Buy Diebold Stock

Yes, you read that right.

We've all heard the stories about how Diebold is part of a BushCo. plot to steal elections.

We've all heard that "If their ATMs can spit out a receipt, why can't their voting machines?"

We've all heard Lou Dobbs and others rant and rave about the inanity of it.

What we've not heard is a call to Buy Diebold. That's right. Buy DBD.

"Why on earth would I want to do that?" you might ask.

1. Buying at least 1 share gives you an ownership stake.

2. Buying at least 1 share gives you an ownership voice.

3. Buying at least 1 share gives you an owner's standing to participate in class actions and derivative shareholder lawsuits against the DBD leadership.

4. Buying at least 1 share gives you an owner's right to vote on proposals to tinker with DBD's corporate governance programming. (Hey, they tinker with *our* Constitution, why shouldn't we tinker with *their* by-laws and articles of organization, which would actually be *our* by-laws and articles, once we're part owners of the company?)

5. Buying at least 1 share hedges your bets. One way or another, you'll come out a winner *this* election!

; )

- David A. Smith, Editor of BushBunglesBrigade.org and HALwhistleblowers.org
(not to be confused with David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton, my former employer)

who knows what emails might mistakenly find their way....

eep :)

... on anyone.

LOL.

- Dave

every DU'er bought one share in Diebold, we could all show up at the annual shareholders meeting and raise hell!

or some liberal activist who is well off...

... would have Hastert going full-tilt tin foil!

ROTFLMAO.

- Dave

Soros could probably buy enough stock to throw out the board, if he wanted to.

What about a liberal based IRA company to buy up this stock, Clear Channel and a few others.

I'd be glad to put some of my 401K money into it, provided we could actually take over one or more of them.

I'm liking this idea more and more!

In the pocketbook, and in the monopoly known as East India Company:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_tea_party

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company

People, we were left a pretty thorough roadmap for how to hold a Revolution.

; )

- Dave

Many state and municipal pension plans are required to - or choose to - post the listing of their holdings, at least on a quarterly basis.

For example, CalPERS (the California Public Employees Retirement System) is required to post its quarterly holdings with the SEC, on what's known as a Form 13F (there are different "flavors" of Form 13F, and CalPERS files a Form 13F-HR).

http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=california+public&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany

Their latest filing shows DBD holdings of more than 400K shares:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/919079/000091907906000018/sec092006.txt

Denise Nappier, the Connecticut Treasurer, reports the state pension funds' holdings on a regular basis, as well as its proxy voting record. Many other state and municipal treasurers do the same with respect to their jurisdictions' pension funds.

CalPERS regularly updates how it voted plan shares: http://www.calpers-governance.org/alert/proxy/proxy-list.asp

So, you may already know a VERY big shareholder - your state or municipal pension fund, which is often overseen by a group headed by the jurisdiction's Treasurer.

I don't think we want Mr. Soros involved in this one.

Mike Moore.

:)

... on the check made out to their transfer agent!

- Dave

P.S. I already have her autograph.

Which part of the Old Dominion?

I'm in Alexandria, with relatives all throughout the state.

When Allen uttered his Macaca-mamie excuse for his Macaca-mamie racial slurs, he insulted the intelligence of the very Appalachian Highland voters he thought he was connecting with, with that little "code phrase".

- Dave

my roots in Virginia go waaay back. Let this be a lesson to you to be very careful if you ever study your genealogy: I am very unfortunately related to Pat Robertson.

I agree, Felix Macacahead is a stain on our state, and hopefully he will be shown the door very soon.

And yes, eventually, we all have a pirate or a scoundrel somewhere in our family tree.

- Dave

who participate in Capitalism? Sure there's power in being rich, but there's also power in sheer numbers. SOLIDARITY PEOPLE!!!

... simply familiarize yourself with how the United Mine Workers of America overcame all the dirty tricks of the coal operators during the Mine Wars: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mine+wars+umwa

My family was among the ringleaders, so I guess I come by it honestly. LOL.

For a great indie movie, see Matewan, which depicts a true story that has many lessons to teach today's discontended and downtrodden: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093509/

My mom helped do James Earl Jones' hair and make-up on the movie, which was filmed in Fayette County, West Virginia, on the site of an old mining town: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayette_County%2C_West_Virginia

I grew up in Raleigh County, one over: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_County

My family came down through what is now the Panhandle, and up through the Tazewell County area, too. Lots of coal miners in the extended family, living in Eastern KY, Southwestern VA, WV, OH, TN, and PA.

If Mother Jones and John L. Lewis could be *that* effective 80 years ago, what excuse do we have?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis

- Dave

I'm sure you're very proud of your heritage, you sound like you come from good union stock with lots of experience fighting "the man"!

:thumbsup:

People forget that many people died in order to provide us with overall relatively safe and decent working conditions (they certainly don't teach it in school). Of course, all of that is being pissed away now. We're losing something precious that most of us have taken for granted for many years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mine_Health_and_Safety_Academy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sago_Mine_disaster

As the son and grandson of disabled coal miners, I can tell you right now - KKKarl can shove God, guns, and gays as far up as he can reach.

This Administration broke faith with the voters of Appalachia, and as the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

- Dave

... would accuse her of pouring ketchup into the machines in predominantly GOP districts, to throw the election her husband's way!

: )

- Dave

... turn those machines upside down, like a bottle of ketchup, and smack them until the lost votes fall out!

... as one of my teachers used to say.

; )

- Dave

in *any* fashion. I want them ruined. Put out of business. The sooner the better.

... don't think of it as helping it to survive. Think of it as helping take over a runaway train, reining it in, and redirecting it.

If Diebold were run by honest leaders, what could it do to help guarantee the franchise to every voter, and put election fraud into the history books?

Why are corporate proxy contests run with greater controls than national elections? The same technology that ensures that big stockholders' votes are counted accurately could - and should - be applied to national elections.

- Dave

they can be a very effective tool, and often just the threat of one can make a corporation back down.

Anything that is going to potentially look bad to investors will put the fear of God in a CEO and his Board.

... like Andy Boy Card's high school buddy, Ronny Boy Logue, did to me at this year's annual meeting at State Street:

http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/HaveYouSeenThisMan.pdf

As you say, proxy contests can be quite an effective tool:

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=jorstad+smith+&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=directors+feel+the+heat&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=boston.com&as_rights=&safe=images

- Dave

You too can own one share of Diebold.

Five-year Chart of DBD:
http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/5y/d/dbd

... your broker, DTCC, and - quite possibly - State Street.

- Dave

... given all the bundled campaign contributions to state and municipal treasurers, controllers, comptrollers, and the like.

Interestingly, that's about the only state office that State Street's PAC and top execs ever seem to want to get "civic-minded" over.

; )

- Dave

do real estate, not the stock market.

... many banks now have brokerage arms. You can open a brokerage account, link it to your checking, and fund just enough to cover the cost of the share and the brokerage commission.

- Dave

lol

:)

I've never bought stock. How do you do it?

E*Trade or Schwab are two examples. Sometimes you can hook up with one through your credit union if you are a member.

:hi:

... brings with it the power to influence corporate conduct:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=afl-cio+shareholder+proposals

- Dave

... the magic words that should have all Democrats opening a brokerage account.

Too many Democrats today are from families that seem to have long, multi-generational distrust of the stock market.

My great-grandmother lived in Pike County, Kentucky, and was with us through the late 80s. Her stories of the Depression were as real for her in 1985 as if it were yesterday.

How can you hope to reform a system from the outside?

How can you hope to reform Diebold, or Halliburton, or State Street, or ... fill in the blank with another BushCo. crony company, from the outside?

Kudos to you for asking the question, and at least contemplating the step!

For those Democrats who can relate to the Depression-Era hangover stories in their own families: if you grew up in a family that said, "If it doesn't have the FDIC sticker on the teller's drive-thru window, drive to another bank that does," then you should know about FDIC's sister, SIPC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIPC

- Dave

perhaps instead of a lot of people buying 1 share a non-profit group could take people's pooled money and buy 51%. Then look at all their records, the computer code, etc.

... like an owner of the company!

: )

- Dave

If you start buying up Diebold...
you will raise the stock price
the insiders will sell
and leave you holding the worthless stock :-)

Dap

... will barely budge the price, given the average volume of shares traded: http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?symbol_or_name=dbd&type=usstock+usfund&sym_name_switch=symbol&name=&symbol=

Besides, if the new owners sue the old Directors and officers, and seek disgorgement of their loot, the new owners will be able to have their cake and eat it too (with the Diebold operations re-tooled to put out proper voting machines, to boot).

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=disgorgement

Now how much will 1 stock in Diebold cost?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=dbd

- Dave

... according to its latest quarterly Form 13F filing with the SEC, filed on August 9th for the quarter ending June 30th: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/93751/000104746906010628/a2172317z13f-hr.txt

State Street's "investment discretion" over these shares is listed as DEFINED (usually meaning that the shares are held on behalf of clients, such as pension plans), but the "voting authority" for all 1,292,776 shares is listed as "sole" voting authority, rather than "shared" with the clients' plans.

Diebold's latest quarterly report, its Form 10-Q, says that there are a total of "65,636,628 shares as of August 3, 2006," which means that State Street's voting bloc accounts for just under 2% of the total.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/28823/000095015206006628/l21346ae10vq.htm

Ides

... they're not stuffed.

I think that's the basic idea here, right?

Ides

That's about the long and short of it.

- Dave