Sunday 3/13 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.

Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x342898

"Gathering to Save Our Democracy" -- National Conference on 2004 Election & Need for Election Reform - Nashville, TN - April 8-10, 2005

Featuring:
Judith Alter
Cliff Arnebeck
David Cobb
Clinton Curtis
Dr. Sonnye Dixon
Kathy Dopp
Larry English
Bob Fitrakis
Brad Friedman
Phil Fry
John Gideon
Teresa Hommel
Dr. Charles Kimbrough
Paul Lehto
David Lytel
Dr. Tommie Morton-Young
R. H. Phillips
Larry Quick
Joanne Roush
Lara Schaffer
Jonathan Simon
Bernard Windham

BACKGROUND

Since November 3, 2004, there has been a groundswell of concern, and a plethora of evidence, that the conduct of the 2004 Presidential election in the United States was highly problematic. These concerns have been belittled by many and ignored by the corporate media in this country. However, the weight of the evidence is overwhelming that a multi-faceted strategy of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, potential manipulation of electronically cast votes in many states, and other instances of election fraud and theft improperly influenced the will of the American people and may have subverted the "consent of the governed". This evidence was sufficient to have stimulated the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Representative John Conyers and other national leaders to investigate the evidence of wrong-doing. This evidence also caused the U.S. Congress to suspend their routine business and to debate the merits of accepting Ohio's electoral votes on January 6, 2005, a historic occasion that highlighted the many problems in Ohio and also served to shed light on similar problems in other states. With this Congressional debate, the American people's responsibility to win back our democratic process was enumerated and enjoined.

To date, most of the discussion and information sharing on the problems with the 2004 election have occurred in the virtual world of the Internet. While there have been some local gatherings and regional and national protests focused on this issue, there has been no opportunity for concerned citizens, researchers, activists and elected officials to meet under one roof to review the wealth of evidence for the many threats to our democratic processes which the 2004 election revealed and to discuss the urgent need for election reform. While some panels on this topic have been added to several national meetings, these panels are not nearly sufficient to present all of the evidence for the 2004 election problems. It is also insufficient to fully inform the American people enough to motivate them to seek redress for the violations of our voting rights which occurred with this past election and to coalesce sentiment around an election reform agenda.

For these reasons, this three day Gathering To Save Our Democracy - A National Conference will provide the appropriate forum for expanding public awareness, for congregating the accumulated knowledge under one roof and for providing a platform for mobilizing support for election reform and justice. Nashville, Tennessee is the setting of this conference. Nashville has a proud history of early successes in the 1960s civil rights movement, we are in a Southern and supposedly "red" state (we prefer to consider ourselves an Orange State, in deference to the Ukrainian example), we are centrally located within a day's drive of 60% of the U.S. population, we have an international airport serviced by a dozen major airlines, and we have several locations tentatively identified as appropriate and historic venues for hosting the conference. But most importantly, we have an energetic (and growing) band of citizen-activists for election reform in Tennessee who would insure the successful implementation of this conference.

This conference will be a comprehensive and historic event that will bring together the "major players" who have surfaced in the dialogue over the problems with the 2004 election and the need for election reform. We also anticipate that the conference will be a gathering place for the many concerned citizens throughout the nation and the world who are intent on preserving democracies. We hope that this conference will help break the media silence about the problems with the 2004 election within our country and provide a forum for increasing the world's attention to our threatened democratic principles. In addition, we will hold discussion sessions before and after the conference to exchange ideas and build coalitions to pursue the necessary elements of election reform and to redress our concerns with the 2004 election.

The conference registration fee is $30 (with exceptions for hardships), and will cover all conference-related activities. Please review the tentative conference agenda, complete the conference registration form and register using PayPal. (People who cannot attend the conference but who would like to support the conference by making a donation can do so using PayPal also.) We will send you the final conference agenda and other details one week prior to the conference. Please contact Bernard Ellis, Jr., MA, MPH (931/682-2864; tracevu@bellsouth.net ) for more information on the conference.

Thank you for supporting the conference and for promoting the preservation of democracy in America.

http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2005/03/gathering-to-save-our-democracy.html

06:26 pm
1:13 (est.)
Interview
A Conversation with Senator Kerry
Kennedy (John F.) Presidential Library
John F. Kerry , D-MA
Tom Oliphant , Boston Globe

See paineinthearse's first-hand account at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3197008

Thanks to paineinthearse in the new CSPAN group here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=320x4

Pressure Mounting For Optical Scan Voting In New York

(Albany, NY) AP 03/13/05 -- While manufacturers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the NYS Legislature to bring touch-screen voting to New York, there is pressure mounting to consider a simpler technology.

Both The New York Times and the New York chapter of the League of Women Voters are coming out in favor of optical scan voting as the state seeks to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

Optical scan technology allows machines to "read" marks made on a paper ballot.

>>snip

The touch screen voting machine industry spent about $1 million last year on lobbyists to work the halls of the state Capitol.

But the New York Times says Albany should ignore those lobbyists and instead use optical scan machines because of lower cost. The times says more expensive machines will lead to fewer being purchased and that could lead to long lines at voting booths.

More: http://www.13wham.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=F831855F-5798-4DD2-9A4C-691B55F42044

Bills to cut party ties to top post
The secretary of state job would be nonpartisan.

By Aurelio Rojas -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, March 13, 2005

The allegations that led to the resignation of California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley have spawned bipartisan legislation to make the office nonpartisan.

The most far-reaching of the three bills - SB 11 by Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina Del Rey - would also prevent any candidate for the office from endorsing or opposing public office hopefuls or ballot measures.

"The person who's going to be counting the vote and certifying the vote total needs to be both impartial, as a matter of fact, and needs to be perceived as not taking a side in an election," said Bowen, who plans to run for secretary of state in 2006. Her measure would prohibit candidates for the office from serving as officers of political parties or partisan organizations. It would also prevent voting-equipment manufacturers and vendors from making campaign contributions to candidates for state or local office.

Bowen said that since the enactment in 2002 of the federal Help America Vote Act, the four major electronic voting-machine manufactures have contributed more than $652,000 to candidates, including secretary of state hopefuls.

More: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/12556611p-13411716c.html

Posted a question for Georgia today about the use of its statewide voter registration software to disqualify 70 percent of nearly 13,000 provisional ballots.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=146x1951

This follows up yesterday's concern about the use of registration technology, prompted by the Houston election challenge:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x342995

Cynical/Idealist

Bill Maher is back in the ring - and still isn't pulling his punches

By Eric Deggans
Published March 13, 2005

He has called religion a neurological disorder and complained about his status as the only guy who lost his job over 9/11.

But even after his controversial comments cost him a cushy late-night gig hosting ABC's Politically Incorrect, comic Bill Maher has kept bringing his acerbic, in-your-face take on politics and society to the masses - most recently through his HBO series, Real Time With Bill Maher.

On air, he's a curious mix of cynic and idealist, suggesting that faux-White House reporter Jeff Gannon got scoops because "he had a boyfriend in the White House" in one show, and defending the academic freedom of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill (who compared 9/11 victims to "little Eichmanns") in another.

>>>snip

I think you can really quantify what a value is. In America, we don't seem to be able to count votes accurately. But . . . no one ever makes a mistake when we're counting money. I see the people at Diebold finally figured out a way to have a paper trail (from an electronic voting machine) - after the election. It's called a receipt. At the airports, we seem unable to have any kind of real security. And yet, ever walk into a casino in Las Vegas? There are cameras everywhere, there are plainclothes people making a good salary who know what to look for. Somehow, nothing ever escapes the security apparatus at the Bellagio. That's because we obviously value money more than we do life.

More: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/13/Columns/CynicalIdealist.shtml

Bill Maher -New Rules

Real Time with Bill Maher has been troubling since it's new season started. Let me know if you agree. I'll get into it a little deeper as I watch the show a few more times, but I did enjoy his New Rules.

(Make sure you read the comments. People are ticked he is snuggling up to the right.)

Link: http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Pennsylvania counties fumble voting study

With 18 not responding, state misses chance to find out what works, what doesn't.

By Tim Darragh Of The Morning Call
County election offices representing close to half of Pennsylvania's registered voters failed to respond to a post-Election Day survey, hampering a first-ever federal assessment of voting in the United States.

Eighteen counties, including Philadelphia and Allegheny — the two most populous — and other counties in the Lehigh Valley region are not represented in the survey. The state Department of State, which oversees elections in Pennsylvania, forwarded the data it gathered to the federal Election Assistance Commission.

By submitting a report lacking data from so many counties, Pennsylvania misses an opportunity to find out what works and what needs fixing in its elections. With more complete reporting, Pennsylvania could provide valuable insight into voting across the country, since the state — unlike many others — allows voting by every legal means: lever machines, punch cards, optical scanners, paper ballots and two computer systems.

''Pennsylvania would be a wonderful case study on best practices in voting because we use six different technologies in the state,'' said Nate Persily, an election law specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.

More: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a2_5votemar13,0,6491557.story?coll=all

More: http://onlineathens.com/stories/031305/opi_20050313034.shtml

You have to regrister to read this one.

Poll Shows Concern About Gov't Secrecy

Top Stories - AP
By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

Americans feel strongly that good government depends on openness with the public, with seven out of 10 people concerned about government secrecy, a new poll says.


The poll, conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs for Sunshine Week, a coalition of media organizations and other groups pressing for government access, found that more than half of Americans believe government should provide more access to its records.


Even more — 70 percent — are either "somewhat concerned" or "very concerned" about government secrecy. Nearly as many felt access to public records was "crucial" to good government.


The results come amid growing debate about openness at all levels of government in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks: Open-government advocates say the government has become more secretive at the price of a healthy democracy, while government defenders say the times demand that national security weigh a little more heavily in the balance between openness and privacy.

More: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050313/ap_on_re_us/sunshine_week_poll

(I'm afraid to hope that people are beginning to question this government.)

"(I'm afraid to hope that people are beginning to question this government.)" --MelissaB


NYT/CBS poll 3/3/05


--63% disagree with Bush domestic policy
--58% disagree with Bush foreign policy
--4 out of 5: government should insure decent living standard for elderly
--50% (vs 31%) say Democrats right on Social Security
--63% (inclu 48% of conservatives) disapprove of Bush on the deficit
--90% say deficit is very serious or somewhat serious problem

http://207.44.245.159/article8191.htm


Other recent polls

--57% oppose war in Iraq (Feb '04)
--63% oppose torture under any circumstances (Feb '04)
--asked, was Iraq war "worth it"?: 44%-yes (Oct '04), 39% yes (Jan '05)
--4% (yup): send more troops to Iraq
--Bush approval ratings stuck at around 50% and sank to 48% on his Inauguration Day—unprecedented disapproval for 2nd term president (just as he had unprecedented disapproval ratings going into the election, the main factor in Zogby's prediction of a Kerry win)

Altogether, a huge "vote of no confidence" by the American people.

You're "afraid to hope that people are beginning to question this government"?

The great majority of people long ago decided this government was full of crap--they just can't get their will enforced!

And now, 70% are concerned about government secrecy, as you report above (in the most secretive government in US history--according to Nixon attorney John Dean, who should know).

So people know or suspect they're being lied to, in addition to everything else.

-----------

MelissaB--THANK YOU FOR THESE REPORTS! IT IS A GREAT SERVICE! (But beware of taking on news monopoly viewpoint that people are not questioning this government because THEY are not questioning this government!)

I didn't mean to shock anybody!

Thank you for your kind comments!

Link: http://www.johnconyers.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={B166974A-C132-4EC3-9682-FE6E08C1A584}

I love this man! :loveya: He is my hero!

Georgia Black Lawmakers Boycott Voting Restrictions
The Associated Press


Friday 11 March 2005

Atlanta - The state Senate's Democratic caucus, led by the chamber's black members, walked out of the Legislature Friday after an emotional vote on voting rights.

Immediately after a 7 p.m. vote that would eliminate 12 of the 17 forms of identification that may be used at Georgia polls, a majority of Senate Democrats, including all black members, left the chamber.

"This is wrong!" Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, shouted before the exit. "We will not go back."

All but one other member of the Democratic caucus left shortly afterward. Most Democrats returned to the chamber about 25 minutes later.

More: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031205X.shtml

For all who may have missed this Friday. If our government will "cook" elections elsewhere, why would they not do the same here?

Nuking the spin: Former UN weapons inspector talks to Raw Story on Iran, Iraq

Exclusive: Raw Story chats with Scott Ritter

By Larisa Alexandrovna | RAW STORY Staff

In a candid interview with RAW STORY, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter sets the record straight on his comments about Iran, shares his concerns about the threats facing America and discusses his hopes. RAW STORY’s interview with Ritter will be published in three parts.


Iraq’s elections, the full circle to Iran

Raw Story: During that same talk you gave in Washington State with journalist Dahr Jamail, you are quoted as saying that the U.S. had “cooked” the Iraqi elections. Now given that you were misquoted on the first “bombshell,” is this a correct account of what you said?

Ritter: It is amazing people are walking away from this one. The US cooked the election in Iraq. For three days after the election the Shia were saying “we” had 60 percent of the vote. The election was flawed to begin with. I was not a big supporter of having a so called democratic election under martial law where 300,000 troops were securing the scene. I don’t think anyone would endorse elections under those conditions. Yet they did manage to vote. Anyone with a brain on their shoulders would know that if you have an open election, the Shia would win.

Raw Story: And they did win. So how was the election “cooked?”

Ritter: The way the law was given to the Iraqis - that L. Paul Bremer wrote and gave to Prime Minister Allawi - and gave to the transitional government is designed so that you have to win over 50 percent of the vote to have the plurality needed to control the assembly.

The election results came in and the Shia got 60 percent of the vote. Now, it is no secret that the Shia want a law based on the Islamic law .

Raw Story: Right. The Kurds want full independence.

Ritter: Right, the Kurds want independence and they got somewhere in the mid 20 percentile of the vote. I don’t think most Americans are aware that the Kurds had their own referendum during this election. Ninety-eight percent of Kurds voted for independence.

Allawi’s group got low single digit figures. That makes them meaningless as any government influence in Iraq. The Kurds do not have enough votes to have their own government. The Shia do, however. Now what would happen is that the Shia would cut a deal with the Kurds and give them autonomy as a road to independence.

Raw Story: So the Shia, and through them, the Kurds, win the election, which we know. The cooking, as it were, then took place in terms of percentages?

Ritter: Well suddenly, three days later after the election. We have a secret recount and ballads appear, disappear… now this is not Florida, and you don’t have TV cameras holding up the chads in front of everybody.

Raw Story: Missing ballots, secret recount, magically appearing new ballots… I can see how this is not Florida.

Ritter Well I am talking about Iraq right now.

Raw Story: So back to Iraq.


More: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=170

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News

By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

<snip>

This winter, Washington has been roiled by revelations that a handful of columnists wrote in support of administration policies without disclosing they had accepted payments from the government. But the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive than previously known. At the same time, records and interviews suggest widespread complicity or negligence by television stations, given industry ethics standards that discourage the broadcast of prepackaged news segments from any outside group without revealing the source.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html?hp&ex=1110690000&en=13c49ccf73932e2e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Thanks to sally343434 here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1307567

Love it or leave it

Craig Morris 13.03.2005

Culture shock USA - Part V
Love it or leave it -- a popular retort commonly used in the US to shut up anyone with a good idea. I was practically visiting the States as an ambassador for German energy policy. Would my audiences hide behind invisible Stars & Stripes and categorize me as a know-it-all who had spent too much time in Europe? "You are either with us or against us" -- to what extent had George W. Bush's black-and-white thinking become the standard?

>>>snip

So while many of my German readers would like to hold all Americans accountable for US foreign policy, they have different standards for themselves. A previous generation of Germans rejected the very notion of "collective guilt". Later generations have spoken of what former Chancellor Helmut Kohl called the "good fortune of not being old enough" to have been involved (Gnade der späten Geburt). Well, I guess that pretty much gets everybody out of the hot seat.

How about the "good fortune of being misinformed"? As Robert Kennedy Jr. put it in this radio show (hereby highly recommended!):


80% of the Republicans I meet are just Democrats who don't know what's going on.


There are no Republicans and Democrats, no such thing as Germans and Americans. But you can tell people what their identity -- their nationality -- is and divide them up by underscoring differences. You can even get them to hate each other. This is what makes the divisiveness in the United States so frightening today. Republicans and Democrats have stopped speaking to each other, and the Divided States of America are dividing the world up into good and evil.

I was trying to understand, not judge these tendencies during my stay back home -- just as I try to understand the motives of terrorists. Trying to understand does not mean forgiving, and certainly not condoning. You can't change another person, but can you change the conditions that make it natural for people to think and act a certain way?

More: http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19660/1.html

RFK Jr. talks green policy,
blasts Bush

>>>snip

Kennedy also said that the press has let down the American public by representing environmental issues poorly.

“The public gets 90 percent of its news from talk radio, mostly right-wing media, who have become stenographers for the White House,” he said. “And the corporate media gives us sex and celebrity gossip. The press is not telling us the facts (or) challenging the palette.”

Link: http://columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=12632

Tsk, tsk, Teresa. Paranoia doesn't become you

Compiled by Tribune-Review staff
Sunday, March 13, 2005


Shades of Hillary Clinton. Teresa Heinz has resurrected the dormant concept of a vast, right-wing conspiracy.
And she believes it kept her husband, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, out of the White House.

This startling news surfaced at a recent fund-raiser for Democrat U.S. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, at which the Fox Chapel ketchup heiress was a featured speaker.

According to Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly, Heinz expressed skepticism about the results of November's election, especially in those portions of the country that used optical scanners to count votes

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," she said. She identified both as "hard-right" Republicans and stated, "It's very easy to hack into the mother machines."

She argued that Democrats should insist on "accountability and transparency" in how votes are counted. "I don't trust the way it is right now," she said.

With all the GOP conspirators out there, how could she?

Link: http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/whispers/s_312514.html

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1657411

Legislature overrides veto

BY NATE JENKINS / Lincoln Journal Star

Sunday Mar. 13, 2005

Gov. Dave Heineman failed to budge lawmakers' stance that felons deserve the right to vote, as the Legislature on Thursday nixed the veto he issued a day earlier. More Session 2005 stories

-snip-

The override will automatically allow thousands of felons to return to voting booths two years after completing their sentences and without first having to plead for the right to the state Board of Pardons, which Heineman chairs.

-snip/more-

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2005/03/10/local/doc4231011b86575214372611.txt

Lost cause? Democrats split on electoral strategy in the South

By Bill Walsh
Newhouse News Service

As former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean took the helm of the Democratic National in February, he declared he would make the party competitive in all 50 states, including in the South.

It was a bold promise for a party that has not won a single Southern electoral vote in the past two presidential elections. To Southern ears it sounded all the more unlikely coming from Dean, who famously remarked early in his failed presidential bid last year that he wanted to be the choice of the "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.''

With Republicans having tightened their grip on the region in 2004, some Democrats openly advocate writing off the 11 states of the Old Confederacy as a lost cause. But others are hatching plans to regain a footing in a region the party dominated for much of the 20th century.

This week the liberal Center for American Progress is co-hosting a conference at the University of North Carolina called "New Strategies for Southern Progress'' that will probe topics such as "The Mind of the South'' and "Rethinking the Role of Faith and the Community,'' according to the conference program. The centrist Democratic Leadership Council has gone even further in forging a new Democratic identity, crafting a how-to manual for candidates on how to talk about hot-button issues such as gun control, abortion and affirmative action without alienating Southern voters.

More: http://timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050313/NEWS/503130318&SearchID=73201872400734

Sunday, March 13, 2005
Democrats consider roles of Iowa, N.H. in primary calendar
By WILL LESTER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa and New Hampshire, combined, have 4.2 million people — just 1.5 percent of the U.S. population.

Yet Democratic presidential candidates spend months and millions of dollars each presidential cycle in those two states before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the first events in the party’s nomination process.

Does it make sense to spend so much time and money to reach the same small fraction of the electorate each election? Should other states get a chance to hold the first contests in an election cycle?

A Democratic commission is examining those questions and other aspects of the primary calendar this weekend in Washington.

More: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050313/NEWS0201/50313036

Chats on Social Security go smoothly for a reason

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker

WASHINGTON POST

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - It sounded as if all of Graceland were clamoring for President Bush's plan to restructure Social Security.

The mostly white audience in this mostly black southern city clapped wildly as Bush took what he called the "presidential roadshow" to its 14th state Friday.

He was greeted like Elvis -- adoring fans hooting and hollering, and hanging on his every word.

>>>snip

The White House follows a practiced formula for each of the meetings:
• It picks a state in which generally it can pressure a lawmaker or two.

• It lines up panelists who will sing the praises of the president's plan.

• It loads the audience with Republicans and other supporters.


>>>snip

The night before the event, the chosen participants gathered for a rehearsal in the same hall in which the president would appear the next day.

An official dispatched by the White House played the president and asked questions. "We ran through it five times before the president got there," Darr said.

Erma Fingers Hendrix, 74, a retired nurse who also participated in the Little Rock event, said she believes she was picked because she has been active for years in Republican women's clubs in Arkansas and campaigned for Bush in 2000 and 2004 -- once even introducing him at a campaign rally just before he was elected president.

"The ones who contacted me in 2000 probably said, 'Erma's easy to work with,'" she said.

More: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/11125650.htm

Progressive drinkers

They have cause to shed a few tears in their beers, but that's not why these liberals tipple
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | March 13, 2005

Politics and barrooms, Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine knew, can be a dangerous brew. ''I don't like disturbances in my place," Blaine said in ''Casablanca," breaking up a fight between French and German soldiers. ''Either lay off politics or get out."

But for Drinking Liberally, a weekly gathering of pub-loving progressives in Boston and Cambridge, political debate and drinking go together like gin and tonic or beer and pretzels. Without a dram of teetotaling political correctness, the drinking club proclaims to promote ''democracy one pint at a time" by distilling beer-fueled camaraderie into grass-roots activism.

At a time when many on the left are feeling left out and disillusioned with contemporary politics, Drinking Liberally's heady blend of socializing and strategizing with like-minded 20- and 30-somethings has helped drown out the bitter aftertaste of November's presidential election.

''We're not crying in our beer, but it is definitely comforting to be with people who share your political outlook," said Jorge Miranda, a math teacher at The Media and Technology Charter High School in Boston. ''It brings everyone together, and talking politics makes people eager to get back in the ring."

Conceived in May 2003 in New York City to lift liberals' flagging spirits, Drinking Liberally now has 50 chapters nationally, with more than 30 new groups clinking glasses since Election Day. As a Democratic redoubt, Massachusetts is predictably well-represented, with chapters in Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Plymouth, and Worcester.

>>>snip

Despite its informal appeal, the group harbors an ambitious goal -- forging a broad network of young progressives to fight for social change.

And a night on the town is a persuasive recruiting tool for first-timers.

''This way you don't have to be a policy wonk or versed in everything in D.C.," said Stutzman, 24, between sips of a Woodchuck Cider. ''You can learn more in a welcoming and friendly atmosphere."



More:http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/13/progressive_drinkers/

Now this sounds like a grand plan. Election reform anyone?

:toast:

:toast:

Thanks, Wilms!

Hackers may have helped Bush win, claims Kerry's wife

Publish Date : 3/13/2005 9:30:00 PM Source : Moneyplans.net Staff

If Teresa Heinz, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is to be believed, President George W Bush did not win his second term fair and square.

Four months after the elections, Heinz is questioning the legitimacy of the polls, saying that it could have been computer hacked.


"Two brothers own 80 per cent of the machines used in the United States. They are "hard-right" Republicans, Heinz was quoted as saying by the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

"We in the United States are not a banana republic. I fear for
2006. I don't trust it the way it is right now," she added.

Link: http://www.moneyplans.net/frontend2-verify-412.html

Teresa's words went around the world. See Friday's thread ( post # 27-37)for more information. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x342087

Newsman says dissent stifled

BOB EDWARDS SAYS CURRENT PERIOD LIKE MCCARTHY ERA

HERALD-LEADER STAFF REPORT

DANVILLE-- Louisville native Bob Edwards warned last night that the United States is in a period like the McCarthy era of the 1950s, in which the government is stifling political dissent while the news media and the public fail to speak out in vigorous opposition.

Speaking at Centre College, Edwards, a host for XM Satellite Radio, said the "Bush administration holds reporters in contempt" and has become the "all-time champion of information control."

Edwards built a theme based on a quote by Bush's former press secretary, Ari Fleischer, in the wake of 9/11: "People should watch what they say."

Edwards also said journalists "have done a terrible job explaining their role to the public."

He quoted Edward R. Murrow's famous TV response to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunt: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," and "we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

Link: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/11106776.htm

Study Finds No Media Bias on War, Hits Fox As Most One-Sided

By E&P Staff

Published: March 13, 2005 9:00 PM ET

NEW YORK The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s “State of the American News Media 2005,” released late Sunday, disputes charges of antiwar media bias, but found that President Bush received more “negative” coverage in the 2004 campaign than did Senator John F. Kerry.

And it determined that Fox News was the most one-sided of all major outlets.

The Washington-based Project examined more than 2000 stories on the war in Iraq and found that 25% of the stories were negative and 20 percent were positive. “The majority of stories were just news," said the Project’s director, Tom Rosenstiel.

Fox News Channel was twice as likely to be positive than negative, while CNN and MSNBC were evenhanded.

More: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000837511

Paper trail for voting not a cure

Editorial
Athens Banner-Herald
13 March 2005

Georgians may be getting something more than an "I'm A Georgia Voter" sticker when they walk away from their voting machines, if proposed legislation making its way through the General Assembly earns approval of the state's lawmakers.

Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, and Rep. Tim Bearden, R-Villa Rica, have introduced bills in their respective chambers that would require outfitting the state's 24,000 electronic voting machines with equipment that would produce a voter-verified paper audit trail. What that would do is provide voters with a printer-generated copy of the ions they made on the machine's touch screen. Voters wouldn't be allowed to take the paper verification of their ballot choices with them; it would into a locked box.

-snip-

(Wilms note: Despite the title, he makes our argument here)

But by the same token, a paper trail should not be viewed as the last word in assuring the accuracy of electronic voting. Even a brief conversation with technical support personnel in the average business office will reveal that a printed record of a transaction, even if it accurately reflects the keystrokes or machine touches made in that transaction, is not necessarily a guarantee the electronic machinery itself has recorded that transaction as intended.

(Wilms note: Thank You!)

-snip-

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4988

Pennsylvania counties fumble voting study
With 18 not responding, state misses chance to find out what works, what doesn't.

By Tim Darragh Of The Morning Call 13 March 2005

County election offices representing close to half of Pennsylvania's registered voters failed to respond to a post-Election Day survey, hampering a first-ever federal assessment of voting in the United States.

Eighteen counties, including Philadelphia and Allegheny — the two most populous — and other counties in the Lehigh Valley region are not represented in the survey. The state Department of State, which oversees elections in Pennsylvania, forwarded the data it gathered to the federal Election Assistance Commission.

By submitting a report lacking data from so many counties, Pennsylvania misses an opportunity to find out what works and what needs fixing in its elections. With more complete reporting, Pennsylvania could provide valuable insight into voting across the country, since the state — unlike many others — allows voting by every legal means: lever machines, punch cards, optical scanners, paper ballots and two computer systems.

''Pennsylvania would be a wonderful case study on best practices in voting because we use six different technologies in the state,'' said Nate Persily, an election law specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.

-snip/more-

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4989