Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters Tells California Voters: Trust in Diebold and Ye Shall be Rewarded

THE HUFFINGTON POST


Rick Jacobs

Posted August 7, 2007

Over the weekend, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen took the courageous step of decertifying Diebold Hart and Sequoia electronic voting machines. She did this after an exhaustive study by the University of California that demonstrated clearly the violability of such machines. In short, she acted to assure when we vote for president beginning with the primary on February 5 and then finally in November of next year, we'll know that our votes are counted.


This makes perfect sense to me. As 2,000 Californians have said in the last four days in a Courage Campaign petition supporting the Secretary of State's review, if we have time to vote, we damn well want those officials to count our votes. Democracy is far too fragile to allow doubt of any sort to enter the minds of an electorate already weary of manipulations by media and money. (Over at Brad Blog, you'll see that even Lou Dobbs' asserts that Bowen is right on target.)

Then there's the Sacramento Bee's Dan Walter's who thinks what Secretary Bowen did makes no sense, principally because he is fundamentally confused about the concepts of public trust versus crime and punishment. In today's column, Mr. Walters says that "Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a lawyer by trade, should reread that (the reasonable doubt) section of the Penal Code. She cast aside the principle of reasonable doubt when she tried and convicted electronic voting system manufacturers of making unsecure devices."

Mr. Walters misses the point, no doubt purposefully. He uses his ideological bias (he says that Bowen's appointed Republican successor certified Diebold machines, so it must be okay) to assert that those who worry about voter fraud or at least worry about lack of transparency in the process when electronic machines are involved are somehow "conspiracy theorists... akin to--and about as rational as -those who worry about an invasion of space aliens in flying saucers."




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-jacobs/sacramento-bees-dan-walt_b_59561.html

The Sacramento Bee is another mouthpiece in the GOP's media machine.

:argh:

not

His status as a corporate lapdog stands out even in the Bee, which isn't precisely a publication that lacks for columnists eager to kiss the collective ass of corporate america.

before he sucks as bad as that other Bee columnist that Weintraub guy. I don't know how that dildo can even type when his head is so far up der titzengrabber's ass.

be easily erased without a trace!

Perish the fucking thought.

You're three fer three tonight! The best part of that is that it has been a great week moving towards.....

"The Thing That Cannot Happen!!"

(audio cue: shreik of a werewolf, then a whole pack. Camera pans up to the stone castle. Lighting cracks!).


Hand Counted Paper Ballots !!!!

The IDEA that CANNOT be killed ....


(Transition: to little girl, about four, sitting in a field in a sun dress. Ignoring a flower, she sings and starts pushing buttons on a DRE... Voice of Adult Announcer: "Ten.... Nine.... Eight.... Seven....".

CUT: to nuclear explosion.:nuke: Fade to black.)

:thumbsup:

for disgracing the good name they've built. But he's just a columnist with his head up his ass.

kster, keep it rolling. K*R

Self-important popinjay rush-limbaugh-wannabe, hate this guy, always hated this guy.

I never, ever read this complete asshole's spew anymore.

But how do I really feel?

Debra Bowen for Governor. Debra Bowen for President.

I love Debra Bowen. Does it show?

and corporations are *not* people!