Last week, in the wake of their AVC Advantage touch-screen voting systems having been found to have failed in at least six counties following New Jersey’s Super Tuesday Primary, and on the heels of much-deserved ridicule for having threatened Princeton computer scientists with legal action should they go forward with an independent technical review of their voting systems, as requested by NJ election officials, Sequoia Voting systems issued a laughable press release headlined “Sequoia Voting Systems supports third party reviews and testing of its election equipment,” which John Gideon appropriately eviscerated for all of the (putting it nicely) “misleading half-truths” therein from the dishonest, desperate folks at Sequoia.
The company, which claims their oft-hacked votings systems (accidental hack here, on purpose hack here) are secure and “tamperproof”, subsequently saw their own website ignominiously hacked thereafter late last week.
But, as if the constant predilections of Sequoia VPs Michelle Shafer and Edwin Smith to slap “kick me” signs on their own backs wasn’t enough, they then went on to release another statement last Thursday announcing they were commissioning their own “external review” of their own voting systems “that includes review by an independent company,” which nobody has ever heard of.
So who is this “Kwaidan Consulting of Houston, Texas,” whom the geniuses at Sequoia have selected to carry out their independent, third-party review? You’re not gonna be believe this one…
Kwaidan appears to be little more than one guy by the name of Mike Gibbons, whose MySpace page, until last week (cached version here), boasted of wanting most to meet “A well endowed blonde nymphomaniac (half my age or take the difference of her bustline and waistline added to her current age) that likes to be under the influence of Jim Beam whiskey in a dimly lit room at least 3 times a week.”
Since folks began last week trying to figure out exactly who this “Kwaidan Consulting” is, the “Who I’d Most Like to Meet” section of Gibbons’ page was quickly changed as of last weekend. It now expresses Mike’s desire to meet “Jesus Christ, Sir Issac Newton, Albert Einstein and James Clerk Maxwell,” instead of the blonde nymphomaniac he had previously been hoping for.
And just to shore up the Sugar Land, Texas 50-year old’s credentials as a serious person, appropriate to the important task of carrying out a legitimate technical review of Sequoia’s failed voting systems (the same ones which are set to be used in the upcoming Pennsylvania Primary), the photo of sexy Mike leaning on his babe-magnet pickup truck — on of his “eleven (11) Mopar Muscle Cars” — was promptly replaced with a shot of himself posing with George H.W. Bush.
The “About Me” section of the page, which previously explained the reason his hair was so long to be “None of your f**king business @$$hole,” was swapped smartly with a quote about “The right of citizens of the United States to vote,” as taken from the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Is this guy made for Sequoia Voting Systems and the Corporate Election Industry, or what? We smell Pew Foundation grant money, baby!
Here’s a sample from Mike Gibbon’s cached MySpace page…
And here’s the new and improved version of patriot Mike’s page since Sequoia announced that he’d been given the new gig…
It’s good to know that one of the nation’s largest voting machine companies — which, like all the others, use proprietary “trade secret” software, and threaten multi-million dollar clients with legal action should they attempt to make sure their own systems work as promised — does such impressive vetting of who it is they’ve decided to pay to carry out an “independent” review of one of their own voting systems.
We’d think this whole thing was an Onion prank, were it not for the fact that it’s Sequoia we’re dealing with here. And yes, their track record shows them to have been just this irresponsible and deceptive on many occassions.
We’d hate to see those actual, experienced computer scientists at Princeton have a legitimate opportunity to figure out what went wrong in NJ with Sequoia’s machines. Especially with the very same Sequoia AVC Advantage touch-screen systems which failed there, fired up and ready for use in the all-important Pennsylvania Primary just weeks from today.
That google cache page probably won’t last forever. That’s where the right click save as comes into play.
One would think these people would learn more discretion with their internet crumbs. He is good proof that capitalism is shallow.
Thank god for BradBlog… without you, Brad, all these wonderful gems would just get lost in the ether.
This guy’s a classic, lol… “former Board Member of Stone Tablet Ministries” is the only added position to his newly enhanced myspace resume. Now we know he’s trustable- yikes!
Brad, I sincerely hope that you have forwarded this to all in NJ who need to see it, including directly to the SOS. If this doesn’t destroy Sequoia in that state, nothing will.
Jesus Christ. And still it continues. McCain wins 52-48. AAAAAAAGHH
I didn’t notice that, Michael G #2. Interesting. The Stone Tablets Ministries website says, “Our goal is to help Christians share their faith effectively for our Lord Jesus Christ. Our ministries will help you to learn how to reach people locally and around the world. Feel free to visit each ministry page. Help us grow our Porn Busters ministry.” (emphasis added)
Could this have anything to do with why Gibbons, with his penchant for “blonde nymphomaniacs” is a former board member?
Hi There,
I have read your blog and think you’re a good writer. I would like to invite you to our new online community, polzoo.com. We are a user generated political editorial and social network site. We also choose from among our own bloggers to be featured on the front page. Check us out! I think your voice would be a great addition to our site.
I wonder why he was so sheepish so as not to tell how many lines of code he did on those wonderful revolting evoting machines.
And why did they not stay with Shawn Southworth, the certifier of all evoting machines?
This is akin to the Butch Custody and the Hoppy Kid episode.
Hilarious. They should do comedy skits instead.
Mike Gibbons = Self Important Prick
He sure loves this video
Don’t appear it takes too much to entertain him
Link
Another sleazy millionaire who wants to be a billionaire? From TEXAS?
Must be something in the air down there…
I found a few more details about Raymond Michael Gibbons of Sugar Land that might interest you: http://onourradar.blogspot.com/...-stuff-up.html
By the way, the single-family home at that address where his company is listed and I’m guessing also where he may live is assessed at $207,000. I wouldn’t be so sure he isn’t embellishing his financial credentials a tad.
Googling isn’t interviewing, mind you, but that cursory glance gives me the impression Suntron Corp. may have been his biggest claim to fame, and I’m guessing he and Suntron parted ways some time ago. That company’s latest big contract seems to be selling components for plasma TVs in Mexico. Didn’t strike me as voting machine experience.
His interest in Schroedinger’s cats, referring to the quantum physics genius who won the Nobel, seemed kind of creepy because, 1) the analogy between him inspecting these black boxes and the Schroedinger’s cat paradox, and 2) the woman who filed a lawsuit claiming George W. Bush raped her was Margie Schoedinger (all but one ‘r’) of (cue “Twighlight Zone” music) of Sugar Land, Texas.
Good golly miss Molly, great stuff.
I wonder if Rainman Gibbons ever hooked up with R Doug Lewis before?, being in the Tx electronics biz and all…hmmm, I got a feelin’ Brad…
…and what does Mireaux have in common with all these shady characters?
Same goes for the name, it reminds me of Dr. Moreau
Link
Another great scoop Brad. If I didn’t know better I’d be tempted to think you made this one up. Sequoia has a long history of deception with their voting machine claims. If they think this guy will clean up the corporate image they are sadly mistaken. Maybe Tom Wilkey, head honcho at the EAC, will throw some work to Kwaidan. Wilkey has previously shown his interest in helping Sequoia fix their voting machine PR problems. However, having outfits like Kwaidan hunt for hackers doesn’t exactly build one’s confidence in Sequoia’s voting machines!
#11 I’m sure you know the woman who filed the lawsuit went dead. Funny the way bushco likes to drop hints that they know we know. Their faces show the fun doesn’t last forever.
Interesting that the word Nephilim appears in his old profile. Some nutty people link this word to aliens and ancient civilizations. But don’t take my word for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim
http://weblog.infoworld.com/rob...g_guns_an.html
{There are some url links from this excerpt, including to BradBlog, that I didn’t include in this copy/paste.}
If folks find this post to be kind of a ramble, I apologize. Perhaps the first and last references here are good enough for those folks.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=...d=9&gl=us
I’m not sure why Gibbons is looking to cheat on his wife. She’s very cute according to this photo.
http://www.reunion.com/rgibbons1
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/...me?gid=1008361
I knew this guy who said everything in life could be explained with football. Another person told me the meaning of life was contained in the song Bohemian Rhapsody.
Me? I think the meaning of life can be explained through synchronized swimming. Just kidding.
http://home.houston.rr.com/mikegibbons/
When I found out that Navari at BreakForDisinfoNews was Steven Hertzberg, it helped o’plenty to figure out his various screen names. Navari gave a lot of results. Then there was the stevenstevensteven username.
Here are google results for Gibbons’ chess forum name.
http://www.google.com/search?hl...=Google+Search
Check this out for hypocrisy.
http://members.greenpeace.org/p...pic.php?p=3251
http://community.fox16.com/members/gibbonsm.aspx
It looks like he signed up for a Fox tv message board and left one post, but I couldn’t find it.
http://www.tenthdimension.com/p...hp?p=3360#3360
He used to have a drinking problem.
http://www.soberrecovery.com/fo...dry-drunk.html
Ok, I found something that might actually mean something, not sure.
http://www.selfservice.org/foru...opic.php?p=267
Socrates, it’s interesting that his and Margaret’s children are relatively young, given Mike and Marge’s ages. I found a Raymond Michael Gibbons Jr. well established in New York (at least I think it was New York I saw, but he’s not the story).Might be coincidental name, but I’m wondering if this is his second family. If so, I wonder if there’s an ex somewhere.I’m always a little squeamish about delving into people’s personal lives, but because elections aren’t about who votes but rather who counts the votes (was that a Stalin quote?), I think this contract makes him a figure of public interest. I vote on these Sequoias, so it matters to me whether he’s legitimate to be the source to test the security and reliability of those voting machines. I think Sequoia owes the public a better explanation as to why Gibbons, who seems to be a recovering alcoholic with personality issues, is solely suitable for Sequoia’s purpose but Princeton University professors are not. It raises the question of just what is Sequoia’s true purpose. I don’t see reason to assume it’s the same as mine, as a voter using that machine.How is someone Sequoia hires “independent,” but experts from Ivy League academia that acquire a random machine to test are not “independent”? The terms “proprietary” and “independent” at this point seem to be conflicting terms. If Sequoia continues to avoid these questions, I think NJ AG Anne Milgram and Gov. Jon S. Corzine should be held accountable to explain or sue Sequoia. New Jersey’s Legislature just passed a law to extend, yet again, Sequoia and others’ deadline for retrofitting our machines with reliable printers that are supposed to allow every voter to verify their vote on paper. Extension would be an abomination. I expect Corzine will sign this legislation any day, if he didn’t today, but there is a phone drive to persuade him to veto it.I would like to see Milgram, New Jersey’s AG, order county clerks to convert every election exclusively to paper ballots and hand count votes until the technology flaws are 100% resolved.The machine companies need appropriate economic incentives, which they don’t now have at the all-you-can-eat public trough buffet.
So, if the above about Mr. Gibbons is true, that he used to work for Suntron, that is interesting.
Suntron manufactures Hart InterCivic’s eSlates. At least, they did as of a few years ago, right there in Mike’s town, Sugar Land, Texas.
Suntron, although headquartered in Phoenix, does have a facility in Sugar Land, Texas. It is located at Suntron Corp., Electronics, 1111 Gillingham Lane, Sugar Land, TX 77478, 281/243-5000, and has been a major employer in this suburb of Houston.
Suntron is listed as an electronic manufacturer. On its website (www.suntroncorp.com), back then, it listed its areas as:
Military/Aerospace
Semi-Cap Equipment
Industrial
Medical
In a Hart press release back in January 2004, Hart mentions that Suntron did its manufacturing.
Hi Molly McCoy, your blog is showing up near the top for this story. Good job with that.
I agree with you that it feels awkward to delve into the private lives. I was probably wrong to post about his alcohol problem.
You are correct that there can be people with the same name. Then we can end up dragging innocent people into it.
Yeah, that was Stalin with the who counts the vote quote.
I am curious why he made that post asking about the touch screen machines back in 2004. I am sensing a conflict of interest with this Gibbons character.
He’s linked to Suntron and Hart InterCivic. It’s as if this is Steven Hertzberg/ESI all over again. It seems like we have another insider from the dark side acting as an impartial good guy to the rescue. It’s like having Alberto Gonzales investigating the Bush Administration. It feels like gatekeeping 101.
Hertzberg actually had the gall to promote Damschroeder {sp.?} on the Democratic Underground. Now we have Gibbons with his obnoxious myspace page. I agree with you that we the people have the right to know who these people are and what qualifies them to be hired.
Hey Pokey, thanks for doing the follow up. That connection stood out like a sore thumb for me too.
I am late to this election integrity topic. But one thing I have been noticing a lot about some of these internet people are that they have ties to the military and other govt. groups. Mike Rivero. Hertzberg. Hal Turner was in direct contact with the FBI in a cointelpro like relationship.
Markos Kos Zuniga- the CIA.
I keep forgetting why I love BradBlog until I come back and see postings like this!
Keep up the good work, Brad!
I’m on the edge of giving up and just making sure my guns are well oiled. I don’t see how you turn around a 50 trillion pound ship that’s already 1/2 over the waterfall.
Socrates, Gibbons reminded me immediately of Bev Harris’ memorable (to me) “This is Shawn Southworth in his office in Huntsville, Alabama.”
I don’t see evidence of Gibbons with Suntron since 2004, and perhaps not since 2003. That last ’04 SEC report he’s listed on relates to stock compensation for execs in ’03. His was about $70,000, and he’s among execs whose salary was less than $1 million.
He may well have an expertise in the area of voting machines, if he worked with the Hart contract you say Suntron had at least at one time. That’s fine for Sequoia’s needs, but not for the public’s.
Typically, “consultant” is another word for “hired gun,” someone who’s paid to rationalize a preordained conclusion, not to objectively investigate.
My rub is that voting machines are the most public business of a democratic government. If counting my vote is going to be handled by private vendors, under our Constitution I should be not only entitled to know everything about this guy’s resume, but public officials are responsible to know it as a condition of the contract and OFFER it to the public.
There have to be checks and balances for anyone counting my vote. “Proprietary information” is not OK. It’s not as if we don’t have a choice. Direct ballots and hand counts have been successful since the first cavemen put rocks on a stump to decide who would investigate the volcano.
Are most of us really too stupid not to demand better from our elected officials?
So, it appears that Tom DeLay must have gave up his exterminating venture and went into raising (electronic) bugs instead.
How much greener can you get?
A regular voting environmentalist 😛
That is the connection between Gibbons and Mireaux then, they did the testing when he was employed at Suntron.
I’ll venture to guess that UL subbed out that e slate testing to Mireaux
Basically all this amounts to is that Hart, by sending the machines to be tested by Kwaidan, is the same thing as sending them back to the people who built them to be tested in a roundabout way.
That is not independent testing
Good find Socrates!!!
I should’ve added ‘duh, what’d we expect from these vote swipers’ to my above comment
Oh, and thanks Molly too for the info!!!
Now my question is, is the Sequoia machine and the Hart machine built with the same sub set of parts, just stuffed into a different plastic container?
Or is this just an easy way for Sequoia to get certified through the back door like Hart did
SEQUOIA PIMPS ABOUND”¦The only consultant Sequoia will ever hire is a pimp for the voting machine industry. This has been demonstrated in the past by the company’s past hire of Steven V. Freeman (not our election justice Freeman; but rather a different Freeman) who tested the Sequoia AVC Edge for the State of Nevada AFTER WYLE LABORATORY IDENTIFIED PRODUCT DEFECT AND FAILED TO CERTIFY THE MACHINE IN MAY 2004. Freeman rode to the rescue, arriving in Las Vegas, NEVADA tools ready to do his sleight of testing and certify Nevada’s machines with the help of another Sequoia shill, Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax. Freeman testing a small sampling of machines; hand selected by Lomax. Surprise! Surprise! The machines passed testing and Freeman certified the machines. But in a fit of conscience or perhaps just to cover his hiney FREEMAN REFUSED TO CERTIFY THE ENTIRE AVC CLASS; AND CERTFIED ONLY THE SMALL SAMPLING OF GOLDEN GOOSE MACHINES HE ACTUALLY ‘TESTED’. But that was enough for then Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller and Sequoia executives who ““ with the tacit consent of the then Federal Elections Committee now morphed into the Elections Assistance Committee – thereafter deployed 1000’s of AVC Edges replete with printer and unresolved product defect to every precinct in Nevada. Consequently I have demanded that Sequoia and the State of Nevada test Nevada’s voting machine systems to include not only the AVC Edge and Printer but also the WINEDS tabulator, the 400 C Optiscanner, and any other machines provided to the State of Nevada by Sequoia at a cost of $9,000,000 plus. Just as they did in Nevada, Sequoia ““ empowered by the blessing of the State of Nevada and my county of Washoe (NV) Registrar of Voters’, Dan Burk, – threatened retaliation against me with promises of sanctions if I in anyway impugned the company’s reputation and or hindered the sale of Sequoia Voting Machines to some other hapless State or City.
Guess what? Up popped my Irish and I pro se sued Sequoia, the State of Nevada and its’ new Secretary of State, Ross Miller, Washoe County and Dan Burk, and Diebold/Premier Election Systems ““ the company that collaborated with Sequoia to manipulate Nevada’s list of Registered Voters with provision of the defective DIMS Voter Registration and Voters’ History System. My State and County and Sequoia and Diebold have all responded with Motions to Dismiss. Equipped with a tiny purse but a big mouth, a burning desire for accurate and honest elections and steel ovaries, I am legally outgunned with no fewer than 15 high-powered attorneys poised against me but I have not been dissuaded from pursuing litigation against these villains and my lawsuit goes on. I can only hope that New Jersey ““ strengthened by all of the power and money of the State ““ battles Sequoia with anything that it takes to ensure election justice for its’ people. They have nothing to loose but Democracy.
Patricia Axelrod
775-412-5980
Reno, Nv.
PS: Kudos to Brad Blog for taking them all on and never failing to fight the good fight. Check out Brad’s and John Gideon’s earlier report about Nevada and Sequoia and their pimp Steven Freeman.
The Gibbons’ cached myspace page leaves nothing to the imagination. He clearly made it known that he is a selfish, Karl Rove Republican.
Steven Hertzberg also made things easier to understand when he made the endorsement of Damschroder at the Democratic Underground.
http://www.democraticundergroun...mesg_id=467760
Who is Matt Damschroder?
http://www.politicalfriendster....tt-Damschroder
After reading Patricia’s post, I sought out an appropriate BradBlog entry.
https://bradblog.com/?p=5353
John Gideon made a good post. Then Floridiot made this one:
Hertzberg worked for the military. Mike Rivero worked for NASA, same as Hertzberg’s Jaiku contact, Andrew Hoppin.
The common denominator with these folks does appear to be the military and ties to the Republican party.
My opinion is that election fraud has primarily to do with propping up the military industrial complex.
How did Hertzberg, an aeronautical engineer, end up as the Director of the Election Science Institute? Why was he a prolific poster on a nutjob website called BreakForNews? Why did BreakForNews label Bev Harris as a “9/11 CIA rat?” Why was Hertzberg astroturfing for Ron Paul and something he coined Full Spectrum Liberty? Why was Hertzberg as Navari so set on debunking man-made global warming?
The United States is in a legitemation crisis. All the astroturfers have left is to say to us, yeah, you figured it out, but so what, no one is listening and no one cares.
Unfortunately for them, people are becoming more internet savvy. Good people are starting to figure out how to work together to get beyond all the smoke and mirrors.
Brad:
In the Hart case you refer to “qui tam” as the Latin term for fraud. Maybe Mr. Gibbons was trying to tell everyone that his “Kwaidam” consulting company was a fraud (with a bit of misspelling) from the beginning?
Apparently, I think you have to be a fan of The Hulk comic books/movies to figure this one out.
Link
It would fit his general mien (or mein, he-he)
Good job Brad great to know that we have people on thier toes so the truth can get put out to the people thanks.
Suckrates also good jon except I take issue with two things you said . One is that you said that you do not like looking into peoples private lives now come on you know you do and not just the one person but also thier family members. Please be honest when posting here about that sort of thing because there is so much proff of you not having one problem with posting about people and thier families at many sites so please if you want people to be hinestthen youshould hold yourself to that standard also. Need I show proff of this ? My second problem with your posts is that you lumped Mike Rivero into your group of people working with the fbi cointro pol. Now unless you can show proff of Mike Rivero having been involved in any of this you need to retract what you say or put up the proff . This is called cybersmearing and it is not a honest thing to do . Please stop this so a great dialog can go on without your inunendos and your down right dishonesty. Other then that good posts everyone.
#32 broke rules here.
Who spells proof as proff?
I won’t be silenced by transparent spooks who throw around the ad hominems.
Mike Rivero is a disinfo pig. He used to do work for The Special Forces Underground.
I won’t be silenced by you Ender and your pack of trolls.
# 33 Please show proof of Mike Rivero being in the fbi as you have stated . Other then he owns and runs a website that you dont like and he openly talks about his work with NASA you have only insinuations . Just because you dont like this man does not give you the right to smear his name with no proof of what you are accusing him of. By the way that is defamation !
You also evade the fact that you post at many forums ,blogs etc. all about peoples personal lives along with thier families including pictures of them .Lets also not forget that you post thier IP numbers along with thier addresses.
I strongly suggest you put up or shut up because I know you are 100 % wrong about Mike Rivero and I
have so much proof of you attacking people and thier families all over the net and even at your CT site . Stop being such a liar Sock
By the way the name is Redender call me such.
What is your agenda here at this blog ? Is it to ruin it as you have others ? Or is it you are PAID
to spout your aganda ?
Could that be to use this blog to smear people and lie about them like Mike Rivero ? YES That is just the begining for you .
Like I am telling you if you can not prove what you say then stop this game of yours .I dont think
the nice people here want to be lied to they are looking to help this country and others but cant if there are lies smeared all over . I think Brad works very hard to make sure there is the truth here .STOP YOUR LIES NOW !
Ender said:
I never wrote that Mike Rivero is in the FBI.
I am getting attacked at BradBlog quite a bit lately. People might be curious as to why.
It’s Not About Israel/Zion/Jews, says Rivero?
Agent99, please put a stop to the attacks against me on BradBlog. It’s not fair.
Excuse me the name is Redender why are you calling me by another name ?
Yes you sis lumb Mike Rivero in with the others in your post about Hertzburg do not lie about that to .
Yes you do post at many forums about people and thier families such as a person called Watermelon Slim and his dead father , you post at many forums about a Lou ,you have posted at forums about a Tiffany and her family living and dead and you also posted here about Mark Steadman . All of which you lie about.
The people here want the truth and deserve the truth . You are not telling the truth you are lumbing in names of inocent people in your posts and you are lieing about not wanting to get into peoples personal lives .
If it is allowed I will post links to all of the people you have done this to.
You asked to be called by your username to Agent 99 I demand the same of you call me Redender I do not care for nick names either.
Agent 99 is it ok for me to post the truth with links showing Suckrates attacking people and thier families and also show how he just doslikes this man Mike Rivero so he lumbs him in his post about him being part of the fbi ? I can show much proof of this . All I am asking for is that all post the truth so we can work towards stopping the real people who are undermining the vote .