Velvet Revolution (“VR”), a non-profit dedicated to fair, honest, accurate and transparent elections, today called for elections officials in all states to immediately impound any voting machine that has flipped votes from one candidate to another. It has been widely reported in the media over the past week of early voting that Direct Recording Election (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machines made by ES&S, Diebold, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic have been flipping votes, predominantly from Democratic candidates to Republican candidates, but in some reported cases, just the opposite. (See: http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=6577 )
Prepare for chaos: U.S. electoral system warned it 'can't cope' as historic number of voters cast their ballot
The American presidential election could descend into electoral chaos on Tuesday as unprecedented numbers of voters turn out to cast their ballot in a system that is largely untested.
The U.S. has an electoral system that is not organised, designed or funded to cope with 'anywhere near a 100 per cent turnout', a director of a leading independent electoral reform group has said.
As an estimated 130million Americans head to the polls, Doug Chapin, director of The Pew Charitable Trust's Electionline.org, said voter turnout will 'dwarf' all other problems in this year's presidential election.
Dick Cheney's Hometown Paper Endorses Obama Today
For the past six weeks, we have chronicled the landslide in newspaper endorsements for Barack Obama (see tally on our site, with an update to come today), now about 250 to 110. Included in this have been well over 50 daily papers that have switched from backing Bush in 2004 to supporting Obama this year. Then there are the embarrassments such as the largest paper in Alaska, The Anchorage Daily News, also endorsing Obama.
Now comes another signal: This morning, Dick Cheney's hometown paper in Wyoming, the Casper Star-Tribune, switched to Obama.
CNN Hires Saddam-Al Qaeda ‘Connection’ Fabricator And Cheney Hagiographer
Over the past eight years, Hayes has done little more than spin for the Bush administration’s “war on terror.” Hayes was one of the foremost peddlers of the false claim that Saddam Hussein was in league with Al Qaeda, something that even Doug Feith, one of Hayes’ supposed sources, later disavowed.
Spencer Ackerman wrote that Hayes “has made a career out of pretending Saddam and Al Qaeda were in league to attack the United States”:
Voters Across Nation Hit by Dirty Tricks
Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.
Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.
Violence sweeps through Iraq
A wave of violence, including an assassination attempt against a deputy oil minister, swept through Baghdad and neighboring Diyala Province on Monday as Parliament passed a bill that would grant the country's embattled minorities fewer guaranteed seats in upcoming elections.
The prospects of the enactment of the bill, which must still be approved by Iraq's executive council, is unclear. The council is composed of the country's president and two vice-presidents.
Washington Post Story Minimizes Government Contracting Scandal - McCain and Obama Ignore It
A recent Washington Post story about the diversion of billions in government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms looks more like it was written by the White House press office than the newspaper that broke the story on Watergate. (http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1179)
The story seems "un-Washington Post-like." Titled, "Agencies Counted Big Firms As Small," with a Bush Administration excuse for a subtitle - "SBA Says It Will Correct Data On Federal Contracts." The first sentence begins with "US government agencies make at least $5 billion in mistakes..."
Just $5 billion in mistakes; the SBA has it under control, no big deal.
Read more...
The story seems "un-Washington Post-like." Titled, "Agencies Counted Big Firms As Small," with a Bush Administration excuse for a subtitle - "SBA Says It Will Correct Data On Federal Contracts." The first sentence begins with "US government agencies make at least $5 billion in mistakes..."
Just $5 billion in mistakes; the SBA has it under control, no big deal.
Will McCain "Win" with No Paper Trail Proving Otherwise?
It should also be noted that it doesn't matter what is shown on the screen when a voter votes on one of these god-awful devices which will be used by approximately one-third of American voters this year. The fact is that it's strictly impossible to confirm that any vote ever cast during an election on any Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machine was ever recorded accurately for any candidate or initiative on the ballot, as per the voter's intent.
Scientists Slam FBI Anthrax Probe
They argue that the FBI abused its power and violated its own policies as they probed an innocent man for six months.
In interviews with a dozen of Ivins' colleagues at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, his friends and independent scientists, The Post found many of them would speak only on the condition of anonymity because they believed they were still under FBI surveillance and their phones were being tapped.
Together, those closest to Ivins cited a laundry list of holes in the feds' conclusions. They include:
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