By Sheila Parks, Ed.D.
In the 2000 presidential election, Florida needed Katherine Harris (then Florida Secretary of State), Jeb Bush, the Supreme Court justices - and the connections between them - to put George W. Bush in the White House. See John Nichols, Jews For Buchanan
The optical scan machines in Volusia County, product of Diebold Corporation, were also key in this election. Alastair Thompson wrote a detailed analysis of the election fraud that occurred in Volusia Country on optical scans. His account relies heavily on the original work of Bev Harris in Chapter 13, Security Breaches, in her book BLACK BOX VOTING: Ballot-tampering in the 21st century. Read the entire book online.
The Emmy-nominated documentary Hacking Democracy shows Finnish computer expert Harri Hursti hacking the same kind of machines as those used in Volusia County. Harris, who arranged the hacks, stars in the film. So does Kathleen Wynne, one of the first people in the country to call for publicly observed secure hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB) elections.
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) issued a warning in December 2011 about ES&S DS200 IntElect optical scan electronic voting machines errors during voting. These machines were used in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and New York. Read more details here and here.
Nevertheless, the machines will not be decertified. Said Brian Hancock of the EAC: "Our goal is not to decertify systems. We never want to be in a situation of putting counties in a position where they cannot run an election."
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In the 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush needed Kenneth Blackwell (then Ohio Secretary of State and also honorary co-chair of the Committee to Re-elect George W. Bush) to stay in the White House. John Conyers (Democratic representative from Michigan), in Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio, had scathing comments about Blackwell's role. Conyers stated that many of the problems in Ohio involved "intentional misconduct and illegal behavior," with Blackwell playing a major role. Read the Conyers Report here. What Went Wrong In Ohio can be purchased at Academy Chicago Publishers.
Wally O'Dell, president, chair and CEO of Diebold Corporation at the time and also huge fund-raiser for the election of Bush, said he would help deliver Ohio's votes to Bush. Although no Diebold touchscreens were used in Ohio in the 2004 general election, touchscreens from other corporations were used: ES&S iVotronic and Infinity DRE from MicroVote. Both of these touchscreens were paperless. Huge thanks to the generosity and knowledge of Wisconsinite John Washburn, historian and computer expert, for his help about touchscreens in Ohio in 2004.
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Here is a Who's Who guide of public figures and organizations to watch among ultra right-wing operatives, who are manipulating, or trying to manipulate, the electoral process in both state and federal government in Wisconsin and elsewhere. The question remains:
- Are any of these players the new Harris and/or Blackwell?
Jocelyn Webster (coverage by Joe Vittie) is a protege of Karl Rove and is the new Director of Communications at Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA). Take a look at her appointment letter and resume and more about her shenanigans here and here. Some questions remain:
- How and why did she get this job?
- Did Rove or the Koch Brothers or one of their emissaries tell, oops, ask Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, now on recall with over one million signatures gathered, to appoint her?
Karl Rove is known as The Architect of George W. Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Bush's nicknames for Rove are Boy Genius and Turd Blossom -- a flower that grows out of dung. The question remains:
- Besides Jocelyn Webster, what tentacles of Rove are in Wisconsin now?
The Koch Brothers, ultra right-wing businessmen, starring especially in oil, recently convened a "super secret meeting" of billionaires to discuss the 2012 elections. In the 2010 gubernatorial elections, the brothers gave $43,000 (p.18) to ultra right Republican Scott Walker and $87,000 (p. 18) to Democrat Andrew Cuomo (now governor of New York). See the Koch Brothers' top policy issues in which they outline strategies for "repealing health reform, denying climate change, fighting Wall Street reform, dismantling collective bargaining rights, fighting reductions in carbon emissions, keeping corporate money in elections, fighting Internet neutrality" (p.2). The questions remain:
- What kind of relationship do Mayor Bloomberg of New York City (who ordered police to evict Occupy Wall Street [OWS]from Zuccotti Park) and Andrew Cuomo have?
- Does Bloomberg also have a relationship with the Koch Brothers?
Scott Walker must be watched also, to put it mildly. Many of his top aides have been charged in a John Doe investigation and one of them, Darlene Wink, is going to spill the beans. How many remains to be seen. Here is the criminal complaint against Wink.
The timing of a Walker email in the "secret email system" might be suspicious. Walker himself is "willingly", he says, talking with the investigators. Attorney Mike Pampatonio, host of Ring of Fire radio show, thinks it is extremely risky for him [Walker] to go in there and act like he is going to hustle them -- Oh, now Walker says he "voluntarily" agreed to talk with the investigation when asked to do so.
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