Kurt Vonnegut Jr.s letter to George Bush is Here

The MD conference held yesterday ("Threats to Voting Systems") by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has apparently got some election officials thinking, or has at least woken them up from their slumber of denial.

There's a website here that has links to all the papers that were submitted for this conference. This looks pretty interesting. I've seen the one by Bob Fleisher (on the right-hand side of the list) and it was impressive. (It lays out the issues in easy-to-read non-technical language.) Doubtless there are quite a few fine submissions.

Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org has a few brief comments about the conference here. An excerpt:

"This conference represented an important breakthrough, in that for the first time, elections officials had a real dialogue about security issues, with the consensus coming out of this conference that security risks are real, the attack trees must be catalogued, and risk mitigation strategies must be developed and used. . . . I believe there will be steps going forward that will be positive."

So--it sounds like a few election officials are starting to wake up. Diebold has been telling election officials and the media that the security threats were not real. After this conference they can no longer keep up this pretense. The election officials saw that there are lots of threats, applicable to all vendors and all systems.

Now let's see if the media cover this conference in any meaningful way. . .

At the NIST website (see the first link in comment #2 above) they also have the audio recording of the whole conference. You can also look at the presentations of some of the presenters. These links are on the left-hand side of the webpage.

Maybe BB could link to this website as part of the follow-up of this conference. It looks like a great resource for media or neighbors & friends who are not yet convinced that electronic voting machines are a threat to our democracy.

They aren't just controlling the voting systems with their own software and hardware.........this report is just as dunning:

..."Computer manufacturers appear to be cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security to make every person who buys a new computer subject to immediate, unrestricted government recording of everything they do on those computers! EVERYTHING! ...."

(PHOTOS SHOW HARDWARE FOUND IN COMPUTERS AND LETTER FROM DHS IN RESPONSE)

Keylog hardware is installed in new computers and all info being sent to Homeland Security

----------
MIT annouces $100 laptops (and yes, we all know about the military funded labs of MIT)

......San Francisco is trying to do free wireless access to all the boys and girls AND the above

.....(free) hardware installed for the Big Brother's in DC....................it all just starts connecting up to the "master plan" of ultra spying the public in general.

I would think making sure everyone is online would make is so much easier for this White House regime to find the dissenters!

Beware of strangers bearing gifts!

http://www.infowars.com/...ng_keystroke_loggers.htm

Link for the keystroke logger DHS hardware photos and article.

Gotta love Debra! I do get weary from everything we're being dealt, but little boosts like this article and the amazing people here and at CCN renew my fighting spirit and remind me why we can never ever give up. Yup, all us fishies keep swimmin' together and no one will be able to stop us!!

I wrote another thank you to Debra and sent her the link to WHO'S COUNTING. Hope ya'll will check it out as well!

Thank you Brad! Be Safe, Be Well!!

Boy, that full-age as in the NYT is the bomb! Wow. That was $75K well spent. What's the Times' circulation, 1.2 million or so?

Campaigns like this take the issue out of the "fringe" zone and into reality.

While this is great news, we're still in a shitload of trouble. HR 550 is in trouble. We saw what happened in the House just yesterday. The thugs are simply amok. They will not let this bill pass. Rather, they'll favor Feeney's fraudulent proprosed "legislation." If the Dems don't grow a set and fast, and step forward as one to say ENOUGH, the NeoCons will still win '06, launch a new war and steal us all into a permamant financial meltdown.

The good news is that President Gore is pissed off. While not too long ago he swore off politics, and he may be persuaded to assume his rightful position as leader of the free world. Just imagive if Gore was to step up and say, "Okay, enough. I'm the President. Get the fuck out, George"? The final vote count backs him up. Therefore he has the legal authority to do just that.

Jen #6,

Thanks for posting that link again. It's an excellent website. I just sent them an email with suggestions for a few additions (e.g. the Hursti memory card hack on optical scanners & tabulators; the need to counter the disinformation that HAVA requires purchase of electronic machines; more ideas for What We Can Do).

I really appreciate its non-partisan approach. This issue affects us all.

Time to roll out Clinton Curtis,Raymond Lemme and the Tom Feeney/Jeb Bush Connection.

Buzzkill: That is some sick shit....

REMEMBER WE NEED TO STOP TOM FEENEY AND BRING HIM TO JUSTICE!

HR-3910= End of democracy.....Stop Feeney NOW!!!!!!!

Time to throw the stake in the coffin....

Doug

After posting on my own forum that a litigator for pension funds had contacted us, Brad asked me, via private email, for the name of litigators looking at class action stockholder suits against Diebold. I couldn't say anything without the firm going public, but now it has included Diebold in a press release about stockholder lawsuits. I have more about the company's negligence in the lead story at Black Box Voting (.org)

Now, as to rolling out Clint Curtis: Please don't. The difference between the critically important N.I.S.T "Threats" conference that succeeded so well this weekend and the activist's fascination with Clint Curtis is that the experts, lawyers and scientists that participated this weekend are dealing with real-world threats on real voting systems that are actually in use.

I was smacked around a bit a couple weeks ago on my own forum for pointing out that damage was being done by trotting out made-up hacks on imaginary systems, which --- though Clint may be the greatest guy in the world --- is what his hack is. Even Clint admits he knows nothing about the actual vendors' systems being used, nor was his "hack" ever implemented anywhere.

The N.I.S.T. conference, and especially Harri Hursti and the impressive Doug Jones, were dealing with things in real voting systems that they'd ACTUALLY SEEN, and Dr. Jones also had excellent information on historical tactics of manipulation, such as hacks on lever machines. The reason the public officials finally decided to take this seriously is because the information presented was not hyped, made-up, theoretical, or pitched as a political conspiracy.

What was different, and represents a real breakthrough, is that this was attended by so many election officials. In fact, the event organizers had to expand the event five-fold over the original plans.

And what was groundbreaking is that the officials are now wanting the attack tree catalogue to be done, real independent security exams to take place, and they are eager to implement mitigating procedures. (Click here for an example of an attack tree presentation --- large, allow several minutes for download).

The danger that was expressed to me by scientists who attended and participated in the NIST "Threats" seminar was that activists would cannibalize the "attack tree concept" with hype, imaginary ideas, and theoretical attacks, and that operatives or vendors will then use the non-credible information to displace the credible information.

To alleviate this problem, I earlier suggested that Clint Curtis develop a white paper, as Harri Hursti did (Curtis is not a scientist, but Hursti is not a formally trained scientist either, nor does Hursti have academic credentials behind his name) Hursti put out a formal paper on his hack and he submitted it for peer review. Without that approach, we provide a perfect way for the opposition to ignore security considerations, by calling them "theoretical" and "made up."

Brad thought that having Curtis do a formal paper was out of line. I say, it's time. If not, then he simply must defer to those who are actually demonstrating real exploits of real systems. We must not trot out half-baked material now that fully-baked material is available. So I say to Clint: Time to fully bake the material, or shelve it. The half-baked version is doing real damage to those who are lining up support for tough-minded solutions.

I expect the tomatoes will start flying, or Brad will kick me off the board for stating my opinion on this. The thing is, I really want results, reforms, and I do believe that too much attention on pretend hacks deflects the attention of those we need to reach. So we need to get Clint into the world of real hacks on real vendor's systems, or at least, writing a formal paper on his made-up hack, putting it through peer review, to make sure it is even feasible to those who actually know how voting systems work. Then he would be a powerful spokesman.

We need a big change and we need it now! In order for us citizens to regain control over our govrenment and our lives we need to take back the control thats been lost to by a subserviant supreme court. The stated reason for supreme court judges having life time appointments is so they can judge the law without worring about political ramifications. Well that goes two ways and if supreme court judges are political activist we the people are out of luck. Like unjustly appointing G.W.B. president. Look at the cost in human lives and finance this has cost us. The last decade of court rulings have been always in favor of big buisness or big govrenment .
I don't know who among us is nieve enuff to believe these guys are not being rewarded for these decisions. We need congress-people who will promise to change the law so us the people have control over our lives. Term limits and the right to impeache.
Other wise people like Roberts and Scaliea will control our medicine our environment and religion for the rest of our lives. Roberts the Fascist will be the last chief justice I will have for the rest of my life if we don't do something. A Bush clone that will never go away. Also we need to do away with lobbyist. They are a cancer on our freedoms. We need to make sure that any wanting to represt us in congress understands these are our number one and two priorties. I hope you will all join me in this. It is avery big step toward regaining OUR America.

I'm with Bev. We gotta go with whatever we can get traction on. I think Clint can help enormously if he can assist as Bev recommends.

Remember, they had to get Capone on tax evasion.

BevHarris #11

Would it be helpful for Clint Curtis to write up a semi-technical paper, explaining the concept of what he did at the time, and its relevance?

I always had the impression its potential significance was as 1) just one example of what might be possible (he never claimed anyone used his program) 2) his assertions re: being asked to do this by Yang/Feeney (smoking gun; unfortunately no verification which weakens the usefulness of this aspect, though it helps any who might be able to find out more know where to look).

Since Clint Curtis never claimed it was for actual use in a voting machine (rather a non-specific "proof of concept" since that's what he thought he was doing at the time), would a paper still be of use, or not? It would put his experience on a more formal footing, which might be of some benefit. But there wouldn't be much point in him writing a paper, especially if then he'd be attacked if it wasn't usable on an actual voting machine, since he hadn't written it for a specific situation in the first place.

I think the point about focussing on "hard" and verified evidence is an important one. It's not necessarily about truth (I haven't seen anything that makes me think Clint Curtis is less than truthful in his statements), but about what is most demonstrably EFFECTIVE in getting election officials to take election security threats seriously (and also the general public who don't yet think there's really a problem). For election officials to give claims about election irregularities any credibility they are looking for something that is provable.

Folks who are looking for a reason to cast doubt on those of us who don't trust current election systems will USE the unverified info from Clint Curtis as an excuse to claim that ALL info about election fraud is unverified, and therefore continue to claim that election security is a non-issue. That's the weakness of focussing on the Clint Curtis material, as honorable as I believe him to be.

If a paper on his attack vector would help, then I hope he'll consider it.

Catherine #8. Very happy to hear you acknowledge the non-partisan approach! This was ms in la's main concern as she wrote. Her singular purpose in this project was being able to reach everyone, to spread the word, to show that this is a problem we ALL need to be aware of and working on.

Also, thank you for writing in at the "contact us" link! That's exactly what we're wanting and hoping people will do and the feedback, etc. will enable the site to continue to improve.

I'm doing the UPDATE Chapter and believe me, Brad and you guys are a constant source of information that I often link there! as well as Bev and VotersUnite!

Bev #11 - I've often wondered if the election fraud/election reform movement has been consistently infiltrated with plants who have by design thrown information out there to discredit the "good" information?

I guess that's essentially what you're addressing in your post, but I understand you're not necessaily speaking of deliberate attempts? I give you a lot of credit and know you've taken a lot of flack - some from probably well-meaning people and I'm sure much from those who wish to discredit you.

I just want to thank you for everything you've done and are doing. Bless you and Be Safe!

Bev Harris: I have to disagree.

Clint Curtis has proven he wrote the software, and he has taken a class certified lie-detector test.

We can't prove whether it is in circulation or not without looking at the code itself, and the very fact Tom Feeney is going out of his way to hide that code--shows us everything we need to know, point blank.

If the code is in use currently, clearly actions by Feeney and other members is trying to keep the lid on it. We have absolutely no choice but to defer to resolution- refer Clint Curtis's case to a Grand Jury and tear open the source codes.

Besides if this junk you say about it being meaningless is true, then so is Harri Hursti's code used hack as well. While its in use right now, you can't prove it was in use in 2004, just like with Curtis, unless you rip open the source code.

So it does absolutely nothing but to re-enforce the problem...We have no choice but to force the election boards to open that source code, and like Paul Lehto is doing examine that source code in escrow accounts.

Not later but immediately, since the election "fixers" are moving faster.

Doug E.

The New York Times ad looks great and thanks to you, Brad, for letting all of us know about it. I was very happy to see Bob Koehler as one of the signatories along with other illustrious company.

However, there is a MAJOR typo in the ad that almost looks intentional. In the fourth paragraph, the last sentence says "... John Kerry defeating Bush ... and a solid majority of 286 to 252 electoral votes." It should have been "286 to 352 electoral votes". As I remember, Kerry actually received 252 electoral votes (or a number close to that). Someone reading this ad might wonder what all the fuss was because the exit polls suggested that Kerry received the number of votes that he did receive (according to this typo in the ad).

I don't know if someone with People for Fair Elections can make a big fuss about a very serious error in the ad and get the NYT to run the ad again as corrected. But if this ad is going to have any continued life, that mistake definitely needs to be corrected.

The ad does not include any phone number or email address for People for Fair Elections but I will try to track them down and let them know about this "glitch" in the ad. With the Rethugs, all it takes is one small mistake like this to give them room to discount the entire message.

The Republicans keep saying they want to "starve the beast (the federal government)", they say it doesn't work.

What's their goal? I think they'd like to create another Constitutional Convention and redo the Constitution. That is perhaps why they refer to the Reagan Revolution. What kind of new political system they might want is unclear.

Now we've got a failing election system which they could claim is evidence there have been too many Liberals in office for many years. It's certainly evidence of a failure in our political system.

They made FEMA perform badly. They've run the government into massive debt. All across the board they're showing the federal government in failure, even collapse.

If these speculations are correct then they are dangerous people and they won't go away quietly.

re #18: Sorry, Bernie, but there were 538 electoral votes at stake in 2004. That's why 270 was the magic number. [Because 269 is half of 538] ... So whatever you believe should have been the final electoral totals, their sum must add up to 540.

In other words: if you put Kerry at 352, you've got to have Bush at 186. Please trust me on this. I may not know what happened to the popular vote but I do know how many electoral votes we were dealing with!

You know nit picking ad nauseum can be entertaining to some degree I suppose but don't you sometimes grow tired of straining out the nats and swallowing the camel. There are identifiable problems in our government with solutions. It takes people who are serious about their freedom and less concerned about their bread and games.
Only 3-6% of the early Americans fought in the American-British Revolution. The rest were either loyalest or fence sitters. I am looking for the minoity. The rest of you can go which ever way the wind blows.

Thank U, Brag 4 Keeping the Good Fight Up...

We R With U ... C Below

NOTE:
Like the Bu$h Gangsters... Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has already spent nearly

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THIS IS WHAT… PLUTOCRACY… LOOKS LIKE…

And it's KILLING USA DEMOCRACY and PEOPLE DEAD...

TODAY…. RIGHT NOW… Yesterday and Will Destroy Us All Tomorrow

If We Do Not... ALL of US…

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NOW

See, what, why, how, Many ECs R Working 2 change

1. ( Re-Written ) Declaration of Independence

http://www.rogerart.com/RE_WRITTEN%20Dof%20I.htm

2. SEE 15 PATRIOT PAINTINGS at
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WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS
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IT BECOMES NECESSARY for the PEOPLE of the United States

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as it exists in the year…

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Using the Authority, Law, and Intentions of the Constitution

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And Now the People Step Forward

and Charge High Treason,

and Show that Democracy in its roots today,
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in Favor of…

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Over Another...

the Governed,
..
the People of the United States.
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And that the Election Process is UN-fair

and has been Overwhelmed

and Monopolized by Millionaires

and their millions of dollars

PPS… NOTE:

Like the Bu$h Gangsters...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has already spent nearly

$50 million

of his own money on his re-election campaign.

ABOVE… IS WHAT… PLUTOCRACY… LOOKS LIKE
.

BU$H = TREASON …

BELOW… Web Sites Ideas 2 Help Change things 4 the Better

Thank You, Roger Drowne EC

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1. http://www.RogerART.com

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The "keyboard logger" reference above (with a link to infowars) is an old hoax.

http://www.snopes.com/co...ter/internet/dellbug.asp

Here's an idea...how can we run this ad in our local newspapers??

Neal:

There's a couple of good sites for LTTE writing campaigns, they connect to all the LTTEs in a given city and are very useful.

For instance there is some over here:

DCCC dot org

Good luck!

Doug

Here is a couple good websites that shows the first labor struggles Way back in 1880's, during the first guilded age
on how the eight hour work day was fought for
I watched a show on PBS' American Experience Chicago:
before the Haymarket affair
Damn good show too, it might get to those times again,
history repeating itself

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/...ex/chicago/peopleevents/
e_haymarket.html

http://www.lucyparsonsproject.org/

A paper sounds like a good idea for Curtis.

A paper won't hurt ,if you commission a "hit man" but no hit occurs ,its a felony ...

I agree with Catherine A's concept regarding a formal paper for Clint Curtis. But I will continue to advocate more critical filtering of information, so that we can be as accurate and effective as possible. Remember, many of the exploits discovered by the scientists at the NIST conference this weekend were found to be in place by the early to mid-90s, long before Curtis.

Some of the back doors point strongly towards being put there by the vendors, sometimes long ago. So, with insider programmers who already know a million ways to exploit, one wonders why anyone would go outside to Curtis.

Some of the security problems seem to have no benign explanation. Many of them were found by noticing what was omitted from the official documentation and user manuals. Sequoia touch screens were found (before Clint Curtis's day, I think this was around 1996) to have an easter egg where you touch the screen in several places simultaneously, then in one place six times, to bring up a menu that allows you to override votes. Similar mechanisms are reported in Diebold and Populex, enabling the admin menu through easter eggs.

I didn't wear my name badge at first, and overheard an interesting conversation in the hall. A NIST official was commenting to someone that it was "scare tactics" when Dr. Jones referred to using wireless exploits, and when another panelist said wireless and voting systems don't match, because, as he put it, "ALL of the voting systems sold today have wireless." That's interesting, because ALL of the vendors sidestep that issue when questioned.

The ballots themselves have an equivalent to easter eggs, and this will be the subject of a formal paper this week at BBV.

In response to this:

"We can't prove whether it is in circulation or not without looking at the code itself, and the very fact Tom Feeney is going out of his way to hide that code--shows us everything we need to know, point blank."

We can certainly ascertain that it is not in circulation, since it wasn't written to match any current vendor's configuration. Saying you can write the code first and implement it later, after the architecture of the system is designed, is like saying you can develop a plumbling system for a building before the architect has designed it.

Now, the general concepts mentioned by Curtis --- such as having an easter egg trigger --- are nothing new. They've been documented in many systems for years, and in voting systems specifically, predating Curtis. The other aspect of his hack involves use of algorithms to selectively alter votes, which is also an old trick, used in casinos and elsewhere.

Any number of variations of algorithms, triggers (easter eggs), and timing factors are possible from a theoretical standpoint. That kind of information was brought out by Dr. Rebecca Mercuri as far back as 1990, pertaining to voting machines. The key to developing a real hack is making it fit into the architecture of a real system. That obviously requires that you design it specific to a vendor's system.

As I recall, Tom Feeney is saying the incident did not exist, therefore, you would say he is hiding something that he would say never existed. Without a tape, computer file, or witnesses, we can't say anything is "proved" and it is precisely this type of exaggeration that gives public officials the excuse to ignore us. I say, it's time to take away their excuses. From now on, let's provide bulletproof information.

Now, as for the difference between Hursti and Curtis:

"Besides if this junk you say about it being meaningless is true, then so is Harri Hursti's code used hack as well. While its in use right now, you can't prove it was in use in 2004, just like with Curtis, unless you rip open the source code."

We know for a fact that the revolving door used to enable Hursti's hacks (there were several) and also Dr. Herbert Thompson's hack were indeed present in 2004, and in 2002, and in 2000, and even in 1998. This is because we did rip open the source code, and then, in order to verify that the exploits were still valid, we tested in a real elections office, one who was using the same software over many years.

In the Hursti report, we provide a list of all locations using the software with containing the revolving door, which numbers approximately 1,200 jurisdictions in 2004, and we calculate the number using the exact version tested by Hursti. About 25 million votes were counted on software that specifically contained the revolving door, "open for business" for Hursti's hacks. Without examining the memory cards, it is not possible to identify where it was used, only that the revolving door was present and waiting for it to be used. Dr. Thompson's hack was possible on about 33 million votes. Some of those locations had poll tapes that would have had to also be manipulated, but we are now learning that hundreds of thousands of votes were counted on GEMS on machines that had no poll tapes, making Dr. Thompson's hack a one-step process. We know the machines were enabled for its use (Dr. Thompson's hack is inherently supported by the Windows system used with GEMS) but there is no way to know if it was used.

You are correct about opening the source code, and we also need to open up the ITA reports and eliminate the concept of "proprietary trade secrets." That was effectively argued in this weekend's NIST conference by one of the panelists, who pointed out that you can't use the software on anything but their proprietary hardware anyway, so there is not trade advantage to keeping it secret anyway.

Note that there is a difference between "disclosed code" and "open source code" --- at the very least we need disclosed code! There is also usually a difference between what is in escrow and what is in the machines, which makes Lehto's approach, while quite valuable, also insufficient. Currently, believe it or not, the voting programs have no built in way to verify that the code is the official version. Instead, the software asks itself, "am I the same as the official version" and answers itself "yes, I am" --- without using checksums or hash codes effectively. In one source code module, I seem to remember seeing a command like "whatever version this is, say it is such & such version on the screen."

So we have to get both disclosed code and meaningful ways to verify that the code in each machine (and memory card, and tabulator) is what it is supposed to be.

One interesting comment from the NIST conference this weekend --- those of you who follow this issue closely know the significance of R. Doug Lewis (or whoever he is) from The Election Center. He made a strange comment, after hearing the panelists who clearly showed very serious security problems that are all too real. He said he had mixed reactions and at times felt like hanging himself. Wow.

Various important bigwigs committed in private conversations to create independent testing bureaus at the state levels, but those need to be watched carefully. As another person commented here, the spreading of disinformation is a real problem, and one of the best ways to "corral" a problem when you can no longer ignore it is to use your authority to set up the entity that studies the problem.

I think Bev Harris can continue her work, and Clint Curtis can continue his, without their different tacks causing harm to our efforts to expose electoral fraud (as distinct from voter fraud).

Look at how this story has survived, and even gained momentum. We don't hear "Get over it!" any more from trolls, do we? What we have his new panels, new organizations, new revelations.

In Dec. 2004, only a handful of Americans knew about Diebold's crooked machines. Now it's a big story, and Diebold's stock has tanked. In Dec. 2004, Ohio was congratulating itself on having held a "good election." Now Ohio's election officials are accusing one another of misconduct! In Dec. 2004 we were told electronic voting was a fait accompli for the future; now states are banning it or insisting on paper trails. A rally for passage of such a bill in my home state (Connecticut) is being held next week; the bill is likely to pass.

We've done wonders, and Bev Harris and Clint Curtis have played a big part. Brad has played an equally big part. Let's not argue among ourselves.

Hear, hear, Robert!

Those contributing technical tests, analysis, demonstrations, and white papers are answering one big question: How?
Clint Curtis answers another, bigger question: Why?

The mess we are in with electronic vote counting would never, ever have occurred without a prior concerted intent to subvert our democracy.
It will never be straightened out until the public knows this.
We all have our parts to play.

I'm damn proud to be one of the little fish, part of the foundation of a giant one, that will continue to swim together. I look at Brad as being "Swimmy" and he's helping to gather us all together. Come on everyone, join in, we need to be a giant fish for this swim.

I feel some hope lately the country is waking up )

"The good news is that President Gore is pissed off. While not too long ago he swore off politics, and he may be persuaded to assume his rightful position as leader of the free world. Just imagine if Gore was to step up and say, "Okay, enough. I'm the President. Get the fuck out, George"? The final vote count backs him up. Therefore he has the legal authority to do just that."

Get the fuck out, George..........

I really really like the sound of that, I like your thinking, Jim.

Would love to hear, "You have the right to remain silent....." to follow!

It occurred to me that a truly great guest for the BradShow would be Jimmy Carter. An up-front discussion with him about elections could be fascinating radio talk. And, he's the kind of person who is usually willing (schedule allowing) to talk about such public policy issues. He could also answer a few questions about the recent Carter-Baker commission results.

If the 'loyal opposition' could enlist such a recruit to our cause, then we might move this mountain a little faster. As I posted to Ariana Huffington when she joined, "We need all the big guns we can get."

Re: post #19. WP, sorry to take so long to respond to your response. I am aware that it takes 270 electoral votes to win. I am also aware that the USCountVotes analysis and report indicates that the exit polls were likely a more accurate reflection of the real popular vote than the "reported" vote. I am not aware that their report supports the re-election of Bush by estimating that Kerry likely received only 252 electoral votes. While I haven't seen electoral vote estimates (based on exit poll analyses) for Kerry as high as 352, I have seen estimates ithat are in the 320 range.

As much as I don't want to, I will re-visit the USCV rpeort this morning to try to refresh my memory on what they estimated. My point is that stating that the USCV report estimated that Kerry only won 252 electoral votes also states that Bush did indeed win the election. Neither USCV nor I believe that. Stay tuned for another post shortly. (Then I will need to go cut some firewood.)

Dear ACC, and anyone else who has a loved one recently returned from Iraq - I was just listening to a woman from beyondtreason talking about DU. Turns out a urinalysis can reveal DU poisoning, but, surprise!, only a handful of private labs will do it, and a complete DU workup costs about a thousand bucks (full CT). Sounds to me like it's worth the investment. If he's already sick it's not in their gory interest to send him back. Or, shudder, do they think it is???
Sorry to go off topic, all. Of course we have to go back to our paper and pencils, seeing as how it works just fine in Canada and Germany (at our insistence as a part of the Marshall Plan), and I'd die if needed be to defend the right to it. And I love the idea of Gore striding into the Oval Office etc.
At the end of the day, this is all intricately tied to my OT rant. We simply must stop this madness, not today, but yesterday!
Prague is a really cosmopolitan town. I've had citizens of over 6 countries at small BBQs for friends. Frankly, it's tough to defend the land where I was born. "You elected them!" "No, they cheated!" "How could you allow that???" You get the idea...

Love and Peace and Lots of Hard Work, Bob

To WP re: my comment #34.

First an admission of an Emily Latella moment: I misread the NYT ad to believe that the offending sentence was stating the estimated range of Kerry electoral votes, rather than the electoral votes that the exit polls predicted for Kerry and Bush. Now I understand it to be the latter.

However, now that I have reread the USCV paper (twice), I found that there was no discussion of the electoral college votes in that paper at all. So I went back to Freeman's and Simon's papers for that discussion. Here's what I found:

1) The 286 to 252 split was the actual final electoral vote difference between Bush (286) and Kerry (252), based on the "reported" vote.

2) If the four states that the exit polls said went to Kerry but the "reported" vote said went for Bush (Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio) were assigned to Kerry, the electoral vote would have been Kerry (289) and Bush (249).

3) Some researchers have also argued that Florida might easily have actually gone for Kerry, based on Florida's exit polls. If the Florida electoral votes were assigned to Kerry, the final electoral vote split would have been Kerry (316) and Bush (222).

So forgive the "never mind" moment with my misreading the sentence in the NYT ad. But my re-reading three exit poll analyses this suggests that Kerry's electoral votes were more likely to have been either 289 or 316, rather than the 252 he received based on the "reported" vote.

Thus, the NYT sentence was still in error (though a much smaller one) in its reporting of the predicted electoral votes Kerry would have received based on the exit polls, and in somewhat greater error by using as its source for this statement a research report (USCV) that said nothing about the electoral vote discrepency.

Enough minutia for this Sunday morning. Now the chainsaw beckons. Peace out.

Reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s march westward into Europe to spread communism (Bolshevism) by force after WWII is the United States’ march into Iraq to democratize the Middle East by force (Bushevism).
Communist governments did not tolerate any opposition to policy. Opponents were sent to the Gulag comparable to Bushevism’s broad definition of a terrorist which can send anyone into Guantanamo, where humanitarian services were also not given access to prisoners.
Communism banned all religion while Bushevism‘s fundamentalist Christianity (25 % of population) is forced down America’s throat.
In Russia’s Gulag, inhumane treatment was routine while for Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, Bushevism’s Attorney General revisited law, to - allow - for inhumane treatment.
Communist media was state owned. In Bushevism most media might just as well be state owned. ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN, religious TV and numerous major newspapers, are owned by Bushevists.
There are increasingly fewer players in the media which results in less diversity and censor as political interests do not allow certain topics to be covered.
A vociferous, analytical and independent press is an integral part of successful democracy, for they are the guardians, which keeps it in tact.
Usurping power using money corrupts democracy and renders it ineffectual, and democracy as originally intended, ceases to be. Money has allowed conservatives to own the media and buy the votes to own Congress. We have a democracy which is so polarized it is in danger of being paralyzed and pulverized.
The anti terror act has given the administration unprecedented powers and rendered the people’s Congress useless.
It is ironic, but capitalism is facilitating a system not unlike Communism.

Thanks BevHarris #28 for the historical context (re: proven election fraud using electronic voting machines) and for more info about the NIST conference.

I am amazed to hear that R. Doug Lewis of The Election Center ACTUALLY SHOWED UP at the NIST conference. I had seriously started to wonder if he really existed. (He's the one with the tiny office next to a vacant lot, and no phone that is answered by a live human being, yet their budget shows big overhead expenses.) Bad as things are, I hope he doesn't hang himself. If he can just help straighten things out (e.g. recommend that electronic voting machines be banned) that would be worth living for.

Amazing also to hear that a NIST official was telling someone else that the mention of wireless exploits were just "scare tactics." This shows that government officials are putting out deliberate misinformation--not that this is a surprise, but I would have expected more discretion at a conference where there were formal papers on exactly such exploits.

What a mixed message--NIST holds a conference on "Threats to Voting Systems" but a NIST official tells someone privately that wireless threats are just "scare tactics."

Bernie #26

Thanks for the math. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Kerry's real electoral votes would have been even higher than the upper limit you mention. I suspect there was widespread inflation of Bush's votes in addition to the various tactics to disenfranchise Kerry voters and switch votes.

Bev: If you've really inspected the physical source code, I'd say then it is true Curtis's code was not used in those configurations.

But to know for certain where the code was/wasn't used, according to YEI you would need to decompile the backdoor because it does hide itself from detection.

So if one could decompile the source code in Sequoia's machine which has that same exploit you talked about it'd be very simple to verify Curtis's code.

It sounds like his code could have been made for a variety of machine types, and also possibly Hart Intervic Scanners. But the only way to verify where Feeney would "want" to put that code is to decompile the source code for a number of Florida's machines.

I think this can be done and I heavily agree now with Clint Curtis divulging a paper. Anything he remembers or knows about the code configuration would help resolve the problem once and for all and help NIST officials end it.

Remember, he also has test-code and prototype C++ already compiled on this website:

Just a Fly On The Wall

Everyone should take a look at it, try and debug or decompile it to see how easily it could have been hidden and was stored on computer tabulators not just vendor machines.

Doug E.

President Gore, you're not the president!
President Kerry, you are!
But even so, stay away from the White House or else I'll tear the wings off every butterfly and Democrat I find!
And quit talking about that crazy conference in Oregon; I'm nervous enough as it is!!!

In Re: #21 & #37

Abolishing Corporate Personhood for a full history, summed up by the following snip:

A corporation is not a real thing; it's a legal fiction, an abstraction. You can't see or hear or touch or smell a corporation — it's just an idea that people agree to and put into writing. Because legal personhood has been conferred upon an abstraction that can be redefined at will under the law, corporations have become superhumans in our world. A corporation can live forever. It can change its identity in a day. It can cut off parts of itself — even its head — and actually function better than before. It can also cut off parts of itself and from those parts grow new selves. It can own others of its own kind and it can merge with others of its own kind. It doesn't need fresh air to breathe or clean water to drink or safe food to eat. It doesn't fear illness or death. It can have simultaneous residence in many different nations. It's not male, female, or even transgendered. Without giving birth it can create children and even parents. If it's found guilty of a crime, it cannot go to prison.

Corporations are whatever those who have the power to define want them to be to maintain minority rule through corporations.As long as superhuman “corporate persons” have rights under the law, the vast majority of people have little or no effective voice in our political arena, which is why we see abolishing corporate personhood as so important to ending corporate rule and building a more democratic society.

Paper Pen & People!

Bad News for KKKArl Rove!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karl Rove has stepped in the shit

Lawyer explores legal options after getting fired by the Texas Secretary of State, for discussing Karl Rove's illegal voting behavior.

"What was Reyes' alleged violation? She had answered a reporter's questions about whether rental property Rove owns in Kerr County, Texas, qualifies him to register to vote in that county.

"He and I are friends," Williams says of Rove.

He also broke the law, Mr. Williams. What the hell are you going to do about it? Obstruct the law?!??? Looks like its time for a JURY!!!!!

Doug Eldritch

Bev -

Thanks for your thoughts here, and of course I would not "ban" you from writing here! As to the rotten tomatoes, I'd say it's unlikely you'll receive many here. But you, as I, are more than capable of fending off any tomatoes received. Whether deserved or otherwise.

The only "tomato" I would offer, is for discussing what you admitted was a "private email" from me. It would be appreciated if you kept private mail. It is that way for a reason, and I know I would offer you the same courtesy as basic good manners and netiquette.

As to the Clint Curtis issues you discuss. Others spoke to them as well, but I don't really see any of these matters as an either/or situation.

As I've mentioned before, Curtis claims to be a witness (or an unwitting participant) in an alleged criminal conspiracy. His story is an important one on that level. Period.

While your personal balliwick may involve solely election reform issues, the scope of the work I do is somewhat broader than that and perhaps taps into political, criminal, ethical and/or legal issues where your work may not. Again, I don't see a conflict between the two different angles of approaching sometimes similar work. Nor do I agree that one discredits another in any way. Though I appreciate the argument you are making.

So as there is newsworthy information to report concerning Curtis' story and/or Tom Feeney, etc., I'll likely report it. You can, and should, continue doing the work you're doing. And, of course, I support it and am happy to do whatever I can to help.

In re: a White Paper from Curtis, you now have direct contact with Curtis, and you are free to discuss and/or work with him on anything you feel may be helpful in your pursuit. If I can help in some way, just let me know, and I'll do my best.

Keep on swimming...

Al Gore copied me on his reply to George Walker Bushit. He authorized me to release it.

Dear W.: I can't bring myself to address you as "Mr. President." That dignifies the process by which you stole the 2000 election.

I have to talk about Oregon, W. These folks aren't political partisans, and they aren't interested in putting a band-aid on election problems so that you and Rove can rip it off and steal the 2006 and 2008 elections. They want the American people to understand what happened in 2000 and 2004.

They know what you're about. Unlike Jimmy Carter, who trusts Poppy's friend James Baker, the people who ran the Oregon summit know that you can't bargain with the devil. If you have rats crawling around in your basement, you might call Tom DeLay's company to rid yourself of them...but you don't ask Tom DeLay for legislation making it illegal for a rat to enter your house.

That's how his company survives, W. By having rats around. And that's how your administration has survived, too. So I'm going to talk about Oregon.

Sorry about Karl Rove's troubles, W. Seems he might have lied to you. I know how that must feel. Bubba told me he never had sex with Monica. It hurts to be lied to...then again, W., you've told a few whoppers yourself, about WMD, uranium from Niger, a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, prisoner abuse, when you first decided to invade Iraq, about your National Guard record, about your relationship with Ken Lay, and too many to count about John Kerry.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, W., Karl Rove might have told you to tell all those lies. If Rove goes to jail, you'll have to learn to lie on your own. Since you've never done anything on your own in your entire life, that will be tough...even for you.
Maybe Bubba can help you, just as he did when he announced that you won the 2004 election "fair and square."

Best regards, Al

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