Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing conspiracy

[orwell]

This writer does a great job of connecting the dots. This is why BBV is a critical issue, especially after the 2000 and 2002 debacles. There is so much here, much of it a real eye-opener. The Con assault on America is well crafted, strategic, and treasonous. I urge everyone to read this article.

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834

"Diebold, located in North Canton, Ohio, does its primary business in ATM and ticket-vending machines. Critics of Diebold point out that virtually every other machine the company makes provides a paper trail to verify the machine’s calculations. Oddly, only the voting machines lack this essential function."

-snip-

"Harris writes that the documents expose how the mainstream media reversed their call projecting Al Gore as winner of Florida after someone “subtracted 16,022 votes from Al Gore, and in still some undefined way, added 4000 erroneous votes to George W. Bush.” Hours later, the votes were returned. One memo from Lana Hires of Global Election Systems, now Diebold, reads: “I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16,022 when it was uploaded.” Another hacked internal memo, written by Talbot Iredale, Senior VP of Research and Development for Diebold Election Systems, documents “unauthorized” replacement votes in Volusia County. "

-snip-

"Wherever Diebold and ES&S go, irregularities and historic Republican upsets follow. Alastair Thompson, writing for scoop.co of New Zealand, explored whether or not the 2002 U.S. mid-term elections were “fixed by electronic voting machines supplied by Republican-affiliated companies.” The scoop investigation concluded that: “The state where the biggest upset occurred, Georgia, is also the state that ran its election with the most electronic voting machines.” Those machines were supplied by Diebold. "

-snip-

"Former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell writes that one of the favorite tactics of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration in the 1980s was to control countries by manipulating the election process. “CIA apologists leap up and say, ‘Well, most of these things are not so bloody.’ And that’s true. You’re giving politicians some money so he’ll throw his party in this direction or that one, or make false speeches on your behalf, or something like that. It may be non-violent, but it’s still illegal intervention in other country’s affairs, raising the question of whether or not we’re going to have a world in which laws, rules of behavior are respected,” Stockwell wrote. Documents illustrate that the Reagan and Bush administration supported computer manipulation in both Noriega’s rise to power in Panama and in Marcos’ attempt to retain power in the Philippines. Many of the Reagan administration’s staunchest supporters were members of the Council on National Policy. "

Bev Harris should be commended as a real American patriot, no matter which "side" you are on.

O

[m-jean03]

1. As much as I liked the article

And found it interesting, I think anyone who titles their journalism with the words "vast right wing conspiracy" is doing harm to their credibility.

Make the right points, let other people draw their conclusion.

Vast right wing conspiracy smacks of Skull and Bones sort of stuff, and
"conspiracy theory" is usually a term used to _discount_ not to support,
an idea.

[orwell]

2. Ace of Spades

Thanks for reading the article. I understand your point.

And actually, I agree with you to a point, but probably not in the way you intended. I would call it a narrow elitist conspiracy. At its core the controlling elite are neither "left" nor "right".

As far as the denigration of the word conspiracy, that is not by accident. The ruling elite has carefully attached the "kook" frame to the word conspiracy, but only as it applies to the elites themselves. It is funny how the word can be routinely used in legal statutes as they apply to individuals and be acceptable but in the public discourse, when used against the ruling elites it implies another meaning entirely.

Why do you think that is?

Maybe we should start calling a spade a spade. That is only way to take back the frame.

O

[m-jean03]

3. I just think that in journalism,

emotion should be avoided or kept to a minimum.
"Vast right wing conspiracy" sounds too emotional to be credible to the average, centrist-moderate Joe or Jill. Especially in a headline.

Although you make a good point as well. And though conspiracy_ is _routinely used in a legal sense -- until a true, illegal "conspiracy" can be proven I don't know if the word ought to be used. ? Right now it is only speculation, albeit with many sinister sounding facts being uncovered .

Maybe just ask Why No Paper Trail? Is Illegal Conspiracy At Work Behind Diebold Electronic Voting? I think it is just all those words together "vast" "right-wing" and "conspiracy" that just sounds a bit over-wrought for the headlines.

[donhakman]

4. true comfort

[donhakman]

5. but accidents will happen