Peg C. is right; the most recent open thread is in danger of getting buried. So let's have a new one!
OK. I've said my bit. Now it's your turn.
  w/ Brad & Desi
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  w/ Brad & Desi
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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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MORE BRAD BLOG 'SPECIAL COVERAGE' PAGES... |
Peg C. is right; the most recent open thread is in danger of getting buried. So let's have a new one!
OK. I've said my bit. Now it's your turn.
Guest blogged by Steve Huff
Introduction {by Winter Patriot}: The BRAD BLOG is pleased to introduce Steve Huff, of HuffCrimeBlog.com. Steve is not only a blogger; he's also a part of the investigative team for Court TV's Crime Library, crimelibrary.com.
Ripples of shock spread from the little Village of Green Oaks, IL, through the Illinois political establishment on Monday as the news spread: Mayor Tom Adams, age 68, had been arrested at his home on Anderson Drive, and charged with distributing kiddie porn over the internet.
If convicted, Tom Adams could face 15 years in prison for each person who received child porn from him via the web.
Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
Yesterday, OpEdNews published an astonishing article by David Dill, Doug Jones and Barbara Simons, an article which blows the lid off the shenanigans that have been going on between Diebold and the State of Maryland.
Wise men say "Consider the source." That's always a good idea. In this case, all three authors have very impressive credentials:
Turning to the article itself, here are the first few paragraphs:
Recently, computer security expert Harri Hursti revealed serious security vulnerabilities in Diebold's software. According to Michael Shamos, a computer scientist and voting system examiner in Pennsylvania, "It's the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a voting system."
Even more shockingly, we learned recently that Diebold and the State of Maryland had been aware of these vulnerabilities for at least two years. They were documented in analysis, commissioned by Maryland and conducted by RABA Technologies, published in January 2004. For over two years, Diebold has chosen not to fix the security holes, and Maryland has chosen not to alert other states or national officials about these problems.
Basically, Diebold included a "back door" in its software, allowing anyone to change or modify the software. There are no technical safeguards in place to ensure that only authorized people can make changes.
A malicious individual with access to a voting machine could rig the software without being detected. Worse yet, if the attacker rigged the machine used to compute the totals for some precinct, he or she could alter the results of that precinct. The only fix the RABA authors suggested was to warn people that manipulating an election is against the law.
So manipulating an election is against the law? Who'da thunk it?
Sorry! I couldn't help myself.
The remainder of the article, unaccompanied by smart remarks, follows:
Guest blogged by Emily Levy of the California Election Protection Network and the CA-50 Action Committee
Attorney Paul Lehto, who specializes in cases involving election law, business fraud and consumer law, has been retained for work on the issues surrounding the illegal election conditions in San Diego County.
Lehto came to the attention of BRAD BLOG readers when he filed a lawsuit in Washington state against Sequoia Voting Systems Inc.
He has also appeared as a guest on The BRAD SHOW of April 23, 2005. To listen to that interview, click here.
More details will be posted when they become available.
(DISCLOSURE: Paul Lehto is also a legal advisor for VelvetRevolution.us, a Voting Rights and Election Reform organization co-founded by BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman.)
Guest Blogged by John Gideon
The following shocking information just came in to "Train Wreck Central" from Brad who is on the road, lord knows where. A special hat tip to Thom Hartmann and Rich McClear of KUDO1080, the Air America Radio affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska.
As readers of The BRAD BLOG know, Diebold and the State of Alaska have been doing all they can to keep the State Democratic Party from looking at the data from the machines used by the voters to register their choices and by the local officials to tally the votes. The BRAD BLOG has reported that questions began to arise about results from the 2004 election, including the reported revelation that "district-by-district vote totals add up to 292,267 votes for President Bush, but his official total was only 190,889." The Democrats asked for election data from the Diebold machines and the state has 'flip-flopped' on whether they would release it or not. This resulted in claims by the state that any data they released would be proprietary and would belong to Diebold Elections Systems Inc. (DESI).
The above led the state Democratic party to file a lawsuit to get the data they have been requesting.
The following is from an email from Rich McClear:
More than 7 months ago the Democrats asked for an explanation. The state said it could not release the data files because they were proprietary to Diebold.
Diebold gave the state permission to release the files.
The state still refused. The Democrats went to court, the state asked for extension after extension. Their final extension expired Thursday and they replied to the Court, in a 200 page document, that since it is a month from the primary election, they can't release the database without compromising the primary. There is not enough time to rebuild the central tabulator file if they release the data before the election.
The Democrats have to respond to the court Monday. To respond to a 200 page document would usually require the Democrats to ask for an extension but they are working throughout the weekend to get the filing in Monday. Right now I have the Democratic Spokesperson scheduled for my show Monday Morning.
The State stalled for 7 months and when they ran out the legal clock they claim it is too late to release the information because it is too close to the primary. I find it interesting that this has not been picked up by the local press yet, save KUDO.
So the state and Diebold have stalled, flip-flopped, obfuscated and misled while they kept the Democrats from proving that there were huge problems with the election results in 2004. One can only hope that the court will decide that the stall needs to stop now, but it might be best not to hold your breath.
UPDATE 11/28/06: Alaska is at it again. They're refusing to release the 2006 election database despite a court order to do so. Details now here...
Blogged by Brad from the road and on the fly!...
Just a quick post to say thanks to all who have been covering for me here, in particular Winter Patriot who has been thawed out and called up for duty to allow me some much needed time away.
I'm traveling across the country, and not getting as much down time as I'd like for the moment, as I'm in touch with folks in re: the Busby/Bilbray election fiasco and their plans for announcing several new initiatives to call for accountability there shortly. As well, working on several related issues via the phones etc.
I've not been online at all since last Thursday night, and only on briefly today. So forgive me if I've not been able to answer your email, or otherwise report on so much of what is going on right now. We'll see more and more Guest Bloggers here in the coming days and weeks to cover much of that in my absense, which I hope you continue to understand. I really need to find some time away, even if I'm unable to get away 100% in the bargain for now.
Thanks also to John Gideon and David Edwards for keeping up the battle here, and I hope you'll welcome some of the new names (like Emily Levy, etc.) that you'll be seeing here over the next several weeks. Please offer them all the support you can!
If you haven't noticed, the disinfo campaign down in San Diego by Registrar Mikel Haas and his compatriots in the media is now in full swing. Haas is lying left and right, and his friends at the Union-Tribune and elsewhere are all too happy to help! Please feel free to let such media outlets know the truth about what's going on where you can in my absence.
This unsigned editorial today in the U-T was simply incredible! According to them, we're "Internet conspiratorialists" again. Someone please let them know that if we are, so is CA Sec. of State Bruce McPherson whose own office confirmed dozens of ways that Diebold voting machines could be hacked, along with NYU's Brennan Center for Justice who detailed more than 120 security threats to E-voting security, and even the Washington Post who declared that a "Single Personal Could Reverse an Election".)
So much disinfo from the liars and scoundrels in San Diego who are entrusted to run the people's elections, so little online time (for me at least) to counter it all. Thanks in advance to those of you who can continue to do so in my absence! And thanks for your understanding over the next several weeks while I continue to be gone!
(Note to Winter Patriot or John Gideon: Feel free to add links to any of the above text as you are able or inclined!)
Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
Not for nothing is Chris Floyd one of my favorite journalists. He's one of my favorite bloggers too.
Why? Because he cares so much, because he writes so well, because he pays such close attention. And because he never fails to mention things like this:
Want to know why the government shouldn't have overweening, unrestrained, unchallengeable "unitary executive power" to act as it pleases, even in the name of "national security?" Here's why – because such powers are always, always, always going to be abused, in ways large and small. This is an absolute, unalterable given of human nature, like the requirement for oxygen or the need for food: unchecked power will be abused, and innocent people will suffer. Only a cast-iron, gold-plated, copper-bottomed fool would think otherwise. Unfortunately, such specimens are swinging from the rafters in every branch of the government these days.
Guest blogged by Emily Levy of the California Election Protection Network and the CA-50 Action Committee
While San Diego's North County Times could have been reporting on Friday's protest outside the Registrar of Voters' office, instead the NCTimes donated its column-inches to the noble cause of further misinforming the public about the June 6 election debacle and the people's fight for democracy.
In Recount fee goes unpaid: San Diego Registrar says no recount happening in 50th District race, staff writer Erin Schultz appears satisfied to report Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas's lies as fact:
The poor woman went to all the trouble of filing for a hand count under the recount provision and then didn't bother to pay the fee, eh? Not so fast. It just might be relevant to mention that it was an improperly required fee. The only fees the Registrar of Voters' office is allowed to charge are the actual costs of a recount. The exorbitant $6,000 demanded by the RoV's office as a deposit for the first day’s counting should have been reduced significantly when the voter requesting the recount advised the RoV that no counting panel would be needed on the first day, as she was still awaiting documents needed in order to proceed with the recount. Haas has failed to provide these documents despite Barbara Gail Jacobsen’s being legally entitled to have them and despite—or perhaps because of—their significance to the recount.
And why weren't the documents provided? What is Haas trying to hide?
Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
Brad has been too busy lately to remind us that his investigations, his blog, and everything else he does nowadays are funded by a few ads and a few donations. Too few donations, if the truth be known.
He's usually too modest to say what this means to him personally, but I'm not.
Brad used to have a career in which he made money. But that is no longer the case.
Clearly, Brad believes the work he does now is even more important than the work he used to do; I agree with him about that, and evidently so do you. It's just a tad inconvenient that his current work does very little to help him pay the rent.
If you appreciate the work Brad does, if you like reading (and maybe even commenting) on his blog, if you would like to see his investigative work continue, if you care about the future of our country, if you care about the truth and want to see more of it ... these are all good reasons to consider making a contribution.
It's easy to do --- see the blue box in the right-hand sidebar. And even if you can't contribute very much, please remember that every little bit helps.
How much does it matter? That's for you to decide. In my opinion, there is nothing at stake here except our future.
Guest Blogged by John Gideon
According to an article in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer the recent Cuyahoga County primary fiasco was the result of widespread dysfunction in the county's election offices, where officials ignored specific warnings of the looming calamity, according to a report also released today that blames election chief Michael Vu and deputy chief Gwen Dillingham.
According to the paper:
The dysfunction was made worse by a rushed changeover from punch-card voting to electronic machines.
"Director Vu and [Deputy Director] Dillingham effectively ordered workers to do the impossible, or nearly impossible, with inadequate resources," the report says. "This is an across-the-board failure to plan and manage the first countywide endeavor in electronic voting."
The panel found that even when presented with 13 warnings of potential crises four months before the election, Vu forged ahead. In June, after most of the 13 predicted problems came to pass, Vu "had yet to grasp the enormity of the issues. . . . During a recent interview with panel members he said, "There's not much that I would change at all."
In a companion article the Plain Dealer reports on the 13 warnings and gives some examples:
Votng machine memory cards might not get to the election headquarters for counting.
Election workers might be unable to operate the machines.
Vu's system for counting votes might break down.
All of that came to pass.
Tonight's "Democracy At Risk" featured a discussion of Wednesday's congressional hearings on electronic voting.
Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Guest Blogged by John Gideon
Readers of The BRAD BLOG know that the state of Arkansas had a "Train Wreck" in their primary election and that much of the blame was laid at the feet of their voting machine vendor Elections Systems and Software. Now the Associated Press and The Arkansas Democrat Gazette both report that an independent study has been done at the request of the state and the study agrees with what The BRAD BLOG has said all along.
According to the Associated Press article:
"ES&S was too busy running helter-skelter between Little Rock and Omaha," one county official said in a survey. "The result was a woeful lack of communication with the counties."
Another election official wrote, "This was the most disorganized bunch ever to run an election in Arkansas. They were untruthful in their responses. Their performance left the burden of this election on us and greatly increased the cost."
and they go on to report:
The report said several county officials questioned whether ES&S would be able to provide the resources necessary for the general election given the delays with providing staff for the primary.
ES&S has the largest slice of the voting machine business in the country. They found it impossible to support a string of state primaries held over a 5 to 6 week time span. How are they ever going to be able to handle a general election where all 50 states vote at the same time?
Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
The Big Cat is still on his "vacation" (as you can tell from his appearance yesterday on "Catherine Crier Live") and the kitten who has been trying to fill his "shoes" (do cats wear shoes? mine doesn't!) is too busy to blog very much at the moment. Maybe later, as they say, but not right now.
That shouldn't deter YOU! If you have something to say, please say it here!
Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
NOTE FROM BRAD: I'm still out on the road, will be for a while, and thus unable to check into the net with much frequency! Not getting all of my email either because of it, so my apologies. Thanks Dave for getting this up! More when I am able to check back in from a location with net access and enough time to get caught up-ish.
Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
A few good news items for friends and allies of The BRAD BLOG:
Brad Friedman and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are scheduled to appear on Court TV Thursday afternoon (2PM Pacific time, 5PM Eastern) with host Catherine Crier, whose election coverage lately has been excellent!
ALSO: News Hounds covered DemocracyFest and even included a picture of Brad Friedman.
From the News Hounds item, here's a link to a website you might enjoy visiting: The CA50 Action Committee. Its "Get News" page says the first thing to do is visit The BRAD BLOG!
Cool! That's the same thing Mike Malloy kept saying the other night on Air America!
One more item of minor consequence: your lowly and nearly frozen correspondent has resumed blogging again, if only because Cynthia McKinney Is Getting Robbed And Nobody Is Even Blogging About It! So, in the words of an old familiar phrase, please don't read my blog.
UPDATE: Video of the Catherine Crier Live appearance (with RFK Jr. as well) is now online here...