More voting machine concerns

Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it secure.Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it

More voting machine concerns

Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it secure.Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it

HUD staff told to favor allies

I suppose this could be considered irrrellavant since the investigation didn't find "direct evidence" of favourism, but I'm reminded of our own HUD scandal in Kansas City.

SADDAM'S TRIAL WAS ADJOURNED BACK IN JULY - BUT HIS SENTENCING IS BEING HELD OFF UNTIL - YOU GUESSED IT - DAYS BEFORE THE FALL ELECTION

The closing arguments in Saddam Hussein's trial have already been given. Why should we still be paying to keep him captive, to feed and house him, for all of August, all of September, and part of October as he just sits there? There was such a rush to war to get this man, why the sudden delay and delay and delay?

You don't really need to ask, do you?

This is such an obvious ploy to use war, once again, as a flat out GOP political product during the last weeks of the election that the Democrats should be screaming bloody murder.

Let's review history: in 2002, President Bush launched the idea of invading Iraq shortly before the election, and scheduled the big UN vote on the matter for, you got it, the week before the election. He said it had to be rushed and happen that week.

In 2004, Fallujah. The massive, publicly touted Fallujah invasion was announced two weeks before the election and touted by all media outlets as something that would break the back of the insurgency. It was all a lie of course, as we documented, and the public warning to the insurgents cost American lives and guaranteed failure.

So here we are again. It's coming up on October. And this time the plan to use the Iraq war with a last minute media-dominating story is obvious. Saddam could be sentenced today. He could have been sentenced a month ago. But he is sitting there waiting for the date that has been made public - "mid-October." Yes, the sentencing will be the dominant story in the final weeks before the election. And the since the Democrats didn't cry foul back in July when this came out and demand he be sentenced then and our elections be respected, it will work as usual.

I love Freepers

If a piddling little war like Iraq is stretching the Army, it is clear that we need a bigger Army. And more money to fund it...

Musharraf Says U.S. Threatened War After 9/11

This is the same Armitage that ultimately was the source of the Plame leak.
Musharraf, in an interview with CBS that will air on Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf's intelligence director.

Universal National Service Act of 2006 (Introduced in House)

To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 14, 2006
Mr. RANGEL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

I saw gas for $1.99 today

A statistical analysis found that 78 percent of changes in President Bush's approval ratings could be correlated with inverse changes in the price of gas.

EPIC Urges Commerce Department to End Export Double Standard

In a letter to Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, EPIC urged the Department of Commerce to restrict the export of high-tech surveillance equipment to China. While US law limits the export of tear gas, handcuffs, and shotguns to China, high-tech equipment that is used for communications surveillance and censorship is exported to the country without restrictions. EPIC's letter cited the2005 US State Department report and the Privacy and Human Rights report which document the role that surveillance and censorship technology plays in political repression. (Sept. 21, 2006)

The Bill of Rights:

A Transcription

Prison Labor.

We need to provide rehabilitation opportunities to inmates, but you might remember that the war on drugs was just getting going in the 70's:
:
A Brief History of Federal Prison Industries

Since 1934, Federal Prison Industries, Incorporated-a wholly-owned corporation of the United States Government-has operated factories and employed inmates in America's Federal prisons. Also known as FPI or UNICOR, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., has made an incalculable contribution to law enforcement by contributing to the safety and security of Federal correctional institutions... Inmates have families to help support, court-imposed fines to pay, and victims to recompense. Under the Bureau's Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP), all inmates who have court recognized financial obligations must use at least 50 percent of their FPI earnings to pay their just debts. Since the program began in 1987, more than $80 million has been collected.

Sanford Bates, the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, once observed that "Prisoners should work because it is economically necessary, socially advisable, and because it represents the most important element in the general attempt to solve the problem of delinquency." In short, if prisons are necessary to protect society, then prison industries are necessary to make those prisons function properly.

By the middle of the 1970's, FPI was working to moderate sales fluctuations through a greater emphasis on marketing and customer service. In 1974, it established regional marketing positions and organized the corporation into seven divisions, each of which handled resource management, production, and sales in a specific FPI industry (Automated Data Processing, Electronics, Graphics, Metals, Shoe and Brush, Textiles, and Woods and Plastics). A year later, it initiated a program to improve product quality and acceptability. Although the law required that Federal agencies purchase from FPI whenever possible, the corporation still had to compete in order to win customers.

Then in 1977, FPI introduced a new corporate logo and a new trade name: "UNICOR." Coinciding with its new image, FPI established a Corporate Marketing Office to develop nationwide marketing strategies and programs. The marketing initiatives of the middle and late 1970's presaged even greater efforts during the 1980's and 1990's to make UNICOR more responsive to customer needs and to base UNICOR's activities squarely on modern business principles.

Prison-based call centers are probably more common than you think -- by some counts almost every state in America runs some. But they're probably not as bad as you think. UNICOR call centers don't compete with American jobs -- they only take on contracts that were about to be outsourced overseas. Security is high -- it has to be, if only because of the perception of danger.

And, as a UNICOR salesman told me, "adherence is fantastic." That's a joke you'll hear a lot from the prison outsourcing industry, but it's true. The fact is, prison call center jobs pay more than other prison jobs. They provide work in clean, air-conditioned environments that give prisoners the chance to interact with people on the outside who don't know they're talking to a convict. Prisoners like that; being treated like a call center worker is much preferred to getting treated like a convict. These men and women covet these jobs...

We do not believe Federal Prison Industries should continue its unfettered expansion into the commercial marketplace," Tim Maney, director of legislative affairs for the Chamber of Commerce told NPR in February of last year. "The business community is extremely concerned with this."

UNICOR wouldn't talk to NPR, and they haven't been willing to speak with us either. It's a matter of protecting their clients, businesses that have opted for cheap labor in American prisons rather than cheap labor outside our borders. Is there anything wrong with this?



Some interesting statistics

For too long, the incarceration industry has gotten away with high costs and low performance. It is time to introduce accountability, competition and rational incentives into the nation's prison systems--both public and private.

Federal and state governments spend more than $35 billion a year to lock up a greater portion of the population--one out of 138 Americans--than any other country on earth. The prison population keeps growing, mainly because our recidivism rates are sky-high. Half of former inmates return to prison. It is time to ask: What are we getting for the dollars spent on this growing revolving-door system?

Certainly prisoners should take personal responsibility for their own actions and their own rehabilitation. But with smart programs, many more should be finishing their sentences and coming home to be taxpaying citizens, not lifelong drains on the state's coffers.

Why are so many failing to rehabilitate themselves? One way to ask that question is this: Where are the financial incentives for prisons to properly perform their rehabilitative function? If anything, the captains of the incarceration industry have a perverse incentive to rehabilitate as few people as possible and keep business booming.

for the big dog

this

HOUSE WILL REQUIRE LISTING EARMARKS

The House approved a limited earmark disclosure rule to Appropriations Committee bills only in a vote of 245-171. “Earmarks” allow Members of Congress to designate that certain funds must be spent on certain projects in their district or state, a practice some call “pork.” Some think the practice should be banned entirely. Tell Congress what you think of their vote. 12,225 messages
30% say Earmarks or pork should be publicly listed with sponsors
70% say Earmarks should be banned entirely