Uh-oh! CA Teacher's Assoc. (CTA ) backs Bruce McPherson for SOS . . .

Just got my latest copy of "California Educator" Magazine, and the California Teachers Association (CTA) is laying out in an article whom they want to support and back for the upcoming elections in 2006. They are supporting Bruce McPherson, rather than Debra Bowen! What??!!

Now as an educator, I know that the CTA is usually on top of things, but not in this regard. The CTA needs to be radically educated and their minds changed about supporting Bruce McPherson (aka - the Crony who wants CA to get Diebolded and then turn RED).

What are they thinking???

We have to do something about this. The CTA has a lot of pull. They need to begin by pulling their heads out of their ***es on this one.

We need Debra Bowen to have all of CTAs support.

Anyone have an idea about how to change CTA's mind? WE need to tell all citizens of this great state and country, all who care for Democracy and our right to Free and Fair Elections to contact the CTA and convince them otherwise, and that they are making a VERY BIG MISTAKE.

Who is with me on this one? I need lots of help. I don't know all the issues with Bruce McPherson. Maybe someone can draft and post a great letter that we can all use and send, and maybe we can also call CTA personally and really put the pressure on? They can't be thinking straight. What the hell is going on?

CTA: http://www.cta.org/CTA.htm

PS- Also we need VVPBs like Andy always said. But, one thing at a time I guess.

or CTA's "endorsement" of Demo candidates won't mean squat in future elections...

thanks!

Schwarz appointee Bruce McPherson getting elected as Sec of State. Not Scharz. Not Bush. NOTHING worse--because McPherson guarantees rightwing corporate control of ALL of our elections.

What the hell is the CTA doing this for, BEFORE the primaries--BEFORE any discussion of the issues?

Something smells. Corruption in the leadership, like we saw with the League of Women Voters and with disabled groups.

Teachers need to get on this NOW. Get your union back in the control of the rank and file!

McPherson is a Diebold/ES&S shill. He just recently ILLEGALLY certified the worst of Diebold's election theft machines (the touchscreens). And let me just tell you who these people are, who are "counting" all our votes with "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls:

Diebold: Headed until just recently by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser, who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio" to Bush-Cheney in 2004.

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson (who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship--they are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich.

Sequoia: Employs former Repub CA Sec of State Bill Jones and his chief aide Alfie Charles to sell their voting machines--a case of inherently corrupt "revolving door" employment, since these are the two who brought this crapass, insecure, unreliable, HACKABLE voting technology to Calif in the first place.

These are the people who are "counting" all our votes behind a veil of secrecy. And Bruce McPherson is their tool.

The CTA leaders who pulled off this rightwing coup--of endorsing McPherson--need to be removed! No benefit of the doubt for them! Throw them out! McPherson cooking our elections will mean BUSTING of the teachers' union--mark my words!--defunding of education, and the end of the California dream. It's hanging by a thread, as it is--with Enron's theft of our $9 billion state surplus, the Schwarzenegger coup (which insured that we will never get our money back), and the use of ANY Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia voting machines (all have secret programming). It will be all over for us if McPherson "wins" in the fall. We haven't seen anything yet, as to the fascist plans of these crooks and war profiteers. McPherson is the Bush junta coming full force to California.

We need to get rid of ALL of this "TRADE SECRET" voting technology NOW!

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SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

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More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)


(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk


Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

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Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

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"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=424890&mesg_id=424890

Can you get a group of teachers together and go talk to the leadership and give them some info? See Livvy's posts on the above thread; she is an educator too. Or PM sfexpat2000 and see what she is up to. You need a planned effort; emails and phone calls would be good, I assume, but you do need an organized effort.

Can the teachers vote on whether to endorse a candidate or not?

If you're a teacher, you'd better grab your CTA delegate and shake some sense into them and flood the leadership office with letters.

Why would the teachers' union endorse someone who will fight to end their existence?

:shrug:

educated.

Why would they choose the appointee of a Governor who has treated teachers worse than any Governor before him?
Reich-wingers are generally anti-union and anti-worker. What is the CTA leadership thinking?!

:(

Thay better like it a lot if McPherson gets the SoS nod again.

in Main Stream Media make the decisions about what stories get told and which are squashed. It isn't the reporters close to the sources and the battle that want to mislead, it's the people close to big money that don't want us to know what's really going on.

I would bet that high up in the CTA is a group of rethugs or lesser evil is that they don't have the background on McPherson.

Suggestion. Get Barbara Boxer involved - find out the truth and either out the cronies or give the CTA the hard cold truth and challenge them to do the correct thing.

here in my county. That's why he has the support.

Aren't they paying attention?

:cry:

1) If there is any way for the grass roots of CTA to stage a protest, that's the way to do it. It's a long shot but the endorsement process had to be odd, to begin with, since they have nothing to gain, CTA, by endorsing any Republican. One commentator said this was probably their throw away endorsement to look like they're not in the Dems pockets. However, CTA has made a crucial error here and shows it's lack of insight and a glaring disregard for the past six years of crappy elections. Probably a good time to clean house out there. It's like a resort company board that doesn't check out the weather for the locations of their future resort properties.

2) Verified Voter Paper Ballots are only useful if they are the ballot of record, the official ballot. I believe CA has this but I'm not sure. If they are the official ballot, why even have the touch screens. It's an absurdity. In many other states the touch screens are the ballot of record. In those states, VVPB's are totally meaningless. Any dispute between paper and machine goes to machine because of the ballot of record. Also, the current bill in congress on VVPB pegs audits at around 2% rather than district or state wide. Again, this is meaningless because, audits don't reverse elections. A case with 100% count machine versus 2% VVPB is a weak one for us.

Paper paper ballots (PPB;) are the only acceptable ballots period. We have a right to see our votes, see them counted, and examine them in the aftermath of ANY election. With out that our "leaders" lack legitimacy and we do not need to consent to their authority. It's not us who need to prove an election was rigged. It's those elected who need to show that they were in fact elected. Can't do that with machines or 2% audits.

Bowen must win! You're dead right about that.

then they're throwing ALL of their votes away.
McPherson is working to insure voter disenfranchisement.
If his corruption of the process isn't reversed, the result will be rethug "wins" throughout the state.

Like another poster, I'm wondering about the higher-ups in the union, and completely agree that the "grassroots" will have to make their voices heard.

McP, then they are throwing all their votes away.

When we went to the first SoS Diebold hearing, I talked to CTA BArbara Kerr on the phone
and asked her for CTA support and to put our info on their mailing lists
This was when they were gearing up to fight the Special Election initiatives
She told me that this was not in the realm of interest of the CTA and
they had had interest to get involved. I understand that she may have attended the Hearing.
The CTA and Barbara Kerr had no problem whatsoever requesting Main Stream Democrat party support to fight the
initiatives
This one is the absolute distinct responsibility of the Calif Dem Party leadership to force her
into reciprocal support and teach her the meaning of Quid Pro Quo
Also, I have been told that she is good friends with Trojan Horse McPherson
CTA
Politics & Legislation
1118 - 10th Street
Sacramento, Calif 95814
ph: 916-325-1500
fax-916-325-1581