U.S. National

Diebold "hack test" - Sec. State / Black Box Lawyer square off

UPDATE ON CALIFORNIA DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINE "HACK" TESTING

Letter faxed and mailed Dec. 9, 2005 To: California Secretary of State, Bruce McDannold, cc: Bruce McPherson From: John S. Baker, Atty at Law, Dorsey & Whitney So. Cal. Office

“I represent Black Box Voting, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit 501c(3) corporation. On June 16, 2005, Black Box Voting sent a request to examine the Diebold Election Systems component: the programmed “electronic ballad box” memory cards used in optical scan and touch screen voting systems (“Component”). This request was made pursuant to California Elections Code Section 19202 (“19202 Request”), which provides:

ANY PERSON OR CORPORATION OWNING OR BEING INTERESTED IN ANY VOTING SYSTEM OR PART OF A VOTING SYSTEM MAY APPLY TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO EXAMINE IT AND REPORT ON ITS ACCURACY AND EFFICIENCY TO FULFILL TIS PURPOSE. THE SECRETARY OF STATE SHALL COMPLETE HIS EXAMINATION WITHOUT UNDUE DELAY.

We're melting

One wonders what the Wicked Witch of the West must have been thinking in that terrifying moment in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy doused her with water, when she realized that she was melting and no amount of evil spells was going to change that? With the recent deluge of melting glaciers and warming seas, it seems we residents of planet Earth may be reaching a very similar moment.

Our glaciers are melting at an ever quickening pace and there seems to be little we can do to stop it. According to recent studies, the Helheim glacier, one of the largest in Greenland, is melting at a rate much faster than expected. If it continues, Greenland will likely become much smaller and SEAS COULD RISE AS MUCH AS THREE FEET DURING THIS CENTURY. The accelerated melting is attributable to Greenland's warming temperatures which have risen five degrees Fahrenheit in the last ten years.

Important daily voting news

In a stunning reversal the North Carolina State Board of Elections decided to ignore state law and certify three voting systems for use in the state. Keith Long, an advisor to the Board of Elections who was formerly employed by both Diebold and Sequoia, has said that "none of them" could meet the statutory requirement to place their system code in escrow. Instead of rejecting all applications and issuing a new call for bids as required by law, the Board chose to approve all of the applicants. Long also said that it was not necessary to review the source code, even though state law requires it, because the ITA has already done that before federal qualification.

National: Documentary charges electronic voting flawed (VoterGate)
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=120281

National: States and Localities Prepare for Jan. 1 HAVA and Electronic Voting Deadline (Misinformation from the recent California "summit" )
http://www.public-cio.com/newsStory.php?id=2005.12.02-97448

Ongoing quest for the many manifestations of bigfoot

Review and Commentary on Mike Palecek's Latest Novel

"George Bush is a liar AND a loose gun for hire." I found it so refreshing to read these affirmations of truth on the cover of Mike Palecek's latest novel, Looking for Bigfoot.  Palecek's "irreverent" novel is a potent attack on almost everything which is perverse, depraved, immoral, and malevolent about the US government and the society which it creates and perpetuates (through the public education system and its subservient corporate media). The search for Bigfoot which Jack Robert King, the novel's protagonist, undertakes is a metaphorical quest for the truth behind the deteriorating facade of the United States as a benevolent super power which spreads freedom and liberty around the globe.

The Mazruiana collection revisited

Ali A Mazrui debating the African condition
An annotated and select thematic bibliography, 1962-2003
Compiled by Abdul Samed Bemath
Published by Africa Institute of South Africa & New Dawn Press, Inc.
ISBN 1 932705 37 6 

A year ago, in a citation on Ali A Mazrui’s nomination as 100  Greatest Africans of all times by New African Magazine he is profiled as representing a positive image of Africa and its people.

A month ago Mazrui was yet again nominated as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world. The honour this time was bestowed by an American journal Foreign Policy, published by the Carnegie Endowment.

Who is this man about whom the late Palestinian academic Edward Said observed in his classic Culture and Imperialism: “Here at last was an African on prime-time television, in the West, daring to accuse the West of what it had done, thus reopening a file considered closed.”?

He is undoubtedly a Global African and as this continent’s most respected contemporary scholar of repute is widely acclaimed as its foremost thinker and writer.

Diebold attempts to evade election transparency laws

EFF Goes to Court to Force E-voting Company to Comply With Strict New North Carolina Law

Raleigh, North Carolina - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is going to court in North Carolina to prevent Diebold Election Systems, Inc. from evading North Carolina law.

In a last-minute filing, e-voting equipment maker Diebold asked a North Carolina court to exempt it from tough new election requirements designed to ensure transparency in the state's elections. Diebold obtained an extraordinarily broad order, allowing it to avoid placing its source code in escrow with the state and identifying programmers who contributed to the code.

On behalf of North Carolina voter and election integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, EFF asked the court to force Diebold and every other North Carolina equipment vendor to comply with the law's requirements. A hearing on EFF's motion is set for Monday, November 28.

Cornucopia Institute requests full USDA investigation of suspect dairy improprieties alleged at organic factory farm in Colorado

CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN: The Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA requesting a full investigation into allegations of multiple violations of federal organic regulations at the nation’s largest organic dairy. The Aurora Organic Dairy, located in Colorado and with a herd approaching 6000 cows, appears to have violated numerous organic regulations governing the rearing of animals entering its vast factory farm operation.

“We have filed this complaint following our visit to the site of a nearby ranch that has been supplying – on a contract basis – hundreds of replacement cows to the Aurora Dairy,” said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin-based Institute.

“From our investigation, review of records and extensive interviews with the ranch owner, it appears that the operation has never had its livestock practices certified as organic,” Kastel said.

Clarification of NEDA's withdrawal of Ohio exit poll paper

On November 2, 2005, NEDA released an analysis of the 2004 precinct level Ohio exit poll data entitled “The Gun is Smoking: Ohio Exit Poll Data Provides Virtually Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount”. The analysis used data provided in the Election Sciences Institute (ESI) report of June 6, 2005.

On November 3, 2005 NEDA realized that its interpretation of the definition for the term “nonresponders” to the exit poll, as used by ESI, was incorrect.

What this means is that it is most likely that the Ohio exit poll data is:

1. inconsistent with voter exit poll response explanations as put forth wrongly by Mitofsky in his Jan 19th paper

2. highly suspicious and very consistent with vote fraud explanations

but does "not" contain "virtually irrefutable" evidence of vote fraud.
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