In the “Tom Feeney – In his own words” section of his official U.S. House of Representatives website page, Mr. Feeney (R-FL) reposts an Op-Ed he penned for the Orlando Sentinel — apparently not ironically — entitled “FLORIDA GETS IT RIGHT ON ELECTIONS”.
The Op-Ed was published — apparently not ironically — on April 1, 2004 (April Fools Day).
In the piece, Mr. Feeney offers some well-informed opinions of the “unnecessary and devisive”, “destructive lawsuits” challenging Florida’s voting system by “vocal naysayers, who for partisan reasons are doing their best to portray the Sunshine State’s voting technologies in a negative light.”
The entire piece is certainly worth a read in full! If only for so many such — apparently not ironic — turns of phrase!
But there were two — not ironic at all — passages which, for some reason, leapt out at us this evening [emphasis added]:
What Mr. Feeney modestly fails to note in that paragraph is that he — as Speaker of the Florida state legislature in 2000 (where he remained until joining the U.S. House in 2002) — was himself, apparently, one of those “state legislators who helped position Florida to make the necessary changes in the state’s voting processes and technologies.” At least as Clint Curtis would tell us.
But aside from that, Mr. Feeney’s right! That commitment has paid off!
Though for all of Mr. Feeney’s hard work in changing “the state’s voting processes and technologies” it seems that he may be the “ill-informed” one on some of these matters. Just look what he had to say in the same — apparently not ironic — Op-Ed in regards to voter-verified paper trails [emphasis once again added]:
Well, that’s odd…And not at all ironic! And it may even be news to the entire state of Nevada!
Perhaps Mr. Feeney missed this information posted on the website of his good friends at the Sequoia Voting Systems corporation:
WASHINGTON, DC – Sequoia Voting Systems today announced it has successfully passed federal testing of the VeriVote ? printer upgrade to the company’s popular AVC Edge touch screen voting system. The printer, which allows voters to view a paper copy of their electronic ballot before leaving the polling place, will be used throughout the State of Nevada for their September 7, 2004 Primary Election and the November 2, 2004 Presidential General Election.
As a completely unrelated and not-ironic-at-all side note, Mr. Feeney has still refused to return the phone calls of many reporters seeking comment from the Congressman in the two full weeks since The BRAD BLOG began reporting on allegations that he sought to create “vote-rigging software” from Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) — in his hometown of Oviedo, FL — back in 2000 where he served as corporate counsel and registered lobbyist while concurrently serving as Speaker of the Florida Legislature. (See our “Special Coverage” sidebar at right for more info.)
On that point, Mr. Feeney may deserve the benefit of the doubt, however. We cannot know for certain, after all, if his office has “the companion technology” necessary to return such phone calls.
As such, any expectation that he or his staff would be able to use such “evolving technology” — such as the telephone — in order to do so, might well be “unrealistic as of today”.
This is a great post, Brad. And it’s not-at-all-ironic!
:plain:
Yes, it is not ironic. His Op-ed actually shows he might be …. um…deceptive :blush:
Brad,
Beautiful observations. Lets move on forward and remember the task at hand is enormous. But it really is worthwhile.
Keep up the good work.
Nice post, Brad. 😉
Maybe Feeney can ask NASA to put some of the billions of dollars he has recently helped push through for them ( http://www.house.gov/apps/list/.../FY05NASA.html) towards "Evolving Technologies" such as printers.
Hell, who needs a missile defense shield, or a man on Mars? What those rocket scientists need to put their calculus and particle physics theory to work on is how to hook up a Canon Bubblejet (with auto-paper-feed, no less!) to a contraption called a "computer".
It will take years of research, I’m sure. But if they need any help, my 5-year-old may have time in her busy playtime schedule to show them how its done.
Tom Feeney in his own Deeds:
Just taking the ‘google pulse’, I typed in feeney +fraud. The most interesting result was the fox news link from 2003 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,...,93233,00.html
In light of Clinton Curtis’ affidavit claiming that Feeney was adept at swinging government (Florida) contracts in the direction of companies (YEI) that he lobbied for, as well as Curtis’ testimony that YEI, which Feeney also represented legally, was adept at overbilling i.e. defrauding said governement agencies, FDOT etc. and federal agencies like NASA, it is very interesting to read in the fox news story that:
Over $200 million a year is wasted or defrauded from the federal employee health benefits and retirement programs, according to recent testimony in the House Government Reform Committee, and lawmakers are looking for ways to reduce the losses. (…) Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., ranking Democrat on the committee, said the “real waste, fraud and abuse” is in the Department of Defense, which contracts out more work than any other agency and handles more than $1 trillion in assets.
“If we’re serious about curbing waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, we have to stick with the old adage, ‘follow the money,’” he said.
In July, (2003) three freshman House lawmakers announced the “Washington Waste Watchers,” in which they hope to identify “the shocking amounts of wasted tax dollars”
hmmm. W.W.W. ???
and that:
Reps. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., plan to take to the House floor every week to bring attention to different areas of waste, mismanagement and fraud in the federal bureaucracy.
“Spending other people’s money can be an intoxicating experience,” Feeney told Foxnews.com. “Part of this is to remind ourselves and one another that we are the guardian watchdogs of the taxpayers’ purse.” "
What has the freshman been up to in DC ?
Would someone with the time and the resources look into it please.
E.D.
😎
Brad – How can we send you a comment without it being posted? Maybe some comments are better left unposted.
Paranoid –
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Or you can just click here to send me email 🙂
Just wanted to make one clarification: Nevada is NOT 100% paper trails. The Sequoia’s in the most populous areas of Las Vegas, mostly Democratic areas, are the old models without paper printers. I had heard this, and then confirmed it personally with the Secretary of State at the Conyers 128/04 meeting in DC. I got very aggravated by him because even there, he tried to imply that NV was 100% paper trail, but it is not.