Freeper Madness Rising

When you start to feel overwhelmed by the thought that we have finally arrived at the grown-up table, and wonder if any of the righteous anger that helped get us here might begin to fade.  Just take a second to remember the type of mind-set that we have been fighting against the the last six twelve years.  Remember the completely mental, fantasy addled frothing freeper nut-balls that have been running the Congress - and this Country - during that time.

This is a an example of Rabid Freeper Madness that will either bring you to stitches or outrage... possibly both.
From Democratic Underground.

I know you probably get a lot of messages asking you to read stuff on your show, but I BEG you to read this...... I would like you to tell America exactly what they did to their soldiers on Tuesday, and what WE think about our countrymen right now.

"I hope you are satisfied with what you have done...

Today in the mess hall, where there is usually jovial conversation, there was silence, long faces, and broken spirits... Everyone, to include all American soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, Iraqi Nationals, Bulgarian Soldiers, etc, etc... was speechless, tired, demoralized and stunned.... all ate in erie silence.....

Last night, while we watched the press conference with the President, there was utter discust, and the common feeling amongst us all that we soldiers are now the loneliest people on Earth.... we fight an enemy over here, and we have a country full of enemies to go home to that are our countrymen. We watched President Bush say his own political funeral, our commander and chief.. as well as ours..... He tried so hard to spin it, but... well.. there is no way to soften such a morale blow.

While you sit and Monday morning quarterback what we work so hard to do for you out here, just know that the spirit of your team is wounded..... YOU liberals, you America have done a great job of demoralizing us... Thank you.

Do us a favor though, when we do come home, spare us the ceremony....... We all now know that it is a bunch of crap, and what you think of us.......

I have to say that right now, I would rather be a pussy ass Frenchman, even though they have no will to fight, at least they have the balls to make a decision and stick with it...... They stuck to thier guns about staying out of this war, even if it was the wrong decision......America on the other hand, goes off half cocked, and when the decision appears to be a hard one, or something that might cost a little bit, they turn tail and run.....

WHAT A NATION OF PUSSIES!!!!

This week I am NOT proud to say that I am an American..........I think it is obvious why... See, we just have told the world that we are not a nation of people who are tough, and will fight for what we believe in... We have told the world that we are a giant coward that will shy away from any difficult challenge...

So, while you eat your cheetos, and sit there and watch your lazy ass get fatter, dumber and happier Joe Citizen.. Just remember this, I, and all my commrades payed a dear price to come this far and have you decide that we should fail...

Realize this, because of your action this week America.... do not expect so many men to be so willing to stand up for your next little whim just to be cut down in the middle of it all............

Realize this also.. you have just put a heavy price on the heads of us all...... Now that we are branded as cowards, we are an easy target, oh so inviting for the taking....... I swore to protect your children in your beds.... yet you fling the door wide open inspite of me to invite the scourge.... Well.... have it your way then.

Because of this, September 11th will soon be overshadowed by these same enemies.. my advice to you is get your lazy, self centered ass up and make peace with your God, and your family.. cause, time will come when they may not be there for you................Because you kicked me in the teeth, and so many others, I know I won't any more.. "

Aaron.

What has been already pointed out on the DU thread is that Bulgaria left Iraq in December of 2005. (Although it's fair to point out that they also sent back 140 troops guard a refugee camp in February) - the odds that this letter has any basis in fact remain very low.

That someone would dishonor our troops in this way, making them into petulant children is disgraceful.  Their duty is to  serve the civilian leadership faithfully and to the best of their ability.  If that leadership changes, so be it.

When the days go long and the battle to correct the path of our ship of state seems endless - just remember that we voted to protect our soldiers, we voted to restore their healthcare, to bring them the armor the need - to give them a plan to win rather than the empty rhetoric of continued failure.

Remember "Aaron" and his inane freeper nonesense - and keep up the good fight.

Vyan

Why Rummy is the New Brownie!

Anybody else out there suffering from whiplash?

Wed Nov 1.

President Bush said Wednesday he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee to two of the most criticized members of his team.

One Week Later (and just one day after the Mid-Term Thumpin')

As the Commander-in-Chief, I take these responsibilities seriously. And so does the man who served this nation honorably for almost six years as our Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Now, after a series of thoughtful conversations, Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon.

We all have heard the Presidents claims that he simply wanted to get the "next question" when he blatantly lied about Rumsfeld staying on last week - but the timing of the firing - and it was a firing - portends far far more.

• Vyan's diary :: ::
• 
  

Please note the Rumsfeld had resigned twice before - the first time was after Abu Ghraib was revealed. That's not coincidence.

Rumsfeld got taken out with the trash strategically and purposefully. Yes, it's true that over a dozen retierd generals had called for his resignation, and that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Times had published a joint editorial calling for Rumsfeld to leave - but I don't think those were ultimately the reasons.

The reality of a Democratic Congress with genuine investigative and subpeona power - and a powerful mad-on after 12 years off being kicked and stomped in the face by Republicans - required a sacrifice.

Rumsfeld is that sacrifice, but more importantly - he's bait.

Neo-Cons and their enabling lackey's like O'Leilly are already trotting out their brand shiny new "Democrats have to be moderate" meme.

Now the unintended consequence of the power shift in D.C. is that some Democrats will try to impose a secular-progressive agenda on the country.

First, there will be an attempt to raise taxes -- Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel will lead that.

Second, new speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will encourage investigations of the Bush administration, seeking to create a scandal which would help the Democrat presidential nominee in 2008.

But that could backfire on the Democrats as most Americans do not want Mr. Bush attacked. They want to see if the Democrats can do better. They do not want to see their government ripped apart in a time of war.

Create a Scandal?

The Iraq War itself - how and we why got into it, the missing WMD's, the Armor problems, the outsourcing of basic functions, the missing $8.8 Billion, the total $500 price tag, the body count, the failed reconstruction, Haditha , Mahmoudiya and the rising suicide rate among our troops - is the greatest Scandal this nation has seen in a century.

Then you have Gannon/Guckert, paying journalist to write pro-Administration puff pieces, manufacturing phony news stories, the failure to respond to the Cole Bombing and ignoring warnings about bin Laden, the illegal NSA wiretaps and datamining, Abramoff, the Plame-Wilson outing, the Robo-calling and phone jamming, publishing Nuclear Secrets on the Web, the muzzling of scientists by political appointees, the bait and switch of Bush's Faith Based Initiatives...

Democrats don't have to "make up a scandal" - they have a all you can eat buffet of scandals laid out right in front of them.

But the juiciest scandal is Rumsfeld and his involvement in War Crimes including the U.S. performing Kidnappings, Secret Dentention, Torture and Murder. This is the hottest potato in the patch, because there's a paper trail a mile wide that leads directly to Rumsfelds Desk - and a War Crime which results in murder is a Capital Offense.

• In October 2002 Gitmo commanders request "that additional techniques beyond those in the field manual be approved for use.""


• In December of 2002 SecDef Rumsfeld allows for ""stress positions," hooding, 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, exploiting phobias to induce stress (e.g., fear of dogs), prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation, and forced grooming. These techniques soon spread to Afghanistan and later to Iraq." according to documents obtain by the ACLU.


• Also in December of 2002 the FBI begins complaining to the Defense Department about the conditions at Gitmo, and in Afghanistan some detainees are "killed during interrogation" at Bagram AFB.

Since then we've had over two dozen War on Terror detainees - Tortured to Death. That's 26 Times the Death Penalty, all under Rumsfeld's command.

This is why Bush was so fired up to have the Military Commissions Act passed before the election - that act not only allows the President to re-write Geneva on the back of a piece of toilet paper, he can redefine War Crimes. (But even under the new and not-so-improved version of the Act - Murder is still a Crime) So now he's dumped Rumsfeld (hoping that none of Rummy's stink will be able to stick to the ongoing administration) he'll have his brand new SecDef in place and confirmed before the Democrats actually move into their new offices in the Senate in January. This is replay of the scapegoat shuffle he pulled with Brownie, managing to walk away scott-free from any responsibility for the Katrina mess.

He's stalling for time until the end of his Administration, trying to sweep all this stuff under the rug, quickly, so that even if Democrats manage to pry it up and drag Rummy back out, they'll have to slow roast him on a spit under subpeona (he's a gammy old bird and he won't crack easily). The hearings will drag on and on, meanwhile Bush's Administration will be able to continue functioning unhampered and own hands will look (relatively) clean.

But they aren't.

The War Crimes implemented by Rumsfeld still lead directly back to the Bush's own office due to the Bybee Memo and Abu Gonzales' recommendation that detainees be denied Geneva status simply to avoid vulnerability to the War Crimes Act.

They knew they were going to commit War Crimes, they just didn't want to get caught.

Next to go - will probably be Cheney who also have his fingerprints all over this torture stuff. There's one thing we can count on, Bush will do whatever it takes to save his own ass. If he could dump Rummy, he can dump Shooter too - and that I think, would be a very interesting situation because I don't think Cheney will simply walk away.

He'll fight back and it could get pretty darn ugly.

I plan to bring pop-corn.

Vyan

Election Night After Action Report

My Interview with Video The Vote on Election Eve.

On this YouTube Video as a Pollworker I describe the two new voting machines which were used during the 2006 Midterm Elections in Los Angeles Country, which had been sitting in my living room for over a week prior to November 7th.

On tape I discuss the various security concerns and safeguards which have been put in place to protect the vote and these machines from possible tampering.

On election night our Precinct ran smoothly. We had approximately 280 Voters come through, 20 of those had to use provisional ballots because they were not listed on our voter roster. (Most had come to the wrong polling location - as the County gradually shifts the precincts around in preparation for full electronic voting at "Neighborhood Voting Centers" (NVCs).

Overall turnout (number of signatures in roster vs total registerd voters in the precinct) was about 23%. 18 ballots were cast with Overvotes (Two or more choices selected for the same race) and were rejected by our Precinct Ballot Reader. (Which is a failure rate of about 7%) In all but two of those cases the voter cast a new ballot and it was accepted, the others simply let the ballot go through as it was with the mistakes intact. In previous years a ballot with an overvote would have been entirely rejected and not counted, but this year for the first time only the race which includes the overvote will be ignored.

Two voters entered blank ballots and had those ballots rejected. They successfully revoted.

This means that voter "turnout" should have increased by between 5-10% across the entire county due to the use of these machines, simply because ballots that would have been rejected would now be counted and included in the final tally.

On the tape I mention that voters essentially had "Three Strikes and your out" - meaning they had three chances to successfully vote. This became a bit of a discussion with the people at Election Protection, but the bottom line was that I was correct - technically. California State Law only allows a voter to have two correction ballots (three total). We didn't have anyone go to the third ballot - but we did have one person who had significant errors twice in a row. He walked out in disgust and we entered his ballot with the "Override" so that his remaining errors would be ignored. This could also have been done if he'd tried to use a third ballot and still had received errors.

My own mother, who was the Precinct Inspector, made an overvote mistake on her ballot which the machine caught. In as many cases as we could we would manually verify the overvote reported by the machine and show this to the voter so that they could understand what the mistake had been and how to correct it. Usually people with weaker eyesight had simply punched one hole above or below where they intended and created an overvote.

Overall for us, things went smoothly - we ran into no significant problems. As it turned out though - we were lucky.

Some of the other poll workers interviewed by Video the Vote from West Hollywood (a Very Heavily Democratic District I think - since the Polls were at the Gay and Lesbian Center!) were going through a veritable nightmare with these machines at their NVC which included three precincts in one location. I actually talked to this pollworker myself on election day and the situations was that one of the inspectors and all their materials were sent to another location, so every voter who arrived for that precinct had to be put on provisional ballots (which ended up being around 200) because they had no Roster to verify if those people were legal voters or not.

They didn't have any ballots for that precinct - so they had to use the sample ballots that were only supposed to used for demostration purposes. (But are still a valid backup).

They had two voting machines - but one of them failed totally, while the second was having a wiring problem and would short out and restart. As a result they were only using one machine for three precincts and some of the ballots were generating a message "Ballot Error" when entered.

As these Precinct Ballot Reader machines are started and initialized, a special card has to be put into the machine. I examined this card and found that it was very much like an old school IBM Punch Card (I mean real... old school - like from the 70's. Admittedly my computer experience actually does go back that far - I was pratically a blastocyst with an Atari). The punch holes on the ballots matched this card exactly, and the ballots themselves included a unique Serial Number which matched the Serial Number for the Precinct.

From a programming and systems design background it seems to me that each machine was probably pre-programmed with the ballot for every portion of L.A.County, including any local initiatives which would only be valid in certain cities. On election day the reader would read the setup card, and use it to identify which precinct it was currently located in, then call up the approprate ballot template to check for overvotes. From what I could tell this was the only way things could have been functioning, or else they would have had to preload only one precinct per machine and then make sure they gave the right machine to the correct inspector. (Em, I don't think so...)

This of course made me suspect that the West Hollywood "Ballot Error" was the result of trying to place two precincts ballots through the same reader. I haven't yet been able to confirm this yet, but I strongly suspect this was the case.

I don't know if the fact that our district is almost equally split between Democrats and Republicans is part of why things went fine without a glitch while a heavily Democratic District went through veritable hell. Was it simply human error or more? Hard to say at this point. But as more and more Election After Action Reports come through, we might eventually be able to see a pattern emerge or not.

One thing we can't afford to do - is not pay attention.

Vyan

Security Note: On the Video I discuss the security tabs which is used to cover an RS-232 ethernet port on the Ballot Reader. When I got a better look I discovered that those tabs were reenforced and individually numbered. Also I stated that the machine had no memory card - but during the election I discovered a second security tab which was placed over a locked door on the lower left side of the machine, below the touchscreen (I tried to get a picture of it above). Exactly what is behind that door, I don't know - but it clearly means that there might have been more externally adjustable elements than I had previously seen.

Hey GOP - Welcome to the New Permanent Republican Minority

Congrats to House Speaker Pelosi - and god willing and the crick don't rise - Senate Majority Leader Reid.

People we just did what they said - repeatedly - we couldn't do. We have just crushed the Gingrich Revolution into dust. What I'm thinking right now is Permanent Republican Minority, because lets be honest - people didn't vote the Democrats in - they voted the Republcans out. They took out moderate anti-War Republicans like Chaffee and Dewine just to make sure they lost power. Period.

After $500 Billion being tossed out like the morning trash in Iraq, after Katrina and practically no hearings, after Downing Street, after NSAT&T, after Terri Schiavo, Gitmo, Habaes Corpus and Due Process on a stick, the nation finally screamed -- ENOUGH!

And it was a beautiful sound to hear.
What we've learned over the last six years, and particularly the last two - is that these bastard's can't be trusted.

I for one do not believe that it is simply in the nature of holding power that corruption festers. It's also in the nature of ones character, and in the natura of ones worldview.

We saw the character of the Gingrichians when they nearly caused the country to default on it's loans by refusing to raise the debt ceiling in 1995. If President Clinton's then Treasury Secretary hadn't done some fast and furious money shifting THIS COUNTRY WOULD HAVE GONE INTO DEFAULT simply to satify their rabid lust for tax cuts.

It was clear then that their primary desire was to generate tax kickbacks to their pals, cronies, buddies and donors. The Hiltons. The Lays. The Skillings. The Trumps. The Blue Blooded American Aristocrat Money Whore Dilitants were and are the only true masters of the Republican Party.

Oh sure, they provided plenty of lip service and red meat to the Christian "Wackos" (via Mike Scanlon and David Kuo), siddling up to people like Randal Terry, they exploited every young female blonde in jeapardy ™, baited every gay-basher they could find, played the Deliverance Card all through the south, but they were simply using all of them to service one thing - their own greed.

It was all about greed. Greed, Power and self-gratification. It's a story that ran through Abramoff, Cunningham, Ney, Safavian, (ex White House Domestic Policy Head Claude) Allen, Gannon/Guckert, Haggard, Foley, Reynolds, Hastert and Tom DeLay.

Now Those Days are Over. America wanted them out! They're toast.

In the last days of the election there were definate signs that every rat in the elephant boat was looking for their own personal dingy. The outcome was truly never in doubt (and I'm proud to say I predicted a 30-seat pickup in the house over 3 weeks ago)

From Vanity Fair you had the neo-con Architects of the Iraq War ready to fire the Contractors - Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney - for building a broken house.

As he looks into my eyes, speaking slowly and with obvious deliberation, Perle is unrecognizable as the confident hawk who, as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, had invited the exiled Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi to its first meeting after 9/11. "The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity," Perle says now, adding that total defeat--an American withdrawal that leaves Iraq as an anarchic "failed state"--is not yet inevitable but is becoming more likely. "And then," says Perle, "you'll get all the mayhem that the world is capable of creating."

According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.... At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.... I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

To people like Pearle and Frum, it wasn't that the idea of invading an unarmed nation was fucking stupid thing to do - it was a problem with "execution". Er right. How 'bout admitting that there was problem with Both, eh sparky?

Not likely.

The American Conservative Magazine, run by that xenophobic nutbag Pat Buchanan, actually endorsed the Democrats.

They lost the fiscal conservatives with their run-away spending. They lost the social conservatives with their blatant hypocrasy. They lost the Christian Right with their closeted gay self-loathing. They lost the War Hawks with their total combat command incompetence.

There were hundreds of reasons to toss this Congress under the bus, back up and hit 'em again.

And you can't say that Republicans didn't fight back. Hard.

They pulled every trick in the book, then went and got a few new books. You had Radio Host Laura Ingraham endorsing the phone jamming of a voter protection hotline. Massive Robo-calling by the NRCC all over the country (which eerily targeted vulnerable Republican Districts). Phony Voter ID requirements in Georgia. Voter intimidation in Virginia.

We fought back - with a massive Election Protection campaign, and organizations such as Video the Vote. (Who actually interviewed me in my capacity as a Poll Worker over the issue of housing Voting Machines in my home for over a week).

This time we were ready for their B.S.

Still some of these efforts were effective. We saw great candidates like Tammy Duckworth and Harold Ford Jr. (whose concession speach was truly inspiring) taken down.

But on the other hand seeing Rick "Man on Dog/Yeah sure we found WMD's" Sanitorium hitting the mat for a 10 count was more than worth the price of admission.

Does it sound like I'm gloating? Damn straight. I'm doing the Snoopy Dance on the grave of Bush/Gingrich's Legacy. Cue Linus. Time to boogey down.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us dismantling and fixing all of Bush and the Gopers massive fuck-ups. The Minimum Wage, Health Care, Alternative Energy Developement, Gulf Coast Recovery, The Deficit and Social Security Solvency - not to mention the Wars on Iraq, Terror and American Liberty which still need to be fought and each - Won.

Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We may not always be happy with the results, but two things are for sure...

Dems couldn't possibly do a worse job than the GOP has for the past 6 years - and we can't EVER let them get back into Power again.

Vyan

Protecting the Vote - Once Precinct at a Time

Although the daunting prospect of electronic voting as well as organized voter suppression looms on the eve of the 2006 election, there are still a great many things that we individuals can do to protect the vote.

If you haven't already - Take Tomorrow Off From Work and plan to spend all day at the Polls.

As a citizen it is your right to be able to watch your Democracy and progress. the only way that the vote can be tampered with or stolen is when no one is looking.

Go to the Polls and keep Watch on our Democracy, but most importantly - you must document what you see!

Depending on the rules in your state, some of the details may vary slightly - but in general there is no reason why you can not go to your local voting place and simply watch.

Here are some simple rules of thumb and suggestions.

Bring a Lunch.

Bring a Camera (preferably video).

Bring a Phone.

Bring a Notepad.

Bring a portable radio with earphones so you can hear the local and nation news without disturbing others.

Do NOT discuss preferences on the ballots measure or specific races while within 40-100 ft (depending on the state) of the polling place. That is Electioneering and is prohibited by law. Make note and document anyone else you see violating this law.

Poll workers should be courteous and helpful. They should not object to your watching as long as you don't interfere with their work or the voters.

Make a note of excessive delays or lines, note the precinct and average wait times.

As the day progresses Read and Review the Street Index, which should be updated each hour by poll workers to indicate which persons in the precinct have already voted and posted near the entrance. This can used for last-minute GOTV as the index should include the name, address, phone number and party affiliation of each registered voter. If you have a phone (tip #2 above) you can call any voter and remind them of the election and ask them if they plan to vote today, but you can not suggest to them how they should vote while in the polling place. Some people might be put-off by a cold-calling of this type (even if they aren't already getting robo-bombed) - so use your best judgement and always be courteous.

Pay attention to voter ID challenges. (I'm a poll-worker in California so I can speak to their laws primarily, and in California you do not need ID to vote as long as your are listed in the Roster as an "Active" Voter - one who has voted at least once during the past two Presidential election cycles. If you have not, you should be listed as an "Inactive" voter and you still don't need ID, only to verify your name and address - then recite a voter oath. New Voters who've recently registered must show ID - or proof of address - if they can't they can still vote provisionally.

Pay attention to how and when voters are shunted toward provisional ballots. Voters Should Not Be Harrassed The rules may vary from state to state, but generally provisional ballots should only be issued for people who are a) New without ID or b) Voting outside their normal precinct. Provisional voters should be given a receipt which tells them that they can call a number or check a website 30 days after the election to verify that their vote was or wasn't counted.

Each voter should sign the roster individually. If someone comes to the poll and finds that someone else has already signed their slot on the roster - that's not a good sign. Document it.


Document any reports of "Vote Flipping" with Electronic Vote Machines.

Document, if you can, the details of votes which have been rejected by Ballot Readers. (Units made by ES&S have been distributed to all 5000 precincts in LA.) For this election the readers will not be counting the votes, only checking them for errors - votes missing or overvotes - and generating a report. The voter should have the option to override the error report if they don't care about those particular races , or redo their ballot to fix any problems. The Ballot Readers I've seen Do not have Memory Cards, but they do have an Ethernet Cable Port which should be covered by a piece of security tape. If you can, ensure sure that this tape has not been tampered with in order to hide unauthorized access to the machine's internals.

New Audio Booths are now available which function like an automatic phone system and allows people who may be visually impaired, unable to read or not speak english to vote. These Audio Booths are controlled by through the Ballot Reader device and will print their own ballots once the voter has completed making their selections. Unfortunately these devices have a limit of only 25 ballots - one of which is automatically printed when the device is booted - so only 24 persons per precinct will be able to use this device.

If you see questionable activity and don't have a camera of your own you can contact 1-866-OUR-VOTE which is national hotline associated with Video the Vote.org who may be able to send a voluanteer camera crew out depending on your location.

If you do have a Camera you can upload your video and observations to forums like this one, Youtube or Oped News.com

There's no real excuse for sitting on your hands and not taking part in your democracy. Voting itself is least you can do.

Other suggestions welcome...

Vyan

And the GOP Congress slowly slides into oblivion

This week hasn't gone very well for the GOP has it?

Now that Foleygate has largely died down, Repubs have temporarily succeeded in protecting their ears from the sonic boom that the investigation would have produced by postponing it's results until after the election.

Just when they thought they could take a breath and go on the offensive with made-up B.S. about both John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi -- the NY Times had to go and point out that the Republicans have been publishing Nuclear Secrets on their website for the last month.

Oops.

Meanwhile, The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Times will be publishing editorials calling for Rumsfeld to resign on Monday. Even the Gubernator wants us out of Iraq. Another Republican Congressman has resigned amid scandal. Another Right-wing Gay-Bashing Neo-Christian Cult leader - is Gay, and a drug user and a bad liar.

The result?

It looks like the Repubs are going to take it in the short and curly's on Tuesday -- and the numbers are looking worse all the time.

Right now the Repubs are hoping that the Saddam Verdict - due to be announced tomorrow - will help stem the arterial spray from their Mid-Term campaigns.

But that will probably be far too little - far too late.

On Wednesday - CQPolitics showed 1 Republican House seat where a Democrat was favored, 5 that were leaning Democratic, 19 seats with No Clear Favorite and additional 21 that were only Leaning Republican.

Today those figures have shifted:

Republican House Seats with a Democrat Favored: 1

Ariz. 8 -- Kolbe*

Republican House Seats Leaning Democratic : 8 (Up by 3)

Colo. 7 -- Beauprez*
Fla. 16 -- vacant*
Ind. 8 -- Hostettler
N.Y. 26 -- Reynolds
Ohio 18 -- vacant*
Pa. 7 -- Weldon
Pa. 10 -- Sherwood
Texas 22 -- vacant*

Republican House Seats with No Clear Favorite : 21 (Up by 3)

Ariz. 1 -- Renzi
Ariz. 5 -- Hayworth
Conn. 4 -- Shays
Conn. 5 -- Johnson
Fla. 22 -- Shaw
Ill. 6 -- Hyde*
Iowa 1 -- Nussle*
Ind. 2 -- Chocola
Ind. 9 -- Sodrel
Minn. 6 -- Kennedy*
N.C. 11 -- Taylor
N.H. 2 -- Bass
N.M. 1 -- Wilson
N.Y. 20 -- Sweeney
N.Y. 24 -- Boehlert*
Ohio 15 -- Pryce
Pa. 6 -- Gerlach
Pa. 8 -- Fitzpatrick
Wash. 8 -- Reichert
Wis. 8 -- Green*
Wyo. AL -- Cubin

Republicans seats only Leaning Republican : 21 (same)

Calif. 4 -- Doolittle
Calif. 11 -- Pombo
Calif. 50 -- Bilbray
Colo. 4 -- Musgrave
Conn. 2 -- Simmons
Fla. 13 -- Harris*
Idaho 1 -- Otter*
Ky. 3 -- Northup
Ky. 4 -- Davis
Minn. 1 -- Gutknecht
Neb. 1 -- Fortenberry
Neb. 3 -- Osborne*
Nev. 2 -- Gibbons*
Nev. 3 -- Porter
N.J. 7 -- Ferguson
N.Y. 19 -- Kelly
N.Y. 29 -- Kuhl
Ohio 1 -- Chabot
Ohio 2 -- Schmidt
Pa. 4 -- Hart
Va. 2 -- Drake

Overall 6 more House Seats have come into play in the last three days, bringing the total to 51.

If we only win half of those seats, our primary goal is accomplished - the Congress shifts to Democratic Control. Every committee chair becomes a Democrat, with we get subpeona power and the ability to set the Congressional agenda with genuine oversight hearings. Rather than having the Downing Street Forum in the basement or having their microphones shut-off during a Patriot Act hearing - Democrats get to be heard. And so might a few facts as well.

On the Senate Side the main shift is the Allen/Webb race in Virginia which has gone from Leaning Republican to No Clear Favorite. Currently there are 7 Republican Senate Seats at risk.

Mont. -- Burns
Ohio -- DeWine
Pa. -- Santorum
R.I. -- Chafee
Mo. -- Talent
Tenn. -- Frist*
Va. -- Allen

And one Democratic - Senator Menendez in New Jersey - remains in a dead-heat.

Picking up the 6 needed to take the Senate will be difficult, we'll need to retain Menendez and blow out both Corker in Tennesee and Senator Macaca the Bully in Virginia.

I think it's looking good, probably not time to pick out any office furniture yet, but I doubt even Saddam can save them now.

(Now if we could just make sure the votes get counted...)

By Tuesday this overall trend could slide even further, and if so - I don't see any way for the Repubs to keep the House and possibly not even the Senate. We can be sure that the right-wing attack dogs will be ready to pounce on anything the Democrats do, say - or don't say - after they take power.

It's going to be a free-for-all. We've already had to listen to the President repeatedly say that anyone who disagrees with his strategery in Iraq - "wants America to lose". Nevermind the fact that America IS already Losing under his policies and neither the White House or Congress can name a single one of these phantom appeasers. This President and the Republican Congress have codified Torture into our War Policies, and have effectively obliterated due process and habeas corpus. They've illegally spied on ten of millions of Americans and then threatened Journalists for printing the truth while the Pentagon continues to spread public lies

These are not the actions of a free and Democratic society.

To paraphrase the Bannana Republicans at the RNC - we have to remember what's truly at stake here. Our national dignity, our international honor, and our future on not just how to handle the Real War on Terror (in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and bring stabiity to Iraq but also Global Climate Change, Healthcare for working people, the Defecit, Social Security, Maintaining a Living Wage, Protecting Pensions and closing up the War Profiteering Sieve.

Tuesday is our chance to make a dramatic and profound change. We can't afford to miss this oppurtunity.

Vyan

HBO: Hacking Democracy's Epitaph

Last night I watched the HBO Documentary "Hacking Democracy" and found it fascinating, if somewhat well worn territory (for myself and Dkossers).

The film follows Bev Harris of Black Box Voting as she originally began to take up the cause of Verified Voting in 2001 and continues through the decertification of Diebold by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley and verification by Leon Country Election Supervisor Ion Sancho that the results of electronic tabulators can be untracably altered via their memory cards.

But there's more to this story. Much more...

A Review of Hacking Democracy from the New York Times.

TV Review | 'Hacking Democracy'
In the Land of `Every Vote Counts,' Uncertainty on Whether It's Counted Correctly
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

(snip)
Hacking Democracy" follows Ms. Harris and her band of unmerry women (and male hackers and hangers-on) as they trudge to polling places, corporate headquarters and court hearings looking for answers. An "irregularity" -- that's computerese for blank existential terror -- that shows up in Volusia County, Fla., in November 2000 energizes their cause: in that county, Mr. Gore seems to have received "-16,022" votes. A deficit. Negative votes. It doesn't take a scientist from Stanford to explain that is just, um, bad.

A second memory card, which vanished into thin air (naturally), may have been loaded into the computer that counted the votes. That's fraud of the highest order. Susan Bernecker, a Republican candidate for City Council in Jefferson Parish, La., in the mid-1990s, went to test the voting machines years ago. Twice, in a demo, she pressed her own name to see how it would register; twice the name of her opponent was registered in the memory of the machine. They test 15 more machines and find the same results.

Rigged voting in Louisiana? Say it ain't so. But it's not shocked-shocked you feel watching this; it's genuine shock. As the drama proceeds, adducing more evidence for the unreliability of the voting machines than can possibly be explored here, you might also feel flattened. Computers count around 80 percent of votes in America. The marketing director for Diebold, Mark Radke, who defends both the company and its chief executive (a major Republican fund-raiser who once promised in a letter to "deliver the electoral votes of Ohio" to President Bush), talks in maddening doublespeak and wears the arched-eyebrow expression of a silent-movie fiend. His Nixon-era nondenial denials turn the stomach.

Bev Harris herself has been rather controversial in these waters -- but there's little denying the public service that she has performed by being involved in this film.

In the film we see Bev and her friends dumpster diving in Georgia and Florida for election materials and managing to discover signed copies of tabulator printouts which by law are supposed to be kept for years following an election.

Harris shows Howard Dean - how to hack an election using MS Access. (Which is not exactly a "high-end" software app)

The HBO film ends with the work of Harri Husti as he manages to duplicate the Volusi County negative vote phenomenon simply by updating the memory card used on a tabulator machine in a demonstration for Ion Sancho of Leon County Fl. - it is apparently this demonstration which eventually led to Sancho to kick Diebold out of the county. Let me point out that this machine is used to count PAPER Ballots and that the results of Hursti's test show that such modifications could be done without detection and could affect all votes throughout not just a single precinct, but an entire county or congressional district depending on how many ballots are sent through the infected machine.

Voting Absentee is No Protection as all ballots are eventually put through the same tabulator machines. If the machine has been tampered with, every vote will be affected.

Unfortunately the real ending for the film isn't nearly as positive as what was shown by HBO.

After kicking out Diebold Sancho ran in to problems with other voting equipment companies who complained "they couldn't trust him".

Now all state-approved companies refuse to sell him the machines he's ordered until he promises to run no further checks on them. And he's had to return the $1/2 million dollar grant he wanted to use to order voting machines for the disabled.

But wait, it gets worse...

After decertifying Diebold for California, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley resigned amid scandal and was replaced by Republican Bruce McPherson (as appointed by Governer Schwarzenegger) who quickly proceeded to recertify Diebold.

Diebold Machines are in use Now, thruout California for Early/Absentee voting.

As was recently shown by Computer Scientists from Princeton, these machines remain highly vulnerable to tampering - all you need is some code and a mini-bar key to access the machine. Even the dim-bulbs on Faux News were shocked when they were shown how to hack an election in 90 seconds.

Husti has also found security holes and "back-doors" in other Diebold machines, holes which the state of Maryland had been aware of for nearly two years.

All it would take is One person to change the outcome of an election according to the Washington Post.

A malicious individual with access to a voting machine could rig the software without being detected. Worse yet, if the attacker rigged the machine used to compute the totals for some precinct, he or she could alter the results of that precinct. The only fix the RABA authors suggested was to warn people that manipulating an election is against the law.

...

Diebold spokesman David Bear admitted to the New York Times that the back door was inserted intentionally so that election officials would be able to update their systems easily. Bear justified Diebold's actions by saying, "For there to be a problem here, you're basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of software... I don't believe these evil elections people exist."

We shouldn't have to trust the veracity of a Diebold spokesmans belief on this issue. But unfortunately, their assurances are pretty much all we have - that and the likelyhood that all of our election workers are honest and honorable.

On a personal note I'm not entirely cynical on this issue, as I happen to be an election worker myself, and have been for the last several years including the 2004 Presidential contest. This month I went through training on the latest ballot reader devices which will be used at all 5026 precincts in Los Angeles County. My mother is an Election Inspector - which means that last Sunday she picked up all of the polling place materials and has been storing them in her living room - including the ballot reader. Now I happen to have a computer software and security background, including 12 years working for a defense contrator and several more as a consultant with the State of california.

IMO There are all kinds of mischief possibilities here. (I noticed during our training that access to the Admin Functions of the reader were not password protected. This may be changed on election day - I would hope!). But to date - simply because of my own personal honor - I haven't touched anything and I won't - But I could if I wanted to.

So could the other inspectors and additional 10,000+ polls workers in this one county. Can we truly expect that everyone will show the same restraint? I would hope so, but unfortunately I think not.

On the positive side, the 5000+ ballot readers which are currently sitting in various living rooms and garages across L.A. County are not being used to count the votes, only to verify that the voter hasn't made any mistakes which might invalidate their vote. They do have the capability to count votes, but that feature has been turned off - for now.

The situation is dire, but it is NOT hopeless. This is no time to hang our heads in frustration and despair. It's time to ACT.

From my years of experience at the polls my suggestion to anyone who feels this is a serious issue is - if you haven't already - take Tuesday off and spend it at your local polling place to WATCH. Citizens have a right to be view their Democracy in progress. Bring a Camera, a note pad and a cell phone.

• Document anyone trying to influence or sway voters (Electioneering within 100 feet of Poll), it's a crime.


• Document any challenges to a voters status, unreasonable requests for ID or their being required to vote provisionally without just cause.


• Federal Law Requires that Poll Workers Update the Street Index every hour to indicate who has already voted. This index (in California) includes that Name, Address, Phone Number and PARTY AFFILIATION of each registered voter. USE YOUR PHONE and get our people to the Polls.

There isn't much we can do about malicious code which may or may not be in play this upcoming Tuesday (Robert F Kennedy Jr has a pending lawsuit against Diebold which should eventually help in the future) but we can do something about the human element right now!.

By acting individually we can avoid the types of "phone bank jamming" tricks that Republicans have used in the past. They can't stop all of us. Don't wait for the campaigns and the politicians to protect your Democracy for you - Take it personally. Get involved and make sure everyones vote counts. We can't afford not too.

Vyan

Bush's War on Fact (and NYT) Escalates to DefCon 3

As reported by Glenn Greenwald, the Bush Administration is threatening legal action against the NY Times for exposing Dick Cheney's lies about Iraq.

While speaking with Rush Limbaugh

They're off to a good start. It is difficult, no question about it, but we've now got over 300,000 Iraqis trained and equipped as part of their security forces. They've had three national elections with higher turnout than we have here in the United States. If you look at the general overall situation, they're doing remarkably well.

The NY Times on the other hand has release a classified Pentagon Report indicating that Iraq is Slipping Toward Chaos.

Guess who the Bush Administration wants to put in the penalty box?

But of course - according to Fox News - it's the New York Times.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is looking into how classified information indicating Iraq is moving closer to chaos wound up on the front page of Wednesday's New York Times, and is not ruling out an investigation that could lead to criminal charges.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for operations in Iraq, confirmed to FOX News that a chart published in The Times is a real reflection of the thinking of military intelligence on the situation in Iraq as of Oct. 18, adding that an effort is underway to find out who leaked the chart and if the breach of operational security constitutes a crime.

So Fox News has confirmed that the Chart reflects the Truth - and the Pentagon response is "Who leaked it?"

The shrill call for heads to roll has already begun to ricochet around the wingnut-o-sphere.

Michelle Malkin -

Meant to get to this earlier, but the newspaper of wreckage is at it again--publishing illegally leaked classified information about the war in yet another transparent effort to sway the election.

The article title: "Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos."

After blabbing about the classified info revelaed in the article for 11 paragraphs, the Times notes:

A spokesman for the Central Command declined to comment on the index or other information in the slide. "We don't comment on secret material," the spokesman said.

The article then continues to blab about the illegally leaked info for another seven paragraphs.

Mario Loyola (National Review) has some questions:

I want to know whether there is any level of national secret the Times is not willing to betray for the political advantage of its pet causes.

There is nothing the blabbermouths won't blab if it hurts the Bush administration.

And I would like to know what else they may have doctored on the slide.

Hello, Justice Department?

And while we're at it, I would love to understand why the law doesn't prohibit the propagation of strategic national secrets in wartime -- which has always been understood as treason.

So let see, the New York Times prints the truth - and they know it's the truth - and as a result it's assumed they only did it because they're just a bunch of "Bush Haters", are accused of making shit up and of being traitors?

The question of why Dick Cheney has repeated lied to the American public doesn't even enter the equation. How about this one: Why was the chart in question - which has merely verified what has been obvious since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in February - classified in the first place?

This isn't strategic or tactical data. It doesn't tell us anything about how U.S. or Iraqi Forces plan to respond - it simply gives an assessment of where things are, and where they is not Disneyland.

Sharing that information doesn't hurt the War on Terra &tm, it simply hurts the Bush Administration's ability to lie with impunity.

BushGov was pretty pissed about Banking Leak, the NSA Eavesdropping Leak, and the Secret Prisons leak, never mind that most of these actions on the part of the Administration violated both U.S. and International law. Oh... and they were all true.

But leaking classified information about Valerie Plame-Wilson and destroying our ability to detect and fight weapons proliferation in Iraq and Iran? No problem. How about Republican Senator Pat Robertson leaking classified info which hampered our efforts to capture Saddam Hussein? No biggie.

Glenn sums it up:

This is what the ideal world of the Bush follower looks like: If the Government is waging a war and things are going horribly, the Government has the right to lie to its citizens and claim that things are going remarkably well. If a newspaper is furnished with documents prepared by the military that shows that the Government is lying and that things are actually going very poorly, the newspaper should then be barred from informing their readers about that truth -- and ought to criminally prosecuted, perhaps even executed, if they do so.

It truly takes an authoritarian mind of the most irredeemable proportions to watch our political leaders have their lies exposed about a war and have as their first reaction the desire that those who exposed the lies be prosecuted and imprisoned. But it isn't just Bush followers here who are demanding that, but the Bush administration itself, through the military, that is threatening to do so.

This threat is quite real IMO, especially with Alberto Gonzales already on record as threating to prosecute journalists.

Over the weekend, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a Draconian threat to prosecute journalists for writing about the National Security Agency's clandestine and illegal monitoring of U.S.-overseas telephone calls. That threat shows what an Orwellian farce the government's classified information system has become.

Gonzales is threatening to prosecute reporters under the 1917 Espionage Act. This anachronistic act was passed during World War I to make it illegal for unauthorized personnel to receive and transmit national defense information. The law is also currently being used to prosecute two lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for obtaining and transmitting classified information they received from a U.S. Defense Department employee. The lobbyists' lawyers have filed a motion in court arguing that the law is an unconstitutional breach of the First Amendment right to free speech.

Gonzales threats are bad enough, but if the Pentagon gets involved, all bets are off the table after the passage of the Military Commissions Act and the obliteration of Habeas Corpus for non-U.S. Citizens. Reporters could literally just - Disappear.

Think it couldn't happen? It already has to a Pulizer Prize Wining AP Photographer whose been in U.S. Custody for six months now without a hearing.

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.

Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide - 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said.

This is not something that we can idly stand-by and let pass. This creeping totalitarianism is a real threat and most certainly will affect U.S. Citizens as we've already seen in cases such as Jose Padilla, Yasar Hamdi or the Liberty Seven. It has to be fought tooth and nail - stopped in it's tracks.

Hopefully November 7th will be a turning point. It must.

Vyan