Well, Menendez really doesn’t want my vote!

Read this and then go complaign at the senator’s website.

Can’t get there from here. :(

hey t-rex… that’s because they distibuted a “patch” (in other words a hack) and threw the election like they are going to do again which is why rove and buddies are so smug and calm….

Thank you for posting that. And what a beautiful rant it was! That’s what we all should be doing about this issue right now: screaming and yelling. And, TRex, thanks for starting this thread.

The electronic voting thing is the lock on power the neocons need in order to survive. This election issue is about life and death for them. Is it for you, or is it just about issues? Honestly? The neocons are a cornered animal and will do ANYTHING to hold onto power.

We’re at a very dicey place. The media, as we all know, isn’t quite doing it’s job as well as it should. Their coverage of this issue has sucked. What’s interesting is that when things look bad for BushCo the news coverage gets more hostile. We’ve even seen some conservatives sticking the knife in these past few weeks. Okay, no surprises there. But what happens to the criticisms if the Republicons win? Hmmm, it suddenly got much quieter, with most folks getting back in line. If Bush “weathers” this storm the media and the president will take it as a mandate.

Seems to me Rove and the rest of ‘em know exactly what they need to do to keep their egoic dream rolling right along. And what they need to do is really simple: win elections. They’ve been building a manipulatable system for years. Computers are not the only tool in their toolbox, as many folks have pointed out. No, not the only tool, but potentially their most powerful and covert, with the ability to control elections from a virtually centralized point and sculpt them so that they look realistic and yet always work out the way you want.

This issue is also interesting for another reason: it shows very clearly the power of knowledge. The vast majority of software engineers who are told the specifics of this issue become concerned very quickly because they can connect the dots. They know how easy it is to hack something like a voting machine and they know how untraceable such a hack could be. In short, they understand the state of hardware and software in 2006.

Most people don’t really get it because they just don’t understand the universe that is computers. They think maybe that somewhere, somehow, someone must have made sure everything really works as it should. Newsflash: they haven’t. Your votes aren’t safe. Your votes are being stolen. The machines are a security consultant’s nightmare and a fascist’s wet dream.

All I can say is if you are non-technical and still have that dreamlike “I’m an American and my vote is safe” feeling then you should consume more information. Read, talk to a geek, whatever. But this is the issue that will make all the other dirty tricks seem like child’s play.

We need a plan and it needs to be advertised! Civil disobedience, a.k.a. non-violent direct action is, IMO, critical. It will garner the media attention that this issue has lacked and will help energize the other modes of resistance that Msp mentioned. We have 2 1/2 weeks. That’s plenty of time for this to spread throughout the blogsphere.

The reason fascists fall is that the oppressed know they aren’t free and resist. But if you can fool them into thinking they’re free… give them a vote with several “real” choices… hmmm… that just might work. In a sense we’re currently experiencing the natural selection process at work. It just happens to be selecting for a more robust fascism right now.

Yes, there are lots of ways of screwing with an election. But electronic voting makes it an order of magnitude easier. In almost any other instance, you’d need the cooperation of the local elections supervisor. Not so with these machines. Most schemes involve messing with ballots or voters. With these machines you can mess with the counting – just ignore what the “ballot” says.

Specific to Diebold – the underlying technology and the code is pure crap. Hell, in the 90s I made a good living getting companies *off* the same technologies and onto stuff that works. This is like trying to build a skyscraper with tools you bought from the discount bin at Ace Hardware.

Better vote absentee. Best still is the move in many states to demand paper ballots.

Read this and then go complaign at the senator’s website.

don’t know what happened w/ my original comment to Nate – sweet dreams Progressive Soldier

imm- just glad you saw the link

no joy in Pachaville :{

Good gosh – 17 points behind. He was losing ground all the time since the primary. Really, how can people say ‘oh he is going to come back now’ … waaay too far. Sure he will make up some ground – but not 17 points. Not even Patty Wetterling was 17 points behind and this is the reddest district in Minnesota. And Minnesota was waaaay more purple than CT. I doubt that any national dems will campaign for Ned in the final weeks.

kerry will be there the 25th.

but it’s really up to us…. volunteer, donate…

Balrog @ 250

TPM Poll this AM…

CT-SEN Quinnipiac Oct 20 Lieberman (CFL) 52%, Lamont (D) 35%

Got ‘em right where we want ‘em!

REMEMBER!!

This poll was in the field before the debates (so that is some small ray of hope). However, it is just devastating for any lamont momentum.

OUCH!

I am keeping my perspective on this.

Who in the feck would EVER choose Joe over anyone in a poll? The rest of the country seems to be waking; why not CT?

This one’s an outlier.