Hot Potato Mash

Turdblossom Part 2: Hacking The Machines

And just in case you missed Turdblossom's Insider's Guide to Swinging Elections:

MUST WATCH STOLEN ELECTION/DEMOCRACY VIDEOS

First up is the newly released free online documentary "Free For All" (the entire movie is available for download here). The flick, which is written, produced and directed by John Wellington Ennis, is not only informative but hugely entertaining.

Next up is a clip (7:04) about Clint Curtis from the excellent election documentary, Uncounted, The New Math of American Elections, by David Earnhardt. Curtis has testified under oath that he was hired by hella corrupt Florida Republican Congressman Tom Feeney to create vote flipping computer software in order to steal elections.

FYI: Brad Blog's Brad Friedman figures prominently in both documentaries.

RIGGED DEMOCRACY

Professor and cyber lawyer extraordinaire, Lawrence Lessig, discusses his big idea - that the American public has lost faith in and respect for the central institution of our democracy, Congress - at the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival.



Yesterday Rasmussen Reports released a poll that showed Congressional approval ratings had fallen to single digits (9%) for the first time in tracking history.

Yet, if history is any indication, more than 90% of all Congressional incumbents running for reelection will win despite the single digit approval rating:

1964 87%
1966 88%
1968 97%
1970 95%
1972 94%
1974 88%
1976 96%
1978 94%
1980 91%
1982 90%
1984 95%
1986 98%
1988 98%
1990 96%
1992 88%
1994 90%
1996 94%
1998 98%
2000 98%
2002 96%
2004 99%
2006 94%

How does this happen? Well, throwing election fraud aside, the system is rigged to ensure incumbents win by, among other reasons, gerrymandered districts, unfair money advantages and "perks" of the Office.

Gerrymandering is when Congressional districts are redrawn, often in ways that look and are insane, to give unfair advantages to one party. In 2000, the two dominant parties in California (aka Republicans and Democrats) co-operatively redrew the legislative map to ensure electoral safety for politicians on both sides of the aisle. This included the 38th district (at right) which, despite being held by a Republican from 1984 to 2000, is now overwhelmingly Democratic to the point that the Democratic incumbent was not even challenged in 2004 and garnered 100% of the vote.

Then there is the ridiculous money advantage incumbents enjoy over challengers. For example, in the 2000 election cycle incumbents spent 93% of the total money and won 67% of the total vote. And in 2004, challengers in the House were outspent by incumbents by an average of $700,000 while Senate challengers were outspent by $4 million.

The result of this rigged system is that the American people have little say in determining who represents us in Washington. More to the point, Congress has little incentive to represent the American people. Instead, Representatives and Senators write laws that benefit the corporations that keep them in office through large donations to their campaigns. And more often than not, those same laws hurt average middle-class Americans.

Thus, a Congressional approval rating of 9%.

The Story of American Hero Steve Heller

Note from David Earnhardt, "Uncounted" filmmaker:

Former Utah elections official and whistleblower Bruce Funk said it best, "I can't think of anything more important to do with my life than to try and save our democracy." And now, as we get closer to a presidential election that has been preceded in both 2004 and 2006 by a blatant pattern of election fraud and voter disenfranchisement, his words never had more meaning.

We've been traveling with UNCOUNTED for many months, using it as a tool to organize and to educate about the importance of legislative efforts that could ensure the integrity of elections. But the time for legislation is over and our mission has changed - and has become critical.

Now, we realize, is the time for citizen vigilance. Now we must use the film to encourage people to ramp up their voter registration drives and get out the vote initiatives. Now is the time to encourage everyone to take responsibility for their vote and voting rights. Now, more than ever, people need to see the stories in UNCOUNTED that wake them up to the blatant attempts and successes of election fraud and disenfranchisement and motivate them to stand up and save our democracy.

To that end, each week we will release a clip from the film that will move people to do what Bruce Funk and Athan Gibbs and Steve Heller and Clint Curtis did - fight to save our democracy.

Please use these clips in your travels. Show them to the bleary-eyed and the uninspired and the skeptical. One person standing up on election day can make a difference. But imagine if there were millions?

Week 1: The Ballad of Steve Heller

All he was doing was his job when Steve Heller found "smoking gun proof" that an electronic voting machine manufacturer was using illegal uncertified software in their voting machines and were breaking the law in California because they knew it was illegal and uncertified.

Steve then did the only thing a man of his character could do - he leaked the proof to someone who would know what it was and what to do with it, Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org. When Bev subsequently got the documents to Ian Hoffman who printed them in the Oakland Tribune, Steve thought, "Well, my work here is done." Uh, yeah, sure, if your work includes being prosecuted for several felonies by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

The Ballad of Steve Heller is one man's story of standing up for liberty, freedom, and democracy - and then getting his ass kicked for it.

DISCLOSURE: I know and like Steve Heller whom I find to be a warm and generous individual (along with his wife).

BUY UNCOUNTED DVD: "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections" (David Earnhardt)

GORE VIDAL: 'The US is not a republic anymore'

Gore Vidal interviewed by Press TV:

Press TV: We hear that Michael Mukasey is going to become the latest of the President's Attorney-Generals to be subpoenaed, this time over his conversations with Bush and Cheney - does this show that Congress is serious about calling the executive to account?

Gore Vidal: No, Congress has never been more cowardly, nor more corrupt. All Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts of money go in the direction of certain important congressmen and that's end of any serious investigation. After all, one of the bravest members of Congress is Denis Kucinich who brought the article of impeachment in to the well of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives must then try the president, and then after that it goes to the Senate for judgment. However, none of these things will happen because there's nobody there except for Mr. Kucinich who has the courage to take on a sitting president who is kind of a Mafioso.

Press TV: How can it just be one person among so many hundreds of Congressmen who wants the impeachment of George W. Bush in these circumstances?

Gore Vidal: Well it's because we no longer have a country. We don't have a republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they've got rid of the Bill of Rights, they've got rid of habeas corpus. They have got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went away and we ceased to be colonies - the Magna Carta - from the 12th century. All of our law and due process of law is based on that. And the Bush people got rid of it. The president and little Mr. Gonzales who for a few minutes was his Attorney General. They managed to get rid of all of the constitutional links that made us literally a republic.

Constitution, Dennis Kucinich, Gore Vidal, Impeachment, Impeachment

Democracy In Action... In Korea

The Bush administration fights to prevent meatpackers from testing for mad cow disease:

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.

A quarter-million Koreans protest in Seoul during a 72-hour-long marathon candle vigil against the import of US beef...

How great is this story? Here we once again have the Bush administration whoring for industry to the detriment of the American people. Yet, the mainstream media doesn't cover the story and Americans don't have a clue about it. But 250,000 turnout over three days to protest the sick actions of the American government in KOREA!

Of course the media can't report the ginormous protest because that would mean informing Americans about the disgusting actions of the Bush administration.

(h/t Big Dan)

Bush administration, democracy, Korea, mad cow

Dennis Kucinich Files 35 Articles Of Impeachment Against George W. Bush

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) presented 35 Articles of Impeachment on the House floor tonight. They are a must read for all Americans. But until a transcript is up check out Articles 28 and 29 which are near and dear to my heart:

Article 28: Tampering with Free and Fair Elections (7:20)

Article 29: Violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Part 1, 8:54)

Article 29: Violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Part 2, 9:39)

Brad has much more

"The Courage to Survive" (Dennis Kucinich)

Democracy, Dennis Kucinich, elections, George W. Bush

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Dr. William Pepper on James Earl Ray's Innocence, Sirhan Sirhan's Innocence, 9/11 Truth and Prosecuting War Crimes

Dr. William F. Pepper is an internationally acclaimed lawyer who defended James Earl Ray in a 1999 civil trial (supported by Martin Luther King's family) where the jury found Ray not responsible for the MLK assassination. Now Pepper is defending Sirhan Sirhan for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a case he says is “an easier one than the assassination of Martin King and the innocence of James Earl Ray”.

Last Wednesday Pepper spoke about all of his projects, including 9/11 truth and prosecuting the Bush administration for war crimes, to a packed celebrity filled house in Los Angeles. Among those in attendance were Ed Asner, Gina Belafonte, Judd Nelson and 9/11 author Professor David Ray Griffin. Videos of his talk follow below... 

Part 1 (6:21) - Introduction 

In Part 1 Pepper talks about his background, childhood and motivation. He also speaks about the time he spent in Cuba playing baseball where he got to know Fidel Castro. According to Pepper, Castro foresaw much of what is happening in the United States today:

“When, in that massive country to the north, the masses of the people ever understand what it is that their ruling class has done to them and is doing to them, there will be such a torrent of opposition. They will rise like never before and then there will be the world’s greatest social revolution, the American second revolution.”

The video concludes with Pepper explaining how he came to work for Robert F. Kennedy and Martin King: 

 

Part 2 (5:36) - Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination/James Earl Ray Innocence 

“Took me ten years to convince myself that [James Earl Ray] was an absolute patsy” - Dr. William Pepper 

In Part 2 Pepper begins with the Martin King assassination and explains how he became involved with James Earl Ray's defense some nine years later. He also goes into detail about the 30 day civil trial against Loyd Jowers, et al, where a jury found Ray not responsible for King's assassination after listening to 70 witnesses under oath. 

Pepper believes that Ray's civil trial should serve as a template for getting out the truth in a wide range of cover-ups including the Robert F. Kennedy assassination and 9/11. He thinks using the courts is an effective way to get the truth into the public record despite the efforts by the mainstream media to prevent its dissemination to the public.

 

Part 3 (9:56) - Robert F. Kennedy Assassination/Sirhan Sirhan Innocence 

“I found from just a preliminary examination of the record that [the Sirhan Sirhan case] on the law, on the facts of the case, was an easier one than the assassination of Martin King and the innocence of James Earl Ray” - Dr. William Pepper 

In the first half of Part 3 Pepper details the startling evidence that necessitates a second shooter in the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. For starters the medical examiner states that Kennedy was shot four times from the rear including one shot about an inch behind his right ear which conflicts with all the witness testimony that Sirhan was always three to five feet in front of the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Secondly, the analysis of audio recordings from the assassination with formerly unavailable new technology has led to the determination that 13 shots were fired at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan's gun only held 8 bullets. In other words: 

“There had to be a second shooter there” - Dr. William Pepper

In the second half of Part 3 Pepper details the efforts taken by the prison and the Department of Corrections to prevent his legal team from psychoanalyzing Sirhan Sirhan.

Part 4 (4:59) - Robert F. Kennedy Assassination (Continued) 

In Part 4 Pepper continues the RFK assassination discussion and his efforts to clear Sirhan Sirhan whom he says is innocent:

“The problem we face is if we get our client clearly innocent of the killing of Bob Kennedy – which he is, clearly innocent of that killing – he has five other counts of attempted murder” - Dr. William Pepper

In addition to the belief in Sirhan's innocence Pepper believes the case is important because it is representative of a larger problem facing the country:

“Each of the things I’m talking about are symptomatic of a pervasive sickness in this country. This is not the country we were all led to believe it was or should have been. This is what has emerged because we have had a small group of criminals grab power over a period of time following the orders of the people in the shadows who really do dominate life and justice and the injustices that exist in the society.” - Dr. William Pepper

Part 5 (8:36) - 9/11 

“The 9/11 matter is, in my lifetime, the most traumatic assault on democracy and the safety of this Republic.” - Dr. William Pepper

Part 5 is dedicated to finding out the truth about 9/11. Pepper supports two different ways for accomplishing this goal. First, he backs an effort to create a new commission to investigate 9/11 by New York state referendum. Volunteers are currently trying to get the necessary 30,000 signatures from registered New York voters to get the measure on the ballot.

The second approach is to once again file a lawsuit in the courts. Pepper is leading this effort on behalf of the Jersey Girls and plans to sue, among others, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is widely believed to have sent $100,000 to lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta.

Part 6 (8:03) - War Crimes 

“I’m determined that what I saw in Vietnam and what is happening in Iraq will not go unpunished. Absolutely determined that that’s the case. What that means is this entire gang of war criminals in Washington are going to have to be prosecuted” - Dr. William Pepper

Part 6 covers what Pepper believes is his most important project -- the prosecution of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, David Addington, Doug Feith and Richard Pearl, et al, for war crimes.

Pepper plans to accomplish this monumental task by following the precedent set in the case of Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. In that case, a Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant for Pinochet whose charges including 94 counts of torture.

Ultimately Pepper hopes for a conviction in absentia of the American war criminals which would prevent the guilty from ever stepping foot outside of the United States.

NOTE: To order a DVD of the night's entire programming, which includes a lively Q & A session with Dr. William Pepper and a talk by Professor David Ray Griffin on new 9/11 evidence, please contact Kathleen at quantumysticKFR@gmail.com to request a copy.

“An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, New and Updated Edition” (William F. Pepper)

“Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr” (William F. Pepper)

Technorati Tags: 11, administration, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Dr. WIlliam Pepper, Fidel Castro, George W. Bush, iraq, James Earl Ray, Jersey Girls, Martin Luther King Jr., puppy, Robert F. Kennedy, september11, Sirhan Sirhan, torture, war crimes

Pastor John Hagee Says God Intervened During 2000 Florida Election

While most informed people attribute George W. Bush's 2000 election victory in Florida to the Supreme Court, Karl Rove, Jeb Bush or even Katherine Harris, Pastor John Hagee blames a higher power -- God! From the 2003 clip above:

"I believe that God has raised George Bush up for this time in history to crush Saddam Hussein. And let me give you just an ironic something that I put together the other day and I almost jumped out of my chair. When George Bush was running for president, Florida was the basis of contention. And an Orthodox Rabbi was in my office and he was saying - you know - he's a democrat - [that] one of the confusing things in the Florida election was that, in a neighborhood that Mr. Gore should have carried, there is a large block of retired Jewish people and - somehow, mysteriously - they all voted for George Bush. Now think about that. He won the state. He became the president."

Hagee was clearly speaking about the infamous Palm Beach County butterfly ballot which The Palm Beach Post concluded cost Al Gore 6,607 votes or 10 times Bush's "winning" margin. Of course, a review of all the Florida ballots by a media consortium concluded that Gore got more votes in Florida anyways.

In any case, it does make one question God's motives and virtue. According to Hagee, God fooled old Jewish Floridians into voting for George W. Bush so that the United States would attack Iraq, something Al Gore would not have done. So God is a meddling, duplicitous, warmonger. More good news!

Related: My encounter with the lying Pastor John Hagee

Democracy, elections, Florida, Pastor John Hagee, Palm Beach County

NY TIMES Perpetuates The Myth - It Created - That Bush Won Florida In 2000

Thank you Larry Beinhart for finally putting together a clear article for all to read about Gore's win and the massive coverup by the mainstream media led by the NY Times:

The New York Times: "STUDY OF DISPUTED FLORIDA BALLOTS FINDS JUSTICES DID NOT CAST THE DECIDING VOTE."

If you were still interested, after the headlines, and bothered to read the stories, it didn't get much better. I read it in the New York Times. Frankly, I missed the key paragraph, until I saw it pointed out in an article by Gore Vidal. I subsequently went back and read all the stories. The Times was the worst in terms of active misdirection. They spent the first three paragraphs supporting the headline and they explicitly stated that Bush would have won even with a statewide recount. Finally, in the fourth paragraph -- if you got that far -- was the statement quoted above:

"If all the ballots had been reviewed under any of seven single standards, and combined with the results of an examination of overvotes, Mr. Gore would have won, by a very narrow margin."

There it was. A very simple statement. Al Gore got more votes in Florida than George Bush. It is also very well buried. It had arcania about chads on both sides of it. Even so, as if in a panic to make sure that nobody might think that it mattered that Al Gore got more votes than George Bush, the Timesdismissed what the Consortium had spent a million dollars to find out: "While these are fascinating findings, they do not represent a real-world situation. There was no set of circumstances in the fevered days after the election that would have produced a hand recount of all 175,000 overvotes and undervotes." Even though that would seem to be a fairly obvious interpretation of the law and it is what was found when someone actually did sit down and count the votes.

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE!

"Wag the Dog: A Novel" (Larry Beinhart)

Supreme Court Expert Jeffrey Toobin Says Voter ID Laws Are 'A Very Clear Attempt By Republicans To Stop Democrats From Voting'

Supreme Court expert Jeffrey Toobin explained to Bill Moyers last night that the real intent behind GOP sponsored Voter ID laws which the Supreme Court recently ruled were Constitutional was "to stop Democrats from voting":

Jeffrey Toobin: "I thought it was a bad decision but a predictable one. Because it was a very clear attempt by Republicans to stop Democrats from voting. I don't think there is any doubt about what the motivation was of that law. It didn't say that in the text of the law and the aim of stopping fraud was one that we all can embrace. But the fact is electoral fraud scarcely exists in this country. The real agenda was to help Republicans."

The reality is that the new Voter ID laws that are sprouting up all over the country as a result of the partisan Supreme Court decision are a poll tax that "makes voting harder for poor, elderly, and disabled citizens without photo IDs" (and nuns) and will result in The Great Disenfranchisement of as many as 21 million Americans.

In fact, the man who led the Bush administration's efforts on the Photo ID front, John Tanner, even admitted that the laws disenfranchise elderly voters. Tanner, who eventually was forced to resign for making insane comments (see below) that I caught on video and blogged about at Brad Blog, called it a "shame" that the elderly would be disenfranchised by Voter ID laws:

"And I think that it is probably true that among those who don't [have Photo IDs] is primarily elderly persons. And that's a shame. You know, creating problems for elderly persons is not good under any circumstance.

Of course, that also ties in to the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first. There are inequities in health care. There are a variety of inequities in this country. And so anything that disproportionately impacts the elderly has the opposite impact on minorities. Just the math is such as that."

Thus, we are left with a situation where the Supreme Court ruled a law Constitutional that the government admits will disenfranchise untold Americans in an effort to prevent voter fraud which the government and the Supreme Court admit is virtually non-existent.

Thus the Supreme Court, the Bush administration and Republican operatives across the country have set back our democracy decades. And this will only be the beginning if John McCain, who wants to appoint more Supreme Court judges in the Bush mold, is elected and gets to replace the 88 year-old Stevens, 75 year-old Ginsburg, 69 year-old Breyer or 68 year-old Souter.

Technorati Tags: Bill Moyers, Election, Jeffrey Toobin, John McCain, John Tanner, Poll Tax, Democracy, Supreme Court, Voter ID

ENDGAME: Bush & Cheney's Desperate Measures

NYU professor and election integrity guru Mark Crispin Miller:

There's no doubt that the GOP is in big trouble, facing catastrophic losses in the House and Senate this November. But if you believe that Bush and Cheney will observe the law and honor the traditions of American democracy, and therefore let themselves be forced from power, you're living in a world of happy dreams.

The fact is that this criminal regime cannot afford to drop their guns and walk out here amongst the rest of us; and there's much evidence that they do not intend to let that happen--ever. So we had better face that evidence (i.e., unearth it, since the media has largely played it down, or tuned it out), and brace ourselves for a protracted fight; because those men are capable of anything that will maintain their death-grip on the US government.

In this new vlog, I talk about that evidence (or some of it), and what we may expect before Election Day. Here is Part One (7:51):

Part Two (7:02)

UPDATE: Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has an excellent post on one way the GOP is gaming the system.

UPDATE II: And don't miss this despicable story from The Texas Observer.

"Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008" (Ig Publishing)

"Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform" (Mark Crispin Miller)

Technorati Tags: Mark Crispin Miller

Do We Live In A Police State?

The Anniston Star has a great interview with former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman which includes the following question and answer:

The Star: You've got a lot on your plate with your appeal. Why are you working so hard at this appeal to Congress?

Siegelman: It's much bigger than me because it's not just my case. This was not an isolated incident. This was a pernicious, political plan that was set in motion by Karl Rove to further his espoused dream of establishing a permanent Republican majority in this country, and what he left out was by any means necessary.

It is clear to me — and I think to those who have been investigating, and that's why they're so hot about this case — it is clear that Karl Rove abused his power and misused the Department of Justice as a political tool to win elections, and that is something that would happen in a police state. That is something that we might have read about in history books as happening in Russia, but it is not something that should be allowed to happen in the United States of America. And Congress, and I believe John Conyers, clearly sees this as a wrongful action against democracy in this country, and he wants to make a statement that is clear and unequivocal that this kind of abuse of power is not going to be tolerated under any administration whether it's a Democratic administration or a Republican administration.

We have got to regain control over our system of justice, and it's got to be put back in order, and not allowed ever to be used in this manner again.

That's why I've been working not just on my legal appeal, but on an appeal to the United States Congress to keep digging in and fighting for the truth.

The entire Q & A is well worth a look.

Technorati Tags: Don Siegelman

'Boston Legal' Takes On Our Democracy

In this week's episode of Boston Legal Alan Shore (James Spader) shreds our embarrassing excuse for a democracy (2:48). And if you have yet to watch last week's Supreme Court shredding video, do so immediately without passing “Go”.

Technorati Tags: Alan Shore, Boston Legal, James Spader

Hurricane Katrina: A GOP Success Story

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has a front page story today on the shifting demographics in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

A new study by a political scientist confirms what election-watchers have suspected since Hurricane Katrina: The number of voters in the New Orleans area has fallen sharply, with African-Americans and registered Democrats losing the most ground...

Losses weren't borne equally by racial and party-affiliated groups, according to the analysis by University of New Orleans political scientist Ed Chervenak. For instance, a disproportionate loss among black voters across the region helped drive up white voters' share of the electorate, from two-thirds in 2003 to nearly three-quarters last year.

Democrats also lost ground, with their participation sliding from 58 percent of the electorate in 2003 to 51 percent in 2007, the report shows. Republicans, meanwhile, saw their share of the voting population jump from 28 percent to 33 percent during the period...

“It has really important implications for the redrawing of districts -- congressional districts and all the way down,” she said. “Presumably, when districts are redrawn, Orleans Parish could lose clout. That said, the suburban areas probably will gain some clout, especially Jefferson and St. Tammany.”

And just in case anyone thinks this a coincidence, lest we not forget the Bush administration's response to hurricanes in Florida where the demographics were far more favorable to the Republican Party.

Technorati Tags: gop, Hurricane Katrina