They Hate Our What???

It seems that even the Pentagon doesn't agree with the President that our enemies "hate our freedom". An article Monday in the Christian Science Monitor details a report released late on Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. In it, the Defense Science Board is very critical of the Administration's performance in the war on terror. (not that you can have a war on a feeling anyway!!!!!!!!!) The full report is available on line as well.

Where There's Smoke . . .

Addressing a subject that receives less media attention than the casualties in Iraq, Bruce W. Fraser has written a comprehensive review of the major, irregularities in our recent election. Among other ironies, Fraser points out how exit polls, which have been condemned as flawed in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, are apparently legitimate when being used to assess elections in former Soviet Republics.

Remember the War ??????

Notably missing from the front pages of our mainstream media have been any real reports about the true cost of the battle for Fallujah in the second worst month for U.S. troops in Iraq. Casualties for November have come in just 1.5% under the worst month overall which was April of this year. Perhaps more significantly, November's casualty number is 62% higher than the third worst month which was November of last year. Wouldn't you think that these numbers would rate more emphasis than they are receiving? Maybe it's just my perspective 'cause after all, consumers spent $4 billion on Friday so things must be looking up. (unless you have a friend or relative in the military or children, grandchildren or friends between 14 and 25)

We're Just Helping Them - At What Cost?

Just in case you have been misled by the media stories about the Iraqis "fighting alongside us", consider this. In the recent battle for Fallujah, the U.S. lost 51 troops while the Iraqi Defense Force lost 8 said Marine Lt. Gen John Sattler on Friday. The ratio of wounded servicemen was 425 U.S. to 43 Iraqis. Gen. Sattler spoke in a news conference from Fallujah on Friday.

Meanwhile, according to Stars & Stripes, 20,802 U.S. troops have been treated at Landstuhl in Germany for injuries suffered in Iraqi operations.

U.S. and the World Court

The U.S. is threatening to cut foreign aid to force nations to grant immunity to U.S. citizens from the World Court. So it's not enough to be the biggest, baddest, richest bully on the block. Now we have to be treated differently from anyone else on the planet. Perhaps that is because we have already done things that we would be liable for. Perhaps we just can't control ourselves. Otherwise, how can we justify a different standard for U.S. citizens than any other human?

Something to be Thankful For

Congressman David Hobson, R-Ohio joined with House and Senate Democrats Monday to cut funding for the Bush Administration's programs to develop new nuclear weapons, in particular the nuclear "bunker buster". Taking a moment to thank Representative Hobson could be a good use of your time. Any time a Republican shows signs of considering issues on their merit we should reinforce the behavior.

Another Election Lawsuit

On Tuesday, Nov. 23, a resident of Volusia County Florida filed a lawsuit seeking to set aside the November 2 election in Volusia County. A summary of the allegations as well as the full text of the lawsuit is available through Black Box Voting.

A Ray of Sunshine

So much of what I reference here is so dark that I thought a glimpse of the light would be great. Recently I became aware of a site that is expressing how at least half of those who voted November 2 feel about the U.S.'s place in the world. Sorry Everybody was started by a college student in California to express how he felt. Apologies Accepted is a site that some Dutch folks started as a response. These sites are sometimes funny, sometimes touching and sometimes provocative. But most important, they are an example of communication in the global village.

GAO to Investigate Election

The GAO (Government Accountability Office - formerly the Government Accounting Office) announced today it will investigate complaints steming from the 2004 election.

Recount Lawsuit Filed

Libertarian and Green Party presidential candidates have filed a lawsuit in Ohio aimed at forcing a recount of the vote in that state.

Something was Wrong on Nov. 2

More evidence that something was wrong on Nov. 2.

“. . . I have tried to demonstrate that exit poll data is fundamentally sound, that the deviations between exit poll predictions and vote tallies in the three critical battleground states could not have occurred strictly by chance or random error. and that no solid explanations have yet been provided to explain the discrepancy.“

"The likelihood of any two of these statistical anomalies occurring together is on the order of one-in-a-million. The odds of all three occurring together are 250 million to one."

Steven F. Freeman, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
November 10, 2004

Freeman’s Entire Report is here.

Other interesting stuff from Help America Recount:

• Exit polls showed a Kerry landslide (winning all but one swing state)
• All disparities in the polls were in Bush's favor
• swing states showed the largest shift.
• Odds of Bush's victory margin, given the exit polls, calculated at 1 in 50,000.*
• Insecure, poorly designed software counts our votes.

Details on these and other stories at Help America Recount

Election Results to be Challenged

In addition to the recount, the results of the 2004 election in Ohio will be challenged in the Ohio Supreme Court as early as this coming week. A coalition of public interest lawyers will make the case that thousands of votes were either not counted or counted incorrectly. The case is based in part on testimony taken at a series of hearings this week in Ohio.

Remember Afghanistan?

Remember Afghanistan? Remember when Osama Bin Laden was public enemy number one? Remember the first person who could run but couldn’t hide? Remember when we were going to smoke him out of his cave?

The most important reason to remember Afghanistan is because it illustrates a place where the Bush administration hawks like to hide their failures. It’s called the background. The background is a place that exists beyond the light from the fire of fears whipped up in the mainstream media.

What I notice is, beginning last week, there is a new drumbeat building. There is new fuel on the fire. Iran! The word has suddenly begun to appear more often in our daily feed. Iran is working on nuclear weapons. Iran is testing missiles. Iran is going to cooperate, maybe . . . . Colin Powell “slips” and reveals classified information supposed to indicate that Iran is farther along the path to weapons development than previously thought. The debate soon turns to whether Powell slipped or was intentionally scuttling the European Union’s recently crafted deal to defuse the situation. Meanwhile, Bush took the ball and ran with it. Iran is cheating, he declared, they are hurrying to stockpile nuclear materials before the deadline.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? It sure does to me. While Iran, no doubt, poses some threat to us both by aiding the resistance in Iraq and it’s overall hatred for the U.S. combined with a burgeoning nuclear program, we nevertheless should ask ourselves, “why now?” Has anything happened in Iran in the last several weeks to bring it to the front burner? Why wasn’t this a campaign issue? Does this increase in talk of Iran serve some other purpose? Put differently, is Iran itself causing the increase in coverage or are we being managed again?

Well, what does talk of Iran keep us from thinking about? Without Iran, perhaps we would think about, the ongoing chaos in Iraq. Perhaps we would think about the casualties we’ve suffered in the second worst month of the Iraq occupation. Perhaps we might reflect on the horror of what has been done in our name. ( I have placed a link at the end of this article to a website called Fallujah in Pictures. This is an extremely graphic site! Viewing it will be disturbing. Nevertheless, I feel it is important that we at least have the opportunity to see what is really going on there. I have looked at these images and I cannot imagine how this does anything but radicalize many more Iraqi’s.)

Now for the worst scenario from my imagination. It seems that most experts outside the administration say that our military is woefully under staffed. We need more troops. Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command has said that our troop level in Iraq could rise by 5000 by January. Most of that increase will be accomplished by extending the tours of those already there. The idea of a draft, although very much alive in the background, is still unpalatable this close to the election. This seems like a situation that could best be fixed by a crisis. Americans seem to respond to crisis.

Enter Iran. If the drumbeat continues, we will soon be immersed in daily reminders of how truly evil and terrifying Iran is. With a growing nuclear program and missiles that could reach Iraq or Israel, Iran can easily be portrayed as a grave threat. Given their geographic position bordering Iraq and their geopolitical position in the “Axis of Evil”, it would only take some small incident to fuel our need to deal with them militarily. In the emotion of such a moment, the draft would seem reasonable to the majority of Americans just as the invasion of Iraq seemed reasonable to that same misled majority. Colin Powell’s use of unverified, single source information is telling us that the administration believes it can, once again, shift our focus onto whatever they feel it should be. In the upcoming weeks, notice how Iran comes to dominate the mainstream. Notice also, what is not said. If Iran becomes the steady drumbeat, then watch closely for the crisis. The draft will be close behind.

WARNING - Fallujah in Picures – is a very graphic site. PROCEED WITH CAUTION – This is the war as our handlers do not want us to see it.

Election Fallout II

Just in case the Black Box Voting  site goes down again, I have excerpted the part about Volusia County here:

TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown

County election records just got put on lockdown

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.

Here's what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn't back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.

Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for "privacy" reasons they can't make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.

Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.

So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as "Pete" came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the "black bag" public records request.

The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.

Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires' desk, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.

Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.

So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.

So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.

Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold "GEMS" central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.

Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.

Election Fallout

The post-election debate over errors, screwups and outright fraud continues.

A press release yesterday tells of a team of researchers from U.C. Berkely who have found a correlation between electronic voting machines and a statistically improbable increase in support for Bush in Florida precincts. Their finding is that 130,000 to 260,000 votes for Bush in Florida appear fraudulent. An article about this study is available at ComputerWorld . The press release announcing the study is available here the original study is also available on line. Especially interesting are the Summary of Findings and the Working Paper .

Meanwhile, an alliance between the Green Party candidate and the Libertarian Party candidate is moving ahead with a recount of the entire vote in Ohio.

Bev Harris and her team of investigators at Black Box Voting has been very busy implementing Freedom of Information Requests throughout the country. They are attempting to freeze any evidence of wrong doing before it gets destroyed. Especially interesting is the section entitled "TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown" Bev's sight has been hacked frequently lately. If it should disappear, I'm sure you could find the Volusia county info through a Google search.

Keith Olberman through MSNBC seems to be the only main-stream source covering these issues. His blog covers a number of the latest developments.

So much madness . . .

So much madness, so little time.  I have spent too much of it trying to comprehend what I could do.  Now, I'm just jumping in and trying something.  My intent with this blog is to contribute my viewpoint and my sources to the discussion that must take place in order for us to find our way out of this dark place.

Against the Madness

Long Time Gone - David Crosby

It's been a long time comin'
It's goin' to be a long time gone.

And it appears to be a long,
appears to be a long,
appears to be a longtime, yes ,
a long, long, long , long time before the dawn.

Turn, turn any corner.
Hear, you must hear what the people say.
You know there's something that's goin' on around here,
that surely, surely, surely won't stand the light of day.

And it appears to be a long,
appears to be a long,
appears to be a long time, yes,
a long, long, long ,long time before the dawn.

Speak out, you got to speak out against the madness,
you got to speak your mind, if you dare.
But don't no don't now try to get yourself elected.
If you do you had better cut your hair.

`Cause it appears to be a long,
appears to be a long,
appears to be a long, time,
such a long long long long time before the dawn.

It's been a long time comin'
It's goin' to be a long time gone.
But you know, the darkest hour
is always always just before the dawn.
And it appears to be a long,
appears to be a long,
appears to be a long time before the dawn..