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BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
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VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
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'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
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GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...
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There's been a great deal of speculation over the last several days, particularly in the light of Jack Abramoff's recent guilty pleas, concerning the connection of Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) to Election Fraud in Ohio, vis a vis his stewardship and authoring of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) back in 2001 and 2002. The heavy-handed tactics he has taken since, in order to keep the flawed act from being changed in any way over the years, along with going to great lengths to keep the nation's eyes off of massive electile dysfunction in Ohio and elsewhere since 2004, may finally get the attention it all properly deserves.
Both Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon have directly informed prosecutors of Ney's alleged wrong-doing in regard to money and gifts given to Ney, in apparent exchange for support on various legislation and even personal business deals. Ney, who chairs the important U.S. House Administration Committee, has been fingered, and now subpoenaed, for accepting illegal trips, gratuities and other apparent quid pro quo deals with Abramoff's former firms, partners, friends and groups who had paid both him and Scanlon as lobbyists.
His direct connection to the HAVA Election Reform bill passed in the wake of the 2000 Florida Election Debacle, and his various extraordinary efforts to specifically block amendments to the bill and to smokescreen attempted investigations into his home state's conduct during the 2004 Election Debacle, has been less widely reported. Until now.
While Common Cause quietly reported in December of 2004 that Diebold --- the much-beleagured-of-late American Voting Machine company --- paid as much as $275,000 to Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig for lobbying work, The BRAD BLOG has now found additional details that begin to shed new light on Ney's personal connections to Diebold lobbyists.
Such personal connections include those with Ney's former chief of staff turned lobbyist, David DiStefano, who has been working on behalf of Diebold, Inc. and at least one other Voting Machine Company as a registered lobbyist in the House going back to at least 2001. One of DiStefano's online bios crows about his having "an insider's edge to hard-to-reach political officials." That "insider's edge" has proven to have been a very worthwhile investment for the Voting Machine Companies who'd purchased access into Ney's political office.
Congressional lobbying records reveal that Diebold, Inc. has paid at least $180,000 to DiStefano and eventually his partner, Roy C. Coffee, to lobby for the "Help America Vote Act" and other "Election Reform Issues" in Congress since 2003. Another Electronic Voting Machine Company, AccuPoll, Inc., also paid DiStefano some $70,000 to lobby for HAVA on their behalf in 2002, although that relationship was apparently terminated once the legislation was passed by Congress.
In turn, Ney's former employee DiStefano and Coffee themselves have given nearly $20,000 to Bob Ney's campaigns dating back to 2002.
The connections of DiStefano and Coffee don't stop at Congress, however. Both lobbyists now work out of the new Washington office of the Texas-based law firm of Lock, Liddell & Sapp LLP --- the firm of George W. Bush's White House Counsel Harriet Miers. And Coffee, himself, had previously worked as a senior aide to then-Governor Bush back in Texas.
In addition to lobbying in favor of Electronic Voting, DiStefano and Coffee were also paid thousands to lobby Ney on behalf of an obscure firm by the name of FN Aviation, which later became known as FAZ Aviation. FN/FAZ Aviation, the Columbus Dispatch reported last December, paid for Ney's 2003 trip to England. On that trip, Ney met at a casino with FN Aviation's director, Nigel Winfield, a three-time convicted felon, and Fouad al-Zayat, the Syrian-born head of FN Aviation. Zayat, as reported by NBC News, is known as "one of London's biggest gamblers."
As has also been reported by NBC and others, the apparently once-very lucky Ney reported winning some $34,000 a few months later at that same London casino, after an initial $100 bet "on two hands of a three-card game of chance," according to his spokesperson Brian Walsh. Ney, who coincidentally carried at least $30,000 in credit card debt in 2002, was fortunate to be able to report that the debt was paid off in full by the end of 2003.
The dots begin converging, however, in regard to both large campaign contributions and lobbying done by Ney's former chief of staff, DiStefano along with Coffee on behalf of both FN/FAZ Aviation and Diebold, Inc.
Ney was one of the original authors and lead co-sponsors of HAVA, and a fierce defender of both the act and the effort to keep further legislation from moving forward in Congress that would mandate Voter Verified Paper Ballots for electronic voting machines made by Diebold and other e-voting vendors.
In 2004, prior to the Presidential Election, Ney went so far as to send a "Dear Colleague" letter signed along with the other HAVA co-sponsors, to members of congress urging them not to amend the original legislation. He argued at the time that paper records on such machines would somehow disenfranchise disabled voters, who had been cleverly afforded a special provision in the bill which mandated at least one disabled-accessable device in every voting precinct in the country. That device, of course, would be a paperless touch-screen electronic voting machine, like the ones made by Diebold, which, legislators, vendors and lobbyists would later proffer, were required to meet provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Ney had also personally gone out of his way to keep Rep. Rush Holt's (D-NJ) "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" (HR 550), which would mandate paper records for all votes cast, from ever seeing the light of day in the House Administration Committee. That, despite Holt's bill having now nearly 160 bi-partisan co-sponsors. Ney has succeeded brilliantly at squashing Holt's bill, first proposed as HR 2239 back in 2003, as it continues to both gain co-sponsors and gather dust as the powerful Republican committee chair still refuses to allow it even to be brought up for hearings.
The American Prospect's Art Levine broke a superb exposé last May concerning Ney's alleged payoffs from a number of the Indian tribes that now-disgraced, once-uber-lobbyist Abramoff was representing in exchange for promises to support their hope for new gambling legislation back in 2002.
"Just met with Ney!!! We're f'ing gold!!!! He's going to do Tigua," wrote Abramoff to Scanlon in an Email, after Ney reportedly promised to add the Tribe's hoped-for legislation to HAVA while the bill was still pending.
Ney then told the tribes --- who had been instructed by Abramoff and Scanlon to give tens of thousands of dollars to his campaign and to pay for a $100,000 trip to play golf at St. Andrews in Scotland --- that he was working with the Democratic Senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd, to add gambling language in HAVA that would be favorable to the tribes.
In reality, Dodd had rejected the idea early on in no uncertain terms, as Levine reports, but that didn't keep Ney from spinning tales to the tribal groups. He told them on several occassions, at least once personally, that things were moving smartly forward as he kept accepting more cash and gifts from them along the way.
Finally, when the HAVA legislation was passed, and the promised language was nowhere to be found, Ney informed the tribes that Dodd had reneged on the deal at the last minute.
That was, of course, not true, since Dodd had rejected the plan months earlier.
But as the spotlight of corruption has finally begun to shine bright and clear in the Mainstream Media onto Ney, renewed interest in his support and authorship of HAVA itself --- along with the connections between that legislation, chicanery in Ohio's Election, Abramoff and several other GOP operative and lobbying firms' merry band of pay-for-players --- are helping to bubble up towards the surface a few previously overlooked, but very important, details that may finally now receive the attention they always deserved from the Mainstream Media...
Guest blogged by David Edwards
Fresh from the holiday break, Stephen Colbert uses his classic sarcastic style to highlight the corruption scandal that has erupted around Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Stephen Colbert: "There is no story here."
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Guest blogged by David Edwards
On Saturday, January 7th, American journalist Jill Carroll was kidnapped in Iraq. At the same time, her translator was also killed. Associate Press, Reuters, AFP and UPI almost immediately reported the story. Editor & Publisher compiled one of the most complete reports within hours of the kidnapping.
UPI, however, adds this somewhat conflicting detail: "They said the driver of the bus in which the journalist and translator were riding managed to escape the incident when he fled and sought the help of a police patrol that happened to be in the same area at the time."
While the BBC provided some details of the kidnapping during their broadcasts, American network and cable news outlets virtually blacked out the news. Jane Hamsher finds a possible explanation from comments in a Kos thread:
European news organizations often approach this issue differently, however, and will make an annoucement earlier, especially if they feel that the nationality of the reporter is likely to decrease the threat to his or her life. That is not the case here.
Yesterday afternoon, AP released additional details including the name of the kidnapped journalist. Jill Carroll had recently lost her job at a newspaper and decided to follow her dream of covering conflicts in the Middle East. While in Iraq, Jill Carroll had done freelance work for The Christian Science Monitor, AJR, U.S. News & World Report and other foreign outlets.
Organizations like Reporters Without Borders have become increasingly concerned with the number of journalists killed in Iraq. 76 reporters and media staff are known to have been killed since the beginning of the Iraq war. In comparison, 63 reporters were killed within the 33 year Vietnam conflict. Some reports even suggest that the U.S. Military has targeted journalist in Iraq. Secret memos leaked in the U.K. suggest that President Bush wanted to bomb the headquarters of the Al Jazeera news network. In fact, Al Jazeera pulled all journalists out of Iraq after their Baghdad studio was "accidentally" hit by U.S. missles.
This morning, 3 days after the kidnapping was originally reported, CNN finally reported details of the Jill Carroll kidnapping.
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Watch Wolf Blitzer fall off his chair.
David Edwards posted the complete video here earlier today, but in case you didn't watch it, or didn't watch it all the way to the end, it's worth reviewing now. If only for the last moment when Blitzer finally runs out of clues...entirely...
Here's the transcript of those last few moments courtesy of Past Peak:
DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff. Not one. Not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican, every person under investigation is a Republican, every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money, and we've looked through all those FEC reports to make sure that's true.
BLITZER: [Stammering] But through various Abramoff-related organizations, and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.
DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either, there's no evidence...
BLITZER: What about Senator, what about, what about, what about Senator Byron Dorgan?
DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth, and they have misled the American people, and now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.
BLITZER: [Long pause, apparently getting direction in his earpiece] [Sigh] Unfortunately, we, uh, Mr. Chairman, we've got to leave it right there.
Any questions?
Guest blogged by David Edwards
Wolf Blitzer interviewed Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on CNN's Late Edition yesterday.
Dean says that Alito is outside the mainstream on privacy issues. Not only does Alito believe that women do not have the right to an abortion, he also ruled in favor of strip-searching a 10 year old girl.
Dean is also troubled because Alito adjudicated a case in which he had a serious conflict of interest, ruling in favor of a company in which he owned $400K worth of related mutual funds. Alito's ruling was later vacated. Especially disturbing is the fact that Alito had promised the Senate, during a previous confirmation, that he would recuse himself from any case in which he had a financial stake. If Alito did not tell the truth to the Senate on that occasion, how can he be believed during the latest confirmation hearings?
When Blitzer asked about the current Iraq policy, Dean expressed disappointment about a meeting in which the President called members of previous administrations to The White House, supposedly for their advice on Iraq. The New York Times reported that the President did most of the talking before rushing the group out of the meeting for a photo-op. Showing, once again, that Bush has little interest in ideas from outside of his presidential bubble.
After learning of a recently-leaked secret Pentagon report which said 80% of torso-based fatalities in Iraq could have been avoided if soldiers had been equipped with proper body armor, Dean renewed a call for the removal of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Dean said he was "disgusted" by the report.
Dean went on to say that Senator Lieberman's statement that Democrats "undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril" is "absolutely wrong". The president has shown a lack of credibility since the day he took office (and including the way that he took office). The president has abused his power. He has taken the country in the wrong direction at home and abroad. Bush's economic and foreign policies have been failures. Dean said that Bush deserved criticism and it is the job of every patriotic American to speak out.
Chairman Dean showed extreme concern over the ethically charged climate in Washington. He lamented the endless corruption scandals within the Republican party.
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Guest blogged by David Edwards
President Bush and Judge Alito appeared before reporters at the White House to kick off the Senate's Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
The President stumbled through a less-than-enthusiastic delivery of the standard GOP talking points in favor of Alito.
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UPDATE: Bob Fertik has some interesting thoughts on this particular piece of video
In case you haven't heard of them, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is a "trade association" who set up the Electronic Technology Council (ETC) as an "astroturf" group at the behest of Electronic Voting Machine companies. Harris Miller was President of the ITAA and instrumental in convincing the Voting Machine Vendors to band together and give the ITAA money to create the ETC to spread the "good word" about Electronic Voting to Americans and Boards of Elections everywhere. Now Miller is reportedly about to announce his run as a Democratic(!) challenger for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia currently occupied by Republican George Allen.
Greg Priddy, over at TPM Café, appropriately calls him on the carpet as precisely the type of Democrat the Democrats don't need in office...Big time...
Most of you haven't heard of Harris Miller, who departed earlier this week as head of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), a lobbying group for big information technology corporations. But you will certainly hear about him next week, as he is expected to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, as a Democrat from Virginia, running against George Allen. In fact, the media trial balloons this week have treated him as a presumptive nominee, who has the backing of the party leadership, even though they haven't made any formal endorsement.
The quote above, obviously, gets at the reasons why this should concern us, as Democrats.
As head of the ITAA, Miller specifically lobbied Congress against verified voting, on behalf of the interests of Diebold and other manufacturers of paperless e-voting machines --- members of ITAA.
Priddy goes on to quote a report about Miller as saying "Introducing paper into the mix, he says, defeats the improved efficiency and reliability e-voting promises."
No, seriously, that's what he said.
Priddy's full post is here. An alternative for the VA Senate seat Democratic nominee, who Priddy recommends to Miller, is James Webb. We don't know anything about Webb, but we'll risk it and say he'd be more appropriate than Miller. So would a turnip. The link to the Webb site above allows you to sign a Draft Webb Petition. Given Priddy's post, we'd recommend that you sign it!
(Hat-tip David Edwards for the link!)
CORRECTION: We originally had identified the ITAA as the "astroturf" group created the Voting Machine Vendors. In fact, the ITAA had been created in 1964. It was the ETC, in fact, which was set up by the ITAA as the official "astroturf" group for the Voting Machine Vendors. We regret the original confusion.
Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA
The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The January edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...
Capitol Hill police barred them from entering the room to continue what they called a consecration service. But in a bit of one-upsmanship, the three announced that they had let themselves in a day earlier, touching holy oil to the seats where Judge Alito, the senators, witnesses, Senate staffers and the press will sit, and praying for each of the 13 committee members by name.
"We did adequately apply oil to all the seats," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, who identified himself as an evangelical Christian and as president of the National Clergy Council in Washington.
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The three ministers insisted they weren't taking sides in the Alito debate. "This is not a pro-Alito prayer," insisted the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. With abortion, public prayer, gay marriage and right-to-life issues among those topping public debate, however, "God…is interested in what goes on" in the nomination hearing, Rev. Schenck said.
Wackos.
Not my term, mind you. That's Jack Abramoff's Republican partner (who's also plead guilty to a host of charges) Mark Scanlon's term for the "Christians" that the GOP has been playing for years. As revealed by his emails recently read at a congressional hearing. Thought this just might be a good time to remind the Christians out there (the real ones) how they've been used by the Republicans and BushCo for so long.
Mark Crispin Miller and I --- he of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), I of begging for dollars --- will be appearing back-to-back today in a two-hour Election Reform Sunday edition of the M & M Show on Air America Phoenix (1010am KXXT). Tune in, call in, say hello! 5:15p ET, 4:15p CT, 3:15p MT, 2:15p PT. Mark's up first, I join for the second hour, beginning at 6:15p ET, 5:15p CT, 4:15p MT, 3:15p PT. Call-in# is 888-294-4321. All anarchists and conspiracy theorists welcome. Got it? Listen up online here.
UPDATE: These guys, Steve and Fred McChesney, are doing a great job with their show out in Phoenix, and are right on point on the topic of Election Reform. As well, they're willing to hit the bricks to put their money where their mouth is and make some noise on the ground about the issue (only to be disparaged as "brown shirts" in the bargain!) What they're doing is exactly what's needed by the citizenry of this country right now to get things done on these matters! Give 'em a listen. Here's the MP3's from today's show with myself and Mark for your podcasting pleasure...
-- Mark Crispin Miller's segments [MP3]
-- Brad's segments [MP3]
...ALSO...speaking of Phoenix, I was recently on conservative Jay Lawrence's show on Newsradio 620 KTAR on New Years Day to discuss some of the same dirty business. In this case, about the "case against Diebold" as discussed with an intellectually honest Republican. The good John Brakey (tireless and intrepid fightin' Election Reform patriot in AZ) requested I post the audio from that show as well, so I am happy to honor the request. Consider it done, John...
Back from a brief "working vacation," the esteemable Joseph Cannon is back with a few worthy thoughts on "conspiracy theories" as the GOP's dismissive political tool of choice these days...whenever their back is against the wall.
His thoughts were spurred, in part, by Arizona Sec. of State Jan Brewer's foolhardy shot at Election Reform advocates who loudly exercised their First Amendment Rights last week and dang near spoiled her precious re-election campaign announcement. She labeled these constituents as "anarchists" and "conspiracy theorists" as we reported that evening.
While I'm somewhat waylaid while working on several things at once of late, be sure to check in on the various anarchic trouble-makings of the conspiracy-theorist Cannon.
(In a related thought: At some point, following one Republican indictment after another on charges of conspiracy, one would think the wingnuts might want to find a fresh epithet to hurl against those of us who continue to point out their crimes long before the official indictments inevitably show up. It's up to them, of course, but I'm just sayin'...)
Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org
There is not a lot of news today but the content is important. Alameda Co., CA announces they are looking at going to 'vote-by-mail'. Voting activists, and a state senator, have filed a lawsuit in Westmoreland County, PA to get the choice of voting system to be a voter's choice and not a boards choice. And a non-descript article today may portend something going on in 'Diebold-world'. Marion Co., IL is concerned that they may not get delivery on their Diebold voting machines through Fiddler Elections Co. Is Diebold having a problem delivering what they have sold? In the meantime, those of who have responded to the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA have been making a lot of great noise! Keep it up! 12,272 Emails and 1620 letters sent so far!...
Guest blogged by David Edwards
DeLay's spokesman has informed the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he will not seek to reclaim his old post as Majority Leader.
Due to pressure from the Abramoff scandal and other corruptions scandals, this may the beginning of a Republican shake-up in the House.
GOP leaders hope that removing DeLay from the Majority Leader post and dirty tricks will put them on track to maintain control of the House in the upcoming 2006 elections.
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