Irish Times breaks silence about Bush fraud 2004

international | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Saturday April 16, 2005 18:21 by Coilín ÓhAiseadha - Spider Force 01-505 4592

O'Clery column breaks taboo, but persists in hints of excess scepticism

In a column entitled “Senator Frist in a fluster over Democrats filibuster” in The Irish Times (conservative/liberal Irish newspaper of record) today, the paper’s US correspondent Conor O’Clery addresses the renewed fuss brewing in the US about allegations of fraud in the presidential elections of last November.

However, there are signs that O'Clery is still somewhat sceptical.

A list of supplementary articles has now been sent to O’Clery and a long list of other Irish journalists, politicians and campaign organisations. Some of these articles come from traditional mainstream media, including CNN, Reuters, North County Times, The Tennessean and Baltimore Sun.

Irish Times breaks silence about Bush fraud 2004


In a column entitled “Senator Frist in a fluster over Democrats filibuster” in The Irish Times (conservative/liberal Irish newspaper of record) today, the paper’s US correspondent Conor O’Clery addresses the renewed fuss brewing in the US about allegations of fraud in the presidential elections of last November.

See excerpt below.

I am naturally delighted that O’Clery has come good on a promise to give the matter some attention, following messages about the statistical analysis and Clint Curtis’s clear lie detector test. It’s good to see this sober, well-respected correspondent break taboo and present a cogent introduction to the matter in the Irish newspaper of record.

However, I think I still detect a slight excess of scepticism in the article. O’Clery mentions that “the internet is still flickering with allegations”, and “the blogs are lighting up again”, but fails to emphasise that the traditional media are finding themselves compelled to cover the same issues, lest these blogs overtake them as the most rapid and reliable source of information.

I have now released a list of relevant articles about election fraud and reforms to my mailing list, which includes O’Clery and a long list of other Irish journalists, politicians and campaign organisations. Some of these articles come from traditional mainstream media, including CNN, Reuters, North County Times, The Tennessean and Baltimore Sun.

See “Stolen Elections Update” below.

Also, O’Clery does not seem to grasp the full extent of the Urosevich brother’s potential influence on the vote count. I have now informed him and his editor that the Urosevich brothers produced the software that counted 80% of ALL of the votes cast in November – i.e. that they control not just 80% of machines using optical scanners, but 80% OF ALL VOTES CAST.

See articles by Bob Fitrakis and Christopher Bollyn below.

And I have suggested that they might be interested to read just how easily machines running Diebold software can be hacked. These are ordinary PC´s like the one I´m hammering away at right now, and Diebold´s software stores vote tallies in Microsoft Access databases that can be opened and altered without leaving any record in the audit log of the Diebold program.

See Chuck Herrin´s How to Hack the Vote - link below.

While I’m very pleased to see The Irish Times begin to tackle this scandalous story, I have suggested that these boys have still got a ways to go to fathom the appalling depth and mind-boggling simplicity of the matter.

I know it’s painful and perplexing. There´s a powerful impulse to think: "It can´t be true!" - But as the old Dublin proverb says: "Denial is not a river in Egypt."

Best regards,
Coilín ÓhAiseadha.
MB, BCh, BAO, DCH


The Irish Times Saturday April 16, 2005 p. 11 World News

Senator Frist in a fluster over Democrats filibuster
America
Conor O’Clery

Nuclear war is coming. Armageddon is near. Beware the wrath of the righteous.
Senate majority leader Bill Frist is on the brink of choosing what is known as “the nuclear option” in a vicious Senate fight that could lay waste to the upper chamber of Congress. And he is joining in a rally of the Christian right next week that claims God is on is side in the looming showdown.
...
Democrats are setting up a “war room” to fight Frist’s plans, and they have some alies on the Republican side, including Sanator John McCain who will vote against the change because he points out “we won’t always be in the majority.”

***

John Kerry is coming back to prominence five months after his election defeat, and he evidently still feels sore about George Bush winning.
Last Sunday he complained that many Democrats were denied access to the polls through trickery and intimidation. He claimed leaflets were handed out saying Republicans should vote on Tuesday (election day) and Democrats on Wednesday, and that people got telephone calls to say if they ever had a parking ticket they could not vote.
Kerry has never disputed the outcome of the election. He left that to his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who said that “two brothers own 80 per cent of the machines used in the United States” that use optical scanners [See my correction below! - Coilín] and it is “very easy to hack into the mother machines.”
But the internet is still flickering with allegations of a conspiracy to steal the election, fuelled by the discrepancies between exit polls that predicted Kerry would win by a margin fo 3 per cent and the official result which saw Bush win by a margin of 2.5 per cent.
A new survey by a non-profit organisation, US Count Votes, listing several PhDs among its authors, argues that there were “significant irregularities” and that the burden of proof should be on showing the election process to be accurate and fair.
The arguments have been given a boost by a story in the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, which is sceptical of conspiracy claims, but details charges by Clint Curtis, a 46-year-old computer programmer, that he was asked by a republican Congressman, Tom Feeney, to come up with an undetectable system to fix elections.
Feeney denied the charge saying: “… and I didn’t lead the purple Martian invasion of Earth either”. But Curtis passed a lie detector test, and the blogs are lighting up again.
...


****


STOLEN ELECTIONS UPDATE


VERIFIED VOTING SWEEPS THE STATES!
VerifiedVoting.org, our partners, and voters across the country have successfully persuaded state governments to pass or propose legislation / regulations to require voter-verified paper ballots. Help us complete the legislative landslide toward reliable, secure, and transparent elections!
www.verifiedvoting.org


EXIT POLLS REVISITED – LIKELIHOOD OF FRAUD IS HIGH
A very significant report was just completed by a bunch of PhD statisticians on behalf of the non-profit organization US Count Votes. Jerry Policoff, over on Daily Kos, wrote an even more condensed and clear summary.
http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2005/04/exit-polls-revisited-likelihood-of.html


FINALLY, THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORTS THE TRUTH:
MIAMI HERALD DISCUSSES CLINT CURTIS, CALLS FOR A RETURN TO PAPER BALLOTS!
BradBlog (4/13/05) -- Condemns E-Voting, Outlines a Litany of What Went Wrong in 2004 Election Fiasco!
The drumbeat of the pro-democracy movement in America (who could have ever imagined there´d be a need for one in this country?!) seems to be growing louder as more and more Mainstream Media folks get into the game!
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001318.htm


ASSEMBLY, SENATE OK BILLS THAT RESPOND TO SAN DIEGO ELECTIONS
North County Times (4/12/05) -- Responding to the controversial result of the San Diego mayor´s race, the Senate and Assembly each approved bills Monday to make it more likely that write-in votes will be counted in California elections.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04/12/news/politics/41105192424.txt


KERRY: CITIZENS NEED TO PRESSURE LAWMAKERS FOR VOTING REFORMS
(4/10/05) -- Speaking today at a Faneuil Hall event sponsored by the Massachusetts League of Women Voters, John Kerry “told a crowd of about 100 in Boston on Sunday that all citizens must demand their right to vote and refuse to be intimidated.”
More & Links - http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/10/kerry.votes.ap/index.html


ELECTION REFORM SPEAKER: ELECTRONIC VOTING OUT OF HAND
The Tennessean -- While many Americans are intrigued by the idea of electronic voting, the process is out of control, creating an unhealthy democracy, experts said at the National Election Reform Conference.
http://tennessean.com/local/archives/05/03/68078488.shtml?Element_ID=68078488


WASHINGTON STATE SUIT WANTS VOTE MACHINES OPENED
Reuters – (4/12/05) SEATTE — An electronic voting machine maker is battling a voter rights advocate in Washington state who wants to force the company to reveal the machines´ software blueprint Paul Lehto, an Everett, Washington, lawyer has filed suit against Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., a privately held company based in Oakland, California, and Snohomish County, where his practice is located, arguing Sequoia´s contract should be voided.
http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/reuters04-12-165037.asp?t=renew&vts=41220051903


SUIT FILED ON CONTY VOTE MACHINES: A CONTRACT BETWEEN SNOHOMISH COUNTY AND A PRIVATE FIRM IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, TWO EVERETT MEN ARGUE IN COURT ACTION
Herald (4/8/05) -- Two Everett men filed suit Thursday to void the contract between Snohomish County and the maker of its electronic voting machines, claiming the deal illegally shifts control of vote counting from the public to a private company.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/04/08/100loc_voting001.cfm


ELECTION COMMISSION FOLLIES
Alternet (4/12/05) --The election commission is already looking like some wild west farce. You know the kind where the new guy moves into town and goes to the sheriff after his store is held up. The sheriff turns out to be the brother of the bandit and both are sons of the town´s well-respected oil magnate? Like that. The man proposed as Co-Chair of the commission, James Baker III is a business partner and close personal friend of the pappy of the man who won the election in question. Come on people, please. (Brad Blog)
Posted by Evan on April 12, 2005 @ 1:18PM.


CLINT CURTIS PASSES POLYGRAPH EXAM!
Bradblog -- Story Broken in Florida´s St. Petersburg Times by Pulitzer Prize Winning Reporter!
Still Manages to Mangle, Misrepresent and Omit Several Key Elements of the Story!
After many months and many requests and many challenges from both critics and Mainstream Media types, The St. Petersburg Times is reporting -- and The BRAD BLOG can confirm -- that Clint Curtis took a polygraph test on March 3rd...and passed!
URL: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001313.htm


FLUNKING THE CARTER STANDARD
Baltimore Sun (3/28/05)—Many aspersions were cast in the wake of the 2000 presidential election debacle. A common theme involved former President Jimmy Carter, trusted monitor of more than 50 elections around the world, and how his talents were more needed at home.
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=5076

Carter will be co-chairing the Election Reform Commission. The first of two hearings are scheduled for April 18th.
http://www.american.edu/ia/cfer /


Liberty Belle Log
April 14, 2005

A SEA CHANGE IN THE MEDIA

… TV news ratings are plummeting, particularly among younger viewers, who are increasingly tuning out and turning onto the Internet. In recent meetings, bewildered TV executives have sought to understand why they’re losing viewers in droves—and seemed genuinely surprised to learn that many disgruntled ex-viewers simply don’t trust the news they’re seeing on TV. Newspapers, similarly, continue to lose readers. These trends coincide with a rise in progressive activism. As liberal groups become organized, producing thousands or even millions of signatures through grassroots e-mail campaigns, the media would be hard-pressed not to pay attention, albeit grudgingly. No doubt the conservative media moguls must be chafing to witness the success of Air America, bloggers, and other liberal media start-ups.
...


****

Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing conspiracy
February 24, 2004
...
Bob Urosevich was the Programmer and CEO at AIS, before being replaced by Hagel. Bob now heads Diebold Election Systems and his brother Todd is a top executive at ES&S. Bob created Diebold’s original electronic voting machine software. Thus, the brothers Urosevich, originally funded by the far Right, figure in the counting of approximately 80% of electronic voting in the United States.
...

Dr. Bob Fitrakis is Senior Editor of The Free Press (http://freepress.org), a political science professor, and author of numerous articles and books.

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834

****

Private Company Still ‘Controls’ Election Outcome
Secretive company administers almost every last aspect of ‘democratic’ election process
By Christopher Bollyn
…
Bob and Todd Urosevich started ES&S as a company called Data Mark in the early 1980s. Today, Bob Urosevich heads Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, a competitor of ES&S and the second largest U.S. manufacturer of electronic voting machines. Together, the computerized ballot scanners and touch-screen voting machines systems made by ES&S and Diebold recorded some 80 percent of all votes cast in the recent U.S. presidential election.
…

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html

****

How to Hack the Vote: the Short Version
http://www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevotedemo.htm



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