At least seven more US Marines have died in Iraq. For what? The neo-con wet dream of a Three Stooges Reich. Nothing More. Certainly not for "democracy." There has never been a more compelling example of the US regimesteam news media’s full partnership in a triad of shared special interests (e.g., weapons, oil, media, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, etc.) with the Bush Cabal and its wholly-owned-subsidiary-formerly-known-as-the-Republican-Party than its utter contemptuous blindness to what was revealed in Rep. John Conyers’ hearing in Columbus yesterday…Here is perhaps the second to the last LNS supplement. It is divided into seven sections: Theft of the Election 2004, Bush Abomination’s #1 Failure (National Security), Bush Abomination’s #2 Failure (Economic Security), Bush Abomination’s #3 Failure (Environmental Security), Complicity of the Corporatist News Media, John P. O’Neill Wall of Heroes and Resistance Not Collaboration…Please review the news items and op-ed pieces included, please share them with others…Remember, 2+2 still equal 4…
www.bradblog.com: Then, he asked curtis something like whether voting machines could be hacked. He said yes. Arnebeck asked him on what he based that opinion. He said because I wrote a program that could do it. Arnebeck asked when that happened. Curtis said feeney had asked him to design such a program at yang enterprises.
Jaws dropped. Tubbs jones and waters looked shocked.
Tubbs jones, waters and nadler asked questions. Waters asked him to repeat who asked him to do it. Congressman feeney, he said. Nadler asked him some questions, as did tubbs jones and a state senator.
Curtis was asked what he would conclude if there was such a substantial deviation btwn exit polls and actual results. He said he would conclude the election had been hacked. Gasps. Could have heard a pin drop.
In the end, curtis was very very convincing to everyone in attendance. He was a show stopper, a stunner. It was a really amazing moment.
John Byrne, www.bluelemur.com: “A representative from Triad Systems came into this county’s Board of Election’s office unannounced, that is on this Friday. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the upcoming recount.
“He then headed into the back room where Triad supplies tabulators, that is the machine that counts the ballots, is kept. This Triad representative told them that there was problem with the system, that the system had a bad battery and it had ‘lost all its data.’
“He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it. And in another [incomprehensible] in the room. And he had spare parts in his coat, as one of the people moved in [sic] remarked how very heavy it was.
“He finally reassembled everything and said it was working but not to turn it off. He then asked which precinct would be counted in the 3 percent recount test and that one which had been selected as if it had the right number of votes was relayed to him he then went back and did something else to the tabulator.
“The Triad Systems representative suggested that since the hand recount had to match the machine count exactly and since it would hard to memorize the several numbers which would be needed to get the count exactly right, that they should post this series of numbers on the wall where they would not be noticed by observers such as to make them look like employee information or something similar.
“The people doing the hand count could then he said just report those numbers no matter what the actually counted in the ballot. This would then ‘match’ the tabulator report for this precinct exactly.
Letter from Rep. John Conyers, et al to Gov. Bob Taft: As you know, at least two presidential candidates in your State have applied for statewide recounts.6 Seeing the conflicting deadlines contained within federal and state law, these candidates sought to have the recounts begin even before the votes were declared so the deadlines could be reconciled.7 The federal court hearing the case denied the request for an early recount and also rebuffed a motion by the Delaware County Board of Elections to block a recount entirely.8 Also, we understand that challenges will be filed today on behalf of Ohio voters to set aside the results of the election in Ohio based on, among other things, massive voter irregularities.
It is important to note that Article II of the Constitution of the United States provides that "each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors," clearly giving the power to the Ohio legislature to finalize Ohio's election results. It appears, unfortunately, that Secretary Blackwell may unlawfully be attempting to have his own results certified. This is because Ohio law does not authorize the Secretary of State to determine the electors for the State of Ohio.
Bob Fertik, www.democrats.com: As the recount gets underway, John Kerry demanded manual counting of the 92,000 undervotes and overvotes rejected by voting machines...
The request is one of 11 items that Kerry is asking for as part of the recount that Ohio's 88 county boards of election will begin this week, according to a letter sent to the boards over the weekend.
One reason the media is ignoring the recount is the perception that a recount will not change enough votes to change the outcome. Which is why this affidavit from Richard Hayes Phillips is so important: It is my professional opinion that John Kerry’s margins of victory were wrongly reduced by 22,000 votes in Cleveland, by 17,000 votes in Columbus, and by as many as 7,000 votes in Toledo. It is my further professional opinion that John Kerry’s margins of defeat in Warren, Butler, and Clermont counties were inflated by as many as 37,000 votes in the aggregate, and in Miami County by as many as 6,000 votes. There are still 92,672 uncounted regular ballots that, based upon the analysis set forth above of the election results from Dayton and Cincinnati, may be expected to break for John Kerry by an overwhelming margin. And there are 14,441 uncounted provisional ballots.
Add these up and they exceed Bush's "official" margin of 118,506.
Kerry-Edwards Letter to All 88 Ohio County Board of Elections: 3. For those counties that use touch screen voting systems, we request that the three percent hand count include a hand count of three percent of the ballot images stored in the each of the redundant memories of the machines selected for the recount and on any paper trail for the machines.
4. We request that the Board provide the opportunity for candidates participating in the recount to have the programming and calibration of the tabulating system, scanners, and electronic voting machines verified by independent experts.
5. We request that the test used by the Board to verify the logic and accuracy of the computer tabulating program be performed for each precinct, including any separate absentee precinct. Further, the test should include testing for under and over voted ballots.
6. We request that computer printouts of the recount results include the under and over votes recorded in each precinct.
7. John Kerry and John Edwards hereby request to have their witnesses visually inspect all ballots for which your voting system has not recorded a vote for President and Vice President, i.e. the undervote and overvote ballots. If the Board does not agree to a visual inspection of these ballots, then we hereby request to visually inspect all ballots pursuant to R.C. § 3515.04 and OAG 74-103.
8. We request to inspect envelopes and related paperwork for all uncounted provisional and absentee ballots. This includes documents stating the reason or reasons that a ballot was not counted and the documentation to support the same.
William Rivers Pitt, www.truthout.org: There are people out there who think we are crazy, who think we are bitter-enders, sore losermen, conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hatters. We just cannot accept the outcome of a truly legitimate American election, and we are flailing about like pathetic boated fish trying to change what cannot be changed. But the Ohio Secretary of State is brazenly breaking the law by denying public access to public records. The terrorism bugaboo was thrown in the way of those who wished to observe the counting process in Warren County, though nobody seems to know who tossed out the warning nor why terrorists would want to blow something up in southwestern Ohio. And now, legitimate hearings on these issues are being thwarted.
If demanding answers to these questions, along with all the other questions that have arisen - more than 30,000 reports of voting irregularities and fraud all across the country, including thousands of reports of malfunctioning electronic touch-screen voting machines, plus the disenfranchisement of as many as a million minority voters, and the startling reality that virtually every single 'malfunction' or error favored George W. Bush - if demanding answers to these questions makes me crazy, then damn it, bring on the boys with the butterfly nets, because I am completely out of my mind.
Hell, even the centrist shrinking violets at the DNC are apparently joining the crazy wacko club. The Democrats used their weekly radio address just yesterday to focus on ensuring accurate ballot counts and elections free of voter intimidation. Donna Brazile said on the radio, "America's story is one of expanding opportunity and suffrage, and one of our fundamental principles is that every eligible citizen is entitled to cast his or her vote and have that vote counted. We owe it to the students of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, who waited up to 10 hours to vote. We owe it to thousands of Ohio voters who wonder whether their votes were counted with the use of new electronic voting machines, and we owe it to countless other Americans. There is no place in our democracy for faulty voting equipment, long lines at the polls, untrained poll workers and any forms of chads. As a nation, we should not rest until our elections are free from the problems of elections past and until all Americans can cast their ballots on Election Day fully confident that their votes have been counted."
Dr. Werner Lange, www.democrats.com: A careful review of the absentee vote in one Ohio county revealed that many more absentee votes were cast than there were absentee voters identified.
All absentee voters must be identified as such by name and residence in the precinct poll books of the precinct in which they are registered. Over 100 precinct poll books in Trumbull County were checked for absentee voters and that number of actual absentee voters was compared to the certified number of absentee votes. There was an inflated difference in nearly every precinct of the five communities examined. The five communities whose poll books were carefully inspected for an absentee vote overcount are: Warren City (311), Howland Township (138), Newton Falls City (34), Girard City (57), and Cortland Township (40). The 106 precincts of these five Ohio communities, about 39% of all precincts in Trumbull County, netted a total of 580 absentee votes for which there were no absentee voters identified in the poll books.
The 106 precincts of these five Ohio communities, about 39% of all precincts in Trumbull County, netted a total of 580 absentee votes for which there were no absentee voters identified in the poll books.
“When there are more votes than voters, there is a big problem” stated Dr. Werner Lange, author of this study which would have been completed weeks earlier if Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, co-chair of the Ohio Bush-Cheney campaign, had not unlawfully ordered all 88 boards of elections to prevent public inspection of poll books until after certification of the vote.
The absentee vote inflation rate for these five communities averages 5.5 fradulent voters per precinct. If this pattern of inflated absentee votes holds for all of Ohio’s 11,366 precincts, then there were some 62,513 absentee votes in Ohio up for grabs in the last election. Who grabbed them and how they did so should be the subject of an immediate congressional investigation.
2. Bush Abomination’s #1 Failure: National Security
Carl Luna, San Diego Union-Tribune: Back in 1993, following the infamous "Blackhawk Down " disaster in Somalia, Clinton's Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned amidst allegations that he had failed to provide the troops in Somalia with the armored support they needed to do their mission. House and Senate Republicans, including several who hold majority leadership positions today, were in the forefront calling for Aspin's ouster.
Why then aren't these same voices calling for the resignation of Donald "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Rumsfeld? Aspin's Somalian botch resulted in the deaths of 18 US servicemen and the wounding of 75… Rumsfeld's job is to make sure the troops go into combat with everything they need to minimize loses. That he should have done so and hasn't is indicative of incompetence, if not outright criminal negligence. That he makes light of it by essentially telling the troops "Life's not fair - tough cookies - borders on reckless endangerment. For Republican members of Congress not to call for his head, they way they did with Democrat Les Aspin a decade ago, is partisan hypocrisy of the most brazen and dangerous kind. Support the Troops - Dump Rumsfeld!
3. Bush Abomination’s #2 Failure: Economic Security
Paul Krugman, NY Times: For it is now apparent that the Bush administration's privatization proposal will amount to the same thing: borrow trillions, put the money in the stock market and hope.
Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes, which pay for current Social Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government, already deep in deficit, would have to borrow to make up the shortfall…
There is, by the way, a precedent for Bush-style privatization. One major reason for Argentina's rapid debt buildup in the 1990's was a pension reform involving a switch to individual accounts - a switch that President Carlos Menem, like President Bush, decided to finance with borrowing rather than taxes. So Mr. Bush intends to emulate a plan that helped set the stage for Argentina's economic crisis.
If Mr. Bush were to say in plain English that his plan to solve our fiscal problems is to borrow trillions, put the money into stocks and hope for the best, everyone would denounce that plan as the height of irresponsibility. The fact that this plan has an elaborate disguise, one that would add considerably to its costs, makes it worse.
4. Bush Abomination’s #3 Failure: Environmental Security
Héctor Tobar, Los Angeles Times: The United States is the big odd man out as diplomats, scientists and environmentalists from more than 190 countries gather here at the 10th meeting of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The focus of the convention is the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which mandates reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming and will take effect next year.
Discussions of new limits are expected to begin here when official delegations arrive Wednesday, near the end of the 12-day conference.
Among major industrial countries, only the U.S. and Australia have failed to ratify the accord, which commits signatory nations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases to 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012.
Observers here say the U.S. is increasingly being shut out as the rest of the world adopts global mechanisms by which each country will meet its targeted reductions, including one that allows companies to trade reductions in carbon emissions in a kind of global pollution market.
The U.S., which accounts for about a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, pulled out of the agreement in 2001.
Kevin Gray, Associated Press: A Nepalese Sherpa fears his mountain valley will be flooded by melting glacier runoff high in the Himalayas. A Fiji islander frets about rising sea levels, while villagers cope with the destruction of mangrove swamps in India.
Anil Krishna Mistry, 37, of India, right, Penina Moce, of Fiji , center, and Osvaldo Enrique Bonino of Argentina, pose for photographers during the 10th International Convention on Climate Change in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday , Dec.10, 2004. As scientists debate whether global warming is effecting Earth, 'climate witnesses' told a U.N. environmental conference Friday they are already feeling the heat, worried about changing weather patterns they say are drastically effecting the way of life from the Himalayas to the South Pacific. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
As scientists debate whether global warming is affecting Earth, "climate witnesses" told a U.N. environmental conference Friday they are already feeling the heat of the changing weather patterns they say are drastically affecting the way of life from the Himalayas to the South Pacific.
Bill Moyers, www.tompaine.com: Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first secretary of the interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist , reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."
Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true—one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election, several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right—the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.
Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for adding to my own understanding): Once Israel has occupied the rest of its 'biblical lands,' legions of the anti-Christ will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow….
So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go to Grist to read a remarkable work of reporting by the journalist Glenn Scherer. Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed—even hastened—as a sign of the coming apocalypse. As Grist makes clear, we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election—231 legislators in total, more since the election—are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the Senate floor: "the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land." He seemed to be relishing the thought.
And why not? There's a constituency for it. A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or in the motel turn some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"
Because these people believe that until Christ does return, the Lord will provide. One of their texts is a high school history book, America's providential history. You'll find there these words: "the secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie...that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece.' however, "[t]he Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in god's earth......while many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that god has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people." No wonder Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers." He turned out millions of the foot soldiers on November 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics.
5. Complicity of the Corporatist News Media
http://mediamatters.org: Several cable and network news reports on President Bush's December 9 Oval Office meeting with Social Security trustees gave implicit support to the administration's plans to overhaul Social Security (which entails partial privatization) by repeating the crisis rhetoric of privatization proponents, suggesting that the Bush administration's plan offers a solution to the purported crisis, and bolstering the administration's plan through one-sided interviews with conservative guests. Some in the media have also mischaracterized the Democratic response to the administration's push for reform.
In a December 9 segment on CNN's Inside Politics, national correspondent Bruce Morton asserted, "Social Security is in trouble," and played a video clip of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaking in support of the Bush administration's proposal to overhaul the program. And on CNN's December 9 edition of Live From..., anchor Kyra Phillips teased a segment on Social Security by stating falsely that "[i]t's trillions of dollars in the red," asking: "What else can be done to save Social Security? President Bush talks about it."
But Social Security is not currently "in the red," and the view that the program needs an immediate, drastic fix is not universally held. The 2004 Report of the Board of Trustees of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds (OASDI), which was prepared by several Bush appointees (including three cabinet secretaries), noted that while "the financial difficulties facing Social Security" should be addressed "in a timely manner," the program is "considered financially adequate throughout the short range ... through the year 2013." The report estimated that Social Security "assets are projected to be exhausted in 2042," at which point, if left unchanged, "tax income would cover 73 percent of costs," and that the system could still pay out 68 percent by 2078.
www.dailyhowler.com: Why do American citizens think there’s a “looming crisis” in Social Security? One answer is fairly obvious—big press honchos constantly say so. Consider Sunday’s Meet the Press, for example. Senator Harry Reid dared to say that he opposed Soc Sec private accounts. In reply, Tim Russert put it on cruise control, serving up the scary speech he has delivered ten thousand times in the past:
RUSSERT (12/5/04): But, Senator, there are now forty million people on Social Security. In the next twenty years, there's going to be eighty million. Life expectancy used to be 65 years old. It's approaching 80. If you have twice as many people on these programs for fifteen years, you've got to restructure them in some way, shape, or form. What is your solution?
REID: Tim—
RUSSERT: What is your alternative?
Poor Harry! The solon got to say one word—“Tim”—before the humble son of Buffalo challenged him boldly again.
Jon Henley, Guardian: France is to launch a French-language news channel next year in a long-awaited attempt to challenge the dominance of the American view of world current affairs, the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said yesterday.
The government will provide €30m (£21m) in start-up funding for the channel, which will "allow international broadcasting that will express the diversity to which our nation is attached," Mr Raffarin said.
The CII (International Information Channel) project, better known in France as "CNN à la Francaise", is a pet project of Jacques Chirac's and was first announced shortly after his 2002 re-election.
It was initially greeted with widespread scepticism, seen as yet another Canute-like attempt to preserve French language and culture in the face of the inexorable onward march of English…
But after France's outspoken opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq last year the channel is seen as a valuable tool in promoting France's language and its view of global affairs.
President Chirac, in a vision shared by China and Russia, favours a "multipolar" view of world affairs and is concerned about the "unilateralist" domination of the US.
6. John P. O’Neil Wall of Heroes
SUSANNA LOOF, Chicago Sun-Times: Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, doctors said Saturday, adding that the highly toxic chemical could have been put in the opposition leader's soup, producing the severe disfigurement and partial paralysis of his face.
Yushchenko was expected to be released from Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic today or Monday to return to the campaign trail in Ukraine, said hospital director Dr. Michael Zimpfer.
The massive quantities of dioxin in Yushchenko's system caused chloracne, a type of adult acne produced by exposure to toxic chemicals, said hospital dermatologist Hubert Pehmberger.
Editorial, The Nation: A few days after the commercial television networks' laudatory "news" reports on George W. Bush's nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to serve as Secretary of State, PBS's Bill Moyers countered with something rarely seen on broadcast television these days: serious journalism. Moyers devoted a substantial portion of NOW, the public broadcasting program he has hosted for the past three years, to an analysis of Rice's failure to take seriously warnings about terrorist threats before the September 11 attacks as well as her misguided response to those attacks, her role in the campaign for war on Iraq and her scheming to avoid cooperating with the 9/11 Commission. The devastating report brought to mind Edward R. Murrow's See It Now dissection of Senator Joseph McCarthy…In a time of farce and tragedy, Bill Moyers did his best to arm the people with the power knowledge gives and to affirm that there's still a place for TV journalism that nurtures citizenship and democracy.
Robert Parry, www.consortiumnews.com: In 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles that forced a long-overdue investigation of a very dark chapter of recent U.S. foreign policy – the Reagan-Bush administration’s protection of cocaine traffickers who operated under the cover of the Nicaraguan contra war in the 1980s.
For his brave reporting at the San Jose Mercury News, Webb paid a high price. He was attacked by journalistic colleagues at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the American Journalism Review and even the Nation magazine. Under this media pressure, his editor Jerry Ceppos sold out the story and demoted Webb, causing him to quit the Mercury News. Even Webb’s marriage broke up.
On Friday, Dec. 10, Gary Webb, 49, died of an apparent suicide, a gunshot wound to the head.
Whatever the details of Webb’s death, American history owes him a huge debt. Though denigrated by much of the national news media, Webb’s contra-cocaine series prompted internal investigations by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department, probes that confirmed that scores of contra units and contra-connected individuals were implicated in the drug trade. The probes also showed that the Reagan-Bush administration frustrated investigations into those crimes for geopolitical reasons.
Unintentionally, Webb also exposed the cowardice and unprofessional behavior that had become the new trademarks of the major U.S. news media by the mid-1990s. The big news outlets were always hot on the trail of some titillating scandal – the O.J. Simpson case or the Monica Lewinsky scandal – but the major media could no longer grapple with serious crimes of state...
Even after the CIA’s inspector general issued his findings in 1998, the major newspapers could not muster the talent or the courage to explain those extraordinary government admissions to the American people. Nor did the big newspapers apologize for their unfair treatment of Gary Webb. Foreshadowing the media incompetence that would fail to challenge George W. Bush’s case for war with Iraq five years later, the major news organizations effectively hid the CIA’s confession from the American people…
Hitz also recounted complaints from CIA analysts that CIA operations officers handling the contra war hid evidence of contra-drug trafficking even from the CIA’s analytical division. Because of the withheld evidence, the CIA analysts incorrectly concluded in the mid-1980s that “only a handful of contras might have been involved in drug trafficking.” That false assessment was passed on to Congress and the major news organizations – serving as an important basis for denouncing Gary Webb and his series in 1996.
Though Hitz’s report was an extraordinary admission of institutional guilt by the CIA, it passed almost unnoticed by the big newspapers.
Two days after Hitz’s report was posted at the CIA’s Internet site, the New York Times did a brief article that continued to deride Webb’s work, while acknowledging that the contra-drug problem may indeed have been worse than earlier understood. Several weeks later, the Washington Post weighed in with a similarly superficial article. The Los Angeles Times never published a story on the release of the CIA’s Volume Two.
To this day, no editor or reporter who missed the contra-drug story has been punished for his or her negligence. Indeed, many of them are now top executives at their news organizations. On the other hand, Gary Webb’s career never recovered.
At Webb’s death, however, it should be noted that his great gift to American history was that he – along with angry African-American citizens – forced the government to admit some of the worst crimes ever condoned by any American administration: the protection of drug smuggling into the United States as part of a covert war against a country, Nicaragua, that represented no real threat to Americans.
The truth was ugly. Certainly the major news organizations would have come under criticism themselves if they had done their job and laid out this troubling story to the American people. Conservative defenders of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush would have been sure to howl in protest.
But the real tragedy of Webb’s historic gift – and of his life cut short – is that because of the major news media’s callowness and cowardice, this dark chapter of the Reagan-Bush era remains largely unknown to the American people.
7. Resistance not Collaboration
Michael Moore, www.michaelmoore.com: It is no surprise that the Republicans are sore winners. They have spent the better part of the past month beating their chests, threatening to send to Siberia any Republican who doesn’t toe the line (poor Arlen Specter), and promising everything short of martial law if the Democrats don’t do what they are told.
What’s worse is to watch the pathetic sight of the DLC (the conservative, pro-corporate group of Democrats) apologizing for being Democrats and promising to “purge” the party of the likes of, well, all of US! Their comments are so hilarious and really not even worth recognizing but the media is paying so much attention to them, I thought it might be worth doing a little reality check.
The most people the DLC is able to get out to an event of theirs is about 200 at their annual dinner (where you have to pay thousands of dollars to get in).
Contrast this with the following:
* Total Members of Move On: More than 2,000,000
* Total Attendance at Vote for Change Concerts: An estimated 280,000
* Total Union Members in U.S.: Around 16,000,000
* Total Number of People Who Have Seen “Fahrenheit 9/11”: Over 50 million
* Total Number of You Reading This: Perhaps 10 million or more
1. Theft of the 2004 Election
http://bradblogtoo.blogspot.com/2004/12/breaking-update-clint-curtis-stuns.html
Brad Blog has just received an exclusive first-hand account of Clint Curtis' sworn testimony (as reported earlier) to the Judiciary Committee Democrats holding hearings this morning in Columbus, Ohio on Election 2004 Voting Irregularities.
The software programmer, whose sworn affidavit was first reported by The BRAD BLOG, named Republican U.S. Congressman Tom Feeney (a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee!) as having asked him to create "vote-rigging" software when he was a Florida Congressman prior to 2000 elections!
Curtis was the only witness to be sworn in at today's hearings.
Here is the exclusive account as we've just received it by a very reliable BRAD BLOG source inside the committee hearings!
The following account may sound melodramatic but it is highly accurate.
None of these are quotes and represent my best recollection.
At apprx 1p, after a witness had finished, cliff arnebeck -- who had given a presentation some time before -- interjected and asked to call one more witness. He was given permission to do so. He said he was calling clint curtis.
Some of the audience literally gasped while others applauded. They clearly knew who he was.
Curtis stood at the front of room with arnebeck seated behind him. Curtis was about five to ten feet from the members of congress. At the front of the room, he placed his hand on a bible and was sworn. To my knowledge, he was the only witness sworn.
Arnebeck began a direct examination of curtis with basic questions, name, residence....
Then got to his qualifications
Then, he asked curtis something like whether voting machines could be hacked. He said yes. Arnebeck asked him on what he based that opinion. He said because I wrote a program that could do it. Arnebeck asked when that happened. Curtis said feeney had asked him to design such a program at yang enterprises.
Jaws dropped. Tubbs jones and waters looked shocked.
Tubbs jones, waters and nadler asked questions. Waters asked him to repeat who asked him to do it. Congressman feeney, he said. Nadler asked him some questions, as did tubbs jones and a state senator.
Curtis was asked what he would conclude if there was such a substantial deviation btwn exit polls and actual results. He said he would conclude the election had been hacked. Gasps. Could have heard a pin drop.
In the end, curtis was very very convincing to everyone in attendance. He was a show stopper, a stunner. It was a really amazing moment.
we've previously reported since breaking our original exclusive story on the Curtis affidavit [PDF] last week (Key articles are linked in a box in our right sidebar) Curtis last week met privately with staffers on the Judiciary Committee as well as Senate staffers.
Wired Magazine revealed today in their article on Curtis that it was staffers in Sen. Bill Nelson's office with whom Curtis met last week in D.C.
Nelson oversees NASA in the Senate. Curtis had charged in his affidavit that an employee, Hai Lin Nee (a/k/a Henry Nee) with whom Curtis worked at Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) had inserted "wiretapping routines" into programs that YEI had been contracted to create for NASA, among other companies (including the Florida Dept. of Transportation).
Nee was charged with shipping chips used in Hellfire anti-tank missiles to the Peoples Republic of China in March of this year, and has since plead guilty to one of those counts (more on Nee soon!)
At the time of the alleged October 2000 meeting at YEI when Curtis claims that Feeney asked him to create a "vote-rigging software prototype", Feeney was a member of the Florida Legislature, a corporate attorney for YEI, as well as being a registered lobbyist for the company.
Feeney was said to have been, at the time, the only registered lobbyist known to have been serving concurrently as a legislator in the 160 member Florida statehouse.
Shortly thereafter, Feeney became Speaker of the Florida Legislature.
In 2002 Feeney won a U.S. Congress seat in the newly created 24th Florida congressional district.
Feeney was the running mate to Jeb Bush during his first failed bid for Governor in 1994.
As we noted earlier, Wired Magazine article quotes YEI Attorneys as saying that Curtis was a "disgruntled employee", but does not note that the Attorney who made the statement is both a campaign contributor to Feeney, and, as well, is Feeney's former law partner in Florida.
As well, there seems to be little to indicate that Curtis was "disgruntled" with YEI or vice versa. He submitted his resignation in December of 2000 and stayed on, at YEI's request for an additional six weeks afterwards until a replacment could be found.
It has been reported YEI threw a "farewell party" for Curtis, and email correspondce that The BRAD BLOG has seen would indicate that employees -- including Nee -- missed Curtis a great deal in the months after he finally left the company.
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=490
12/13/2004
Witness says voting company tampered with machines after vote and tried to plant false information into Ohio recount
Green says voting company tampered with recount effort
By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor
David Cobb, the unsuccessful Green Party presidential candidate, aired startling allegations at the Democratic House Judiciary Committee’s Columbus hearings Monday, alleging that a voting company representative tampered with voting equipment in Columbus last Friday and attempted to plant false information into the Ohio recount.
Cobb says that a witness who had requested anonymity watched a representative of Triad Systems enter the Columbus Board of Elections unannounced and tamper with a vote tabulator which then lost all data.
The representative then, Cobb said, tried to convince employees to post false information so that it would appear as if the data was valid and had never been lost.
This following is RAW STORY ’s transcript Cobb’s speech as recorded by Inside Track News’ broadcast (mp3 file), an independent media outlet that covered the event. The story has been followed in detail at The Brad Blog.
“A representative from Triad Systems came into this county’s Board of Election’s office unannounced, that is on this Friday. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the upcoming recount.
“He then headed into the back room where Triad supplies tabulators, that is the machine that counts the ballots, is kept. This Triad representative told them that there was problem with the system, that the system had a bad battery and it had ‘lost all its data.’
“He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it. And in another [incomprehensible] in the room. And he had spare parts in his coat, as one of the people moved in [sic] remarked how very heavy it was.
“He finally reassembled everything and said it was working but not to turn it off. He then asked which precinct would be counted in the 3 percent recount test and that one which had been selected as if it had the right number of votes was relayed to him he then went back and did something else to the tabulator.
“The Triad Systems representative suggested that since the hand recount had to match the machine count exactly and since it would hard to memorize the several numbers which would be needed to get the count exactly right, that they should post this series of numbers on the wall where they would not be noticed by observers such as to make them look like employee information or something similar.
“The people doing the hand count could then he said just report those numbers no matter what the actually counted in the ballot. This would then ‘match’ the tabulator report for this precinct exactly.
Minority leader of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) replied, “David Cobb, I need to you to arrange a meeting with our staff immediately.”
Cobb asserted that such practices were “going on across the state.”
The Cleveland Free Press’ Editor David Fitrakis also submitted a list of documented Ohio voting irregularities Dec. 8, which Conyers’ office has posted online in pdf format.
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/12/ale04100.html
Don't Let Secretary of State Blackwell's Actions Penalize Ohio Voters
A Letter from Rep. Conyers (and others) to Ohio Governor Taft, Speaker Householder and President White to Delay or Treat as Provisional the Ohio Board of Electors 2004 Presidential Vote Until There is Resolution of the Vote Recounts and Challenges
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
December 13, 2004
The Honorable Bob Taft
Governor
State of Ohio
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215
The Honorable Larry Householder
Speaker of the House
Ohio House of Representatives
77 S. High St
14th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
The Honorable Doug White
President
Ohio Senate
Statehouse
Room #201 Second Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Dear Governor Taft, Speaker Householder & President White:
We write with an urgent request that you either delay or treat as provisional the scheduled December 13 meeting of the State of Ohio's 2004 Presidential electors and the submission of the certificates of ascertainment until resolution of pending recounts and challenges regarding the Ohio presidential vote. We are sure you would agree that no election is final, or should be deemed final, until all votes are counted and disputes are settled.
Notwithstanding federal statutory requirements that electors meet in their respective states on December 13, 2004,1 it is imperative and necessary under the Constitution of the United States that the State of Ohio delay or treat as provisional its meeting. First, federal law also provides that state legislatures may settle election controversies and contests six days prior to the meeting of electors, such that all disputes would be resolved by December 7, 2004.2 In this situation, it does not appear that the Ohio state legislature has made a decision to avail itself of this provision.
Secretary Blackwell declared his results on December 6, so late a date that he engineered a conflict with state recount laws. Ohio law sets two deadlines pertaining to recounts. First, it provides that applications for statewide recounts must be submitted within five days of the secretary of state's declaration of results.3 Second, such recounts must begin within ten days of the recount request.4 Moreover, it is worth noting that your state law automatically allows candidates who were not declared winners to seek recounts.5
Secretary Blackwell gave county boards of election until December 1 to certify their returns, and then waited to declare his own results on December 6. As a consequence, recounts may be sought at least until December 11 and must begin by December 16. It is impossible, therefore, for the December 6 results to be the official certification of the State of Ohio. The law providing a right to a recount would be an empty right in this scenario.
As you know, at least two presidential candidates in your State have applied for statewide recounts.6 Seeing the conflicting deadlines contained within federal and state law, these candidates sought to have the recounts begin even before the votes were declared so the deadlines could be reconciled.7 The federal court hearing the case denied the request for an early recount and also rebuffed a motion by the Delaware County Board of Elections to block a recount entirely.8 Also, we understand that challenges will be filed today on behalf of Ohio voters to set aside the results of the election in Ohio based on, among other things, massive voter irregularities.
It is important to note that Article II of the Constitution of the United States provides that "each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors," clearly giving the power to the Ohio legislature to finalize Ohio's election results. It appears, unfortunately, that Secretary Blackwell may unlawfully be attempting to have his own results certified. This is because Ohio law does not authorize the Secretary of State to determine the electors for the State of Ohio.
Had Secretary Blackwell not postponed his results so long, it is likely that any recounts would have been completed earlier and we would not be writing to you today. Unfortunately, the Secretary set in motion a series of events that should not penalize the voters of Ohio. It is for these reasons we ask that the State of Ohio hold only a provisional meeting of electors on December 13 and delay submission of the ascertainment of electors. A conclusive meeting of electors and ascertainment could occur after the recounts are completed. Such a scenario still would permit the U.S. Congress to meet in joint session and count the electoral votes on January 6, 2005, as provided by law.
Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this request, please feel free to contact Perry Apelbaum or Ted Kalo of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee staff at 2142 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 (tel: 202-225-6504; fax: 202-225-4423).
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr.
Jerrold Nadler
Barbara Lee
Melvin L. Watt
Barney Frank
Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Gregory Meeks
Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Sheila Jackson Lee
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick
Maxine Waters
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
http://blog.democrats.com/node/1912
Stolen Election 2004: Monday Update
by Bob Fertik on December 13, 2004 - 12:06am.
As the recount gets underway, John Kerry demanded manual counting of the 92,000 undervotes and overvotes rejected by voting machines.
The request is one of 11 items that Kerry is asking for as part of the recount that Ohio's 88 county boards of election will begin this week, according to a letter sent to the boards over the weekend.
"We're trying to increase the transparency of the election process," said Donald McTigue, the lawyer handling the recount for the Kerry campaign...
McTigue said the visual inspection is allowed under state law. The goal is to look for potential votes that were not registered by the tabulating equipment.
Other requests include the use of independent experts to check the programming and calibration of the election equipment, something McTigue said has never been allowed.
McTigue also asked that counties accept the help of a group called Votewatch to determine which precincts will be chosen for that part of the vote that will be counted by hand. McTigue said using the group will ensure that the ballots are selected using a valid random sampling method.
Way to go, John Kerry! (Memo to media: your readers would dearly like to know what the other 8 requests are!)
One reason the media is ignoring the recount is the perception that a recount will not change enough votes to change the outcome. Which is why this affidavit from Richard Hayes Phillips is so important:
It is my professional opinion that John Kerry’s margins of victory were wrongly reduced by 22,000 votes in Cleveland, by 17,000 votes in Columbus, and by as many as 7,000 votes in Toledo. It is my further professional opinion that John Kerry’s margins of defeat in Warren, Butler, and Clermont counties were inflated by as many as 37,000 votes in the aggregate, and in Miami County by as many as 6,000 votes. There are still 92,672 uncounted regular ballots that, based upon the analysis set forth above of the election results from Dayton and Cincinnati, may be expected to break for John Kerry by an overwhelming margin. And there are 14,441 uncounted provisional ballots.
Add these up and they exceed Bush's "official" margin of 118,506.
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/12/ale04101.html
December 13, 2004 SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND
ALERT ARCHIVES
The Official Kerry-Edwards Position on How to Handle the Ohio Recount, Sent to the Individual Boards of Election in the State
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
Confirmed by the Offices of Donald J. McTigue, Kerry-Edwards State Counsel in Ohio, below is the letter sent by McTigue to the individual board of elections in each of the counties in Ohio.
* * *
December 10, 2004
Re: Presidential Recount
Dear Director and Deputy Director:
Enclosed please find a copy of a letter personally signed by John Kerry appointing me as his legal counsel with respect to the recount for President and Vice President of the United States, with full authority to act on behalf of him and John Edwards, including appointing witnesses to attend the recount. Also enclosed is a letter personally signed by John Kerry designating witnesses to attend the recount in your county.
On behalf of John Kerry and John Edwards I am making the following requests regarding the conduct of the recount:
1. The selection of precincts for the three percent hand count should be according to a scientifically valid random sampling method. I am aware that you have received a letter from Votewatch regarding this issue with an offer by that organization to provide resources to ensure that the sampling method is valid. We urge you to accept this offer of assistance or otherwise be able to demonstrate that the method employed by the Board to select the precincts for the three percent hand count is scientifically valid.
2. We request that each candidate be given the opportunity to select at least one precinct for a hand count, either as part of or in addition to the three percent hand count.
3. For those counties that use touch screen voting systems, we request that the three percent hand count include a hand count of three percent of the ballot images stored in the each of the redundant memories of the machines selected for the recount and on any paper trail for the machines.
4. We request that the Board provide the opportunity for candidates participating in the recount to have the programming and calibration of the tabulating system, scanners, and electronic voting machines verified by independent experts.
5. We request that the test used by the Board to verify the logic and accuracy of the computer tabulating program be performed for each precinct, including any separate absentee precinct. Further, the test should include testing for under and over voted ballots.
6. We request that computer printouts of the recount results include the under and over votes recorded in each precinct.
7. John Kerry and John Edwards hereby request to have their witnesses visually inspect all ballots for which your voting system has not recorded a vote for President and Vice President, i.e. the undervote and overvote ballots. If the Board does not agree to a visual inspection of these ballots, then we hereby request to visually inspect all ballots pursuant to R.C. § 3515.04 and OAG 74-103.
8. We request to inspect envelopes and related paperwork for all uncounted provisional and absentee ballots. This includes documents stating the reason or reasons that a ballot was not counted and the documentation to support the same.
9. In order to verify candidate rotation, we request to inspect the ballot page assemblies of all punch card voting devices and the ballot faces of all touch screen voting machines used at the polls or at the Board’s office.
10. For those counties where the names of Nader and Camejo were visible to voters on the ballots, ballot pages or faces of voting machines, i.e. where the names were not covered over with a sticker or blacked out or the ballots were not reprinted without their names, we request to know whether any votes were cast for Nader and Camejo for President and Vice President.
11. We request that absentee ballots which were postmarked by election day, November 2, 2004, and were received by the board no later than November 12, 2004, be counted if the voter did not vote at the polls.
The above requests are in addition to any other requests that may be made by our witnesses.
If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Very truly yours,
cc: Daniel J. Hofheimer
Kerry-Edwards State Counsel, Ohio
Donald J. McTigue
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121404Z.shtml
Author's Note | I delivered the following remarks during a rally on Boston Common on Sunday 12 December. While I was there, I received this press release from the office of Rep. John Conyers:
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2004
CONTACT: Dena Graziano (202)226-6888
Conyers Alarmed at Efforts to Obstruct Ohio Recount Effort, Calls Witness to Monday Hearing to Detail Such Efforts
Yesterday, it came to the attention of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff that efforts to audit poll records in Greene County, Ohio are being obstructed by County Election officials and/or Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. According to Joan Quinn and Eve Robertson, two election observers researching voting records, Greene County officials initially gave Quinn and Robertson access to poll records, and then abruptly withdrew such access. Greene County Director of Elections Carole Garman claimed that she had withdrawn access to the voting records at the direction of Secretary Blackwell. Regardless of who ordered the denial of this access, such an action appears to violate Ohio law. Later, at the same office, election observers found the office unlocked, and what appeared to be locked ballot boxes, unattended. Prior to the withdrawal of access to the books, observers had found discrepancies in election records, and possible evidence of minority vote suppression.
House Judiciary Committee Democrats wrote a letter to Blackwell on December 2 requesting answers to 34 questions about election irregularities and fraud in Ohio. This letter included questions about major discrepancies in Perry County poll books. Since that letter, additional documentation has been provided to the Democratic staff demonstrating similar problems in other counties.
Because of the urgency of the Greene County matter, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has requested that Ms. Quinn testify at a hearing scheduled Monday in Columbus, Ohio. Ms. Quinn has agreed to do so and will also present sworn statements from corroborating witnesses. Conyers issued the following statement:
"The Recount effort is simply a search for the truth of what happened during the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio. We have now repeatedly seen election officials obstruct and stonewall this search for the truth. I am beginning to wonder what it is they are trying to hide."
When all is said and done, the activities taking place in Greene County could become the most important story from the 2004 election. My remarks below expand further on this issue. - wrp
The Greene County Lockdown
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 13 December 2004
There are people out there who think we are crazy, who think we are bitter-enders, sore losermen, conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hatters. We just cannot accept the outcome of a truly legitimate American election, and we are flailing about like pathetic boated fish trying to change what cannot be changed.
Hm. I wonder why. Maybe because of stories like this one, which started popping off late Friday night. This was the story as it first began to develop: On Friday December 10, two certified volunteers for the Ohio Recount team assigned to Greene County were in process recording voting information from minority precincts in Greene County, and were stopped mid-count by a surprise order from Secretary of State Blackwell's office. The Director Board of Elections stated that "all voter records for the state of Ohio were "locked-down," and now they are "not considered public records."
The volunteers were working with voter printouts received directly from Carole Garman, Director, Greene County Board of Elections. Joan Quinn and Eve Roberson, retired attorney and election official respectively, were hand-copying voter discrepancies from precinct voting books on behalf of the presidential candidates Mr. Cobb (Green) and Mr. Badnarik (Libertarian), both of whom had legitimately requested the recount.
One of the goals of their work was to determine how many minority voters were unable to vote or denied voting at the polls. Upon requesting copies of precinct records from predominantly minority precincts, Ms. Garman contacted Secretary of State Blackwell's office and spoke to Pat Wolfe, Election Administrator. Ms. Wolfe told Ms. Garman to assert that all voter records for the State of Ohio were "locked down" and that they are "not considered public records."
Quinn and Roberson asked specifically for the legal authority authorizing Mr. Blackwell to "lock down" public records. Garman stated that it was the Secretary of State's decision. Ohio statute requires the Directors of Boards of Election to comply with public requests for inspection and copying of public election records. As the volunteer team continued recording information from the precinct records in question, Garman entered the room and stated she was withdrawing permission to inspect or copy any voting records at the Board of Elections. Garman then physically removed the precinct book from Ms. Roberson's hands. They later requested the records again from Garman's office, which was again denied.
Ohio Revised Code Title XXXV Elections, Sec. 3503.26 that requires all election records be made available for public inspection and copying. ORC Sec. 3599.161 makes it a crime for any employee of the Board of Elections to knowingly prevent or prohibit any person from inspecting the public records filed in the office of the Board of Elections. Finally, ORC Sec. 3599.42 clearly states: "A violation of any provision of Title XXXV (35) of the Revised Code constitutes a prima facie case of election fraud within the purview of such Title." (Source attribution)
By late Saturday night, however, this story had taken even a wackier turn. The records taken from Quinn and Roberson's hands on Friday stood in an unlocked Board of Elections office Saturday morning, apparently overnight. Several observers arrived Saturday morning, noticing cars in the parking lot, and looked for officials in the office, but found nobody in the unlocked building. Law enforcement and media contacts had been alerted and were at the site before County officials arrived. Deputy Director of Elections Lynn McCoy arrived later and stated that all election records were still "locked down" and remained unavailable to the public.after having spent the night unsecured in an unlocked building on the eve of a recount. (Source attribution)
Hm.
So there's that. But then there's this. On election night, Warren County Ohio commissioners ordered a complete security lockdown at the County Administration Building, citing a terrorism threat. No one has offered a clear explanation for why the lockdown happened. The lockdown was done upon the recommendation of Frank Young, the county's emergency services director, who said he got information from an FBI agent. According to one source, the county was ranked 10 on a 1-to-10 threat scale. Young refused to identify the agent he said gave him the warning, and the FBI said they never issued any such warning, nor did they have any reason to suspect a specific threat against Warren County. No one but the officials in Warren County saw the need to lock all the doors, refuse entry to the press or other observers of the vote count, and generally treat the county building as if it were the Pentagon itself.
So there's that. But then there's this. Most of you are aware, I am sure, of the hearing held by Representative John Conyers last week in Washington. Can we take a moment for a cheer for Mr. Conyers for having the courage of his convictions. The process towards that hearing began with the letter from Rep. John Conyers to Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell. In that letter, Conyers described a long series of irregularities in the Ohio Presidential election that amounted to an accusation of fraud. The letter was the basis for the hearing, and made sure to invite Blackwell to participate. It is worth noting that Blackwell did not show up.
The hearing itself was a showcase for both fact and passion. The witnesses, the Representatives before them, and the crowd that filled the room lit the place up with a concerned electricity. Some believed the irregularities and outright fraud which marred the Ohio vote require immediate redress, a successful completion of which could come to overthrow the results of last month's election. Others saw the hearings as a gift to their children and the future, a means to ensure that any and all elections to come will not suffer the kind of nonsense that afflicted both November of 2004 and November of 2000.
The hearing took place in a unique moment in our history. Election fraud and voter disenfranchisement are not new in our history, but have been as much a part of the process as campaign buttons and baby-kissing. The fact that the electorate's voting habits are becoming more clearly drawn, and the fact that so many were watching like hawks after Florida in 2000, means that the standard-issue fraud which has always existed now has a bright light shining upon it, and means the new kinds of fraud involving electronic machines and computer tabulators are likewise suffering intense scrutiny. In this moment, that bright light means the problems, both new and old, can be and must be addressed, repaired, and purged from our democratic process.
Why, then, in this historic moment that benefits all Americans regardless of party, is the Ohio GOP thwarting all attempts at reform, thwarting attempts at even airing problems? You see, the Ohio GOP got wind of Conyers' intention to hold a hearing tomorrow in Columbus, at the City Hall, in the chambers of the City Council. The Ohio GOP has denied all requests for a room to hold this hearing. Conyers is going anyway, along with all his people, and will have their hearing on the damn City Hall steps if they have to.
But it is telling indeed that the Ohio GOP is refusing, flatly refusing, to allow the public the opportunity to hear of the problems that threaten the very basis of participatory democracy.
There are people out there who think we are crazy, who think we are bitter-enders, sore losermen, conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hatters. We just cannot accept the outcome of a truly legitimate American election, and we are flailing about like pathetic boated fish trying to change what cannot be changed. But the Ohio Secretary of State is brazenly breaking the law by denying public access to public records. The terrorism bugaboo was thrown in the way of those who wished to observe the counting process in Warren County, though nobody seems to know who tossed out the warning nor why terrorists would want to blow something up in southwestern Ohio. And now, legitimate hearings on these issues are being thwarted.
If demanding answers to these questions, along with all the other questions that have arisen - more than 30,000 reports of voting irregularities and fraud all across the country, including thousands of reports of malfunctioning electronic touch-screen voting machines, plus the disenfranchisement of as many as a million minority voters, and the startling reality that virtually every single 'malfunction' or error favored George W. Bush - if demanding answers to these questions makes me crazy, then damn it, bring on the boys with the butterfly nets, because I am completely out of my mind.
Hell, even the centrist shrinking violets at the DNC are apparently joining the crazy wacko club. The Democrats used their weekly radio address just yesterday to focus on ensuring accurate ballot counts and elections free of voter intimidation. Donna Brazile said on the radio, "America's story is one of expanding opportunity and suffrage, and one of our fundamental principles is that every eligible citizen is entitled to cast his or her vote and have that vote counted. We owe it to the students of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, who waited up to 10 hours to vote. We owe it to thousands of Ohio voters who wonder whether their votes were counted with the use of new electronic voting machines, and we owe it to countless other Americans. There is no place in our democracy for faulty voting equipment, long lines at the polls, untrained poll workers and any forms of chads. As a nation, we should not rest until our elections are free from the problems of elections past and until all Americans can cast their ballots on Election Day fully confident that their votes have been counted."
I'd like to get back to the Conyers hearing last week for a moment, and focus on the presence of Reverend Jesse Jackson, and his son, at that event. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. made the point that we must have a standardized national voting process and take the matter out of the hands of individual states, which can keep the process "separate and unequal." We must have a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. How can people argue that the right to own a gun is explicitly stated in the constitution, and then turn around and say it is acceptable to have the right to vote only be 'implicit' in the constitution?
It was this last point, made over and over again by Reverend Jackson, that drew the most applause from the audience and attention from the Congressmen. In demanding a constitutional amendment cementing the simple right to vote, Jackson spoke of the long line that reached from Selma, Alabama to Ohio, and into this room. "This is not about who won or lost," he said. "This is about participating in democracy. The 2004 election is not past-tense. We are not whining. It is time to take this struggle to the streets and fully legitimize this struggle." Well, here we are, Reverend. Here we are.
The importance of the presence of Reverend Jackson was described best by Cliff Arnebeck, who chairs Common Cause Ohio. "If you look at who was here," said Arnebeck, "you had leaders from the generally white political reform movement, and leaders from the black civil rights movement. This is a powerful coalition. We are not talking about one group having dominance over the other, but a real partnership of the traditional political reform community with the traditional civil rights community, and Reverend Jackson is the one that proposed it, has initiated the organization of it."
At the end of the day, the hearing was a beginning, a chance for those fighting this fight to look upon one another and know they are not alone. Rep. Conyers and his fellow Congressmen are to be commended for putting the process in motion. The most striking moment came when the hearing ended, and all of the people assembled began embracing one another. They had made their voices heard, they knew they were not alone, and it smelled like vindication in there when all was said and done.
The hearing was a beginning. There will be more, especially in Ohio. The lawsuits will continue. Rep. Conyers intimated that he might object to the seating of the Ohio Electors when the certification process begins. The protests will continue to grow across the country. Perhaps, if we can follow through and accomplish the cleansing of our democratic process, we will look back on that day in room 2237 of the Rayburn House Office Building and know that yet another popular movement towards achieving that more perfect union began there, in that time, and in that place.
On this day, this very day four years ago, a man was anointed President of the United States by the Supreme Court who did not win that office. There are many reasons why this happened, so many that I am not going to bother explaining all of them. At the end of the day, the main reason why this happened is straightforward and clear: George W. Bush gained his office because we did not count all of the votes that were cast, and the mainstream media smiled their way through all the reports of voting irregularities and fraud. Every study that came out after that election stated flatly that, had all the votes been counted, George W. Bush would be peddling his papers in West Texas, the war in Iraq would still be a neoconservative pipe dream, and perhaps two towers would still be casting their long shadows over the island of Manhattan.
We did not count all the votes in 2000, and we are on the edge of making the same mistake once again. Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell is doing everything he can to make sure the votes in his state are not being counted. Yet the fight continues. Jon Bonifaz of the National Voting Rights Institute, along with Cliff Arnebeck, will be filing their suit to demand a recount tomorrow, armed with statistical analyses of vote fraud, exit polls, and armed further with subpoenas for forensic examinations of the voting machines.
I asked Bonifaz about his suit at the Conyers hearing. He said: "The main focus is that we want a full recount of all votes cast in Ohio for President in the 2004 election. While that recount will continue past the time of the Electoral College meeting on December 13th, we will insist that it be completed in a timely manner, and by January 6th, when that recount is completed, there may in fact be a different set of Electors. I can't say for sure whether that will happen, but a recount is important to ensure the proper counting of every vote."
If you want to help Bonifaz, go to DefendTheRecount.org and join the legal defense fund. While you are at it, call or write Representative Conyers and support him in his stated desire to object to the seating of the Ohio electors if that recount is still in process. Join with Common Cause and demand the recusal of Secretary of State Blackwell from any process that involves a recount, and alert the media to his blatantly illegal actions in Greene County. Join the coalition being formed by Conyers and Jackson.
Push your Senators and House Representatives to support the GAO investigation into the election. Donate to the organization that brought us all here today - you will find out how shortly. I also strongly, strongly recommend that you join the forums at DemocraticUnderground.com and seek out the specific forum called 2004 Election Results and Discussion. 90% of what I have learned about this last election was located thanks to the remarkable researchers and activists in that place. Arm yourself with the facts.
By the way, Bonifaz and Arnebeck are working together on this, as I said before.and the recounters who got shut out of Greene County by Blackwell on Friday have contacted an attorney.one Cliff Arnebeck. So stay tuned on that.
President John F. Kennedy once said, "We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." It appears all to evident today that the government of this nation is afraid of its people, afraid of the truth.
This is nothing new. Alexis De Toqueville observed long ago that, "The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through."
We are seeing those colors breaking through today in the privatization of the vote, in the denial of access to the results of that vote, and in the complete blackout by the mainstream news media of the simple fact that this is happening. Yet here we stand, and here we will remain. I support the effort to pass a constitutional amendment establishing the explicit right to vote in this country. A federal right to vote would bolster the National Voter Registration Act standards for voter registration activities, while also prohibiting voter intimidation and granting the Attorney General the power to intervene where voting irregularities of fraud occurs.
You may groan at that last bit, remembering who sits in the AG chair today, and who will sit there when Ashcroft is gone, but this is a fight for the future, and we will clean that house one day and seat an attorney general who is not...how do I put this? One day we will seat an attorney general who understands his or her job involves more than frightening people on cue whenever Bush lands in political hot water. A federal right to vote makes all of the things we have seen happening since the November election a matter of constitutional law. Diebold would be exposed by this. Blackwell would be exposed by this. The truth would be exposed by this.
I can think of nothing more important than the defense of our right to vote, I can think of nothing more important than the demand that all votes be counted, and I can think of nothing more important than the fight to cleanse our system of those who would steal from us these basic, essential democratic requirements. I can think of no coherent argument against enshrining our right to vote within the sacred document that defines us as a nation.
This is not a partisan political issue. I do not know what the party registration was of the woman going through chemotherapy, who fainted in line while waiting to vote. She left the line without voting because the line was too long, because there were not enough machines at her polling place. I do not know the party registration of the single mom who would have gotten fired from her job had she stood in that long line to vote. What about the man who was in the hospital and did not receive his absentee ballot, so he stood in that line with an IV in his arm. I have no idea who these people would of voted for. I couldn't care less. These people, and millions more besides, were disenfranchised in this last election. This is intolerable. Period.
We stand upon the precipice of history. What we do now defines our future. Thank you for being here, thank you for standing up, thank you for your patriotism. Thank you.
________________________________________
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.'
http://blog.democrats.com/ohio-absentee
62,000 Fraudulent Absentee Ballots in Ohio?
by Bob Fertik on December 12, 2004 - 9:23pm.
More Votes than Voters in Ohio:
Absentee Vote Inflated, Certified Vote in Doubt
by Dr. Werner Lange
December 12, 2004
A careful review of the absentee vote in one Ohio county revealed that many more absentee votes were cast than there were absentee voters identified.
All absentee voters must be identified as such by name and residence in the precinct poll books of the precinct in which they are registered. Over 100 precinct poll books in Trumbull County were checked for absentee voters and that number of actual absentee voters was compared to the certified number of absentee votes. There was an inflated difference in nearly every precinct of the five communities examined. The five communities whose poll books were carefully inspected for an absentee vote overcount are: Warren City (311), Howland Township (138), Newton Falls City (34), Girard City (57), and Cortland Township (40). The 106 precincts of these five Ohio communities, about 39% of all precincts in Trumbull County, netted a total of 580 absentee votes for which there were no absentee voters identified in the poll books.
The 106 precincts of these five Ohio communities, about 39% of all precincts in Trumbull County, netted a total of 580 absentee votes for which there were no absentee voters identified in the poll books.
“When there are more votes than voters, there is a big problem” stated Dr. Werner Lange, author of this study which would have been completed weeks earlier if Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, co-chair of the Ohio Bush-Cheney campaign, had not unlawfully ordered all 88 boards of elections to prevent public inspection of poll books until after certification of the vote.
The absentee vote inflation rate for these five communities averages 5.5 fradulent voters per precinct. If this pattern of inflated absentee votes holds for all of Ohio’s 11,366 precincts, then there were some 62,513 absentee votes in Ohio up for grabs in the last election. Who grabbed them and how they did so should be the subject of an immediate congressional investigation.
INFLATION OF ABSENTEE VOTE IN OHIO:
Evidence from Trumbull County
LEGEND
P --|-- A --|-- B1 --|-- B2 --|-- B3 --|-- C
P = Precinct No.
A=Certified Absentee Vote
(B = Identified Absentee Voters)
B1= printed B2= handwritten B3= Total
C= Overcount
Warren:
1A --|-- 83 --|-- 48 --|-- 19 --|-- 67 --|-- 16
1B --|-- 29 --|-- 15 --|-- 5 --|-- 20 --|-- 9
1C --|-- 46 --|-- 38 --|-- 13 --|-- 51 --|-- -
1D --|-- 35 --|-- 30 --|-- 9 --|-- 39 --|-- -
1E --|-- 43 --|-- 31 --|-- 9 --|-- 40 --|-- 3
1G --|-- 41 --|-- 35 --|-- 4 --|-- 39 --|-- 2
1H --|-- 21 --|-- 19 --|-- 5 --|-- 24 --|-- -
1J --|-- 40 --|-- 27 --|-- 6 --|-- 33 --|-- 7
1K --|-- 47 --|-- 35 --|-- 2 --|-- 37 --|-- 10
1L --|-- 56 --|-- 36 --|-- 10 --|-- 46 --|-- 10
2A --|-- 38 --|-- 33 --|-- 3 --|-- 36 --|-- 2
2B --|-- 31 --|-- 24 --|-- 3 --|-- 27 --|-- 4
2C --|-- 62 --|-- 58 --|-- 6 --|-- 64 --|-- -
2D --|-- 20 --|-- 19 --|-- 6 --|-- 25 --|-- -
2E --|-- 53 --|-- 49 --|-- 0 --|-- 49 --|-- 4
2F --|-- 34 --|-- 27 --|-- 7 --|-- 34 --|-- 0
2G --|-- 48 --|-- 37 --|-- 4 --|-- 41 --|-- 7
3A --|-- 31 --|-- 16 --|-- 10 --|-- 26 --|-- 5
3B --|-- 27 --|-- 19 --|-- 5 --|-- 24 --|-- 3
3C --|-- 90 --|-- 69 --|-- 18 --|-- 87 --|-- 3
3D --|-- 43 --|-- 29 --|-- 15 --|-- 44 --|-- -
3E --|-- 63 --|-- 33 --|-- 20 --|-- 53 --|-- 10
3F --|-- 43 --|-- 24 --|-- 14 --|-- 38 --|-- 5
3G --|-- 51 --|-- 46 --|-- 9 --|-- 55 --|-- -
3H --|-- 41 --|-- 24 --|-- 9 --|-- 33 --|-- 8
3J --|-- 49 --|-- 34 --|-- 8 --|-- 42 --|-- 7
3K --|-- 54 --|-- 32 --|-- 12 --|-- 44 --|-- 10
3L --|-- 49 --|-- 31 --|-- 16 --|-- 47 --|-- 2
3M --|-- 93 --|-- 54 --|-- 34 --|-- 88 --|-- 5
4A --|-- 30 --|-- 15 --|-- 5 --|-- 20 --|-- 10
4B --|-- 35 --|-- 20 --|-- 7 --|-- 27 --|-- 8
4C --|-- 21 --|-- 13 --|-- 6 --|-- 19 --|-- 2
4D --|-- 11 --|-- 4 --|-- 4 --|-- 8 --|-- 3
4E --|-- 22 --|-- 13 --|-- 3 --|-- 16 --|-- 6
4F --|-- 25 --|-- 19 --|-- 5 --|-- 24 --|-- 1
4G --|-- 14 --|-- 5 --|-- 3 --|-- 8 --|-- 6
4H --|-- 20 --|-- 21 --|-- 3 --|-- 24 --|-- -
5A --|-- 45 --|-- 31 --|-- 13 --|-- 44 --|-- 1
5C --|-- 26 --|-- 16 --|-- 8 --|-- 24 --|-- 2
5D --|-- 64 --|-- 48 --|-- 10 --|-- 58 --|-- 6
5E --|-- 60 --|-- 34 --|-- 21 --|-- 55 --|-- 5
5F --|-- 60 --|-- 37 --|-- 13 --|-- 50 --|-- 10
5G --|-- 50 --|-- 29 --|-- 11 --|-- 40 --|-- 10
5H --|-- 63 --|-- 47 --|-- 6 --|-- 53 --|-- 10
5K --|-- 102 66 --|-- 24 --|-- 90 --|-- 12
5L --|-- 21 --|-- 17 --|-- 7 --|-- 24 --|-- -
6A --|-- 40 --|-- 27 --|-- 10 --|-- 37 --|-- 3
6B --|-- 48 --|-- 25 --|-- 13 --|-- 38 --|-- 10
6C --|-- 37 --|-- 25 --|-- 0 --|-- 25 --|-- 12
6D --|-- 39 --|-- 28 --|-- 6 --|-- 34 --|-- 5
6E --|-- 81 --|-- 50 --|-- 12 --|-- 62 --|-- 19
6G --|-- 38 --|-- 20 --|-- 14 --|-- 34 --|-- 4
7A --|-- 34 --|-- 32 --|-- 1 --|-- 33 --|-- 1
7B --|-- 66 --|-- 49 --|-- 14 --|-- 63 --|-- 3
7C --|-- 50 --|-- 35 --|-- 5 --|-- 40 --|-- 10
7D --|-- 41 --|-- 26 --|-- 0 --|-- 26 --|-- 15
7E --|-- 40 --|-- 30 --|-- 7 --|-- 37 --|-- 3
7F --|-- 16 --|-- 11 --|-- 3 --|-- 14 --|-- 2
Total Overcount: Warren 311
Howland Township:
A --|-- 34 --|-- 20 --|-- 4 --|-- 24 --|-- 10
B --|-- 22 --|-- 19 --|-- 3 --|-- 22 --|-- 0
C --|-- 53 --|-- 39 --|-- 11 --|-- 50 --|-- 3
D --|-- 61 --|-- 48 --|-- 13 --|-- 61 --|-- 0
E --|-- 43 --|-- 32 --|-- 5 --|-- 37 --|-- 6
F --|-- 41 --|-- 34 --|-- 3 --|-- 37 --|-- 4
G --|-- 44 --|-- 34 --|-- 5 --|-- 39 --|-- 5
H --|-- 122 95 --|-- 14 --|-- 109 13
J --|-- 70 --|-- 57 --|-- 9 --|-- 66 --|-- 4
K --|-- 66 --|-- 45 --|-- 11 --|-- 56 --|-- 10
L --|-- 48 --|-- 33 --|-- 9 --|-- 42 --|-- 6
M --|-- 50 --|-- 36 --|-- 9 --|-- 45 --|-- 5
N --|-- 74 --|-- 55 --|-- 9 --|-- 64 --|-- 10
P --|-- 36 --|-- 21 --|-- 5 --|-- 26 --|-- 10
Q --|-- 43 --|-- 33 --|-- 5 --|-- 38 --|-- 5
R --|-- 39 --|-- 32 --|-- 9 --|-- 41 --|-- -
S --|-- 84 --|-- 67 --|-- 7 --|-- 74 --|-- 10
T --|-- 44 --|-- 35 --|-- 3 --|-- 38 --|-- 4
V --|-- 42 --|-- 22 --|-- 7 --|-- 29 --|-- 13
W --|-- 61 --|-- 50 --|-- 9 --|-- 59 --|-- 2
X --|-- 56 --|-- 45 --|-- 6 --|-- 51 --|-- 5
Y --|-- 69 --|-- 49 --|-- 7 --|-- 56 --|-- 13
Total Overcount: Howland Township 138
Newton Falls
City:
1A --|-- 61 --|-- 44 --|-- 4 --|-- 48 --|-- 13
2A --|-- 37 --|-- 35 --|-- 0 --|-- 35 --|-- 2
3A --|-- 62 --|-- 49 --|-- 1 --|-- 50 --|-- 12
4A --|-- 41 --|-- 32 --|-- 2 --|-- 34 --|-- 7
Total Overcount: Newton Falls City 34
Girard City:
1A --|-- 58 --|-- 38 --|-- 0 --|-- 38 --|-- 20
1B --|-- 54 --|-- 41 --|-- 11 --|-- 52 --|-- 2
1C --|-- 51 --|-- 47 --|-- 8 --|-- 55 --|-- -
2A --|-- 57 --|-- 45 --|-- 5 --|-- 50 --|-- 7
2B --|-- 62 --|-- 56 --|-- 6 --|-- 62 --|-- 0
2C --|-- 35 --|-- 30 --|-- 0 --|-- 30 --|-- 5
2D --|-- 45 --|-- 29 --|-- 8 --|-- 37 --|-- 8
3A --|-- 26 --|-- 25 --|-- 4 --|-- 29 --|-- -
3B --|-- 69 --|-- 53 --|-- 18 --|-- 71 --|-- -
3C --|-- 43 --|-- 35 --|-- 1 --|-- 36 --|-- 7
3D --|-- 42 --|-- 34 --|-- 0 --|-- 34 --|-- 8
4A --|-- 55 --|-- 42 --|-- 13 --|-- 55 --|-- 0
4B --|-- 43 --|-- 42 --|-- 3 --|-- 45 --|-- -
4C --|-- 36 --|-- 35 --|-- 2 --|-- 37 --|-- -
Total Overcount: Girard City 57
Cortland:
A --|-- 50 --|-- 34 --|-- 13 --|-- 47 --|-- 3
B --|-- 61 --|-- 41 --|-- 15 --|-- 56 --|-- 5
C --|-- 75 --|-- 59 --|-- 11 --|-- 70 --|-- 5
D --|-- 59 --|-- 38 --|-- 11 --|-- 49 --|-- 10
E --|-- 67 --|-- 54 --|-- 13 --|-- 67 --|-- 0
F --|-- 61 --|-- 51 --|-- 8 --|-- 59 --|-- 2
G --|-- 75 --|-- 55 --|-- 10 --|-- 65 --|-- 10
H --|-- 54 --|-- 37 --|-- 12 --|-- 49 --|-- 5
Total Overcount: Cortland --|-- --|-- --|-- --|-- 40
Total Overcount from these five Trumbull County communities: 580
Key Findings:
1. 580 votes attributed to absentee voters in these five communities had no record in the precinct poll books of the identity of the voter.
2. Only five precincts had a certified absentee vote that was equivalent to the number of identified absentee voters in the precinct poll book. The five are: Warren 2F; Howland D; Cortland E; and Girard 4A and 2A.
3. An overcount of exactly 10 absentee votes was unusually common. 17 precincts showed 10 more absentee votes than there were identified absentee voters. The 17 are:
Warren 1K; 1L; 3E; 3K; 4A; 5F; 5G; 5H; 6B; 7C; Howland A, K, N, P, S; and Cortland D and G.
Discussion:
Absentee voters, like any other registered voters, must have their name and address appear in the poll book of the precinct in which they reside and vote. No legitimate absentee ballot can be cast without the name of the registered absentee voter appearing in the precinct poll book. If application for an absentee ballot is made in a timely fashion, then “absentee voter” appears in bold print within the signature box of that voter. If the request for an absentee ballot comes close to the election, then evidently those words or similar ones are handwritten within the signature box. Also, if the registered absentee voter chooses to vote at the Trumbull Board of Elections, then this information is shared with precinct poll workers who are to write in “absentee voter.”
For this study, both the printed and written absentee voter identification were verified for each of the 106 precincts carefully scrutinized. The actual total number of identified absentee voters appears in column B3. Board of Election officials mark the certified absentee vote in red ink on the cover of the poll book as well as on the Reconciliation Certificate found within it, often changing the number which appeared on the cover in black ink. The number of absentee votes counted and certified appears in column A. If there is a higher number in column B3 than A, then not all persons receiving an absentee ballot returned them or some other legitimate reason can explain the difference.
If there is a higher number in column A than in column B3 – as happened in nearly every precinct examined – then there must have been more absentee votes cast than there were absentee voters identified in the poll books. This glaring discrepancy cries out for an explanation and investigation. There cannot and must not be more votes than voters in any legitimate election.
Conclusion:
If this pattern of overcounting absentee votes is a statewide one, then tens of thousands of phoney absentee votes were up for grabs in Ohio. Who grabbed them and how they got them should be a subject of an immediate congressional investigation.
For further information, please contact Dr. Werner Lange, author of this study, at Werlange@earthlink.com
Editor's Note:
After reading this article I asked Dr. Lange a few follow-up questions. Dr. Lange's replies are indented.
1. Were the absentee ballots counted separately in each precinct, or together at the county election HQ?
I am not certain where the absentee ballots were counted. I believe it must have been at the county election HQ (Trumbull Board of Elections) since absentee voters did not show up at the precinct polls but needed to be identified as absentee voters in the poll books whether they voted by mail or at the Trumbull BOE in the days prior to Election Day.
2. Did you examine the actual absentee ballots?
- If so, could you tally the Kerry & Bush votes?
- If so, did you notice any repeating handwriting?
No, I did not examine the absentee ballots themselves, and I believe members of the general public are not permitted to do so. The poll books are public documents; but I'm not sure if the ballots themselves have the same status.
3. Did you seek an explanation from the county election supervisor?
Not specifically, but I was told by a BOE employee that all absentee voters are identified as such in the precinct poll books.
-
2. Bush Abomination’s #1 Failure: National Security
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/weblogs/luna/archives/000977.html
Double Standard
By Carl Luna
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Friday 10 December 2004
Just a passing thought. Back in 1993, following the infamous "Blackhawk Down " disaster in Somalia, Clinton's Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned amidst allegations that he had failed to provide the troops in Somalia with the armored support they needed to do their mission. House and Senate Republicans, including several who hold majority leadership positions today, were in the forefront calling for Aspin's ouster.
Why then aren't these same voices calling for the resignation of Donald "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Rumsfeld? Aspin's Somalian botch resulted in the deaths of 18 US servicemen and the wounding of 75. Rumsfeld's apparent failure to insure proper armor protection for US troops has already, to date, resulted in more lives lost or maimed than happened in Somalia.
Meanwhile Rumsfeld's off the cuff musings that, "If you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up," has to rank as one of the great non-sequiturs of any modern Defense Secretary. Does this mean you might as well go into combat naked, painted blue with beards tarred like the Celtic warriors of old? I thought the goal was to produce tanks that blew up the other side before they blew up you and armored vehicles that kept soldiers from dying at the hands of low-grade homemade bombs? Rumsfeld's job is to make sure the troops go into combat with everything they need to minimize loses. That he should have done so and hasn't is indicative of incompetence, if not outright criminal negligence. That he makes light of it by essentially telling the troops "Life's not fair - tough cookies - borders on reckless endangerment. For Republican members of Congress not to call for his head, they way they did with Democrat Les Aspin a decade ago, is partisan hypocrisy of the most brazen and dangerous kind.
Support the Troops - Dump Rumsfeld!
3. Bush Abomination’s #2 Failure: Economic Security
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/opinion/10krugman.html?oref=login&oref=login
________________________________________
December 10, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Borrow, Speculate and Hope
By PAUL KRUGMAN
he National Association of Securities Dealers," The Wall Street Journal reports, "is investigating whether some brokerage houses are inappropriately pushing individuals to borrow large sums on their houses to invest in the stock market." Can we persuade the association to investigate would-be privatizers of Social Security?
For it is now apparent that the Bush administration's privatization proposal will amount to the same thing: borrow trillions, put the money in the stock market and hope.
Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes, which pay for current Social Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government, already deep in deficit, would have to borrow to make up the shortfall.
This would sharply increase the government's debt. Never mind, privatization advocates say: in the long run, they claim, people would make so much on personal accounts that the government could save money by cutting retirees' benefits. Financial markets won't believe this claim, as I'll explain in a minute, but let's temporarily grant the point.
Even so, if personal investment accounts were invested in Treasury bonds, this whole process would accomplish precisely nothing. The interest workers would receive on their accounts would exactly match the interest the government would have to pay on its additional debt. To compensate for the initial borrowing, the government would have to cut future benefits so much that workers would gain nothing at all.
How, then, can privatizers claim that they could secure the future of Social Security without raising taxes or reducing the incomes of future retirees? By assuming that workers would invest most of their accounts in stocks, that these investments would make a lot of money and that, in effect, the government, not the workers, would reap most of those gains, because as personal accounts grew, the government could cut benefits.
We can argue at length about whether the high stock returns such schemes assume are realistic (they aren't), but let's cut to the chase: in essence, such schemes involve having the government borrow heavily and put the money in the stock market. That's because the government would, in effect, confiscate workers' gains in their personal accounts by cutting those workers' benefits.
Once you realize that privatization really means government borrowing to speculate on stocks, it doesn't sound too responsible, does it? But the details make it considerably worse.
First, financial markets would, correctly, treat the reality of huge deficits today as a much more important indicator of the government's fiscal health than the mere promise that government could save money by cutting benefits in the distant future.
After all, a government bond is a legally binding promise to pay, while a benefits formula that supposedly cuts costs 40 years from now is nothing more than a suggestion to future Congresses. Social Security rules aren't immutable: in the past, Congress has changed things like the retirement age and the tax treatment of benefits. If a privatization plan passed in 2005 called for steep benefit cuts in 2045, what are the odds that those cuts would really happen?
Second, a system of personal accounts, even though it would mainly be an indirect way for the government to speculate in the stock market, would pay huge brokerage fees. Of course, from Wall Street's point of view that's a benefit, not a cost.
There is, by the way, a precedent for Bush-style privatization. One major reason for Argentina's rapid debt buildup in the 1990's was a pension reform involving a switch to individual accounts - a switch that President Carlos Menem, like President Bush, decided to finance with borrowing rather than taxes. So Mr. Bush intends to emulate a plan that helped set the stage for Argentina's economic crisis.
If Mr. Bush were to say in plain English that his plan to solve our fiscal problems is to borrow trillions, put the money into stocks and hope for the best, everyone would denounce that plan as the height of irresponsibility. The fact that this plan has an elaborate disguise, one that would add considerably to its costs, makes it worse.
And maybe the fact that serious financial experts, the sort qualified to be Treasury secretary, understand all this is the reason why John Snow has just been reappointed.
E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com
Bob Herbert is on vacation.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top
4. Bush Abomination’s #3 Failure: Environmental Security
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1212-04.htm
Published on Sunday, December 12, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
U.S. Seen as Laggard at U.N. Climate Change Meeting
As signatories to the Kyoto pact adopt ways to cut gas emissions, America is increasingly shut out, having balked at ratifying the accord.
by Héctor Tobar
BUENOS AIRES — The United States is the big odd man out as diplomats, scientists and environmentalists from more than 190 countries gather here at the 10th meeting of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The focus of the convention is the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which mandates reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming and will take effect next year.
Discussions of new limits are expected to begin here when official delegations arrive Wednesday, near the end of the 12-day conference.
Among major industrial countries, only the U.S. and Australia have failed to ratify the accord, which commits signatory nations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases to 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012.
Observers here say the U.S. is increasingly being shut out as the rest of the world adopts global mechanisms by which each country will meet its targeted reductions, including one that allows companies to trade reductions in carbon emissions in a kind of global pollution market.
The U.S., which accounts for about a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, pulled out of the agreement in 2001.
U.S. officials last week acknowledged a global rise in temperatures caused by human activity but said the increase had not yet reached the "dangerous" levels that required drastic action.
They reiterated that the Bush administration would not push for U.S. ratification of the accord.
"The Kyoto Protocol was a political agreement," said Harlan L. Watson, President Bush's senior climate negotiator and head of the U.S. delegation to the conference. "It was not based on science."
Watson, a physicist, is playing the role of spoilsport at the conference, enduring the private criticism of fellow delegates and the thinly veiled hostility of environmentalists who have come to the conference in large numbers as observers.
"I'm not sure why we are considered the 'bad boys,' " Watson said at a news conference last week. "We believe we match or exceed what any other country in the world is doing to address the issue."
Watson and other U.S. officials here point out that the Bush administration has set aside billions to fund climate research and weather-monitoring programs around the world.
In 2002, Bush committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 18% by 2012 but linked those reductions to growth in gross domestic product.
However, U.S. officials at the conference said emissions would probably be 15% above 1990 levels, far higher than mandated in the Kyoto pact.
The U.S. plan is based chiefly on voluntary measures, because administration officials believe that mandatory limits would hinder economic growth.
At another session, Watson took questions from environmentalists and acknowledged the scientific consensus on global warming: that the global temperature had risen 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit in the last century and that the increase was linked to human activity.
There is also widespread agreement that climate science is not yet able to predict with precision what the long-term consequences of global warming will be.
"There's a lot of uncertainty, and we'll leave it at that," Watson told the environmentalists. He said the U.S. would not revisit its goals for greenhouse gas reduction until 2012, when it would reassess a new round of climate studies.
In the meantime, much of the rest of the developing world will begin implementing the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement passed its final hurdle in November when Russia ratified the treaty.
Yvo de Boer, the chief negotiator on climate issues for the European Union, said the political atmosphere had changed considerably in favor of worldwide action to combat global warming.
"There was a great reluctance before the Russian ratification to begin any change toward the future," De Boer said. "That situation has clearly changed."
Environmental groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature are pushing the signatories to move toward even stricter limits.
Although no major agreements are expected as the convention reaches a close this week, the officials will probably make progress on many of the agreement's technical details.
During a series of meetings and worksh