The Young Turks had NEWSWEEK’s Steven Levy as a guest on their show yesterday to discuss his article on the Diebold disaster from this week’s issue. (See our item discussing his article here, including an update with a response from Levy concerning our coverage.)
Says host Cenk Uyger during the interview: “The bloggers have apparently been right about this all along.”
Other items that jumped out at us: When asked how many states have “reliable systems”, Levy said, “26 states have instituted some sort of paper trail.”
We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he understands that a “paper trail” law, particularly when it’s never actually counted, and it almost never is, means nothing (as we pointed out in our piece covering his article a few days ago.)
And this from Levy, who does, I think, generally “get it” — even if he may somewhat underestimate the full gravity that this issue deserves, as it underscores our entire democracy: “The big thing would be to take the election system out of the private sector, and put it into the public sector.”
On that score, of course, he’s right on the money.
One more note: They discuss the “blogosphere” several times in several ways in relation to this issue. No names mentioned (can’t imagine who they may be referring to.) And co-host Ben Mankiewicz — who I’ve sat in for once or twice while he was gone, so haven’t gotten to speak with him much on this — seems to be the most skeptical of the bunch. I’ve told Cenk this morning that I’d be delighted to go back on the show to answer any and all of Ben’s (or his) questions, skepticisms, concerns or anything else on this matter. Hopefully, we’ll be able to arrange something along those lines soon.
— Watch/Listen to the complete interview with Steven Levy here…
(Thanks for the heads up, Cenk!)
Apparently the "conspiricy theorist" bloggers were "right"?????
Say it ain’t SO!
lmao!
Great work, Brad! Keep the sheeple moving along toward the pasture and away from the slaughter house! 😉
What a concept.
Imagine. Three election machine mass producers, with some of the equipment being manufactured "abroad". Three election machine mass producers with three IT Managers in charge.
Imagine the huge, broad, and astronomical conspiracy that would involve the great and enormous number three.
Imagine the number three effecting the votes of a great nation composed of 300,000,000 million plus.
Imagine that mass produced machines behave the same. Like an SUV. Imagine an SUV being recalled. Is it only recalled in the county where one person claims it is malfunctioning?
Or is it recalled universally because they are all the same and if one is defective all are defective. So there should be three universal recalls or this picture does not pass the smell test.
No matter how much turd blossom perfume is sprayed on it by the MSM, it smells like the southern end of three "Al Queida" camels heading north.
What a concept.
Imagine. Three election machine mass producers, with some of the equipment being manufactured "abroad". Three election machine mass producers with three IT Managers in charge.
Imagine the huge, broad, and astronomical conspiracy that would involve the great and enormous number three.
Imagine the number three effecting the votes of a great nation composed of 300,000,000 million plus.
Imagine that mass produced machines behave the same. Like an SUV. Imagine an SUV being recalled. Is it only recalled in the county where one person claims it is malfunctioning?
Or is it recalled universally because they are all the same and if one is defective all are defective. So there should be three universal recalls or this picture does not pass the smell test.
No matter how much turd blossom perfume is sprayed on it by the MSM, it smells like the southern end of three "Al Queida" camels heading north.
… sorry for double post …
Dredd I liked the first so much I read the second also.
Not a problem,…
double funny,….
Camel,….link
"The bloggers have apparently been right all along"
Damn, now THERE’S a headline I’m waitin’ to see on the front page of the NYTimes!
You know, it amazes me that Brad manages to keep his unruffled sense of humor amid this MADHOUSE of electoral dysfunction.
With all due respect to Steven Levy…I mean, I’m really glad he wrote the article…but he is not the first to express a kind of incredulity that such things could actually (gasp!) be going on!
I am incredulous at this incredulity!!!
All of this… all the reporting that Brad & Bev Harris & John Gideon & others have done…the Curtis/Feeney story…the Conyers hearings…the Conyers REPORT…Ion Sancho…Bruce Funk…the pages & pages of election problems from state after state after state chronicled here…a veritable MOUNTAIN of documentation…
It’s as if all of this has been occurring in some remote, alternate universe, inaccessible to the folks on planet Earth!
As if we’re guarding all this information from their prying eyes! From their STUPENDOUSLY INCURIOUS UNSEEING EYES!!!
As if we teasingly swing by their universe only very briefly & infrequently, a Halley’s Comet of election woes, and then lurch off into orbit again, taking it all with us, & leaving them standing there rubbing their eyes & saying things like "How can this BE?!"
Sorry, Mr. Levy, to be such a smartass, but I just don’t get it. It’s ALL HERE!!! Just READ!!!!!
Love you, Joan.
Mr. Levy seems to be the guy assigned to these voting machine stories and still thinks it’s unlikely that any foul play is going on. I guess he’s afraid his magazine is going to get sued by these companies, but maybe he could look at the fact that the Brad Blog hasn’t been sued yet. Maybe he could gleen a little courage from that. I’m thinking Newsweek probably has better lawyers then Brad.
It was good to see that at least he’s willing to go on a talk show and discuss it. That is something the WSJ and NYT is never going to do and won’t go unnoticed by me.
They did bring up some good facts. The Republicans being so concerned about handicapped people is a red flag the size of Texas and to actually say the name Chuck (Diebold or ES&S or whatever) Hagel is pretty amazing. I’ll bet they brought that up at the very end for a reason.
Mr. Levy, if your bosses at Newsweek really care about Democracy, they will let Brad interview you or at least give him some credit for making progress at great sacrifice on the issues you are obviously concerned about. Glad you see that, no matter how accurate the machines are, you get the fact that it’s dangerous as hell for the American people not to know their votes are being counted!
Steve Levy is obviously an honest reporter who is helping the cause. But Joan’s great comment, "I’m incredulous at his incredulity" says it all about the corporate media.
Election fraud is something they do in the former Soviet Union, or the Philippines, or South America. And when they do it, the United States has Jimmy Carter or Colin Powell or some other paragon of virtue trek over there and scold them, with words like "This fraud will affect diplomatic relations with us unless it’s rectified."
But it can’t happen here. Oh, sure, the machines we’re using to count votes are susceptible to hacking. And oh yes, the companies that make the machines are run by guys with criminal records, and all of them have direct ties to the Republican party that has benefited from suspicous election outcomes since the 1990s. And sure, the head of the largest company resigned in disgrace in the same week they were sued twice for fraudulent misstatements in connection with the machines, and the same week their machine failed a test in Florida, a state that just happened to go Republican in the last two presidential elections even though exit polls had the Democrat winning the state.
But, no. It can’t happen here. And Steve Levy tells us he’s incredulous at the thought that the same people who would invade a sovereign country on false pretenses, torture prisoners, spy on Americans illegally, and fatten the coffers of their corporate friends with public money would ever rig an election.
Alice in Wonderland has finally met the Queen of Hearts, it would appear.
It seems that the republican dictatorship has found a way to exonerate the voting machine companies and the teleco’s.
For the first time in US history, private companies are becoming adjuncts to spying and are being protected under national security concepts:
"President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye" (link here).
This means they do not have to disclose financial data when the magic wand national security is waived.
And it even reaches the telecom companies that are doing the NSA spy dirty work:
"Telecom giant Verizon is refusing to confirm or deny participation in the illegal National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapping program, as citizens in Maine urge the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to investigate whether the company handed over its phone records.
In a tight-lipped 44-page response to the PUC last Friday, Verizon argued that the Commission lacks the authority to investigate a complaint that the telephone company was involved in the NSA program. The company further claimed such information is protected by the state-secrets privilege" (link here, bold added).
My guess is that this may be used to protect the big three election machine companies (ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia) when it becomes obvious that the nation has been destabilized even in the election system.
Dredd,
I read that piece yesterday. It literally sickens me that they get away with this shit.
Another bit from it:
"…Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office…"
I keep saying to anyone who’ll listen that re the spying, the crux of the issue is the illegality, not privacy. But it’s also potential abuse & NO oversight.
Not that you don’t know all that.
Follow the Money and connect the dots. Just like the entwined roots beneath the aspens in scooters letter. Its ALL connected.
Brad #8,
As Randi Rhodes would say, darlin’, I love you more!