The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for Arizona to enforce a new rule for next month's election that requires most voters to show proof of identification before casting a ballot. The ruling reverses one by the 9th Circuit. It is expected to benefit Republicans at the polls.
Republicans skillfully parlayed the threat of terrorism into victories in back-to-back elections. However, political analysts say the public's overall dissatisfaction with the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration is diluting the once potent argument. The continuing carnage in Iraq and criticism from some Republican lawmakers about the conflict undercut the party's strong-on-security message.
Message: MASS.SHELTER ORDERED TO KILL ALL DOGS OVER TAXES WASTED ON DOG FOOD!!! HELP PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!
MORE THAN URGENT -- PLEASE READ AND HELP!!!! PLEASE ! YOU ALL THAT LIVE IN UJSA - PLEASE. THOSE THAT LIVE ABROAD SPREAD THIS IN ALL GROUPS, CPOST, SHARE, BLOG, .... DO HELP !!!!!!
Hi there,
You have received a message from colleen: Original Message:
LETS DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS --- GO WARRIORS 9:48 AM MASS. SHELTER ORDERED TO KILL ALL DOGS OVER TAXES WASTED ON DOG FOOD! Thursday, 7:03 PM Ok folks, you don't have to be in rescue to help on this one. You don't even have to be a dog lover ...... just someone with a wee bit of compassion to a living creature.
One woman complains that keeping the dogs too long means dog food which is a "waste of taxpayers money"!! One person, not half the damn town. Who is this person, and what kind of pull do they have that can get these lives ended on just a complaint?
Please, take a few moments to call. I am unsure if they have an answering machine or not, but it's worth a try tonight. If not, start first thing in the morning. Ashburnham, MA Town Hall 978-827-4104
If you are outside the US., or do not have free long distance, please, take a moment to post this to not only your entire address book, but also all your friends on myspace, Yahoo groups, as well as other groups that I don't even know of. Remember, this is in MA which means EST, 3 hours ahead of the west coast. This is the most moronic reason to take the lives of precious animals that I have ever heard of and I cannot believe the town manager would condone this.
Speak up for those who have no voice!
Kathie Sullivan-Parkes
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
You don't have to live in Ashburnham, MA to complain about this - only a dog lover! Please STOP this ridiculous order! Permission to spread this far and wide!
Watch the video testimony from a Florida programer wherein he describes, in a court of law, how he was asked to write software that would hack an election:
Do you still wonder why things "stay the course" even when "Public Opinion" does not agree with the Agenda? If you can`t vote them out, things cannot change... how clear must a fact be?
Remember (if it truely makes a difference to the average individual) this was all "under oath" in a court of Law!
THE hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica has grown to the biggest recorded size - larger than the North American continent - say NASA scientists, who yesterday released dramatic images documenting its changes.
The hole is a region where there is severe depletion of the layer of ozone - a form of oxygen - in the upper atmosphere that protects life by blocking ultraviolet rays from the sun. Scientists say made-man gases such as bromine and chlorine cause the hole by damaging the layer.
Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, said: "From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles."
The increased size of the hole was blamed on unusual weather patterns. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles.
However, colder temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones.
And this year, the lower stratosphere was about nine degrees Celsius cooler than average. In addition to the vast area covered by the hole, what ozone there is in the skies above Antarctica is thinner than usual this year.
The ozone hole is considered to be the area with total column ozone below
220 "Dobson Units". A reading of 100 Dobson Units means that if all the ozone in the air above a point were brought down to sea-level pressure and cooled to freezing, it would form a layer 1cm thick. A reading of 250 Dobson Units translates to a layer about 2.5cm thick (about an inch).
Satellite measurements observed a low reading of 85 Dobson units of ozone earlier this month. In July, by contrast, the ozone layer had a thickness of 300 Dobson units.
"These numbers mean the ozone is virtually gone in this layer of the atmosphere," said David Hofmann, the director of the global monitoring division at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory. "The depleted layer has an unusual vertical extent this year, so it appears the 2006 ozone hole will go down as a record-setter."
However, despite the dramatic size of the hole, the long-term prognosis for the ozone layer is healthy.
While there are and will continue to be year-to-year variations in the extent of its coverage, scientists expect a slow but complete recovery by the year 2065.
"I don't think there's a risk of the ozone hole growing and destroying the world," said Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's department of global ecology.
Although CFCs and other dangerous gases that damage the ozone layer can linger in the atmosphere for as long as two generations, the amount of such damaging gases released into the atmosphere peaked in 1995 and has been declining ever since.
This means that, in theory, the ozone layer will have a chance to recover, although at an extremely slow and gradual pace for the next decade. Scientists expect the hole to reduce by just 0.1 to 0.2 per cent a year for the next ten years, before bouncing back more swiftly in later years. NASA also reported that ice was melting in Greenland more quickly than it was being replaced and more rapidly than scientists had believed.
"The results show a dramatic speed-up in the rate of ice-mass loss since the 1990s," said NASA researcher Jay Zwally. "A very large change in a very short time."
In a report published in Science magazine, researchers concluded that Greenland has lost 41 cubic miles of ice along its coast and gained only
14 miles from snowfall in its interior. Sea levels would rise 20ft if Greenland's icecap melted totally. Invisible barrier that protects planet from harmful solar rays
OZONE forms a protective layer high in the Earth's atmosphere, helping to reflect harmful rays from the sun.
Particles of ozone normally exist at levels of about 10 parts per million in a layer between nine to 30 miles above the ground.
However without this thin protective barrier virtually all forms of life from penguins to plants would be affected by ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer in humans and generally damages DNA, the fundamental building block of life.
Normally, there is a natural cycle of creation and destruction of ozone, a pale-blue gas with a pungent odour, but pollution can adversely effect this process. Warm temperatures on the ground tend to mean colder temperatures in the upper atmosphere, which exacerbates the problem.
Many of the ozone-damaging CFCs - once commonly used in refrigeration, air conditioning and industrial cleaning - were banned in 1985 by the Vienna Convention and in 1987 by the Montreal Protocol.
NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists report this year's ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth.
Hundreds of militiamen linked to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr battled local police and members of a rival Shiite militia in the southeastern city of Amara on Friday, destroying police stations, seizing control of entire neighborhoods and detonating bombs that sent thick pillars of black smoke into the sky.
A granddad has hit out at plans for a mobile phone mast being installed in woods near to a venue used by youth groups and sports teams.
Telecommunications giant 3, formerly Hutchison 3G, has applied to Broadland District Council for prior approval for a 22.5-metre mast on land near to the Fitzmaurice Pavilion, off Pound Lane, Thorpe.
Thorpe St Andrew Parish Council has not lodged any objections to the plans, but families - unhappy that children and sporting teams will be playing in the shadow of the mast, which also includes three antennae, dish antennae, and radio equipment housing - are opposed to it.
Bob Carman, 70, a retired prison officer who lives with his wife Pamela in nearby Eastern Crescent, Thorpe St Andrew, said he would be objecting to the plans.
“It's a 22.5metre mast and it's going to be a very ugly site and will spoil the immediate surrounding environment,” he said.
“There's an awful lot of houses in the area and it will possibly devalue properties.”
Mr Carman, who has four children and 10 grandchildren, said the site was also next to a leisure area used by dog walkers as well as youngsters.
“The potential health risks haven't been proved or disproved but is the council willing to gamble with the future of people living in Thorpe St Andrew? Thorpe St Andrew High School is only a couple of hundred metres away and they are now building the new school on Dussindale Drive, and there's also a school up Hillside.”
Mr Carman said he would be writing to the council to let them know his views and would be supporting neighbours in a campaign against it.
The Evening News has fought against the installation of mobile phone masts near homes and schools until it is proved they are safe through our Put Masts on Hold campaign. Dr Ian Gibson, Norwich North MP, a supporter of the campaign, urged people to object to plans for the mast.
“I think there's no guarantee that young people will not be subjected to radiation from these masts. There's no question they're safe because they're not,” he said.
William Comery, corporate affairs manager for South East Ericsson the company installing the mast on behalf of 3, said nine locations were looked at but the proposed site was chosen because it was thought it would “cause the least disturbance to the environment and community” and would be screened by trees.
Are you battling a mobile phone mast application where you live? Telephone Evening News reporter
Peter Walsh on 01603 772439 or
e-mail peter.walsh(at)archant.co.uk
Help Organize The EARLY VOTE Movement To Protect Our Registrations
Here is an action page to organize your friends to early vote and to report any problems you experience to give legal activists the evidence to take action and DO something about it.
We are already hearing reports of secret purging of the Democratic voter rolls in various states, just the way we know for a FACT things like this happened in the last couple elections. At least some of these rumors are most certainly true. The problem is, if we wait until election day to move proactively to head off such things it will be that much harder to overturn or reverse them. The question is, what can we DO to prevent such wrongdoing BEFORE we have all the evidence. To head it off at the pass, so to speak.
The answer is to get AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE to early vote, to test the integrity of our voting system.
Then, if there are purging issues revealed in particular states, we need everyone to come to this page and submit a problem report that we can refer to legal activists to build the case that will give them the evidence to do something about it. This is something we must do anyway, lest we become a victim to a repeat of other vote suppression schemes which have employed underallocation of voting machines, shortages of provisional ballots, polls that aren't open on time, and on and on.
We CANNOT wait until election day and cross our fingers that there will not be even more dirty tricks than last time. The recent primary elections in places like Maryland have already demonstrated that electoral train wrecks are more likely than not in some jurisdictions. But if we early vote in massive numbers we can ameliorate most of the problems we know we can expect. It is easier in all cases, you will wait LESS time in line, and you can be sure you at least had a chance to vote.
It is sheer lunacy to wait until election day on the HOPE that all will go well, when every indicator is that certain partisan secretaries of state have it planned to not go well.
We need student groups to organize their campuses to carpool their friends to the appropriate election offices.
We need community activists to carpool as many of their neighbors as possible to vote NOW, and not face possibly longer lines on election day itself.
Especially if we are hoping for a large turnout, we must do these things to protect our vote.
Bookmark this special one click action page which will allow you to report and make a record of any problems you have experienced with your voting registration when you try to early vote. Be sure to bring all possible identification with you, and if you experience any problems at all, please immediately return to this page and submit your activist report. Then if want to also report your experience to your daily local newspaper, you can select that additional recipient option below.
Also use this page to help organize all your friends to get out and early vote. If you enter the email addresses of all your friends, they will get the text of this alert with the subject "Join Me In Early Voting."
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours.
Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2006, Patent pending, All rights reserved
Ohio voting rights activist and attorney, Bob Fitrakis, says the Ohio elections may have already been won, responding to reports of massive voter purges in Democratic precincts.
Dr. Fitrakis, told OpEdNews, "Essentially, by purging these rolls, the Republicans, by shrinking the electorate, have already won in Ohio. If they can't win, which is what the polls show among registered voters, the way to win is to use their nuclear option -- to target black voters, young voters and the working poor -- by purging them so they can't vote.
Reports indicate that starting as early as shortly after the 2004 presidential elections, but particularly recently, hundreds of thousands of voters -- mostly urban apartment dwellers (likely black) and students -- who are primarily Democratic -- were sent notifications that they would be purged from the eligible voter lists if they did not respond the letter. But, reportedly, the letter was designed to be easily overlooked, perhaps treated as junk mail. Failure to send in a response caused the voter to be removed from the voting roll.
Fitrakis observes, "They aren't challenging voter eligibility in Republican areas. This is coming from the republican party. They're not targeting their own base.
"If it follows the pattern from 2004, they will have purged heavily Democratic areas.THey will challenge high performance democratic precincts."
According to Fitrakis, HAVA, the Help America Vote Act, requires centrally maintained voter records, which would probably have been kept by secretary of state Ken Blackwell. Fitrack theorizes, that the voter records were "probably purged from the secretary of state's office, because HAVA mandates a centrally located database. But the letters would have gone out from the separate county boards of election."
This is part of the challenge. It may be necessary to actually deal with each of the 88 counties.
Fitrakis says, "We're up against 88 county prosecutors. That's what they've been doing for two years. it's been killing us. They say we have to get the records from the county -- you literally have to fax phone or show up to literally demand these records."
OpEdNews asked Bob Fitrakis, "What can be done?" "What can voting integrity activists do?" What can the Democratic party do?
Fitrakis replied, "We're going to try desperately to get to the bottom of this and try on Friday to get an injunction -- Monday, at the latest.
We asked, "Is there any chance that this can be turned around."
"Yes, a federal judge can issue an order to reinstate all the purged voters." says Fitrakis.
What can readers and activists do to help? They can tell the DNC, tell the Ohio state democratic party to either file a suit separately or in cooperation with Fitrakis and the ongoing suit he's had filed since the 2004 election.
Fitrakis says, ""Put pressure on the democrats to bring suit.
"I would urge the DNC -- the party can't let this stand. They could proceed to Federal court and argue that this is a civil rights case -- against blacks and young people. They could file their own suit. They could join our suit. There are a lot of ways they could do it procedurally. They could intervene as an independent party. They could join our lawsuit I would welcome any action by them.
"They have to realize the election might have been decided by these purges. My book, that I wrote with Harvey Wasserman, reported that in 2004, the only reason the race was even close was because of the purging done in 2004 in the Democratic counties.
"When we go, we'll ask for an injunction, amending this to our existing, arguing that this irreparable harm to the civil rights of hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters, that they're being targeted because of their race and age."
According to Fitrakis, the letters were sent out and purges timed, so voters could not get their voting eligibility status reinstated, because the voting registration period just ended. Worse, there was no reason to purge the voters, which is usually reserved for people who have died or moved out of state. They should have been moved to inactive status.
Fitrakis explained, "They were probably purged because they moved. If they were registered to vote, they were eligible to vote simply by going to the board of election. They should have been moved to inactive status. There was no reason to purge these people."
We suspect it's probably going on a number of other battleground states. Fitrakis speculated.
There are considerable costs in filing suit and serving papers and subpoenas. If you want to support Fitrakis' courageous efforts, donations can be submitted at freepress.org then click on the election protection project.
Another way YOU might be able to make a difference is to ask your local daily paper and your legislators to push for investigation of these abuses of democracy.
Contact your favorite national media anchors (Dobbs, Olbermann) talk show hosts -- Hartmann, Rhodes, Shultz, Franken...
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, The art, science and power of story, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects.
THE GUARDIAN yesterday (Friday, Oct. 20, 2006) carried an article on a new breakthrough in military technology: "Now you see him . . . scientists take step closer to making invisible cloak a reality" by Ian Sample, Science Correspondent.
To highlight two points I found of particular interest:
(1) "The test involved firing a beam of microwaves at the object, the same radiation used for radar."
(2) Dr Ulf Leonhardt's observation that "'This technology is extremely versatile. If you wanted to concentrate electromagnetic waves in one place, you could do that. If you wanted to shield something from electromagentic pulses you could do that too. Invisibility is just the tip of the iceberg.'"
And of course this military scientific breakthrough in microwave use points up yet another time the intertwining--if not merging--of military and non-military/civilian when it comes to sourcing/pointing an acccusing finger at who is responsible for our adverse bio-effects to electromagnetic radiation.
Best, Imelda, Cork
Entire article is pasted in below
Now you see him ... scientists take step closer to making invisible cloak a reality
· UK-US team makes object 'effectively disappear' · Technology could allow vehicles to escape radar
Ian Sample,
science correspondent
Friday October 20, 2006
The Guardian
It won't help you sneak around Hogwarts without being seen or let you stalk the USS Enterprise just yet, but scientists have unveiled the world's first cloaking device, using technology designed to make solid objects vanish from sight. Cloaking devices are keenly awaited and coveted by the military, which believes they will usher in a new age of stealth technology by hiding planes and other vehicles from radar. More advanced versions could ultimately be good enough to make objects or people invisible to onlookers.
The prototype was built and demonstrated in America by a team of US and British scientists only five months after proving it was theoretically possible to pull off the most famous of optical illusions, without breaking the laws of physics.
The device works on the principle that an object vanishes from sight if light rays striking it are not reflected as usual, but forced to flow around it and carry on, as if it was not there. To make cloaks, scientists developed "metamaterials", meticulously patterned thin metal sheets that can bend light in precisely the right way.
In the demonstration, scientists showed that a small object surrounded by rings of metamaterials in effect disappeared.
The test involved firing a beam of microwaves at the object, the same radiation used for radar.
Normally the beam would penetrate and bounce off the rings, but measurements showed the waves split and flowed around the centre. "The wave's movement is similar to river water flowing around a smooth rock," said David Schurig, a scientist at Duke University who helped conduct the experiments.
At present, although the angular lines of stealth bombers make them hard to spot on radar screens, they can leave a "shadow" that gives away their position. The military hopes that cloaking devices could render them almost completely invisible.
Sir John Pendry, the theoretical physicist at Imperial College London, who developed the idea, said cloaking devices to hide vehicles from radar were only a matter of years away.
"It's already been quite an achievement designing this cloak, but next we want to develop a thin skin that can cloak a plane without interfering with the aerodynamics. If you wanted to cloak something big and clunky like a tank, that's feasible in the medium term," he said.
A cloaking device that makes objects invisible to the eye is a tougher prospect.
Radar waves are about 3cm long and to cloak objects from them, metamaterials need to be designed with features a few millimetres across. Visible light waves are far shorter - less than one thousandth of a millimetre - meaning a cloaking device would need metamaterials with much finer features to bend light properly.
"It's not yet clear that you're going to get the invisibility that everyone thinks about with Harry Potter's cloak or the Star Trek cloaking device," said David Smith, who led the experiments at Duke University.
While scientists have high hopes for invisibility devices, they are less optimistic they will ever be able to challenge Harry Potter's stealth garment. "Our device is more an invisibility shed than an invisibility cloak," said Prof Pendry, whose research appears today in the journal Science.
Scientists praised the work yesterday. "This is the first practical demonstration of something close to a cloaking device and that is highly impressive," said Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University. "It's a dream to be able to see and not be seen that runs far back through history. Vision is our basic sense, and invisibility is an optical illusion that's incredibly powerful and fascinating."
Dr Leonhardt said the technology behind cloaking devices was so powerful it would quickly be picked up by other scientists and used in other ways.
"This technology is extremely versatile. If you wanted to concentrate electromagnetic waves in one place, you could do that," he said. "If you wanted to shield something from electromagnetic pulses you could do that too. Invisibility is just the tip of the iceberg."
Vanishing acts
The dream of invisibility has enthralled people for millennia, stretching from Perseus's ancient encounter with Medusa to Harry Potter via the Romulans, James Bond and the half-hearted attempt by Predator in the eponymous film starring the governor of California.
In fiction, caps, rings, cloaks or dubious injections are invoked to help a character disappear without trace, in the case of the Paul Verhoeven film The Hollow Man, organ by organ, and in the case of the German tarnkappes (magical caps), by hordes of dwarves at a time.
Most recently Harry Potter was able to disappear under an enchanted cloak.
But in some cases at least, where fiction leads, fact has tried to follow. The invisible woman became so by bending light around herself, the same concept used in the rudimentary cloaking devices being built today. If light is bent around an object instead of bouncing off it, an onlooker will see nothing.
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams extended the desire for invisibility from people to problems, with the "Somebody else's problem field", which banishes worries by rendering objects inside it someone else's concern.
Lawyers for accused terrorism supporter Jose Padilla say U.S. authorities drugged him with LSD or PCP, filled his cell with ``noxious fumes'' and threatened to slash him with a knife while he was being held without charges.
Most elected federal-officials think "we the people" do not need the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Why? We have a president who, with a signing statement, declares the laws of the land do not apply to him. How can this happen?
None of the men and women who voted for this bill has any right to speak in public about the rule of law anymore, or to take a high moral view of the Third Reich, or to wax poetic about the American Ideal. Mark their names.
The military commission bill, which President Bush signed into law on Tuesday, most of the press and the professional punditry missed the big story. In the struggle for power between the three branches of government, it is not the presidency that "won." Instead, it is the judiciary that lost.
The administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
The president of Swiss-run humanitarian body, Jakob Kellenberger, said that there were questions over its compliance with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.
For 27 years, the most powerful nation in the world has found it impossible to share the Western Hemisphere with one of its poorest and weakest neighbors, Nicaragua, if the country's leader was not in love with capitalism.
A former university professor charged with plotting to bankroll Hamas terrorists was once asked by the Central Intelligence Agency if he wanted a job as a spy, his attorney told a jury Thursday.
Attacking will not provide a fundamental solution to the (nuclear) problem...only delay it. In order to bring about a halt to the nuclear program, there has to be a regime change (that) can take place...in less time than it takes the regime of the ayatollahs to obtain nuclear weapons."
With North Korea threatening more nuclear weapons tests, officials in Washington have placed the option of a military attack back on the table as they consider ways to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons, experts say.
President Bush will resist election-year pressure for a major shift in strategy in Iraq, the White House said on Friday, despite growing doubts among Americans and anxiety over the war among Republican lawmakers.
Watch his haunting observational film that explodes the myth around the claims that the Iraqis are preparing to take control of their own country. Contains some strong language. Flash presentation.
Iraqi hospitals are dangerous places. Policemen and soldiers carry their wounded comrades into operating theatres and demand immediate treatment, forcing doctors at gunpoint to abandon operations on civilians before they are completed.
THE Iraqi Government has told medical authorities not to reveal to the UN the true extent of civilian casualties in the country's conflict, French newspaper Le Monde said today.
Half of all deaths preventable, say country's medics Reconstruction seen as disaster More than 2,000 doctors and nurses are killed 18,000 more leave the nationEven the most basic treatments are lacking.
Nation's Leaders Mislead Youth by Preaching Peace, Practicing War
"God forgive me," pleads David Cook, "should I ever truly understand how presidents Clinton and Bush are able to mouth the hollow words about protecting children ("We must ... teach them to express their anger and resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.") and then, hours later, give the damnable blessing for military movements that kill other people's children. This is madness, and it is the hell-bent delusion of violence that allows the president of the United States to stand up before a crowded room of parents, reporters and survivors and announce his intentions to better protect American schoolchildren, and then, before the same day's sun sets, continue to sit on a war that has killed more than half-a-million souls. And a nation of 300 million barely opens its mouth."
Google News Alert for: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act backfires on accused US officials BTC News - USA If a German court agrees to file war crimes charges against Donald Rumsfeld, he can blame the Military Commissions Act of 2006. ... http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1518
Elliot Cohen: Would A Dictator Graciously Relinquish Power? BuzzFlash - Chicago,IL,USA ... For example, the Military Commissions Act (PDF) permits the president to declare American ... in the form of the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 before the ... http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/552
Americans Disagree with Congress on Interrogation Angus Reid Global Scan - Vancouver,BC,Canada - Many adults in the United States disagree with the Military Commissions Act of 2006, according to a poll by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University. ... http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/13777
"I don't think it's the height of feminism to have a woman president. I think it's the height of feminism to be able to look at presidential candidates as people who will or will not meet our needs and serve our interests," writes Allison Hantschel about her lack of admiration for Hillary Clinton's political credentials.
Congressman Richard Pombo, who not only has five times the fundraising budget, but has won his seat in the House seven terms in a row. McNerny's grassroots supporters have made this the most competitive campaign this district has seen in over 14 years.
Bush put a longtime coal industry official, Richard Stickler, in charge of the federal agency that regulates mine safety. Twice this year, the Senate sent Stickler's nomination back to the White House without a vote, citing opposition from the United Mine Workers and other safety advocates, along with this year's spike in coal-mining deaths.
The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said a former Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disks that apparently contain key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems.
Here are the recommendations of the National Election Data Archive for election activists, and for the public and for candidates for ensuring, as best is possible, that only correctly elected candidates are sworn into office this coming January 2007, despite a fundamentally flawed U.S. election system that is ineffectually audited if at all, and uses voting machines that enable any one of the 100's of persons who build and maintain them to undetectably rig elections.
Please be so kind as to read our recommendations (above) and take action in your own state, using any of the tools available at http://electionarchive.net
I would be happy to post your work related to Election Data Forensic analysis (open records request letters, letters to candidates, or press releases on this project) here to assist other states' activists: http://electionarchive.net/public/ucv_select_info.php
Thank you for all your patriotic efforts to restore the integrity of our democratic elections.
Kathy Dopp http://electionarchive.org
National Election Data Archive Dedicated to Accurately Counting Elections
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day," wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1816
Washington needs to learn to talk, listen, and engage more and condemn less. It understood those wise nostrums in the first phase of Afghan intervention in 2001, when it worked hand-in-glove with the Northern Alliance and discreetly and astutely let Afghans organize their own loya jirga and the interim government that followed. But it has stiffed an initially cooperative Syria, missed opportunities when a mildly reformist leader was president of Iran, and rebuffed President Kim Jong-Il of North Korea at a time when, arguably, he was hungering for reassurance and discussion. Given their dramatic posturing and generally roguish behavior, the United States may be unable in the short term to find appropriate ways to engage North Korea and Iran in meaningful dialogue. It might still be able to induce President Bashir al-Assad of Syria to pursue the best interests of both Syria and the United States...
There has been growing recognition recently of the enormous increase in U.S. income disparities in the last 25 years, bringing back levels of inequality not seen since 1929. Paul Krugman has written of the danger of a new oligarchy, whose wealth is such that it may be able to control an economy and society as large as the United States. So real is growing income inequality that even libertarian-minded Alan Greenspan has mused on its dangers to 'democratic society.' Greenspan's fear is not the undemocratic character of oligarchy -- rather, Greenspan worries that too much inequality may promote economically disruptive political rebellion from below. This expanding awareness by the prominent and powerful of the acute income distribution problem is extremely welcome. Now that we have their attention, advocates of an equal opportunity society have an opening to influence the debate over how the gap between America’s haves and have-nots became so wide. The short answer is that economic power between workers and corporations has shifted...
Upon conviction, Stewart commented, 'I hope [this case] will be a wake-up call to all the citizens of this country and all the people who live here that you can't lock up the lawyers, you can't tell the lawyers how to do the job, you've got to let them operate.' But Stewart was wrong. Her case, the treatment of Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, a career Navy JAG lawyer; and a possible pending investigation of a civilian attorney (Clive Stafford Swift) for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, evidence the government's modus operandi to try to control attorneys for terrorism suspects or convicts and, if it cannot control them, to punish them -- perhaps even charging them as terrorists themselves, as occurred with Stewart...
What does it mean to be the world's only superpower? Like Gulliver in Lilliput, the U.S. government is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now faces the emergence of two new nuclear powers in North Korea and Iran. There seems to be nothing President Bush can do about it. He sent UN Ambassador John Bolton to the Security Council, where he won sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test. According to the New York Times, the Security Council resolution 'primarily ... bars the sale or transfer of material that could be used to make nuclear, biological and chemical weapons or ballistic missiles, and it bans international travel and freezes the overseas assets of people associated with the North's weapons programs'...
If demography is destiny, then news of America's decline is (like Mark Twain's death) decidedly premature. Statisticians tell us Oct. 17 (at 7:46 a.m. EDT, according to the Census Bureau's estimate) was the day America's population reached, then surpassed, 300 million people. That's a three followed by eight zeroes. Unfortunately, Oct. 17 was Halloween with an extra 'Boo' (B with two zeroes) for various 'greens' and ecological radicals mired in Malthusian desperation and myths of looming disaster. For decades, the doomsayers have been predicting catastrophe wrought by the 'population explosion' and diminishing resources...
Die so genannte Unterschichten-Debatte ist nach Ansicht des globalisierungskritischen Netzerwerkes Attac absurd. "Der gesellschaftliche Befund, den die Studie der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung beschreibt, wird von kaum jemandem ernsthaft geleugnet. Eine Analyse der Ursachen aber findet nicht statt. Stattdessen werden die Opfer verhöhnt", meint der Sozialexperte Detlev von Larcher vom Attac-Koordinierungskreis. Der menschenfeindliche neoliberale Wirtschaftskurs spalte die Gesellschaft immer stärker in Arm und Reich - hierzulande und weltweit. "Den wenigen Gewinnern stehen immer mehr Verlierer gegenüber", so von Larcher. Von Armut betroffen sei keineswegs mehr nur eine so genannte bildungsferne Unterschicht. "Auch ein Großteil der angeblichen Mittelschicht lebt in prekären, also jederzeit vom sozialen Abstieg bedrohten Verhältnissen."
"Geistig-moralische Wende": Die Verarmung soll ihren Ursprung in der Politik Helmut Kohls haben (20.10.06)
Führende Gewerkschafter schreiben der Regierung unter Helmut Kohl (CDU) eine wesentliche Verantwortung für die Entstehung einer neuen Unterschicht in Deutschland zu. "Die Schere zwischen Arm und Reich öffnet sich immer weiter", sagte ver.di-Vizechefin Margret Mönig-Raane der "Berliner Zeitung". Es werde höchste Zeit, dass die Politik die negativen Folgen ihres eigenen Handelns beseitigt. Ursprung der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung sei die "geistig-moralische Wende" der schwarz-gelben Koalition in den Achtziger Jahren.
"The people we've elected to the highest offices in our country have sacrificed leadership and their consciences to remain in power. Yes, there is a fight between good and evil. But the evil is within each of us who fails to recognize the duplicity of our own government, a huge wheel grinding on, greedy and insatiable," writes Missy Comley Beattie.
The International Red Cross said Thursday it has "concerns and questions" over whether a new US anti-terror law signed by President Bush complies with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.
A court struck down sections of a Canadian anti-terrorism law Thursday, in a ruling that threw out warrants used to search the home of a reporter covering US efforts to secretly send a Canadian terror suspect to Syria for interrogation. In her ruling, Justice Lynn Ratushny said the provisions were vague and violated the constitutional rights to justice and freedom of the press.
Soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder are being recycled back into combat. "It's flat-out not a good idea," says Dr. John Wilson, an expert in combat trauma. Wilson says the danger of having someone with PTSD at the front lines is that they are at risk themselves, put their units at risk, and could break down under the stresses of combat.
William Rivers Pitt begins, "A lot of smart people have been saying for several years now that the number one tactic deployed by the GOP during moments of political stress is simple and straightforward: they aim to scare the almighty Hell out of the American people."
For the first time NASA scientists have analyzed data from direct, detailed satellite measurements to show that ice losses now far surpass ice gains in the shrinking Greenland ice sheet.
Using a novel technique that reveals regional changes in the weight of the massive ice sheet across the entire continent, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., report that Greenland's low coastal regions lost 155 gigatons (41 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2003 and 2005 from excess melting and icebergs, while the high-elevation interior gained 54 gigatons (14 cubic miles) annually from excess snowfall.
"With this new analysis we observe dramatic ice mass losses concentrated in the low-elevation coastal regions, with nearly half of the loss coming from southeast Greenland," said lead author Scott Luthcke of NASA Goddard's Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory. "In the 1990's the ice was very close to balance with gains at about the same level as losses. That situation has now changed significantly, with an annual net loss of ice equal to nearly six years of average water flow from the Colorado River."
The study is based on an innovative use of data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite that reveals detailed information about where and when the Greenland ice mass has changed. Other recent studies using GRACE observations have reported continent-wide ice mass declines, but none has shown these changes in enough detail for scientists to investigate how much different areas of the ice sheet are losing.
To achieve this more-detailed view of the ice sheet's behavior, Luthcke and his colleagues used a technique that brings GRACE's global view of the Earth down to a more local and frequent view. The pair of GRACE satellites orbiting in close formation detect changes in the Earth's mass directly below them by measuring changes in the distance between the two satellites as the gravitational force of the mass causes each to speed up or slow down.
To achieve this more-detailed view of the ice sheet's behavior, Luthcke and his colleagues used a technique that brings GRACE's global view of the Earth down to a more local and frequent view. The pair of GRACE satellites orbiting in close formation detect changes in the Earth's mass directly below them by measuring changes in the distance between the two satellites as the gravitational force of the mass causes each to speed up or slow down.
Standard GRACE data products infer local mass changes from a global data set of these satellite measurements. The new study used only data from over the Greenland region.
"With this new detailed view of the Greenland ice sheet, we have come a long way toward resolving the differences among recent observations and what we know about how the ice sheet behaves," said co-author Waleed Abdalati, head of Goddard's Cryospheric Sciences Branch. "A consistent picture from the different data sets is emerging."
"The seasonal cycle of increased mass loss during the summer melt season and growth during winter is clearly captured," said co-author Jay Zwally, ICESat project scientist. The new results also capture more precisely where changes are taking place, showing that the losses of ice mass are occurring in the same three drainage systems where other studies have reported increased glacier flow and ice-quakes in outlet glaciers.
GRACE is a joint partnership between NASA and the German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt. The satellites, launched in 2002, are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Continued monitoring in the future is needed to determine whether this ice loss is a long-term trend, the authors point out. The new study appears in Science Express, the advance edition of the journal Science, on Oct. 19.
While relatively few Americans actually have passports, it turns out the new federal law that attempts to impose standardized electronic driver's licenses -- Real I.D. -- is modeled on the biometric passport program. Every driver's license would contain an electronic chip containing the licensee's face and fingerprints Real I.D. would tie every driver's license into a national database to which all sorts of local, state, and federal officials will have immediate electronic access. Real I.D. has real bite because without the new federally mandated electronic I.D.s Americans could be denied access to government buildings and to public transportation including buses, trains, and airplanes. Tim Sparapani argued that the deployment of Real I.D. would make America a checkpoint society in which we must prove our identities in order to be authorized to do almost anything...
Step by bloody step the Iraq War moves toward its denouement. Having set this tragedy in motion, the United States today finds itself consigned to the role of bystander, the world's only superpower having long since lost control of events. As things unravel, the president -- the most powerful man in the world -- is demonstrably powerless to affect the outcome. Meanwhile, American soldiers fight on, even as it becomes increasingly apparent that the Army only recently thought all but invincible will not win this war. For the Bush White House, September 2006 will be remembered as the month when the roof caved in... (for publication 10/23/06)
Not a day goes by that we aren't given some sign of impending dictatorship. Freedoms we used to have that are no longer available to us since George W. Bush took office. From presidential executive orders that allow the suspension of an election and retention of the current Oval Office occupant during a 'national emergency,' to sections of the ill-named Patriot Act that virtually strip innocent citizens of their very freedom and civil rights, to arresting demonstrators who disagree with Bush's policies, to permitting coverage by only journalists who will report Bush's propaganda approved view of the war, to Secret Service agents prowling parking lots of establishments where Bush is appearing and removing anyone from the building who has a bumper sticker critical of the president, and now ... the citation of a woman driver near Atlanta who had an anti-Bush bumper sticker a cop deemed lewd even though the only 'offensive' word was s**t. Yup, our taxpayer dollars in action all right...
The Ledeen Doctrine – or what might be more properly called the Ledeen-Goldberg Doctrine -- is surely 'abstractly pro-war.' It values war for its own sake, and glories in the cruelty of it. It is an expression of brazen sadism as the meaning and motive of U.S. foreign policy. Goldberg claims that not many war supporters held to this satanic doctrine: that is, not many agreed with him and Ledeen about the necessity of ritually sacrificing 'some crappy little country' to the war god on a regular schedule. I, however, beg to differ. After all, this is not the sort of sentiment one would normally be proud of, or even admit to. In any case, the desire to punish the Arab world in some significant way as 'payback' for 9/11 made the choice of targets largely irrelevant. According to the Ledeen-Goldberg Doctrine, it didn't have to be Iraq. It could just as easily have been Syria, Lebanon, Iran, or Pakistan. As for his curious argument that it is 'dumbed down' to cast the Iraq debate in terms of pro-war and antiwar, one can only point to his previous writings, all of them unambiguously and even emphatically pro-war. Is he now saying his arguments then were dumb? If so, I'll give him credit for honesty...
Drastic changes are only 1 °C away, a team led by a NASA scientist concludes.
The earth is the warmest it has been in the past 10,000 years, according to a new analysis that warns of serious changes ahead.
Global surface temperature has increased by about 0.2 °C per decade in the past 30 years, researchers note in the September 25 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This warming is larger in the Western Equatorial Pacific than in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific, a change that may have increased the likelihood of strong El Niño events, such as those of 1983 and 1998.
The paper, by James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and colleagues from Columbia University Earth Institute; Sigma Space Partners, Inc.; and the University of California, Santa Barbara, updates an analysis of surface-temperature change based on instrumental data and observed temperature change made in the 1980s.
The team predicts that if temperatures rise 1 °C, changes will occur rapidly and result in a “different” planet. “Given that a large portion of human-made CO2 will remain in the air for many centuries, sensible policies must focus on devising energy strategies that greatly reduce CO2 emissions,” the team concludes.
Sind deutsche Wahlmaschinen wirklich sicher? Niederländische Hacker haben das System geknackt. Und glauben, dass nicht nur sie dazu in der Lage sind. Weiter unter http://www.zeit.de/online/2006/41/wahlmaschinen
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Petition gegen Wahlcomputer unterzeichnen!
Die Diskussion um elektronische Wahlgeräte - besser bekannt als Wahlcomputer - ist nun endlich auch in Deutschland voll ausgebrochen. Die Ereignisse und Erkenntnisse der letzten Wochen lassen keinen Zweifel zu, dass ein Einsatz dieser Systeme eine große Gefahr für unsere Demokratie darstellen. Der Chaos Computer Club fordert daher ein Verbot von Wahlcomputern:
Wir rufen daher auch zur Unterstützung einer Online-Petition auf, die eine ersatzlose Streichung des §35 Bundeswahlgesetzes (Stimmabgabe mit Wahlgeräten) fordert. Alle Informationen zur Petition findet Ihr unter:
Solltet Ihr die Petition bereits unterzeichnet haben tragt bitte diese Information weiter und nutzt alle Euch zur Verfügung stehenden Kommunikationsmittel, um andere Leute auf die Petition hinzuweisen.
Eine umfangreiche Hintergrundsammlung mit Fakten, Zahlen, Pressespiegel und Argumentationshilfen zum Thema findet Ihr im Wiki des Berliner Chaos Computer Clubs:
Vielen Dank für die Unterstützung
Der Chaos Computer Club
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Online Petition gegen Wahlcomputer jetzt auch Offline
Die Petition wurde am 06.10.2006 eingereicht und am 17.10.2006 im Internet veröffentlicht. Die Mitzeichnungsfrist beträg 6 Wochen und endet am Dienstag, den 28.11.2006. Damit betrug die Laufzeit der Mitzeichnungsfrist am 05.11.2006 exakt 6 Wochen (42 Tage). Durschnittlich unterschrieben rund 750 Personen pro Tag. Die Petition endet am 28. November. So gesehn würde die Petition ca. 41.000 Mitzeichner erreichen. Derzeit unterzeichnen aber durchschittlich ca. 1000 Personen pro Tag die Petition. Setzt sich der Verlauf bis zum 28. November fort, würde die Petition ca. 56.000 Mitzeichner erreichen. Das Interesse könnte aber auch nachlassen oder sich durch die Meldungen zur US Kongresswahl, nach denen sich in den USA erneut Probleme mit Wahlcomputern abzeichnen, steigern.
Ab 50.000 Mitzeichnern ist die öffentliche Anhörung des Petenten vorgesehen. Da viele noch nicht im Netz sind und die 50.000 Mitzeicherner knapp verfehlt werden könnten, hat ein CCC-Mitglied Unterlagen zusammengestellt um auch Offline, also ganz klassisch Unterschriften zu sammeln:
Bis spätetens zum 28.November müssen die Unterschriften beim Petitionsausschuß vorliegen.
Anschrift:
Deutscher Bundestag
Petitionsausschuss z.H. Kersten Naumann, MdB, Vorsitzende des Petitionsausschusses
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin
Damit in etwa abgeschätzt werden kann, wieviele Unterschriften insgesamt gesammelt wurden, wäre eine kurze Mitteilung an chancen.info @gmx.net nett.
Anhang: Kurzinfo
Von: Chancen.Info @gmx.net
5.11.2006
CCC ruft zur Unterstützung der Petition gegen Wahlmaschinen auf
Vor einem Monat war es Mitgliedern der niederländische Kampagne "Wir vertrauen Wahlcomputern nicht" und des Chaos Computer Clubs (CCC) gelungen, einen Wahlcomputer vor laufender Kamera zu knacken. Nun ruft der CCC dazu auf eine online-Petition beim Bundestag zu unterstützen.
Nachdem der Hack der niederländischen Wahlmaschinen bekannt wurde, schrieb für den deutschen Vertriebspartner HSG Wahlsysteme Geschäftsführer Herbert Schulze Geiping in einer Pressemitteilung: "Es wird nie ein Wahlgerät geben, das für sich allein manipulationssicher ist." Der Frankfurter Rundschau sagte er: "Verschlüsselungen, die heute als sicher gelten, sind in zwei Jahren wieder geknackt." Die Petition gegen Wahlcomputer weist darauf hin, dass Wahlfälschungen in der Vergangenheit nur durch erneutes Auszählen der Wahlzettel nachgewiesen werden konnten. Diese Kontrollmöglichkeit entfällt bei Verwendung von Wahlmaschinen.
Schon jetzt, am 05.11.2006 hat die Online-Petition gegen die Verwendung von Wahlmaschinen rund 24.000 Mitzeichner. Damit ist sie nach Angaben des Chaos Computer Clubs (CCC) bereits die zweiterfolgreichste Online-Petition beim Petitionsausschuß des Deutschen Bundestags. Ab 50.000 Unterschriften ist eine öffentliche Anhörung des Petenten im Petitionsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages vorgesehen. Bis zum 28. November kann die Petition noch mitgezeichnet werden. Nach Einschätzung des CCC ist unabhängig von der Erreichung von 50.000 Unterschriften damit zu rechnen, dass die Aufmerksamkeit aller an der parlamentarischen Prüfung Beteiligten bei einer hohen Zahl von Mitzeichnern steigt. Der CCC fordert ein Verbot von Wahlmaschinen und ruft daher auch zur Unterstützung der Online-Petition auf, die eine ersatzlose Streichung des §35 Bundeswahlgesetzes (Stimmabgabe mit Wahlgeräten) fordert. Gemäß Artikel 17 des Grundgesetzes hat jeder das Recht, eine Petition einzureichen und/oder z u unterstützen, also auch Staatsangehörige eines anderen Lands.
-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Thu, 2 Nov 2006 20:21:34 +0100
Von: chaos-update-owner@lists.ccc.de
Betreff: Petition gegen Wahlcomputer unterzeichnen!
Guten Tag,
die Diskussion um elektronische Wahlgeräte - besser bekannt als Wahlcomputer - ist nun endlich auch in Deutschland voll ausgebrochen. Die Ereignisse und Erkenntnisse der letzten Wochen lassen keinen Zweifel zu, dass ein Einsatz dieser Systeme eine große Gefahr für unsere Demokratie darstellen. Der Chaos Computer Club fordert daher ein Verbot von Wahlcomputern:
Wir rufen daher auch zur Unterstützung einer Online-Petition auf, die eine ersatzlose Streichung des §35 Bundeswahlgesetzes (Stimmabgabe mit Wahlgeräten) fordert. Alle Informationen zur Petition findet Ihr unter:
Solltet Ihr die Petition bereits unterzeichnet haben tragt bitte diese Information weiter und nutzt alle Euch zur Verfügung stehenden Kommunikationsmittel, um andere Leute auf die Petition hinzuweisen.
Eine umfangreiche Hintergrundsammlung mit Fakten, Zahlen, Pressespiegel und Argumentationshilfen zum Thema findet Ihr im Wiki des Berliner Chaos Computer Clubs:
Der Chaos Computer Club (CCC) begrüsst die bei der Physikalisch- Technischen Bundesanstalt (PTB) aufgekommenen grundsätzlichen Zweifel an der Verwendbarkeit von Wahlcomputern. Die Grundlage der Bauartzulassung für den Einsatz der Computer bei Wahlen ist damit als hinfällig zu betrachten.
Noch im Oktober mochte der für die Zulassung der Wahlcomputer zuständige Fachbereichsleiter der PTB, Dieter Richter, keine praktischen Möglichkeiten zur Manipulation von Wahlcomputern sehen. Gegenüber der Zeitschrift c't und der Nachrichtenagentur AP musste er nun allerdings in einem Interview einräumen, dass Wahlcomputer grundsätzlich manipulierbar sind. Damit bestätigte er entsprechende Ergebnisse des CCC.
Richter bekräftigte, dass die vom CCC nachgewiesenen Unsicherheiten und Manipulationsmöglichkeiten praktisch anwendbare Szenarien sind, welche die Sicherheit deutscher Wahlen real gefährden. "Es gibt bei diesem Konzept keinen absoluten Schutz gegen Insider-Angriffe," sagte Richter.
Solche Innentäter sind mit Abstand das wahrscheinlichste Angriffsszenario. So wurde 2002 in Dachau aufgedeckt, dass mehrere Kommunalwahlen von Mitgliedern der örtlichen CSU manipuliert wurden. Ohne die Möglichkeit der nachträglichen Auszählung der Wahlzettel wäre der Betrug nicht nachweisbar gewesen - eine Möglichkeit, die bei Wahlcomputern nicht mehr gegeben ist. Der Wahlskandal von Dachau wäre mit Nedap-Maschinen niemals aufgeflogen.
Richter sagte zur bisherigen Haltung des Innenministeriums, dass die Wahlcomputer hinreichend manipulationssicher seien: "Wir würden jetzt, in dieser neuen Lage, dem Ministerium nicht mehr raten, die Erklärung ohne Einschränkung abzugeben."
Die Ansicht der PTB, dass erst durch die Publikation der Funktionsweise der Wahlcomputer im Rahmen der CCC-Analyse eine "neue Situation" entstanden sei, wirft allerdings ein erschreckendes Licht auf die Sicherheitsphilosophie der Behörde. "Ob man nun in Zukunft grundsätzlich und generell ausschließen muss, jemals wieder Elektronik bei Wahlen einzusetzen, die nach dem Prinzip Security by Obscurity operiert, möchte ich nicht abschließend beurteilen. Ich kann mir bestimmte Umstände vorstellen, unter denen dies vorstellbar ist," sagte Richter. Welche Umstände das sein könnten, ließ er bezeichnenderweise offen - als Bürger möchte man sich das ungern ausmalen. Er räumte immerhin ein, dass "'Security by Obscurity' aus IT-Sicherheitssicht nicht das Idealkonzept ist."
Es stellt sich nun die Frage, warum die Oberbürgermeisterwahl in Cottbus im Oktober 2006 und die Bundestagswahl 2005 mit Wahlcomputern stattfanden, deren Manipulierbarkeit jedem Fachmann offensichtlich und klar ist. Für beide Wahlen sind Einsprüche wegen der Verwendung der zweifelhaften Wahlcomputer anhängig. "Bisher gibt es keine Erkenntnisse über Manipulationsversuche an Wahlgeräten in Deutschland," sagte Richter gegenüber der c't. Angesichts der schwerwiegenden Mängel in den Prüfmethoden der PTB bei der Bauartzulassung der Wahlcomputer ist nicht zu erwarten, dass sie eine geschickte Manipulation tatsächlich erkennen und aufdecken könnte.
Richter betonte in dem Interview, dass trotz der technischen Mängel das Gesamtpaket an Sicherheitsmaßnahmen eine manipulationsfreie Wahl garantieren könne. Doch schon die Annahme von Richter, dass "die Geräte sicher bei den Kommunen verwahrt" seien, zeugt von einer beängstigenden Realitätsferne, wie die Wahlbeobachtung des CCC in Cottbus gezeigt hat. [1] Die sichere Verwahrung der Wahlcomputer ist außerdem gar nicht zwingend vorgeschrieben, sondern eine freiwillige Leistung der Kommunen, wie Richter ganz richtig bemerkte. Angesichts der momentan stattfindenden Ausleihe hunderter Wahlcomputer in die Niederlande kann von einer "durchgehend sicheren Verwahrung" ohnehin nicht mehr die Rede sein. Das Bundesinnenministerium wurde erst vom CCC über die Verbringung der Nedap-Computer ins Ausland informiert, die in Eigenregie der Gemeinden stattfindet.
Bezüglich der Abstrahlungen der Wahlcomputer gab Richter zu, dass nur die allgemeine elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit getestet wurde. Gezielte Tempest-Angriffe, mit denen es möglich ist, den Wahlvorgang "abzuhören", wurden nicht erprobt. Als Begründung für diesen Umstand sagte Richter, dass erste Messungen für "vernachlässigbar" und "unkritisch" gehalten wurden. Dass noch aus 25 Metern Entfernung zumindest bei einigen Geräteserien problemlos abgehört werden kann, zeigten erst die Ergebnisse des CCC. [2]
Die Frage danach, welche Bauartunterschiede zwischen den deutschen und holländischen Computern bestehen, beantwortete der Experte folgendermaßen: "Wir vermuten, haben aber keinen Beleg dafür, dass es unterschiedliche Produktionsserien beim Hersteller gibt, und dass der holländischen Initiative ältere, weniger gut geschirmte Geräte zur Verfügung standen." Dass die PTB nicht einmal solch grundlegende Informationen über die Wahlcomputer hat, zeigt einmal mehr, dass diese wichtigen Funktionen der Demokratie nicht an irgendeinen Apparate-Hersteller delegiert werden dürfen.
Dass Nedap und die PTB sich erdreisten, die technischen Einzelheiten und Prüfberichte der Wahlcomputer und ihrer Evaluierung geheimzuhalten, ist ein grundlegender Verstoß gegen das Transparenzgebot für Wahlen. Richter erklärte dazu unverblümt: "Prüfberichte sind nicht als Beschreibung angelegt, wie die Prüfung durchgeführt wurde, um sie für Dritte verständlich und nachvollziehbar zu machen, oder dass Außenstehende die Qualität oder den Inhalt der Prüfung bewerten können." Hier offenbart sich eine grundlegende Fehlkonstruktion, die im Hinblick auf die Sicherheit freier Wahlen ein unhaltbarer Zustand ist.
Richter beklagte in dem Interview die mangelnde Kooperation des Chaos Computer Club, den er "diesbezüglich konsultiert" habe. Der CCC zeigt sich von dieser Aussage überrascht, da bisher weder beim CCC noch bei der holländischen Initiative "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" eine offizielle Kooperationsanfrage eingegangen ist. Ein vom CCC initiiertes informelles Treffen wurde seitens der PTB leider auf unbestimmte Zeit verschoben. Nachdem der CCC mit seiner Analyse schon die Arbeit der PTB erledigt hat, ist er natürlich auch weiterhin gern gesprächsbereit. Ziel einer Kooperation kann jedoch nicht das Flicken von Löchern an einem prinzipiell unsicheren System sein. Einzig eine grundsätzliche Abschaffung der Wahlcomputer löst das Problem.
Richter erkannte ganz richtig: "E-Voting - in welchen Formen auch immer - ist nicht nur eine technische Frage, sondern auch eine Frage des Vertrauens in das, was für den Wähler nicht mehr transparent nachvollziehbar ist." Er führte dazu weiter aus: "Es reicht nicht, ein von Spezialisten nachvollziehbares, sicheres technisches System zu haben." Jedoch sind weder die Nachvollziehbarkeit noch die technische Sicherheit der Computer gegeben, wie Richter zuvor selbst einräumen musste. Der Chaos Computer Club fordert daher weiterhin die sofortige Rücknahme der Bauartzulassung und gleichzeitig die endgültige Abschaffung der rechtlichen Möglichkeit, Computer zur Stimmabgabe bei Wahlen in Deutschland zuzulassen.
Dass Deutschland mit Wahlcomputer-Problemen nicht alleine steht, zeigten auch die Nachrichten der letzten Woche: Etwa die Hälfte der wahlberechtigten US-Amerikaner haben ihre Stimme mit Wahlcomputern abgegeben. Massive Zweifel an deren Sicherheit waren bereits vor der Wahl öffentlich geworden. Das vielgestaltige Versagen [3] der Wahlcomputer bei den jüngsten Wahlen in den USA sollte eine deutliche Warnung vor der massenhaften Einführung solcher Computer zur Stimmabgabe in Deutschland sein.
Die Petition gegen Wahlcomputer [4] , in der die Abschaffung des § 35 Bundeswahlgesetz (Stimmabgabe mit Wahlgeräten) gefordert wird, hat mittlerweile über 32.000 Mitzeichner. Gerade jetzt zählt jede Stimme!
-----Original Message-----
From: Boyle, Francis
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 5:08 PM
To: 'AALSMIN-L@lists.ubalt.edu'
Subject: Soldier's Duty? LT Watada's Story
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (Voice)
217-244-1478 (Fax)
(personal comments only)
For Michael Honey's video film, A Soldier's Duty?, on Lt. Ehren Watada's
Story challenge to President Bush's invasion and war in Iraq, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ9sV3Nmwpg
Michael Honey,
Professor African-American, Ethnic and Labor Studies and American History
University of Washington, Tacoma
1900 Commerce St.
Tacoma, WA 98402
253-692-4454 phone
692-5718 fax
The US military said on Thursday it was reviewing strategy in Baghdad, where US reinforcements have failed to halt spiraling violence, and expressed grave concern about mounting troop deaths.
Four months ago, the White House offered a set of clear political directions to Republicans heading into the midterm elections: embrace the war in Iraq as critical to the anti-terrorism fight and belittle Democrats as advocates of a "cut and run" policy of weakness.
"American troops are still fighting and dying in Iraq and will be for months to come as we try to extricate ourselves from this mess, but it's over," Jay Bookman writes. "What we're doing in Iraq cannot be sustained, not militarily and not politically, and after the election a lot of people are going to start saying so."
Robert Dreyfuss writes: "From Washington, London, Baghdad, and other capitals come rumors that Maliki's government will soon be overthrown by a nationalist general or colonel or that he will resign in favor of an emergency 'government of national salvation.' A coup d'état in Iraq would put a period - or rather an exclamation point - at the end of the Bush administration's bungled experiment with democracy there."
Kevin Tillman writes, "Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is."
The New York Times editors write, "The homestretch of the campaign season historically puts treacherous distortions of the truth before the voters, none more so this year than a mysterious California letter informing thousands of Latino-Americans that immigrants have no right to vote."
The world is not doing enough to combat global warming which, left unchecked, could trigger a mass movement of people and have serious consequences for security and health. Experts have said that millions of people in densely populated, low-lying, developing countries such as Bangladesh and parts of China, Indonesia and Vietnam might be forced to move by rising sea levels.
Tucked into a massive energy bill sponsored by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) and passed by the House earlier this year are provisions that would open the outer continental shelf to oil drilling and slash future royalties owed to the federal government by companies prospecting in Rocky Mountain oil shale deposits. Pombo's bill would reduce royalties from the customary 12.5% of annual revenue to 1%.
Airing less than three weeks before Americans go to the polls, "Votes for Sale?" will spotlight the so-called Clean Elections movement, a radical experiment adopted in Maine and Arizona to revolutionize how campaigns are conducted. It may not only help clean up politics, but also open the door for more average Americans to run for office and win.
A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney's office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election season debate over lobbyists' White House access.
Matt Taibbi says the 109th Congress has: " ... hijacked the national treasury, frantically ceded power to the executive, and sold off the federal government in a private auction. It all happened before our very eyes." Continuing, Taibbi explains how they did it "in five easy steps."
I received this email and believe strongly that we all must do everything we can to "Bring Them Home"!
Please forward as widely as possible to bring our Son's, Daughters, Brother's, Sister's, Husband's and Wife's home safely as soon as the Democrats take control!
Please Sign This Petition Supporting a Resolution in Congress to End Funding of the Iraq War Cindy Sheehan We have endorsed a Resolution in Congress to cut the funds for the Iraq War. We hope you will join us in signing the linked Petition from Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) supporting HR 4232: http://pdamerica.org/petition/mcgovern-petition.php We have been working with PDA organizing support for HR 4232 since Rep. McGovern introduced this important bill in November of 2005. Congress has appropriated more than $300 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq. Simply stated in monetary terms, we are spending $8 billion per month in Iraq with no end in sight. That's $2 billion per week, or $267 million per day, or $11 million per hour. Small wonder that 61% of the American people are opposed to current U.S. policy in Iraq. H.R. 4232 would end all funding for the deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq. Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope you will sign the petition and please share it with your friends! Please consider adding a link to your page http://pdamerica.org/tools/issues/petition-webmaster.php
The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting ad this weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the US homeland. The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. "These are the stakes," the ad concludes. "Vote November 7."
The foibles of the current power structure in Washington, D.C., continue to mount. It has gotten so bad that it is becoming extremely difficult to tell who the good guys are anymore. Those of us who expected Republicans to provide some sanity to national leadership have been jolted into the reality that there is little if any relief when the GOP is at the helm.....
Sind Sie Einzelperson und möchten Ihre Nachbarschaft informieren, so können sie nur den „Nachbars-Brief“ im Anhang (=DECT Nachbars-Brief.rtf) doppelseitig kopieren und weiterverwenden. http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/dect_nachbars_brief.rtf
Möchten Sie das ganze aber verändern und nicht nur auf „Schnurlos-DECT-Telefon“, sondern auch auf die Problematik von „WLAN Computer-Funkverbindung“ aufmerksam machen, so finden Sie in diesem Link ein „Nachbars-Brief“ mit beiden Themen: http://www.mobilfunk-erlenbach.ch/DECT+WLAN%20Nachbars-Brief%20Homepage.doc
Freiheit statt Angst - Demo gegen Sicherheits- und Überwachungswahn in Bielefeld am Freitag, den 20. Oktober ab 15 Uhr
„Am Freitag, den 20.10. wird Bielefeld zur deutschen Hauptstadt des Datenschutzes und der Bürgerrechte: 17 Organisationen aus ganz Deutschland rufen unter dem Motto "Freiheit statt Angst" zur Teilnahme an einer Demonstration gegen Sicherheits- und Überwachungswahn auf. Im Anschluss werden die schlimmsten Datenkraken mit den "BigBrotherAwards" ausgezeichnet…“ Pressemitteilung der Veranstalter vom 16.10.06 http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=27
Noch mehr Armut: 1,9 Millionen Geringverdiener verzichten auf staatliche Unterstützung
Neue Studie zur verdeckten Armut. 1,9 Millionen Geringverdiener verzichten auf staatliche Unterstützung „Nach wie vor nehmen mehrere Millionen Bedürftige in Deutschland ihren Anspruch auf staatliche Hilfen nicht wahr. Darunter sind knapp zwei Millionen Erwerbstätige, die ihren geringen Verdienst nicht "aufstocken" lassen, obwohl das möglich wäre. Sie leben in verdeckter Armut - und mit ihnen etwa eine Million Kinder. Das zeigt eine von der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung geförderte Simulationsstudie der Frankfurter Verteilungsforscherin Dr. Irene Becker…“ HBS-Pressemitteilung vom 18.10.2006 http://www.boeckler.de/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3D0AB75D-97481C1B/hbs/hs.xsl/320_84283.html
„Die Oberschicht sagte kürzlich zur Unterschicht, daß sie sich ihres Problems endlich einmal annehmen wolle. Erfolgreicher wäre es allerdings, wenn sich die Unterschicht endlich der Oberschicht annehmen würde.“
Aus: Deutscher Einheit(z)-Textdienst von Werner Lutz 10/2006
Aus dem Text: „…Dass mit einem bedingungslosen Grundeinkommen der Arbeitszwang für die Erwerbstätigen vielleicht etwas nachlassen würde, also die ganze lohnabhängige Klasse etwas davon hätte, kommt einem Prediger für Arbeitsverpflichtung und Arbeitszwang natürlich nicht in den Sinn. Oder meint Roth ein Bündnis zwischen Erwerbslosen und dem DGB? Dann dürften Erwerbslose tatsächlich nichts anderes fordern als das, wofür diese SPD-kontrollierte Organisation Löhne und Sozialeinkommen preisgibt: Arbeit!“
In a “signing statement” released when he signed the 2007 Defense Authorization Act on Oct. 17, the president listed two dozen provisions in the act that he indicated he may or may not abide by.
President George W Bush signed an executive order creating a new National Space Policy on Wednesday. The most crucial feature of this policy is that it "rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit US flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to US interests'."
The United States, whose 7th Fleet is based in Japan, has already mobilised vessels, including the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its strike group, for exercises in the region. Guided missile carriers and destroyers were also in the deployment, according to the US Navy.
This has been the longest time I have been away from blogging. There were several reasons for my disappearance the major one being the fact that every time I felt the urge to write about Iraq, about the situation, I'd be filled with a certain hopelessness that can't be put into words and that I suspect other Iraqis feel also.
Following hints U.S. troops may remain in Iraq for years, the United States is reportedly building a massive military base at Arbil, in Kurdish northern Iraq.
The war in Iraq has been a "catastrophic blunder" that has substantially increased the terrorist threat to Australia, one of the nation's most distinguished former diplomats said today.
A Marine friend just back from Ramadi said to me, "It didn't get any better while I was there, and it's not going to get better." Virtually everyone in Washington, except the people in the White House, knows that is true for all of Iraq.
American and Iraqi efforts to improve security in Baghdad have failed to reduce bloodshed in the increasingly violent Iraqi capital, the senior US military spokesman in Iraq acknowledged on Thursday.
The Bush administration can not allow the Democrats to take control of either house of Congress. And they are in a position to prevent it, regardless of the will of the American voters.
We have lived as if in a trance. We have lived. as people in fear. And now - our rights and our freedoms in peril - we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing.
In Baghdad, “liberation” has become a permanent state of martial law where one can never be certain if his door will suddenly be kicked in and he will either be shot or dragged off to some remote prison for torture.
A decision by China to shift a major portion of its reserve to the euro or the yen or gold could trigger other central banks to follow suit. Nobody would want to be left behind holding a bagfull of dollars rapidly turning worthless. The herd psychology would be very difficult to control in this case because national economic survival would be at stake.
Australian Treasurer Seeks Orderly Withdrawal From U.S. Dollar
By John Garnaut
Economics Correspondent
Central banks in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong have channelled immense foreign reserves into American government bonds, helping to prop up the US dollar and hold down American interest rates. Mr Costello said "the strategy had changed" and Chinese central bankers were now looking for alternative investments.
Poll of 25 countries reveals that the majority of world's population opposes torturing prisoners suspected of terror involvement. In Israel, over half of Jewish population supports using torture to get information from terrorists, while most Muslims oppose it.
A sizeable majority of people around the world are opposed to torture even if its purpose is to elicit information that could save innocent lives from terrorist attack.
The danger of working in the semi-conductor industry was pointed also in Gunni Nordstrom's book "the invisible disease" which is very recommended.
Iris Atzmon.
Computer factory staff are ‘at greater risk of cancer’
MARTYN McLAUGHLIN
October 19 2006
Staff at computer factories could be at increased risk of contracting cancer because of working environments containing high levels of chemicals, metals and electromagnetic fields, according to a new study. In what is the largest study of its kind, the findings focus on upwards of 30,000 deaths of members of staff at factories in the US since 1969. It comes as government health inspectors have begun conducting a long-delayed follow-up inquiry into an Inverclyde factory at the centre of numerous cancer scares. Scots scientists have criticised the "limited" second investigation into the National Semiconductor plant in Greenock, and say the new study helps "firm-up the picture" surrounding health risks. The study by the Boston University School of Public Health in the US, published in the science journal Environmental Health, analysed the causes of death for 31,941 IBM workers and compared them with causes of death among the American population during this period. The information was obtained from IBM as part of a California lawsuit against the firm. The results of the study indicate there was increased mortality due to several types of cancer, especially in manufacturing workers and workers at particular plants in California, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont. Most notably, there was an excess of deaths due to cancer of the brain and central nervous system. Richard Clapp, from Boston University School of Public Health, said: "It was not possible to link these deaths to specific chemicals or other exposures in the workplace because the information necessary to do this was not available." The research appears to back up previous, smaller studies and highlights clear health risks for workers in computer factories. Among these was the Health and Safety Executive's initial 2001 study of 4000 people at National Semiconductor, which showed statistically significant excesses of lung, stomach, and breast cancers among women and an excess of brain cancer among men, with some rates four or five times higher than average. The HSE said it had received "ethical approval" to begin a new study at Greenock. Announced last June, and planning to look at various cases of cancer in more detail, it has been subject to significant delays. Professor Andrew Watterson, of Stirling University's occupational, environmental and public health group, said: "The US study confirms some of the evidence we have seen at Nat Semi. The families of former Nat Semi workers have been calling for years for a Europe-wide or international study into the industry, and this is the next best thing." Jim McCourt, of Phase Two, a support group for Nat Semi workers, said: "We've no doubt working in Nat Semi is dangerous. The scale of this study shows the industry has a real problem, and we would call on the HSE to initiate a UK-wide study."
"The results of the study indicate there was increased mortality due to several types of cancer, especially in manufacturing workers and workers at particular plants in California, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont. Most notably, there was an excess of deaths due to cancer of the brain and central nervous system."
Trump and His Allies...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/trump-and-his-allies-are-clear-and-present-danger-american-democracy?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op
rudkla - 22. Jun, 05:09
The Republican Party...
https://truthout.org/articles/the-republican-party-is-still-doing-donald-trumps-bidding/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804d4873-50dd-4c1b-82a5-f465ac3742ce
rudkla - 26. Apr, 05:36
January 6 Committee Says...
https://truthout.org/articles/jan-6-committee-says-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conspiracy-to-undo-election/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=552e5725-9297-4a7c-a214-53c8c51615a3