't if the Dems hacked them, too.
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 10/23/2006 @ 5:49 pm PT...
I hope hackers make a nationwide sham out of the 2006 elections, on BOTH sides!!!
To make a point, they should have some elections won by the following: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mickey Mouse, Bart Simpson, Abe Lincoln, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Amelia Ehrhardt, the Unibomber, Shamu, Flipper, etc...seriously, to get these things banned!!!
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
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Mary
said on 10/23/2006 @ 5:52 pm PT...
The Repugs are afraid the Dems will win...so now the e-voting is an issue....I can hear the repugs screaming now....
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/23/2006 @ 6:27 pm PT...
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
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Arry
said on 10/23/2006 @ 6:57 pm PT...
It's good that Greg Palast is bringing up the very important issue of "spoiled ballots", but I get tired of his always having to be the smartest guy in the room. He says In the lead-up to the 2004 race, millions of Americans were, not unreasonably, panicked about computer voting machines. Images abounded of an evil hacker-genius in Dick Cheney’s bunker rewriting code and zapping the totals. But that’s not how it went down.
The computer scare was the McGuffin, the fake detail used by magicians to keep your eye off their hands. The principal means of the election heist — voiding ballots — went unexposed, unreported and most importantly, uncorrected and ready to roll out on a grander scale next time...
That's ignorant and irresponsible, as we know, as there is a mountain of evidence of electronic fraud (or incredible unreliability always favoring Republicans), not only in many specific instances but in a dispassionate statistical analysis of the results. It is astonishing to me that Steve Freeman's work in articles and his book (Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?) is so little cited or even recognized. Nobody has really come up with an answer to his conclusions. But in October 2006 so many "progressives" are still pretending --- why?
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
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Arry
said on 10/23/2006 @ 7:03 pm PT...
Nevertheless, spoiled ballots should enter the equation, in some form, in the exit poll/"results" discrepancies.
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
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Randy Gold
said on 10/23/2006 @ 8:12 pm PT...
Debra Bowen, Democratic candidate for Secy of State in California and vigilant defender of voting rights, is online now at Daily Kos. Hers is not only the most important election this year in California.... it just may be the most important race in the country.
Link to Kos.
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
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Jeff
said on 10/23/2006 @ 8:54 pm PT...
I just tried some code from the video and it seems to still work? Why is this info out there and all over the news if it hasn't been fixed yet???
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
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plunger
said on 10/24/2006 @ 3:48 am PT...
Make the vote fraud issue the BIGGEST REPUBLICAN CRIMINAL ISSUE.
FORCE EVERY REPUBLICAN TO EITHER EMBRACE THE FRAUDULANT SYSTEM OR REJECT IT - DEMANDING PAPER BALLOTS.
The war in Iraq is going to pale in significance to the pending False Flag Attack planned by Darth Cheney and his true EVIL-DOERS. Whether ON AMERICAN SOIL or in the form of a strike against a US Aircraft Carrier (designed to look as if it were a strike on US by Iran) Cheney has an operational False Flag attack in the works.
Why wouldn't he? What else do they have?
With the "Diebold Election Rigging System" being fully exposed, the Coup Leaders are left with but one option, the NUCLEAR OPTION, to retain their grip on power (and self-preservation from the hangman's noose). These desparate bastards are facing WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS in the HAGUE.
ATTENTION DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES:
If you do not step forward and distinguish yourselves - DEMANDING 100% paper ballot voting thoughout the United States, thereby forcing the Republicans to either side with THE AMERICANS or reveal their complicity in election fraud - then by God we will throw you ALL out and send you to prison.
Don't tell us it's too late to call Kinkos and print paper ballots. ANYTHING is possible with the will to accomplish it.
It's OVER.
CHOOSE SIDES.
SCREW AIPAC.
I'm with the Americans.
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
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plunger
said on 10/24/2006 @ 4:05 am PT...
COMMENT #13 [Permalink]
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unirealist
said on 10/24/2006 @ 4:12 am PT...
This story is pathetic, but unimportant in the big picture. I'm with arry on this. The elephant in the room that the MSM still ignores is the hacking of the machines. To most people, even good-hearted ones, it's just too horrifying to believe that a few evil men are committing such wholesale manipulations of votes, so they irrationally refuse to believe it.
But wait until they see what happens in November, when the Republicans inexplicably win lost race after lost race.
I know one thing. This is going to end badly.
COMMENT #14 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 5:26 am PT...
Arry says Palast is wrong about electronic voting as a McGuffin. Palast does not say voting machines above defect or hacking. He is saying they diverted attention from what he believes was a more damaging rigging of the vote in two previous elections. His proof is no more or less credible than that which was developed over the course of those elections to show how the margin of victory was stolen from rightful winners. As for the current election, I expect all tools at the disposal of the majority party will be used agressively, but the post election tools of challenge and delay will probably be the most noticed. When thinking about Barron's "war chest" theory of who wins, ask yourself: who is better prepared to finance a post election fight to steal an election in court?
I do not think anyone is going to hit the streets over this. I have become convinced with time that the talk about rebellion is a lot more strident than the will to do it. So I think almost everyone will endure a "process" at the end of the day--a process of haggling and arguing and accusing and equivocating. In that environment, there is going to be recognition of years of litigation (not months) and no Congress in a "time of war", and lots of fundraising will go on to carry on a different kind of election fight than anyone planned. What, after all, do you first AFTER a trainwreck litters the landscape? With all this said, I can see why an old fashioned voter purge/suppression would be a cleaner way to victory margins because it manages to cut your actual numbers on voting day (fewer people pulling levers) and makes the court battle a "conventional war" about old-time political activities which sour everybody in the same old way ("it's just politics as usual").
Understand, I do think there is vote fraud, defective machines, dishonest leadership, and stolen elections. I just think overcoming the combination is a much bigger proposition than talking about technology. The Republican "ground-game" is planned for both election day and the day after. I don't see that on our side.
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
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plunger
said on 10/24/2006 @ 5:32 am PT...
Hang the "Diebold" logo around the neck of EVERY REPUBLICAN like a millstone. Photoshop some images of Republican candidates wearing the Diebold Logo on gold necklaces the size of Mr. T's.
Make it the Scarlet Letter of American Politics.
If Republicans do not publicly reject what Diebold stands for and call for the complete elimination of this system from the American Political Landscape - make it the millstone around their necks that lasts for a generation.
EVERY Democratic Candidate needs to take an oath - as part of the Democratic Platform - to speak out at every occassion against these machines and to demand of their challengers - at every opportunity - to declare where they stand relative to this travesty of Democracy.
If Democrats are not vocally demanding that these machines be removed - and replaced by paper ballots - they deserve to lose.
Demand it of them. They work for you.
COMMENT #16 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 5:35 am PT...
And this Chicago hack demonstrates more clearly how it can or has been done in the new and improved form:
change the voting roll electronically beforehand, then purge the marginal ones as before, and then (if needed) tweak the final numbers. Amazing synthesis and it has been rehearsed. Paper trail would mean nothing as a verification tool.
COMMENT #17 [Permalink]
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plunger
said on 10/24/2006 @ 5:37 am PT...
Get polsters on the record now about the historic accuracy of "exit polls."
Don't wait until after the election is stolen - take premptive action to set the stage now.
If exit polling indicates a massive voter turn out with 65% voting Democratic - yet Republicans being declared the victor - have a plan in place - ready to go - with the mainstream media on board - to instantly counter-attack.
.
COMMENT #18 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 5:43 am PT...
Plunger--
Good morning. I think the exit poll strategy is useful, but it wouldn't hold up where it counts. Unless you bother to determine the poll-respondent is also registered and properly, surveys would be interesting, circumstantial and dismissible evidence. Especially so if you tampered with the voter rolls in advance. I am beginning to suspect that has been done this round--far more voters have been technically disenfranchised in far more races than before. These being local elections, the ability to poll, detect and contest is far more challenging.
COMMENT #19 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 5:49 am PT...
As pointed out before, the "landslide" effect won't happen unless independents come to the polls and pull a Democratic lever. Who buses them to the polls on election day? Who gets them out in bad weather? Who is going to help them if it is determined they were "improperly registered" and can't vote? If they are targeted for the tweaking along with the typically "caged" profile, the close races are lost. Much has been made of the "monte carlo" tracking analysis, but I am not a statistician. Explain to me how the independents are trackable if they are disenfranchised.
COMMENT #20 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 6:05 am PT...
I am going to blabber on with one more thought and then I am outta here. Back to the Barron's hypothesis. Suppose the worst happens and Repubhlicans appear to have won almost all the critical races to maintain control. Suppose everyone is geared up to go to court, challenge every result, paralyze government from the Senate on down to dog-catcher. Suppose Dems and Independents decided to fight everywhere. Where would they get the money?
The Republicans are a "network" of like minded, socially equal club-members by comparison to their opposition. They always have been. But the big difference (as has been repeatedly stated) is that they admit corporations as members with equal or better standing. Now corporations have resources which outstrip any cluster of private citizens. I submit that the Republican Party can fight a "war of attrition" in the courts better than anybody because of this sad fact. The only way to take that advantage away, in my view, is to take the resources away from the corporations who support them. How many Dems are up for that? How many of us at the BradBlog for that matter? It has been remarked that we need government--good government--to attempt any repulse of this kind of corporate interference and corruption, but you have to win at government in order to get that strategy to work. So if this election goes into post-election overtime, I think the only way to win the battle of war-chests is to aim higher than the Republican Party. Aim at the companies who fund them. How likely is that, folks?
COMMENT #21 [Permalink]
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Ancient
said on 10/24/2006 @ 7:01 am PT...
Gtash
If I understand you correctly, you are asking for boycotting products, right? Well here's my list that I've been boycotting for some time now:
The Tribune Review (SW PA)
GE products from light bulbs to appliances
ABC Mickey Mouse Land News and long list of published
products and movies
Many farmed fish products or unsustainable fisheries
I recently inherited some money and blew an investment bankers head when I told him I didn't want ANY mutual fund who had war profiteers included in the fund. I said, I put principal before profit. People should seriously consider this ONE idea!
This list goes on, but my time right now is short so feel free to add to it anyone! Maybe a page for the list Brad?
COMMENT #22 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 10/24/2006 @ 7:17 am PT...
gtash: I said that everyone should check now at their local board of elections, if they are registerd to vote, and get it in writing that on Oct.???/2006 I am registered to vote, so when they get there and they are mysteriously off the voter registration, they pull out the written proof that they checked and are registered.
COMMENT #23 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 7:27 am PT...
I do support what you are saying, and I would like to get a comprehensive list--a strategic list--of corporations and products whose boycott would effect some serious corporate notice and result.
But honestly, there is more. People really have to re-think what the role of incorporation (the spawning of legal entities with "equal" rights to flesh and blood) really means. Corporations have eternal life and can only be terminated by suicide (stockholder assisted suicide). If you had infinite time to live your life, make and spend your money, acquire wealth and resources, operate a business, participate in the life of a community, reach across national borders---if you had all that AND infinite time, don't you think you would value the world and people in a significantly different way from a flesh-and-blood voter, laborer, wage-earner, farmer, soccer-mom? If you were guaranteed not to die, but merely change leadership forever (barring suicide), don't you think would eventually see how influencing all levels of government would be your natural right above all else?
I do not say get rid of corporations. I do say the people who live and work in today's society haven't stopped to give them a second thought, and that is exactly what is needed now. In the context of this and other elections, the capacity of corporations to crowd out the common voter or shout him down or bury him in litigation grows exponentially. It is not a conspiracy per se. But it is also not "the natural order" of society to have corporations as equal to human beings. I should think preservers of the Constitution would be first to accept this, but it's all turned around. They seem to prefer altering law, regulation and the Constitution by substituting the corporate good for the common good.
Undercutting the economics of corporations is not a futile gesture. It is, I would hope, a way to grabbing everyone's attention and calling for a re-think.
COMMENT #24 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 10/24/2006 @ 8:14 am PT...
COMMENT #25 [Permalink]
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Ancient
said on 10/24/2006 @ 8:16 am PT...
Another idea I had was to start a letter to the editor page (open to refinement and help in documenting) that people could print and send into every paper in this country. Heres what I have so far:
To Everyone who has their doubts about this administration,
Take your pick from this dirty laundry list as to why we should vote out this unilateral government:
(the best documentation should be listed after each)
- 2000 Gore had more votes in Florida
- Cheney's closed door energy commission meetings
with GW's "Kenny Boy" of Enron and the criminal
effects on our country
- Criminally ignoring "clear and present danger"
warnings from the intelligence community leading
DIRECTLY TO 9/11
- 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS missing from the DoD announced
day before 9/11 and then never investigated
- The Downing Street Memo showing their intent to take
us to war on corrupted information
- The reason we went into Iraq was based on lies they
knew to be untrue, but repeated over and over again
- Rumsfeld threatened to fire any General who asked
about post invasion policy
- Halliburton no bid contracts
- Illegal wiretapping of American prior to 9/11
- Hiring unexperienced crony qualified people to run operation in Iraq leading to BILLIONS of dollars
squandered there
- Ignoring Generals assesment of # of troops necessary
on the ground initially, leading to their botched
job and thousands of dead in Iraq
- Rebublican and a few Dems voting down the money
for necessary equipment to protect our troops
- Billions of dollars made by American war profiteers
- The suspicious death of Senator Paul Wellstone
- Stealing the 04 election in Ohio
- Ramming HAVA (written by federally convicted Congressman Ney with Abramoff Diebolt connections)
down our throats leading to our hackable machines
%80 of the country will vote on
- Nothing real being done about K street lobby crimes
and Delay's corrupt political machine
- Delay getting away with Texas redistricting and Gerrymandering insulating incumbents period
- The 9/11 joke invetigations
- Little to anything being done on their reccomendations
- LEO WANTA FUNDS never being paid that could have
resulted in at least a trillion dollars going into
the US treasury
- Glaring lack of oversight of FCC, SEC, EAC, FDA
allowing criminal control of information and money
- The manipulating of Christian voters while holding them in arrogant contempt
-Imperiling the PLANET by ignoring global warming
- Abu Graib and our now illegal legislation on torture
- Pedophile congressmen and covering up the others
that exist among those ranks
- Identity theift happening right and left from government angencies like the VA and Voter Registration
- The treasonous outting of Plame and letting Rove and soon Libby off the hook
Feel free any one to jump in and help with this! I really feel this list should be compiled put out there for the general public to SEE!!!!!!!!
Now I really have to get to my other job. Happy trails
COMMENT #26 [Permalink]
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Ancient
said on 10/24/2006 @ 8:31 am PT...
Gtash I don't want to rip down corporations per se, but for government to control them not be controlled by them. Ever since the 1960 Round table talks big business has concentrated power taking control of our government. Now they have all their minions in place throughout our government. This has to be seen, understood, and reversed by people so they can talk back to them with their pocket books. I know this is just one simplified solution, but we have to start somewhere!
COMMENT #27 [Permalink]
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MarkH
said on 10/24/2006 @ 9:46 am PT...
Ancient, they also
lied to Congress about the cost of Medicare reform
passed a Clean Skies law which allows more pollution
rendered enemy combatants to a CIA gulag
tortured enemy combatants at Abu Graib
refused legal assistance to Guantanamo prisoners
recently did away with Habeas Corpus
didn't help Americans in the wake of hurricane Katrina
failed to implement the 9/11 commission recommendations
utilized KNOWN forgered documents to promote the WOT
backed off N. Korea and let them build a nuke
distributed homeland security money ridiculously
let WV mountains to be destroyed by coal companies
The list is just about endless.
COMMENT #28 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 10:01 am PT...
Ancient at #26
Agreed. I am not saying corporations should be disbanded. They serve a useful purpose. Large segments of the corporate population are not power-hungry, control-freaky operations. But there have to be much tighter limits and that does not begin without understanding their nature vis-a-vis that of the individual.
Have you thought out this: there is no natural predator, no illness or affliction, no population control on spawning corporations. They can breed endlessly, never die, and yet have "equal rights and protection" under our law. If they can be permanent, so too must be the mechanisms that control them. Maybe we should all just incorporate ourselves.
COMMENT #29 [Permalink]
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gtash
said on 10/24/2006 @ 10:06 am PT...
To come full circle, the reason this election is so important and taking back government is so important, is that (it appears to me) an array of political and government interests are allied to suppress and deter a fair election, a representative turnout. I wish I felt differently, but these guys have come too far to change their m.o. It is unclear to me that a landslide will even be demonstrable!
COMMENT #30 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 10/24/2006 @ 11:26 am PT...
Too bad someone didn't hack into this database, and change all the Republican voter's to being "not registered"...just to get them on the bandwagon, because they think it doesn't affect them...
If we get e-vote machines banned, that would limit the damage to about 6 years of elections, which isn't that bad in the big scheme of things. The people who I really feel sorry for, are all the troops who died for a war of lies, because Bush was president. Those are the worst casualties of electronic voting machines.
COMMENT #31 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 10/24/2006 @ 11:41 am PT...
Ancient:
- cut taxes on the richest 1% during wartime
- spend $250million/week (or day?) tax money on war of lies
- condi lied about being warned from Tenet
- Guiliani/Bush were in hurry to clear WTC debris & melt it down (a crime scene) at expense of 70% of workers dead or having lung disease...but called off search for bodies they are now finding 5 years later...
- "party of god" making poor poorer and rich richer
- #1 problem with GOP in last 5 years is the rich don't have enough money
- cut vets benefits
- cut college aid
- cut medicare/medicaid
- ignore 50 million uninsured Americans
- fake news reports given to local TV channels
- paid colunmists to pimp agenda
- tried to change PBS
- hire FOX News correspondant to be press secretary
- shoot people in the face with shotguns and make them apologize
- "Mission Accomplished"
- 655,000 innocent Iraqi civilians killed
COMMENT #32 [Permalink]
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phil
said on 10/24/2006 @ 11:48 am PT...
Please Please Please don't rip Greg Palast, he only is saying that there are more problems than just electronics being used in our elections. I don't disagree that the end all of vote fraud is electronically done. But the man ain't your enemy.
Electronics are.
Insecure Databases are.
Digitized data are.
Networks are.
And the corruption that continues to allow it are.
COMMENT #33 [Permalink]
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Ancient
said on 10/24/2006 @ 2:42 pm PT...
Can we get a page like I suggested for this Brad???
I'd like to see every thing I forgot,
A BIG SORRY TO KATRINA VICTIMS
and what I don't know.
People could add to and document links.
Huh, huh pretty please Brad?
This list needs to be acessible to general public in form of Letter to the Editor, since none are really doing it!
Make it an aaaaaaallllll you can spew back for 1 week or sumpin.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COMMENT #34 [Permalink]
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Peter Zelchenko
said on 10/25/2006 @ 6:50 pm PT...
As I pointed out in a 2003 book, most slim margins in contested elections are gained by a political "death by 1,000 cuts." There is no one magic bullet. Our hack would deter no more than, say, 2 voters per precinct. Another 2 would be bought off. Another 2 would be bused to early voting sites. Another 2 would have their ballots lost. Another 2 would walk off in anger after being harassed by corrupt judges. Eight voters times 50 precincts is 480 voters in a ward, more than enough to win. Infinitesimal changes.
Regarding the Chicago web site, it does appear they haven't completely sealed off the vulnerability. Amazing. And yesterday, the chairman of the board of elections, instead of praising me, said what I did was illegal but (thank god!) they wouldn't press charges. Instead of apologizing to voters, he's passing the buck off to me! And we're supposed to entrust our votes to this kind of jerk?
COMMENT #35 [Permalink]
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Fred
said on 10/27/2006 @ 7:29 pm PT...
None of these "flash" videos play on my SuSE 10/Firefox 1.5 system. Here's the error from this one, please inform your web-dev.
Thanks.
Error: Error in parsing value for property 'width'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: https://bradblog.com/vid...h=320&OrigHeight=240
Line: 0
COMMENT #36 [Permalink]
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online casino
said on 11/28/2006 @ 9:45 am PT...