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[[SPAN class=cu]Read About Brave American Hero Athan Gibbs[/SPAN]]

[SPAN class=cu]Read About Brave American Hero Athan Gibbs[/SPAN]  [DIV class=ct]A Chilling Story of an Apparent State-Sponsored Murder

[DIV class=ct]

[DIV class=ct]Athan Gibbs was an African-American businessman and inventor who had been through the Jim Crow and civil rights eras.  After Florida 2000 he was so distressed about the election fraud disenfranchising Black Floridians that he invented an electronic voting machine that not only produced a paper trail, but a tracking number that would allow a voter to check online or through a phone call whether their vote had ultimately been accurately recorded.  It was called Tru-Vote.  It garnered great reviews and to facilitate revving it up for widespread implementation he partnered with Microsoft to get it ready for the 2004 elections.

[P class=ct]Then in March 2004, days after demonstrating the system at a trade show, Athan Gibbs was killed in a car accident on his way to work--struck by an 18-wheeler and killed.   [P class=ct]Now despite promises by Gibbs' family to continue his work, the Tru-Vote company is languishing, while Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia have gotten the multi-million dollar contracts to provide electronic voting equipment to a number of states.   [P class=ct][A href="vny!://www.commonground.ca/iss/0410159/cg159_USvote.shtml"]An article that gives the overall story
[/A] [P class=ct][A href="vny!://sweetliberty.blogspot.com/2003_12_28_sweetliberty_archive.html"]A report on TruVote before Gibbs' death
[/A] [P class=ct]Obituaries about him:
[A href="vny!://www.bartlettexpress.com/articles/2004/03/25/business/02gibbs.txt"]here[/A] and [A href="vny!://www.arral.org/news/wow/saved_5849.html"]here.[/A] [P class=ct]Bob Fitrakis interviewed Gibbs--in fact, apparently it was Gibbs that put Fitrakis on the whole e-voting story, including the insecurity of the other e-vote systems and the unsavory political connections of their owners, [A href="vny!://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html"]here[/A] and [A href="vny!://www.opednews.com/fitrakis031804_silkwood_evoting.htm"]here[/A]   [P class=ct]I know most people in this country aren't ready to face it, so we must be careful how we communicate on this issue--but we must not kid ourselves that it's not really that bad. All the more reason not to give up. Let's not let Athan Gibbs be forgotten.

 

Moderators, what Tenkani et al write is true enough, and I've not been posting under my name.  Please delete the offending posts, it would be really nice of you. I may be mistaken, but it seems not to be good PR when someone searching for my name sees death wishes against me. Thank you.  So, please just delete.  Thanks again.

[www.bradblog.com]

[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffcc00"]Friday, April 28th 2006 [/FONT]

[A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com"]www.bradblog.com[/A]

 BREAKING: More ES&S Meltdown

 [DIV class=post] [DIV class=ItemSubHeadline]Indiana Files Formal Complaint; Legal Action To Be Filed In West Virginia

[DIV class=ItemSubSubHeadline]One WV County Withholds Their Payment [/DIV]
 [img hspace=6 src="vny!://www.bradblog.com/Images/ESS_Meltdown.gif" align=right vspace=3 border=0]Just[FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT][A href="vny!://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14453623.htm"][FONT color=#00bf60]reported[/FONT][/A] by the Associated Press is a report that Indiana Secretary of State, Todd Rokita has filed a formal complaint Friday against Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) for violating state law by providing defective equipment and services.

An [A href="vny!://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20060428/NEWS01/60428026/1008&cid=0"][FONT color=#00bf60]article[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT]in the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal goes on to say:

 [DIV class=media]Rokita already had been investigating problems that counties have had with the company — which include delays in the delivery of crucial voting equipment and ballots and errors in programming. But his action Friday launches a formal process that could result in fines of $300,000 for each violation of state law.

He has scheduled a 9 a.m. hearing on May 8 to consider evidence and testimony.

"Hoosiers deserve voting systems that comply with the high standards mandated by Indiana law," Rokita said in a written statement. "The May 8th hearing is a mechanism for voters, election administrators, and vendors to know that Indiana will hold accountable, where appropriate, those who wrongly put at risk the integrity of our voting process."

ES&S spokesman Ken Fields said in a statement that the company "will vigorously defend against the allegations."

According to Rokita's complaint, ES&S provided defective voting system equipment, software and services to Johnson, St. Joseph and Marion counties. Election officials in other counties have complained of similar problems.

Last week, during a preliminary hearing Rokita had to gather evidence, ES&S Senior Vice President John Groh apologized for what he called service problems but said they were not violations of state law.

Fields said in his statement Friday that Rokita's complaint "fails to include many important facts about the election readiness services and support process in Indiana."

"We intend to make sure that all of the facts are considered as a part of the review of this situation," he said. "Those facts will demonstrate that our company has worked hard to assist Indiana counties in meeting their obligation to conduct fair and accurate elections."[/DIV]

Also just out this morning is a[FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT][A href="vny!://www.dailymail.com/news/News/200604288/"][FONT color=#00bf60]report[/FONT][/A] in the Charleston Daily Mail. The Daily Mail reports that Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper has taken a check for $1.2M that represents payment for the counties ES&S voting machines and has locked that check up in a his desk drawer. This is all on top of yesterday's[FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT][A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002747.htm"][FONT color=#00bf60]report[/FONT][/A] about outdated software being installed on ES&S machines in the state.

Mr. Carper is reported to have told other members of the commission:

 [DIV class=media]"(The company) has embarrassed themselves," Carper said. "I got a feeling this will get their attention."[/DIV]

Also announced is that the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia announced on Friday morning it was filing legal action against the company with help from the Secretary of State's office and Attorney General's office.

It appears that a lot of the money that ES&S is raking in will be paid back out to attorney's who will have to go to court to try to defend the poor work of the company that counts more American votes than any other.
  [DIV class=BloggedByMain]Blogged by [FONT color=#00bf60]John Gideon [/FONT]on 4/28/2006 @ 11:20am PT...[/DIV]

[[FONT color=#60bf00]Brad's earlier report today[/FONT]]

 [DIV class=ItemHeadline]ES&S MELTDOWN: More Problems Now Emerge in West Virginia

[DIV class=ItemSubHeadline]Company Technician Uses Old Version of Software To Program Voting Machines

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

[img hspace=6 src="vny!://www.bradblog.com/Images/ESS_Meltdown.gif" align=left vspace=3 border=0]On top of [A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002742.htm"][FONT color=#60bf00]Brad's earlier report today[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#60bf00] [/FONT]on the ES&S meltdown in Texas, and loads of other states, we find out that still more problems with ES&S have been encountered in West Virginia.

On Thursday the Associated Press [A href="vny!://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14444273.htm"][FONT color=#60bf00]reported[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#60bf00] [/FONT]that a software "glitch" has delayed testing in 11 counties. The reason?

Though electronic ballots on the ES&S iVotronic Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines are programmed and seem to recorde votes accurately during testing, it's taking six hours or more to tabulate all the results. That is a huge problem for machines sold on the premise of accuracy and speed.

But the larger concern? "Version control". Apparently an ES&S engineer programmed the machines using outdated software. The company seem to not bother to ensure the correct version of software is being used and installed on the machines. And counties are not watching to ensure ES&S is keeping their machines current.

Ben Beakes, the chief of staff for WF Sec. of State Betty Ireland, explained:

 [DIV class=media]"All the votes on the paper trail are correct. All the votes inside the machines are correct. It will just not recognize them when it's time to tabulate the results," Beakes said.[/DIV]

That said, was the software version used federally qualified with the hardware and firmware version being used by those 11 counties? Do the states or counties even care? Maybe not but they should because not all versions of software will work with all versions of firmware. That's why there are version numbers.

And that's just one more reason why we're headed for an electoral train wreck.  

[Voting Paper Trail AdvocateDies In 'Tragic Accident']

[FONT size=7]Voting Paper Trail Advocate
Dies In 'Tragic Accident'
[/FONT][FONT size=+1]By Bob Fitrakis
Senior Editor
The Free Press
3-20-4
[/FONT]



 [TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=555 border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD width="100%"] [DL] [DT][FONT size=+1]The subject line on Tuesday's email read: "Another mysterious accident solves a Bush problem. Athan Gibbs dead, Diebold lives." The attached news story briefly described the untimely Friday, March 12, death of perhaps America's most influential advocate of a verified voting paper trail in the era of touch screen computer voting.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs, an accountant for more than 30 years and the inventor of the TruVote system, died when his vehicle collided with an 18-wheeled truck which rolled his Chevy Blazer several times and forced it over the highway retaining wall where it came to rest on its roof.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Coincidence theorists will simply dismiss the death of Gibbs as a tragic accident.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs' death bears heightened scrutiny because of the way he lived his life after the 2000 Florida election debacle. I interviewed Athan Gibbs in January of this year. "I've been an accountant, an auditor, for more than 30 years. Electronic voting machines that don't supply a paper trail go against every principle of accounting and auditing that's being taught in American business schools," he insisted.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]"These machines are set up to provide paper trails. No business in America would buy a machine that didn't provide a paper trail to audit and verify its transaction. Now, they want the people to purchase machines that you can't audit? It's absurd."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs was in Columbus, Ohio, proudly displaying his TruVote machine that offered a "VVPAT, that's a voter verified paper audit trail" he noted.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs also suggested that I look into the "people behind the other machines." He offered that "Diebold and ES&S are real interesting and all Republicans. If you're an investigative reporter go ahead and investigate. You'll find some interesting material."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs' TruVote machine is a marvel. After voters touch the screen, a paper ballot prints out under plexiglass and once the voter compares it to his actual vote and approves it, the ballot drops into a lockbox and is issued a numbered receipt. The voter's receipt allows the tracking of his particular vote to make sure that it was transferred from the polling place to the election tabulation center.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]My encounter with Gibbs led to a cover story in the Columbus Free Press March-April issue, entitled, "Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing conspiracy." The thesis I advanced in the Free Press article is that some of the same right-wing individuals who backed the CIA's covert actions and overthrowing of democratic elections in the Third World in the 1980s are now involved in privatized touch screen voting. Additionally I co-wrote an article with Harvey Wasserman that was posted at MotherJones.com on March 5. Both articles outlined ties between far right elements of the Republican Party and Diebold and ES&S, which count the majority of the nation's electronic votes.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]As I wrote in the Free Press article, "Proponents of a paper trail were emboldened when Athan Gibbs, president and CEO of TruVote International, demonstrated a voting machine at a vendor's fair in Columbus that provides two separate voting receipts."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]In an interview on WVKO radio, Gibbs calmly and methodically explained the dangers of "black box" touch screen voting. "It absolutely makes no sense to buy electronic voting machines that can't produce a paper trail. Inevitably, computers mess up. How are you going to have a recount, or correct malfunctions without a paper trail?"[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Now, the man asking the obvious question, and demonstrating an obvious tangible solution is dead in another tragic accident, a week after both articles were in circulation.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]When I called TruVote International to verify Gibbs' death, I reached Chief Financial Officer Adrenne Brandon who assured me "We're going on in his memory. Weíre going to make this happen."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Every American concerned with democracy should pledge to make this happen. To beat back the rush for state governments to purchase privatized, partisan and unreliable electronic voting machines without verified paper trails.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs' last words to me were "How do you explain what happened to Senator Max Cleland in Georgia. How do you explain that? The Maryland study and the Johns Hopkins scientists have warned us against 'blind faith voting.' These systems can be hacked into. They found patches in Georgia and the people servicing the machine had entered the machines during the voting process. How can we the people accept this? No more blind faith voting."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]- Dr. Bob Fitrakis also is a political science professor, and author of numerous articles and books.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Copyright © 1998-2004 Online Journal. All rights reserved. [A href="vny!://onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html"]vny!://onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html[/A] [/FONT] [/DT][/DL][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE]

[April 26, 2006 —]

 [FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff] [H2 class="replace_feature sIFR-replaced"][SPAN class=sIFR-alternate][A onmousedown="jvascript:_hbSet('c2','Ducks Quack Up the Washington Press|vny!://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1894475');_hbSend();" onclick="openPopup(this.href, 'popup', 775, 500);return false;" href="vny!://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1894475" lid="/images/site/icon_video_transparent.gif[/img][img id=abc_ducks_060426_sp.jpg height=141 alt=ducks src="vny!://a.abcnews.com/images/US/abc_ducks_060426_sp.jpg" width=188][/A]  [DIV id=feature_photo_video]

[FONT size=3]This mother duck and her eight little ducklings got some help crossing busy Pennsylvania Avenue today.  (ABCNEWS.com)[/FONT]

[/SPAN][/H2] [H2 class="replace_feature sIFR-replaced"][SPAN class=sIFR-alternate]Ducklings Quack Up Press During Rove Testimony[/SPAN][/H2] [H3 class="replace_feature sIFR-replaced"][SPAN class=sIFR-alternate]Journalists Help Ducklings Cross Busy Pennsylvania Avenue [/SPAN][/H3] [SCRIPT language=DOH!script type=text/XXXXscript] //[![CDATA[ if (sIFR != null && sIFR.replaceElement != null) ( sIFR.replaceElement("h2.replace_feature","/flash/futura.swf","#000000", null, null, null, null, null, null, null); sIFR.replaceElement("h3.replace_feature","/flash/futurabold.swf","#999999", null, null, null, null, null, null, null); //sIFR.replaceElement("h2.replace_feature","/flash/futura.swf","#002D6F", null, null, null, null, null, null, null); //sIFR.replaceElement("h3.replace_feature","/flash/futurabold.swf","#6F8FC0", null, null, null, null, null, null, null); ) //]]] [/SCRIPT]  [H4 id=feature_author]By TOM GIUSTO[/H4] [H4 id=feature_abclogo][/H4] April 26, 2006 — A mother duck and her eight little ducklings upstaged White House aide Karl Rove as he testified before a grand jury at the U.S. courthouse in Washington, D.C., today.

 The mama duck led her eight little offspring around the courthouse grounds before they decided not to bother waiting for Rove to emerge after his testimony on who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer.

 But crossing busy Pennsylvania Avenue in midafternoon can be dangerous. So reporters and camera crews waiting for Rove dashed out into the street ahead of the ducks and halted traffic.

 The ducks crossed the wide avenue with the U.S. Capitol in the background, while cars stopped in both directions. But when they got to the other side the little ducklings couldn't make it up the curb.

 Once again the journalists came to the rescue and lifted the little ducks so they could join their waiting mother.

 Once safely across the street and on the sidewalk, the duck family decided to visit to the National Gallery of Art, which was apparently a lot more interesting to them than watching the proceedings at the courthouse.

[/FONT][/DIV]

[[A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/"]EXCLUSIVE - [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"]ES&S MELTDOWN[/FONT]: Texas SoS Office Advises Election Officials to Create 'Emergency Paper Ballots' for Upcoming Elections![/A]]

 [A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/"]EXCLUSIVE - [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"]ES&S MELTDOWN[/FONT]: Texas SoS Office Advises Election Officials to Create 'Emergency Paper Ballots' for Upcoming Elections![/A]



[DIV class=ItemSubHeadline]Director of Elections Sends Letter Authorizing Measure in Light of Latest Failure by Electronic Voting Machine Vendor

[DIV class=ItemSubSubHeadline]Says Company's Performance in Most Recent -- of Many Similar Incidences Around the Country -- is 'Completely Unacceptable and Disturbing'

[img hspace=6 src="vny!://www.bradblog.com/Images/ESS_Meltdown.gif" align=right vspace=3 border=0]On Monday, Texas Director of Elections Ann McGeehan sent a letter to all state Election Officials authorizing them to create "emergency paper ballots" in light of statewide failures by Election System & Software, Inc. (ES&S) to provide ballots in time for the state's upcoming May 13 Runoff Elections, [A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/"][FONT color=#00bf60]The BRAD BLOG[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT]has learned.

Early voting begins on Monday for those elections and counties across the state do not yet have ballots and, in many cases, programming for their optical-scan and touch-screen voting machines. ES&S has contracts with more than 140 Texas counties.

McGeehan has instructed officials to create and number their own paper ballots, secure boxes to store them in, and hire additional workers to manually hand count ballots as an emergency procedure to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation.

The letter from McGeehan (posted in full exclusively at the end of this article) -- which does not mention ES&S by name, but refers to the Omaha, Nebraska-based company only as "a certified voting systems vendor" -- was sent in response to complaints from officials around the state that "programming media or, in some cases, your ballots" had not been received yet by officials.

In a [A href="vny!://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA042706.01A.Paper_Ballots.f8b39b2.html"][FONT color=#00bf60]statement[/FONT][/A] to the San Antonio's Express-News this morning, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says, "It sure is exasperating...We are looking at avenues to hold them responsible for this." Bexar County is just one of more than 140 in Texas with whom ES&S has contracts.

"They made their priorities," Wolff says, "and I think Texas certainly wasn't one of them."

[A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/"][FONT color=#00bf60]The BRAD BLOG[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT]has also received statements from officials in other states who were still more direct in expressing their frustration with the company's business practices now being described by some as including "coercion" and "threats."

 [FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff] [A href="vny!://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-04-27T210038Z_01_N27450766_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-GRANDMOTHERS.xml"]vny!://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-04-27T210038Z_01_N27450766_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-GRANDMOTHERS.xml[/A]

 [H1]Anti-war grandmothers acquitted in New York[/H1] NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Granny Peace Brigade waved canes in triumph and sang "God Help America" on Thursday after a New York judge found 18 grandmothers innocent of disorderly conduct for protesting the war in Iraq.

 The defendants, aged 59 to 91, had been arrested in a Times Square protest in October and each faced a $250 fine and 15 days in jail if convicted.

 "I find the defendants not guilty and they are all discharged," state court Judge Neil Ross ruled following a six-day trial, concluding the women did not block pedestrian traffic at a U.S. military recruiting station.

 Thunderous applause broke out after the verdict.

 

  "Listen to your granny. She knows best," said Joan Wile, 74, one of the organizers of the group referred to as the Granny Peace Brigade and Grandmothers Against the War.

 "Eighteen grandmothers did the right thing," said Marie Runyon, 91, as she left the courtroom.

 Shouting "We will not be silent", about 100 grandmothers rallied outside the courthouse and sang "God Help America" to the tune of "God Bless America."

[/FONT]

 

[John Nichols: Citizens are out front on impeachment]

[A href="vny!://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=81668&ntpid=0"]vny!://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=81668&ntpid=0[/A]

   [DIV id=captimesHeader]John Nichols: Citizens are out front on impeachment

[DIV id=captimesSUBheader]

[DIV id=captimesByline]By John Nichols, April 27, 2006

Inside the Beltway, legislators have been slow to support moves to censure or impeach President Bush and other members of the administration.  Only 33 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of Congressman John Conyers' resolution calling for the creation of a select investigative committee. It would be charged with reviewing the administration's preparations for war before receiving congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, and retaliation against critics such as former Ambassador Joe Wilson. The committee could make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.

 Only two members of the Senate have agreed to co-sponsor Sen. Russ Feingold's proposal to censure the president for illegally ordering the warrantless wiretapping of phone conversations of Americans.

 Outside the Beltway, legislators are far more comfortable with censure and impeachment at least in the state of Vermont. Sixty-nine Vermont legislators, 56 members of the state House and 14 members of the Senate, have signed a letter urging Congress to initiate investigations to determine if censure or impeachment of members of the administration might be necessary.

 [TABLE style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 0px 0px" cellPadding=0 width=200 align=left bgColor=#ebebec] [TBODY] [TR] [TD vAlign=top align=middle][A onclick="OpenPopup('vny!://www.madison.com/tct/photo.php?image=/images/articles/tct/2006/04/26/27319.jpg',515, 350);" href="vny!://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=81668&ntpid=0#"][img class=Caphomeimg2 height=133 alt="John Nichols: Citizens are out front on impeachment" src="vny!://www.madison.com/images/articles/tct/2006/04/26/27319_thumb.jpg" width=199 border=0][/A][/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD vAlign=top align=left] [DIV id=greybox] [DIV id=captimesPhotoLinks]AP Photo/Orange County Register, Jebb Harris

[DIV class=photostory]President George W. Bush addresses The Orange County Business Council in Irvine, Calif., on Monday, [/DIV][/DIV][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE] The letter, penned by state Rep. Richard Marek, suggests that Bush's manipulations of intelligence prior to the launch of the Iraq war, his support of illegal domestic surveillance programs and other actions demand that Congress determine whether the time has come for "setting in motion the constitutional process for possible removal from office." Marek, a Democrat, is from Newfane, Vt., where voters made international news in March by calling for the impeachment of Bush at their annual town meeting.

 Noting that his town and a half-dozen other Vermont communities have called for impeachment, as has the state Democratic Party, Marek told the Rutland Herald, "Vermonters from across the state have expressed concerns with the president's actions and have displayed that through resolutions, meetings and petitions. I thought it was important to put our voices down as supporting an investigation and possible censure and impeachment."

 The letter, which will be delivered to members of Vermont's congressional delegation including Rep. Bernie Sanders, a co-sponsor of the Conyers resolution is just one of a number of fresh impeachment-related initiatives in Vermont.

 State Rep. David Zuckerman, a Burlington legislator who is a member of Vermont's Progressive Party, plans to introduce a resolution next week asking for the state legislature to call on the U.S. House to open impeachment hearings. Parliamentary procedures developed by Thomas Jefferson as vice president in the early years of the United States, and still used by the U.S. House as a supplement to that chamber's standing rules, have been interpreted as giving state legislatures at least some authority to trigger impeachment proceedings. Zuckerman's resolution responds to calls from Vermonters to take that dramatic step.

 Several county Democratic parties in Vermont also have urged the state legislature to take advantage of the opening created by "Jefferson's Manual," which suggests impeachment proceedings can be provoked "by charges transmitted from the legislature of a state."

 There's no question that Vermont is in the lead, but legislators in other states are also exploring their options for pressing Congress to act on articles of impeachment. A trio of Democratic state representatives in Illinois Karen A. Yarbrough and Sara Feigenholtz from the Chicago area and Eddie Washington from Waukegan has introduced a measure similar to the one Zuckerman is preparing in Vermont. The bill urges the Illinois General Assembly to call on the U.S. House to initiate impeachment proceedings against Bush.

 In Pennsylvania, state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Pittsburgh, has launched a public campaign urging his constituents to sign petitions calling for Congress to launch an impeachment inquiry. Ferlo, a former Pittsburgh City Council president, says it's entirely appropriate for state officials and citizens to add their voices to the impeachment debate.

 [/TBULL /][/TINIT 36='""' /]"Impeachment proceedings are now the most important issue facing our nation," Ferlo says. "The debate and opinions expressed should not be limited to the views of journalists, legal scholars, intelligence officials and just a few politicians. Every American must confront this issue and speak out loudly and clearly. This is one opportunity to do so."

 John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times.

[[FONT face=Verdana size=2]April 23, 2006[/FONT]]

 [TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD width="80%"] [FONT face=Verdana size=2]April 23, 2006[/FONT]

 [FONT face=Verdana color=#000080 size=4]Lies from the Whitehouse; David Broder Says We Have to Take the President at His Word[/FONT]

[/TD] [TD width="25%"] [DIV align=center] [SCRIPT language=DOH!Script] document.write ("[a href=\"vny!://www.opednews.com/tellafriend.php?page="+location.XXXX) document.write ("\" target=\"_blank\"]") [/SCRIPT]  [SCRIPT language=DOH!Script] document.write ("[/a]") [/SCRIPT]  [/DIV][/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD width="75%"] [P align=left][FONT face=Verdana size=2]by Rob Kall[/FONT]

[/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE] [P align=left][FONT face=Verdana size=1][A href="vny!://www.opednews.com/"]vny!://www.opednews.com[/A][/FONT]

 [P align=left][FONT face=Verdana size=2]On Meet the Press today, David Broder said that we should take the President at his word. I would argue that there are probably close to 100 million or more Americans who do NOT take the president at his word, who consider him to be a pathological liar.

So where do we go with that? We don't believe the liar in chief. We don't trust him. We listen to what he says and assume the statements are peppered with lies.

I'd say the same, perhaps even worse applies to Vice President Dick Cheney. He is more despised, mistrusted and not believed.

What effect does this mistrust have on the nation? I would assume that the rest of the world feels the same way about Bush and Cheney, that there are literally billions of people who consider Bush and Cheney to be liars who can not and should not be trusted.

And so, we have Scott McClellan leaving. This presents an opportunity, with a tiny, tiny, miniscule possibility for truth.

Bush could appoint someone who the people of the US and the world trust. A naive idea, yes. It is the nature of the office of Whitehouse press secretary to prevaricate, isn't it? Well, maybe it isn't. Maybe the toxic level in the Whitehouse has brought us to a point where we just assume that the replacement for Scott McClellan will be another liar. But maybe that doesn't have to be. Maybe there is some fleeting vestige of integrity in one of the advisors at the Whitehouse-- no, not Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld or Condi Rice. They are a blend of liar and co-conspirators at perpetuating fraud. They should be receiving regular mainstream media coverage villifying their roles in perpetrating the lies that led us into war in Iraq.

But maybe there is someone there who could argue that the Whitehouse is such a laughed at joke that it desperately needs someone who is honest enough to help instill trust back in the Whitehouse.

I may be fantasizing that there is any such person, that even George Washington would be seen as a dupe to these chronic liars.

The thought that there is talk of taking one of the sleazeballs at Fox News-- Shepard Smith's name has been raised-- is really funny, like plastic vomit--funny, but disgusting. Could they really think that he will be at all trusted or believed by any but the diehard thirty some percent of greedy wealthy, religious extremists and macho guys who use Bush tough talk for vicarious tgwpd support.

No, it is highly unlikely that there is a person who will be able to replace McClellan who will be any more trustworthy. We can expect more of the same sandbagging, stonewalling and flat out lying that we've been getting.

The world is used to it. We in the US are used to it. But why can't the mainstream media start making it part of the news-- making jokes about anything the whitehouse says, commenting on how lame the lies are.

It's about time.[/FONT]

[[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff4040"]MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF TAXPAYERS' HARD-EARNED MONEY SQUANDERED ON CRAPPY VOTING MACHINES[/FONT]]

[DIV align=center][FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff4040"]MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF TAXPAYERS' HARD-EARNED MONEY SQUANDERED ON CRAPPY VOTING MACHINES[/FONT]

   [DIV class=document] [P align=center]

 [P align=left]TO: Elections Officials

FROM: Ann McGeehan, Director of Elections

DATE: April 24, 2006

RE: Status of Ballot and Programming Card Orders for the May 13, 2006 Elections

We have heard from many of you that you have not received your programming media or, in some cases, your ballots, for the May 13, 2006 elections. We recognize that this kind of service from a certified voting systems vendors is completely unacceptable and disturbing. We will be pursuing all appropriate remedies from a state level that are available to us.

In the meantime, if you are one of the entities affected, the Secretary of State's office authorizes you to create emergency ballots. If you do not receive your ballots in time to properly prepare for early voting, you may create your own paper ballots or, if you received a proof from your vendor, you may use PDF format to print copies of the ballot.

After you print a copy of the ballot, you will need to put a ballot number at the top of the ballot beginning with the next ballot number of the last number of your original ballot order. In other words, if you ordered 15,000 ballots numbered 1-15,000, any ballots you create would be numbered beginning with the number 15,001. You will need to put your initials on the back of the ballot so you can determine it was an official ballot provided by you.

If you do not receive your ballot programming in time to conduct your required Logic and Accuracy tests, you will no option but to begin early voting using the emergency paper ballots. Once you have received your programs and have conducted a successful L&A test, you must begin using the electronic voting equipment. Guidelines for conducting Logic and Accuracy were mailed out to county election officials in Election Advisory 2006-05, dated February 21, 2006, and are posted on our website at [A href="vny!://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/advisory2006-05.shtml"][FONT color=#000080]vny!://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/advisory2006-05.shtml[/FONT][/A].

Once you have prepared the emergency ballots, you will handle the voter in the regular manner as if paper ballots were being regularly used. If you intend to use optical scan ballots for election day, then the emergency ballots can either be hand counted by the ballot board or the manager of the central counting station can decide to have them duplicated for counting at the central counting station. There are no special lists or other record keeping you need to keep, except to adjust your ballot distribution form.

If you use only a DRE system,

Emergency Ballots
PAGE 2

will have to manually count the paper ballots and add your manual totals to the electronic count produced from your DRE central tabulating system. Of course, you will also need to secure ballot boxes for the placement of these paper ballots for the beginning of the early voting period. You may need to hire additional clerks to assist with any hand counting.

Once you have received your programming materials and have conducted a successful Logic and Accuracy test, you must begin to use your electronic systems during early voting, if possible. If a voter with disabilities attempts to vote while using the paper ballots, please advise the voter of the assistance procedure available and when the accessible voting systems will be available in the event the voter chooses to wait until the machines are available. We should also recommend that you contact your local disability groups, AARP chapters and Area Agencies on Aging, and ask them to advise their service populations that they might want to vote later in the early voting timeframe or on Election Day.

Again, we regret the unacceptable position that many political subdivisions are in due to poor performance by their contracted vendor. We appreciate how hard you all have worked to be compliant with the accessibility requirement. We will apprise you of any progress that we make to ensure that vendors perform the services they have promised and contracted to perform.

If you have any questions about this memorandum, please call us at 1-800-252-8683(VOTE).

[/DIV]

[[img height=153 alt="Male and Female Peruvian Elongated and Trephined Skulls" src="vny!://www.skullsunlimited.com/graphics/bc-127-128-md.jpg" width=250 border=0]]

[img height=153 alt="Male and Female Peruvian Elongated and Trephined Skulls" src="vny!://www.skullsunlimited.com/graphics/bc-127-128-md.jpg" width=250 border=0]



Peruvian Elongated and Trephined Skulls - Dated over 2000 years old, these grossly deformed skulls originate from the Paracas region of Peru. The practice of head binding to create an elongated skull and trephination date back nearly 9000 years. Trephination was the surgical process of removing a section of skull. This is thought to have been performed to relieve pressure caused by the binding process or to allow access to the brain. It was not clear how these operations were performed until a complete surgical kit was discovered, including obsidian knives, spatulas made from sperm whale teeth, cotton balls, bandages, thread and needles. Surprisingly, patients survived these primitive surgeries as is evidenced by the healed bone edges. The act of elongating the skull was achieved by binding the head of a child with cloth, rope and boards. As the child's skull grew and developed, it would elongate. Both of these practices have long been studied and debated by anthropologists. In recent years, UFO and conspiracy theory enthusiasts have offered a myriad of alternative suggestions for the existence of these fascinating skulls.

 [H2 class=date-header][FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff0000" size=4]MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS' HARD-EARNED MONEY SQUANDERED ON BAD VOTING MACHINES[/FONT][/H2] [H2 class=date-header][A href="vny!://www.arkansasleader.com/2006/04/top-story-readying-of-voting-machines.html"][FONT size=2]vny!://www.arkansasleader.com/2006/04/top-story-readying-of-voting-machines.html[/FONT][/A][/H2] [H2 class=date-header]Wednesday, April 26, 2006[/H2][!-- Begin .post --] [DIV class=post][A name=114607474219668766][/A] [H3 class=post-title]TOP STORY >> Readying of voting machines is lagging [/H3] [DIV class=post-body]  [DIV style="CLEAR: both"][/DIV]By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer

In an emergency meeting Tuesday morning, Pulaski County Election Commissioners authorized Susan Inman, the director, to order additional printed ballots because Electronic Systems and Software has not yet made good on its contract to provide programming for the county's new voting machines in time for early voting for the May 23 primary.

Early voting begins May 8.

Even more pressing, the absentee ballots must be delivered to the county clerk by the end of this week without the commission having had an opportunity to test the ballots against the ballot scanners, because ES&S hasn't programmed them either, she said.

Those ballots may have to be hand counted, Inman said.

Inman, who along with Pulaski County Clerk Pat O'Brien, extricated Pulaski County elections from disarray, said she guaranteed that early voters would have something to vote on by May 8, but "It may not be a touch-screen."
"It's out of our hands," said Inman.

"We've been trying to get something out of the vendor on a daily basis."
ES&S did not return calls from the Leader Tuesday.

"We had expected to have enough Ivotronic machines delivered (and programmed) to allow one per polling location and five for each of the early voting sites," said Inman. "The state cut back their numbers. We'll be getting a reduced number. It could affect the number we place for early voting."

The commission will meet again at 8 a.m. Friday to get an updated status report on the situation, she said.
The county has taken delivery of 156 of the 173 machines promised, but a voting machine without a program is like a car without gas, she said.

The new machines will fulfill a federal mandate, not only allowing blind voters to cast their ballots without help, but also providing a paper trail for verification and recount purposes, according to Inman.

Congress mandated the new voting machines and scanners and paid for the first round. Any additions to the 173 will be the county's responsibility.

If they are programmed in time, there will be at least one of the new, touch-screen voting machines at each of the 124 polling places in the county, said Inman, for use by disabled voters or anyone preferring them to the paper ballots.

In northern Pulaski County, early voting will be done at Jacksonville City Hall or the Sherwood Senior Center, according to Inman. Each polling place also will have a new optical scanner to read paper ballots she said.

Right now, the old scanners will be used, she said, but ESS still needs to program them.

The plan is for the county to have 173 touch-screen machines, allowing for one at each of 124 polling places and five at teach of nine early-voting polling places, with four spares, Inman said.[/DIV][/DIV]

       

[[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff4040" color=#000000]Chicken-Hawk Dough-Boy Karl Rove Facing Heat[/FONT]]

 [FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" color=#990000 bgcolor="#FFFFFF"][FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff4040" color=#000000]Chicken-Hawk Dough-Boy Karl Rove Facing Heat[/FONT][/FONT] [FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" color=#990000 size=6 bgcolor="#FFFFFF"][FONT color=#000000]Paper: Fitzgerald considering perjury, obstruction charges against Rove[/FONT][/FONT]  [A href="vny!://rawstory.com/"][FONT color=#ff0000]RAW STORY[/FONT][/A]
[FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#990000 size=1][FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" color=#000000 size=1]Published: Wednesday April 26, 2006[/FONT][/FONT]

  [FORM id=frm_print_me action=vny!://www.rawstory.com/admin/dbscripts/printstory.php?story=1953 method=post]Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is said to be mulling perjury or obstruction of justice charges according to Thursday's [A href="vny!://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-042606rove_lat,0,4307366,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines"]Los Angeles Times[/A], [A href="vny!://rawstory.com/"][FONT color=#ff0000]RAW STORY[/FONT][/A] can report. Excerpts.[/FORM]

 [H2]White House political advisor Karl Rove today went to a courthouse where he testified for the fifth time before a federal grand jury investigating his role in the CIA leak case.[/H2] "He's testifying now, and is doing so voluntarily," Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Rove, told Bloomberg news service.

 After several hours, Rove was photographed leaving the courthouse. It was not known whether he would return.

 Rove has been under scrutiny over whether he promptly disclosed to investigators and the grand jury conversations he had with journalists about CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked to the media in the summer of 2003. It is a crime to disclose the identity of a covert CIA agent.

 Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is believed to be considering perjury or obstruction charges against Rove or charges that he offered misstatements to investigators.

 [A href="vny!://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-042606rove_lat,0,4307366,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines"]FULL STORY HERE[/A]

[[A href="vny!://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/04/27/rove_bush/index_np.html"][FONT size=2]vny!://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/04/27/rove_bush/index_np.html[/FONT][/A]]

[A href="vny!://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/04/27/rove_bush/index_np.html"][FONT size=2]vny!://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/04/27/rove_bush/index_np.html[/FONT][/A] [H1]The passion of George W. Bush[/H1] [P id=deck]The president doesn't care that he is reviled. He is a martyr, and someday all will see his glory. Meanwhile, he's got Karl doing his dirty work.

 [P id=byline]By Sidney Blumenthal

 [DIV class=clearfix id=article_tools] [DIV class=right][img alt="Karl Rove and President Bush" src="vny!://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/04/27/rove_bush/story.jpg"]
[/DIV][/DIV][/DIV]<=article_body> <="article body">  [DIV class=article_photo_right] [P class=article_photo_credit]AP Photo/Ron Edmonds

 [P class=article_photo_caption]Karl Rove and President Bush

 [P class=article_photo_credit]

  [!-- ends article_photo_right --] The urgent dispatch of Karl Rove to the business of maintaining one-party rule in the midterm elections is the Bush White House's belated startle reflex to its endangerment. Besieged by crises of his own making, plummeting to ever lower depths in the polls week after week, Bush has assigned his political general to muster dwindling forces for a heroic offensive to break out of the closing ring. If the Democrats gain control of the House or Senate they will launch a thousand subpoenas to establish the oversight that has been abdicated by the Republican Congress.   In his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention in 2004, the "war president" spoke of "greatness" and "resolve" and repeatedly promised "a safer world" and "security," and compared himself "to a resolute president named Truman." Afterward, Bush declared he had had his "accountability moment"; further debate was unnecessary; the future was settled.   But Rove's elaborate design for Republican rule during the second term has collapsed under the strain of his grandiosity. In 2004, Rove galvanized "the base" (ironically, "al-Qaida" in Arabic) through ruthless divide-and-conquer and slash-and-burn tactics. But with Bush winning the election by a bare 50.73 percent, he failed to forge the unassailable Republican realignment that he sought.