Politics

The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System to Benefit The Super Rich - And Cheat Everybody Else

Benjamin Zamora — Wed, 19 May 2004 09:15:00 GMT

Another great show from Democracy Now. Thanks Amy.

We speak with Pulitizer Prize-winning New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston about his new book Perfectly Legal. Johnston argues that most Americans are "being duped into supplementing the incomes and extravagant lifestyles of the rich and powerful."

The income gap in the United States is greater than many imagine -- the top 29,000 Americans have as much income as the bottom 96 million. And in recent years tax burden for the richest Americans --- especially corporations -- has been falling sharply while everyone else's has risen.

[Read - Listen - Watch]

More news on Diebolds voting mess.

Benjamin Zamora — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 13:53:00 GMT

It looks like California is learning her lesson.

Panel: Don't use Diebold touch-screen voting machines [from SFGate]

“California should ban the use of 15,000 touch-screen voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems from the Nov. 2 general election, an advisory panel to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley recommended Thursday.
By an 8-0 vote, the state's Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended that Shelley cease the use of the machines, saying that Texas-based Diebold has performed poorly in California and its machines malfunctioned in the state's March 2 primary election, turning away many voters in San Diego County.“

California Moves to Boot Diebold [from Wired News]

“SACRAMENTO, California -- A California voting systems panel recommended Thursday that the secretary of state decertify an electronic voting machine made by Diebold Election Systems, making it likely that at least one of the beleaguered company's machines won't be used in the state's elections. “

I hope the voting officials around the county are watching this and curtailing their expenditures on these horrible travesties on our voting rights.

Also more sources:

Voting Panel Hears Pros and Cons of Touchscreen Voting [news10.net KXTV]
California votes against Diebold [from zdnet]
Panel recommends ban on computer voting system in four counties [ San Jose Mercury News ]
Calif. panel urges state to drop Diebold vote system [Forbes]
Tech says Diebold knew of problem [signonsandiego.com]
State grills Texas firm on voting machine snags [star-telegram.com]

North Korea says standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war"

Benjamin Zamora — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 16:50:00 GMT

From channelnewsasia.com [here]

SEOUL : North Korea said Friday the standoff over its atomic ambitions was on the brink of nuclear war as US Vice President Dick Cheney headed to the region for talks with key Asian allies.
[read on]

Or: Spacewar.com , Abcnewsonline

In memory of the efforts of our troops

Benjamin Zamora — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:39:00 GMT

Come home safe. Inspiration thanks to a photo by the US army. Original image found here. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army -- Army photo by Staff Sgt. Marvin L. Daniels

Voting in the next century.

Benjamin Zamora — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:39:00 GMT

From http://www.nukefreezone.net/

... I share the opinion of many bloggers that major security issues remain in the new machines and implementations, and that these issues should already have been fixed.

I think all computer scientists should be following this. DemocracyNow.org posted a great story about this last week, for those of you that prefer video ...you should actually read the post above and watch the video.

Malfunctioning software in electronic voting machines has already caused confusion or possibly faulty vote tallies in races across the country. We speak with a San Diego poll worker about problems she witnessed with voting machines, a member of Pax Christi USA, which will send international monitors to observe the presidential election in Florida and a computer science professor who has led the charge calling for a paper trail to record votes.... [read on]

None of us could ever get away with shipping software like this. It seems like the voting machines were programmed by the guys that you usually find busy work for.

Citizens for Verifiable Voting

Benjamin Zamora — Mon, 08 Mar 2004 13:46:00 GMT

Alot of people ask how they can change their political system.
Step one: Stay informed

Citizens for Verifiable Voting
Boulder County is selecting a new voting system. It will see its debut in the August 2004 primary. More information is available at BoulderCountySituation.

Voting machine bloggers

Benjamin Zamora — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 14:14:00 GMT

While doing research about the voting machine crisis in American, I discovered this site, Blackboxvoting.com