This has far more to do with the growing danger of election fraud than many of us have been willing to admit….

The End Times Hits Primetime

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Posted on August 30, 2006, Printed on August 31, 2006

“Now where was I? Oh right, our complete annihilation at the hands of fundamentalist Arabs. I was thinking about this on August 22nd, and some very smart people — even smarter than me — thought it was very possible that Iran or one of those other merry pranksters in the Middle East could have made a big move and vaporized every one of us. But August 22nd has passed, and that hasn’t happened. Yet… Hezbollah could push the “Launch” button while I’m enjoying some chips and dip and watching that cantankerous House on TV. Maybe it won’t happen, but you never know. And by won’t happen, I mean the Hezbollah/launch part, not the chips and dip part. Me, some French onion and a bag of Ruffles is so happening.” — Glenn Beck, talk show host, CNN Headline News

It’s hard to imagine anything that better encapsulates the spirit of life in America under George W. Bush than primetime CNN pseudo-prophet Glenn Beck’s recent warning about the end of the world. A dire warning about Armageddon, strategically issued during election season, that includes — a plug for Ruffles!

Read more.

This Times article (which I sent to you earlier) is now the #4 most-e-mailed story of the day!

Please help tell the paper’s editors just how important this whole
issue is to Us, the People.

Take a minute to e-mail it to as many friends as possible!!!

MCM

Be sure to read the commentary by Bruce O’Dell, below:

Paper Ballots Are A Step Backward

8/31/2006 – Chautauqua County has never had trouble with voting
machines going awry and throwing elections into the courts. Nor has
New York state, for that matter. The accuracy and the ease of use of
the mechanical-lever machines have not been an issue. In fact, the
simplicity and dependability of these machines have earned them
something that is absolutely essential in our republic: citizen
confidence that the heart of our democracy, voting and elections,
work as they should.

Under pressure from the federal Help America Vote Act, this very
adequate and dependable way we vote has to change – and, we learned
last week, become more expensive.

The federal act requires New York, and every state to switch to
something electronic. The choices are optical scan – essentially an
old-fashioned paper ballot system that uses a computer to read and
tabulate each individual ballot marked by a voter with a special pen
- and touch-screen computer systems, which seem to be prone to
security issues.

Read more.

Commentary by Bruce O’Dell:

The author has a point; the 2001 Caltech/MIT Voting Project’s study on the
accuracy of voting systems showed that lever machines had the lowest
residual vote rate and “margin of error”, followed closely by hand-counted
paper ballots. See here for an in-depth analysis of the report’s findings – it’s a
fascinating article published by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

The key finding of the 2001 report is that all attempts to improve the
voting process through computer automation have measurably decreased
accuracy. In fact, when you look at factors such as party-line voting, the
accuracy of lever systems and DREs may even be overstated. If so, the
evidence may support hand-counted paper as the most accurate of all known
methods for tallying votes.

One interesting findings is the apparent higher cost of hand-counted paper
ballots is more than compensated for by total cost of ownership of the
electronic alternatives. Of course, when the overriding concerns of
accuracy and security are factored in, there’s no question that the
deployment en masse of electronic voting technology will be viewed by
historians of technology as an epic blunder unprededented in the annals of
my profession.

-Bruce

I would also place particular emphasis on the recent Italian election
as another example of improbably close results.

Marco U.

From: neighborsforpeace@yahoogroups.com
To: neighborsforpeace@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Close elections world-wide: a preliminary, semi-mathematical theory

It hasn’t been remarked, but it is remarkable. World-wide, and most
recently in Mexico, elections have been improbably close, and this
phenomenon began with the 2000 US election.

I say “improbably” because landslides were more common…prior to 2000.

A preliminary, semi-mathematical theory: commencing in 2000, a
world-wide coordinated effort began by the ruling elites in a number
of countries to steal elections using advanced political management
techniques, not excluding black operations such as intimidating
voters, stealing ballots: but restricting the black ops to states and
provinces known to be “key” given the constittional mathematics.

The black ops would be focused only on key districts to avoid
detection and in general the “election management” would be so
focused on “cost effectiveness” as to produce JUST ENOUGH votes to
win.

In a situation where polls (especially informal straw polls and
somewhat more trusty marginal polls such as Zogby) indicated
widespread dissatisfaction with the clear favorite of elites, this
would indeed produce a mathematically improbable result: the “tie”,
where the precision of the election management produces a “just in
time” victory.

This would eliminate Left landslides and create the
self-satisfying, if soured, perception amongst progressives that they
are the “real” elite who unlike the ordinary slob see through the
pretensions of the in-group.

I suggest that statisticians and mathematicians analyze the
probability of situations including 2000 and 2004 in the US and the
Obrador defeat in Mexico.

Report: Ohio Patriot Pastor Model Goes National
By Frederick Clarkson
08/30/2006 11:22:41 PM EST

Good research reports are invaluable when studying the religious right and figuring out what to do about it. So it is worth highlighting the good ones when they appear. Last week, the People For the American Way Foundation, the NAACP, and the African American Ministers Leadership Council released a report, The Patriot Pastors’ Electoral War Against the `Hordes of Hell’ that, according to the press release, “documents how this new generation of Religious Right leaders is turning churches into political machines for far-right Republican candidates.”

This is the best single overview to date, summarizing the role of the Patriot Pastors in Ohio and the nationwide movement for which it is serving as a pilot project.

Everyone concerned should read it carefully, and take it seriously as the new wave of the religious right organizes for this year’s elections and beyond.

Read more.

From Michael Collins:

Tuesday was a bad day in San Diego and all over the country for free & fair electoins. Superior Court Judge Yuri Hoffman made a stunning decision. He ruled that once the Speaker of the House of Representatives swears in a member of the House, any subsequent vote counting, recounting, or instances of fraud are irrelevant…the election is OVER.

It didn’t matter that poll workers took Diebolds home for days at a time unsupervised; it didn’t matter that 50% of the ballots were misallocated in nonsensical precincts (74,000 ballots); it didn’t matter that a recount had been requested but priced at six times the rate of neighboring Orange County; and it didn’t matter that the ballots were counted in secret. All that mattered was that the Speaker spoke.

And a special for California residents, according to the congressional Digest for June 13, Speaker Hastert swore in Republican Brian Bilbray only after receiving notice that Bilbray was “elected in Congress” from the California Secretary of State’s office.

Democracy was denied but the truth was told. There is a very low regard for elections and voters when the convenience of the ruling party is at stake. I hope you spread the word by getting this article out. Click on “Print” at the main “Scoop” link or use this version where the links are clearly marked.

The voting rights movement has a long history of struggles, defeats, and ultimate victories. We will move on but this must be challenged. It is totally unacceptable. Read why…

MC
Check www.electionfruadnews.com

*** *** ***

Democracy Denied: Meet the New Boss
Thursday, 31 August 2006, 10:28 am
Opinion: Michael Collins

Pre-Certification Swearing in by Hastert
Terminates All State Legal Authority Over Elections

The People’s House is now the Speaker’s House.

“If they can do that, they can do anything. Why even have an election? They could just swear in whoever they want because the election need not be final.”
- Paul Lehto, Attorney for Plaintiffs Aug. 25, 2006

By Michael Collins
Scoop Independent News
Washington, DC

San Diego Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann rendered his decision in the election challenge in California’s 50th Congressional District. He dismissed the request for a recount and for discovery of the facts of the Busby-Bilbray election stating specifically that “Once the House asserts exclusive jurisdiction and selects a candidate, the court no longer has jurisdiction” (emphasis added). The judge argued that the June 13 swearing in alone was sufficient to establish Bilbray’s “election.” The event had the power to take away any and all citizen rights and immediately rescind authority over their own elections.

Requests for a recount resulting from major problems with the election were deemed insufficient and the rights of voters to due process were cast aside in deference to Speaker Hastert or any future Speaker. The induction of Republican Bilbray was just seven days after the election and a full 17 days before the election was officially certified by the San Diego Registrar.

Read more.

Kerry concedes quickly, the Ohio Dem Party and Strickland do not stand up for the Democratic voters who stood in 3-5 hour lines in the cold pouring rain to cast their votes for the team that promised to “make sure every vote is counted”, the funds for the recount are raised by the Green Party, public hearing are held not by the Democratic Party (they don’t even attend except for John Conyers and several members of the CBC)but by Bob Fitrakis and The Columbus Free Press and election reform groups, the DNC Investigation into the Ohio election is a pathetic whitewash, and yet we should send money to Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate who has done nothing regarding the “election improprieties” on the urging of Sen Kerry?

I would like to suggest supporting a candidate who has fought for every vote to be counted, who organized the public hearings, has investigated the election – freepress.org – much of his work was used in RFK Jr’s excellent Rolling Stone Magazine article), who continues to fight for fair and verifiable elections, and is a champion of peace, alternative energy, social justice and the fight against corruption-Bob Fitrakis. Here is his website:

bobforohio.com

Dorri S.

By BOB BARR