It’s still remarkable how many in the MSM regard bloggers as “unreliable”…even as they get story after story wrong and report unsubstantiated, unverifiable nonsense as fact.
I wrote early on in the Busby/Bilbray election results saga about AP (and all the rest) reporting that Brian Bilbray had won the election. They did so without a shred of evidence to prove that assertion.
Yesterday, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s John Marelius jumped in to report on the Busby/Bilbray fiasco (where the world’s most hackable voting machines were sent home overnight with poll workers days and weeks before the election, to be stored in their cars and garages or who-knows-where in violation of both state and federal laws, effectively decertifying all of the voting machines used in that U.S. House special election.).
Here’s how the U-T article began:
Okay…For a start…Who is calling for a recount, as Marelius writes? You can’t recount something that you haven’t counted in the first place and I know of no organization declaring “No Confidence” who has called for a “recount.” Yet, the story uses the word “recount” again and again.
While it may be a subtle distinction, it’s a very key one that I assure you both Karl Rove and Frank Luntz would understand quite clearly.
If the concept is too difficult to understand, however, the California Election Protection Network’s press release announcing their eloquent “No Confidence” declaration — referred to in the article — not only never uses the word “recount”, it also spells out clearly that they are not asking for a “recount”. “Calling it a ‘Free-Count’ rather than a recount,” the press release states, “the CEPN citizen watchdogs insist that this manual counting of the ballots be conducted without charge to the voting public.”
If that was the only problem with the U-T article, we might have let it slide. But it’s not. Not by a longshot. Marelius then goes on to “report” that a townhall meeting was held on Wednesday in San Diego. It was, of course. But apparently Marelius neither bothered to attend it, nor talk to anybody who actually did attend it.
He did, however, bother to report the point of view of SD County Registrar Mikel Haas (who also didn’t attend). In fact, Marelius devoted a full five grafs to Haas’ point of view. By my count, there are at least 5 different complete inaccuracies, misrepresentations and out-and-out misleading pieces of information passed on in those grafs…
Now we may ask for much needed donations here from time to time, but they’re always optional. Nobody actually has to pay to access the information available easily and quickly on The BRAD BLOG. So what Marelius’ excuse is — for reporting repeating Haas’ horseshit directly and without bothering to verifying one iota of it — is beyond me.
It’s just after 3:30am as I draft this article, and I was up and on the air at 7am Thursday for my first radio interview of the day, which haven’t stopped until now. So I’m a bit too tired to take the next 2 hours to detail all of those errors. But please read his article and you’ll see what I mean. If you don’t, come back here and read this article or this article or almost any of these and you’ll begin to get most of the key issues which Marelius apparently didn’t bother to look into, concerning the massive security breaches that occurred through Mikel Haas’ atrocious mismanagement of the election.
One slick bit of misdirection from Haas, however, was somewhat new in this article, so we’ll point it out specifically:
That’s a clever way of suggesting that the thousands of Americans who have declared “No Confidence” in the CA-50 election and demanded a full manual hand count of all paper ballots and “paper trails” are somehow only concerned about the touch-screen machine votes. Wrong. 100%. And Marelius could have figured that out if he’d spent just 1 minute less time on the phone with Haas, and 1 minute more actually learning what all the hubbub is about and what everyone has been asking for in these declarations. Indepedently.
“No one, except Mikel Haas, has differentiated between the optical scan and DRE [touch-screen] machines,” wrote John Gideon, executive director of non-partisan election watchdog VotersUnite.org in reply to Haas’ comment in the article. Both Diebold’s op-scan and touch-screen machines “are all just as much in need of control and they all, as far as NASED [the federal voting machine certification body] is concerned, have the same security requirements. This argument about 7,000 or 500,000 is a red-herring,” wrote Gideon.
Marelius could have learned that, of course. In less than 1 minute. With a call to me, Gideon, or any other expert familiar with the issues in this case. But Marelius apparently didn’t bother.
Lastly, it was disappointing to see the subsequent 3 grafs in the article offer still more misinformation. This time, from California Voter Foundation’s Kim Alexander who has otherwise, as far as we can tell, been working hard for election reform in this country.
I’ll hope that Alexander simply misunderstood the issues at hand (she wasn’t at the townhall meeting either) when she is quoted as saying that the CA Sec. of State’s regulations “did not include prohibiting election officials from allowing machines to go home with poll workers before and after an election.”
Well, that’s true. And, the SoS’s regulations did not include prohibiting election officials from setting the machines on fire, either.
But I’m pretty sure there are rules and laws that would prohibit that. Much as there are very specific and recent rules and laws (both state and federal) that clearly prohibit the breach of security that occurs when poll workers take home these specific voting machines.
We’ve reported on these pages one regulation, statutory law, provision, code and rule after another that specify the required security for these particular voting machines at both the state and federal level. Clearly those rules and laws were violated when the voting machines were sent home unsecurely with pollworkers, who were given no information on secure storage procedures for these machines. When they were stored in garages and cars, accessible to neighbors, family members, and complete strangers, they were effectively and immediately decertified for use in the June 6th election as mis-administered by Mikel Haas.
Fortunately, not all California Registrars are as wrecklessly irresponsible as Haas.
We’ll have a report later today from a Registrar of Voters in a different California county who clearly understands what’s going on here, has concerns about the deployment of voting machines in the way that Haas decribes in the U-T article as having been “followed without incident for about 40 years.” As well, she knows better than to blithely dismiss the concerns of election integrity advocates on this as simply “paranoia” as Marelius allows Haas — without challenge — to do in the embarrassingly bad Union-Tribune report.
(UPDATE: That statement, from Yolo County, CA Registrar of Voters, Freddie Oakley is now posted here…)
And imagine, Marelius gets paid for articles like that as a staff reporter, and I’m guessing he never has to beg for donations to support his work.
A courtesy to Mr. Marelius…
— CA Election Code Sections 19250 & 19251
— CA’s Diebold Optical Scan & Touch Screen System “Conditional” Certification (2/17/06)
— Federal NASED Certification Security Memo (3/22/06)
A courtesy to BRAD BLOG readers…
UNION-TRIBUNE READERS REPRESENTATIVE:
Phone: (619) 293-1525 or (800) 244-6397
readers.rep@uniontrib.comLETTERS TO THE EDITOR
letters@uniontrib.com
Fax: (619) 260-5081NEWS DEPARTMENTS
Phone: (619) 293-1211 or (800) BIG-NEWS (Nationwide)
Fax: (619) 293-1896
Criminal lying parrots. aLWAYS LikeD the sound of Operation Noble Cause which is a noble CAUSE unless you are the one getting killed for bushit. Did you think because you took the effort to organize a meeting to save our DEMOCRACY you would win the battle let alone the war? Come on Brad. These propaganda bastards have it down AND they control the mass media. You have a right to say whatever discorse you want to take up as of 6/30/2006. The Bushits would have taken away this freedom too however, they ain’t figured out an excuse to do that yet.
Personally i wish i could have attended to hear the speakers lay it out. Please tell me this is this type of Bushit jounalism/mass media coverage you expected.
You are doing great work. Important work. Because of people like you, i really believe we have a chance to re-gain control of our elections again and this country so the vote reflects the will of THE PEOPLE. As you know time is about to run out. If our fragile atmosphere choke on itself and the climate change, this world is completely SCREWED.
Watch LOUDER THAN WORDS 2ND ED an investigative docum at http://www.loosechange911.com dedicated to those who died on 9/11. Put away your box cutters and LEARN ABOUT who was really in control of the air buses on 9/11!
THANK YOU
Is there some contest going on with these election war lords where the one telling either the biggest lie, or who tells the most lies, wins some sort of neoCon status point?
There has been no count, since the machines are not certified as required by law and any count requires a certified process.
Therefore the sane, fair, correct, and democratic thing to do is to COUNT.
It is a no brainer that if the machines cannot be used that hands can.
Count them by hand and there will then be a count. If anyone THEN wants a recount, it is at least possible.
But lets COUNT the first time first!
Brad, glad to see you on Dobbs… he should have given you more screen time, as you have MUCH more to contribute than they edited in. The apathy in San Diego is killing me. I sent a letter to the SDU-T to complain regarding this article. If have to say, if any spokeman from a e-vote manufacturer EVER offered any sentiment other than one that smacks of “cover-your-ass”, I would have some hope that elections were legitimate. But that’s not the case. Mikel Hass is also supposed to work WITH the taxpayers, not AGAINST them… unless of course he is in “cover-your-ass” mode. As they say, where there’s smoke, there is fire. Keep up the good work!
Brad these clowns turned a blind eye to how our election processes have been allowed to become contaminated. You caught them red-handed,.. do not become despondent that they would bend,.. twist,..
and contort reality to cover their asses.
There is no excuse for this level of ineptitude,.. that has brought such risk to the integrity of our elections and brought so much jeopardy to our institutions of democracy.
Keep up the good fight,.. you have earned our unconditional admiration,.. a contaminated vote invites fascism to prevail. We reject despotism as being acceptable,.. without any question. We want our vote to count. We want the counting of our votes to be trusted. We want the will of the voter to select our political representatives. These expectations arenon-negotiable.
Yeah Brad, the St Pete Times is like that too
The dirty bastards
Right-wingers share wisdom/knowledge,…
Video Link
Turk, I love Louie Black, he’s kinda like me when I get on a rant
Intersting newspaper article.
Intersting that they would point out that only about 7000 votes were cast on the touch-screen machines, without saying what the margin of victory was. Hmmm. wasn’t it less than 7,000 votes? Seems like I remember that it was about 5000 votes separating them. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to find out how the paper trail records match up with what the machines “officially” recorded.
And I loved the way the article seemed to imply there was NO need to recount the optical scanner ballots by hand. Did no one tell the reporter about the Hursti-1 report, where in Leon County, Florida, Ion Sancho invited Hursti to see if he could change the outcome of a mock election. He did, showing that the optical scanners can also be hacked, even if they don’t go home with poll workers. Sancho has said he thinks this is what happened in Volusia county Florida, causing Gore to concede in 2000 on election night.
And what’s the big problem with recounting 500,000 ballots? Why can’t they just set up a long row of tables in a gymnasium, with the public allowed to view the counting from the home-side bleachers, with binoculars and/or vido cameras, etc. The people doing the counting of the paper ballots would be behind the tables, perhaps wearing short-sleeved hospital scrubs that have no pockets for holding pencils, etc. They would each be given a box of ballots and asked to count the box into 2 piles. Chosen official observers would be able to watch the counters from either side of them to make sure they were not tampering with ballots and so on.
I would bet they could easily count at a rate of 1 ballot per second (just to make a ballpark estimate) That works out to a total of 500,000 seconds, or 138 person-hours to recount the whole special election for the one race–(ie forgetting about the other non-partisan quesions, etc. if there were some of those). It *IS* just this one race we all want to know about right now, correct? So just the 2 piles at each station.
So you say people will need to eat and will need breaks? So find, have 20 people instead. Whatever.
Hell, we could even set up webcams providing a close-up birds-eye view of each counting station. The entire country could watch the counting going on via streaming video, or offline after the fact via u-tube. People would also volunteer to provide video tape to record the counting as well.
So what’s the fuss about? Tell me when and where, and I’ll take 2 days off work and show up. Isn’t our democracy worth this much trouble? Mine sure is. We can do this. We should do this. It would feel so good for once to KNOW who won, instead of just being TOLD who won. Oh, and when we actually DO do this, you’ll be able to recognize me–I’ll be wearing orange.
I wonder when this bad boy is going to snap ? (Mr. San Andreas)
Link
This is honest to goodness voting news by Palast
Talking about my friends at the good old IRI
Link
Floridiot – (C) #10
Fascism on the march – IRI.
A legislative act becomes a bu$$h royal decree.
Who’s hand is in the sock puppet ?
Who is David Addington ?
Is he out to preserve or destroy democracy ?
Addington link # 1
Addington link # 2
Addington link # 3
Floridiot #9
Thanks for thinking of us – Mr. San Andreas
Old Turk #12
Thanks – I’ll sleep better tonight – NOT! 🙁
#12 OldTurk – Looks like another smug disciple of the b.c. family . . .
BB2
If you can’t sleep well,.. here is a nightmare for you
courtesy of the bu$$$h family.
Samuel Prescott Bu$$h
then
Prescott Sheldon Bu$$h
then
George Herbert Walker Bu$$h
then
George Walker Bu$$h
Bu$$h Family Fascist Links
Sleep well,…
Don’t forget to vote,…
+
+
+
+
+
them out !!!!!
J of J
They make Alphonse Capone,..
look like a Camp Fire Girl.
Old Turk said:
“They make Alphonse Capone,.. look like a Camp Fire Girl. ”
His camp site was in the woods were I grew up in Wisconsin.
BB2
So which is it,..
You a Ex-Camp Fire Boy,…
a Mafioso Thug,..
or a former cheese (wedge) head ? /:^)
More details,..
Bush Family Fascist,..
give the Nazi’s a big bear hug,..
—————
March 23, 1933: Hitler becomes dictator of Germany after his proposed act, “Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich,” is passed 441 to 84. The law essentially suspends freedoms, legislates democracy out of existence, and establishes his legal dictatorship.
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Mega info link/Bu$$h Family – Nazi’s
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Bu$$h family values
Eugenics of 14 million Americans
Good stuff(ing), Old Turk (still reading)
This one still cracks me up . . . . . Enjoy . . .
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bushnonazi.html
Turn on speakers . . . . . Conservatively Rated PG . . .
#22 Tiny pause about 30 sec. in, 3 min. total
Floridiot #10
The article you link to, which mentions the IRI, points out that the republican dictatorship uses public funds to do propaganda:
The republican dictatorship has all the pieces in place to try to run an incompetent little bannana republic everywhere. And everybody everywhere is beginning to know about the discusting little mess.
Moning Dredd, I’m going to keep on harping about this outfit, as I hope others will too until , somehow it becomes a household word
Boy, I’m sure glad Palast gets it 🙂
Expose the beast, you kill it
“everywhere” (in your post)includes here (US) too
Floridiot #25
Morning.
Well we can discern that the IRI, like most of the bullsh*t of the republican dictatorship, is not peddling American truth and justice, as the Supreme Court has stated in the Hamdan v Rumsfeld decision.
The corporate masters of the republican dictatorship have even been forced to re-packaged Superman as a result:
has now, as a result of staying the wrong course, become:
which is still staying the wrong course.
We have been making and using corrupt voting machines – a fact – which has been officially known for decades.
So now we are in the marketing phase, which the republican dictatorship calls shock and awe, where we force this Superman wonderfulness on any weak nation so long as it has oil.
Yep Superman handlers, you are doing a heckuva job, because pax Americana will have to be subsidized to break even in the US, and won’t sell anywhere else when associated with “the American way”. It is the republican way and it is offensive to the world these daze.
The shock and awe the neoCons squeezed out from somewhere the sun don’t shine is sick and awful to those we “sell” it to at the end of a lead and DU spitting “peacemaker”.
# 24 — Dredd said The republican dictatorship has all the pieces in place to try to run an incompetent little banana republic everywhere. And everybody everywhere is beginning to know about the discusting little mess.
Thanks for another perceptive statement on the state of things. A myth about fascist/dictatorial states is the idea that they are incredibly competent – make the trains run on time, etc. The fact is that they are usually a mess held together (such as it is) by propaganda and official fantasy and spend most of their energy and time covering up incompetence (sometimes violently).
Since 1960, Eisenhower’s warning has gone largely unheeded. Beginning with the rise of fascism and the elitism within the Reagan administration, the military keeps taking up a bigger portion of the budget, social welfare has been largely eliminated –just as it was eliminated in Nazi Germany. Today, under the regime of George W. Bush, it is clear that the corporations within the military-industrial complex are in control of the country. It allows Dick Cheney to pad his retirement account at Halliburton with millions of dollars of Halliburton overcharges for services not delivered in the Iraq War. Meanwhile, many of the soldiers are sent into combat without body armor.
A recently disclosed top-secret document from the NSC reveals that the NSC staff were instructed to cooperate fully with Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.” The document suggests that Cheney’s Energy Task Force was actually a discussion for geostrategic plans for oil, putting the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans. This would confirm Bush’s plans for regime change in 60 countries and his support for rebel forces opposing the democratic government of Venezuela as well as the increasing hostility of the Bush administration towards Iran.
Too many people still believe that fascism can’t happen here. It is happening here today. The Gestapo is firmly in place in the form of Ashcroft’s justice department. The FBI no longer serves to protect the citizens; instead it is being used to protect this regime, by such means as the gagging of Sibel Edmonds, for instance. The FBI is no longer primarily charged with criminal investigation instead its being used to enforce this regime’s policies and finally the FBI, other federal law enforcement agencies and the military are illegally spying on anyone opposed to this regime. Moreover, Representative Porter Goss, Bush’s choice to head the CIA has introduced legislation that would allow the CIA to conduct operations inside the United States including arbitrary arrests of American citizens.
Ike’s military-industrial complex, the PNAC document, the World Trade Organization, free trade agreements, and the George W. Bush regime are all parts of the many-headed Nazi Hydra in America.
If George Bush declares a red alert or martial law or manages to steal another election, will you be one of the first sent to the concentration camps? Will you go quietly like a lamb? Will you allow the Gestapo to haul away your neighbor, your wife, your son or daughter? Will you live next to the crematories with your head in the sand as the Germans did? Or will you oppose the regime and help reestablish the constitutional republic?
The time to decide is now, tomorrow may be too late. The corporate state of fascism has risen from the ashes of 9/11 like a giant phoenix. It will consume all that opposes it. The Fourth Reich has risen. Beware. Your life and freedoms depend on it.
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Read the complete article,.. bu$$h/neocons/fascism,..
bu$$h/fascism/link
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America/Fascism
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Neo-cons/Fascism
Old Turk
Cheesehead Bratwurst Camping Kid!
One of Capone’s hide-outs was in the woods near my parent’s house – a house with bullet proof windows – escape tunnels etc.
Old turk #20 said:
“Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich,”
On first read I saw “Rich” not “Reich” – I thought you were talking about tax reform!
Arry #27
Good observation! The sad part is it’s looking more and more like here!
JOJ #22
Pretty good – Back at ya!
Thanks Old Turk, nice to read it like it is. big oil controls this country…Anybody or anything that gets in it’s way is stopped. Read that RFk Jr’s lawsuit will be class action with whistleblowers from inside the big election machine companies testifying they knowingly made the machines hackable.Going for money where it hurts the most. No taxation without representation. Tax dollars going for murder torture and propaganda. I’ll bet lots of luxury homes for homeland security employees.
Brad on Air America – coming up soon!