From: Jim Stewart
Subject: URGENT: Diebold set to STEAL Certification Monday am Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:04:10 -0800

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/diebold2.htm

The Secretary of State has scheduled a hearing for November 21, 2005 on the question of whether certain Diebold voting systems will should be certified before the end of the year. But "The Secretary of State has disbanded the Voting Systems Panel that's supposed to conduct these hearings and has replaced it with one person, a stenographer, and a tape recorder," said Sherry Healy, a steering committee member of the California Election Protection Network (CEPN), a non-partisan organization of over 25 groups across California who have come together to try and ensure the integrity of California's election systems.

The rally/protest is this Monday in Sacramento, we have ONLY Monday to voice our concerns so they go on the record.

Monday Nov. 21, 10 a.m. - May be your last chance to block Diebold Secretary of State's Office, 1500 11th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
(Downtown Sacramento - 11th and "O" Streets) CONTACT: Dagmar Zakim (415) 389-0250 (there will be carpools)

WE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING URGENT APPEAL FROM SHERI MYERS

Believe me, I really don't want to ruin your day. But you need to hear this. This is an URGENT ACTION ALERT.

If you don't read this and take action, you are allowing your vote to be stolen. California will turn red.

If you read this and do nothing, you are giving up your rights as a citizen. Do it for your country. Your children. Our future.

All Californians who care about the sanctity of their vote must let Secretary of State McPherson know that they WILL NOT ALLOW him to certify Diebold machines, that they are OUTRAGED that he is undermining our democracy.

CALL OR FAX: Bruce McPherson, Secretary of State
916-653-6814 (main menu, press 6, then 3 - starting at 8:00 am Monday) 916-653-3214 (the FAX is on tis weekend)

McPherson was appointed by Schwarzenegger to replace Democrat Kevin Shelley. Folks, if they can't win legally, they WILL steal the votes they need. THAT'S YOUR VOTE.

This is a Republican coup, and they are counting on YOU, and ME to do NOTHING. Is it worth FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR TIME to send a FAX, an email or make a call? PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know. From Mimi Kennedy, PDA Chair ...

Trouble in election land!!!!!!!!!! The Sec of State is pulling a fast one. A hearing scheduled for Monday the 21st in Sacramento has been turned into a sham. See below. It looks like Diebold is going to be certified. The Sec of State is relying on no-one caring about this hearing so he can just certify Diebold more or less in secret. He didn't comply with state regs in publicizing this hearing with sufficient advance notice. And it's not going to be a full panel - it's going to be one man with a tape recorder. The tape may never be listened to! We are calling a demonstration. We need everyone who can make it to get to the street in front of the Secretary of State's office on Monday morning. See below. It is a long e-mail. If you can make it into something terser, please do! Send to everyone. It's urgent we have live bodies on the street. Contact Joan Quinn: 916-396-9714. She is the point person in Sacramento. P.S. PDA had a fanastic two days in Washington, D.C. More on that later - but if we lose CA to election machines, nothing grassroots do will be of much use!

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

CALIFORNIA ELECTION PROTECTION NETWORK a non-partisan organization of over 25 groups across California coming together to achieve our mutual election integrity goals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 16, 2005

Contacts: Northern California: Dagmar Zakim (415) 389.0250 Southern California: Sarah Rath (310) 204.5674

California Election Protection Network Protests Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's Decision To Hold A "No Hearing Hearing"

On November 21, 2005, citizens may voice their concerns about what voting system will record their votes, but thanks to a decision by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, there's absolutely no guarantee that anyone with the authority to certify voting systems in California will hear those voices.

California law requires the Secretary of State to conduct a public hearing as a condition of certifying any voting systems in the state. The Secretary of State has scheduled a hearing for November 21, 2005 on the question of whether certain Diebold voting systems will should be certified before the end of the year.

"The Secretary of State has disbanded the Voting Systems Panel that's supposed to conduct these hearings and has replaced it with one person, a stenographer, and a tape recorder," said Sherry Healy, a steering committee member of the California Election Protection Network (CEPN), a non-partisan organization of over 25 groups across California who have come together to try and ensure the integrity of California's election systems. "How the Secretary of State can classify this as true 'public input' is beyond me. If he had any interest in what the public had to say about these Diebold systems, he would have joined the VSP panel at this public hearing instead of disbanding it and sending a tape recorder and a stenographer in its place."

"Doesn't this sound like a Dick Cheney-style closed-door public hearing?" asked Carole Mills, Co-Chair of the Marin Democracy For America (DFA) group.

Dagmar Zakim, another steering committee member of the CEPN, asked "Is this legally sufficient for a public hearing? I mean is this the new government trend for public hearings - just give the people a room and a tape recorder?"

Jody Holder, a long time election reform activist, summed his concerns up by saying "What Bruce McPherson, the chief elections officer of our state, is trying to do is to prevent people from using their right to influence the process for approving the voting systems. It's these people's votes these machines are counting! Time and time again, this administration has arbitrarily disregarded all established precedents on how public's voice can be heard.

"For two years, concerned voters of this state have been traveling to Sacramento to voice their concerns about 'faith-based' voting on electronic voting machines at public hearings," continued Holder. "Their concerns have been increasingly recognized by the Legislature, resulting in new laws requiring paper verification of their votes, and requiring that the paper record be used in the required manual audit and in any recount (SB 370 [Bowen]). Unfortunately, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson opposed using voter verified paper records for any audit and recount.

"Now, Secretary McPherson has made it virtually impossible for people to provide meaningful testimony, expert witnesses, and public comment on the proposal to certify the Diebold machines for use in California," continued Holder. "In June, over 200 people traveled to Sacramento to voice their concerns at a public hearing before a panel of advisors to the Secretary of State on voting systems. Since then, every scheduled meeting of the VSP has been cancelled, and now the Secretary has simply disbanded the VSP without notice, without hearings about what will replace it, without any type of due process."

The California Election Protection Network is calling on Secretary McPherson to reverse his arbitrary abandonment of established procedures and to allow people to provide meaningful input on the voting systems approved for use in this state. CEPN believes the voters of California are entitled to be able to choose their representatives with the confidence that their votes are recorded and counted accurately. It is the duty of the Secretary, as the chief elections officer of the state, to make sure voting systems are approved in the interests of Californians, not the voting system vendors or the local election officials. The most important duty of a Secretary of State is assuring the citizens that we can vote with confidence on the voting systems he approves.

Sarah Rath of CEPN and CitizensAct said, "Even if this turns out to be legal by some technicality, it illuminates for us all what Bruce McPherson stands for, and against."

For more information: http://www.califelectprotect.net.


What: "Early Turkey Monday" November 21, 2005

When: Meet in front of the Secretary of State's Building at 9:30 a.m.
(Hearing begins at 10 a.m.)

Where: Secretary of State's Office, 1500 11th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 (Downtown Sacramento - 11th and "O" Streets)

Please sign up to speak your mind about Diebold-for up to two minutes. While many are a bit intimidated by the prospect of speaking at a podium for even a minute, this is really no big deal. It's remarkably easy and it feels great to muster the courage to speak your mind and make a difference. How it usually works is that you may sign up for each of the agenda items (wares to be discussed), as itemized on the "agenda" listed below. Just sign up a few minutes before the hearing by walking to the front of the auditorium and filling out a card. Usually the card requests that you specify which agenda item you plan to speak on. So, again, see the list below for the alphabetical letter correlating to a specific Diebold product. Choose one even if you want to speak generally about Diebold. If this doesn't make sense to you, no worries. Just show up a few minutes early and ask someone there for assistance.

Tentative Agenda (subject to change without notice):

1. Diebold Election Systems

a. GEMS Software version 1.18.24
b. AccuVote-TSX with Accuview Printer Module (AVPM) hardware
c. AccuVote-TSX Ballot Station firmware version 4.6.4
d. AccuVote-OS (model D) with firmware version 1.96.6
e. AccuVote-OS Central County firmware version 2.0.12
f. Voter Card Encoder Version 4.6.1
g. Key Card Tool software version 4.6.1
h. VC Programmer software version 4.6.1
i. AccuFeed


John Johnson
Change-Links Progressive Newspaper

--------

DIEBOLD Voting Machines

In a message dated 11/20/05 4:10:20 PM, marianshapiro:

For those of you who don't get PEN, the People's Email Network, thought you might be willing to take action with a call or FAX.

Cheers, Marian


ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/diebold2.htm

The Secretary of State has scheduled a hearing for November 21, 2005 on the question of whether certain Diebold voting systems will should be certified before the end of the year. But "The Secretary of State has disbanded the Voting Systems Panel that's supposed to conduct these hearings and has replaced it with one person, a stenographer, and a tape recorder," said Sherry Healy, a steering committee member of the California Election Protection Network (CEPN), a non-partisan organization of over 25 groups across California who have come together to try and ensure the integrity of California's election systems.

The rally/protest is this Monday in Sacramento, we have ONLY next week to voice our concerns so they go on the record.

Monday Nov. 21, 10 a.m. - May be your last chance to block Diebold Secretary of State's Office, 1500 11th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
(Downtown Sacramento - 11th and "O" Streets) CONTACT: Dagmar Zakim (415) 389-0250 (there will be carpools)

WE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING URGENT APPEAL FROM SHERI MYERS

Believe me, I really don't want to ruin your day. But you need to hear this. This is an URGENT ACTION ALERT.

If you don't read this and take action, you are allowing your vote to be stolen. California will turn red.

If you read this and do nothing, you are giving up your rights as a citizen. Do it for your country. Your children. Our future.

All Californians who care about the sanctity of their vote must let Secretary of State McPherson know that they WILL NOT ALLOW him to certify Diebold machines, that they are OUTRAGED that he is undermining our democracy.

CALL OR FAX: Bruce McPherson, Secretary of State
916-653-6814 (main menu, press 6, then 3 - starting at 8:00 am Monday) 916-653-3214 (the FAX is on tis weekend)

McPherson was appointed by Schwarzenegger to replace Democrat Kevin Shelley. Folks, if they can't win legally, they WILL steal the votes they need. THAT'S YOUR VOTE.

This is a Republican coup, and they are counting on YOU, and ME to do NOTHING. Is it worth FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR TIME to send a FAX, an email or make a call? PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2005, Patent pending, All rights reserved


Informant: Hopedance

--------

Stop Diebold electronic voting! CA's Republican plans to STEAL YOUR VOTE

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/139654.php
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_vst_summit.htm


Informant: Sasha Karlik

(excerpt)

http://www.iamthewitness.com/index.htm

Having listened to Daryl Smith´s interview with Christopher Bollyn, especially Hour 2, I see the world in a completely different way and what I see isn´t pretty. It´s ugly, evil, hellish and utterly depressing.

What can we tell our children and grandchildren? We are sorry that we give you hell and we understand that you are cursing us. We were so deceived, so stupid, so cowardly and so scared that we sacrified your lives to survive.

I am old and I hope I havn´t long left because I don´t want to live in a world like this. What advice can we give our kids (as you call them even if they are 25)? Well we could say: steal as much as you can, cheat as much as you can and see to it that you don´t have to give up anything. Because that is the new morality.

A completely disillusioned

Ulla.


http://www.iamthewitness.com/index.html -----
Original Message -----
From: Rory Winter
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 12:21 AM
Subject: Break Up Cheney's Cabal

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051205/cheney_cabal

Break Up Cheney's Cabal

*Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith*

Americans disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq by nearly two to one, according to a new Gallop poll http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=19891 . A majority want US troops withdrawn from Iraq within twelve months--a higher proportion than wanted to withdraw from Vietnam in the summer of 1970. Catering to public sentiment, on November 15 the Senate voted 79 to 19 for a Republican resolution saying 2006 should be a year of "significant transition" for US withdrawal from Iraq.

But no transition, phased redeployment or any other change in Iraq policy is likely until the cabal that got us into this war is excised.

The word "cabal" was recently introduced to the ongoing debate on the war when Col. Lawrence Wilkinson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell's top assistant, disclosed
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505L.shtml what many had suspected: In the early days of the Bush Administration the US government was essentially hijacked by "a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld," supported by a handful of top staffers like I. Lewis Libby, John Bolton and David Addington. These men not only lied us into war in Iraq; they set the stage for torture at Abu Ghraib and encouraged the outing of Valerie Plame. Frighteningly, they still control US policy.

We don't yet know President Bush's relation to this shadowy group of decision-makers, who bypassed normal routes and made their own policy decisions in secret. Did he lead the cabal? Willingly participate? Encourage it with a wink and a nod? Regard it with indifference? Whatever Bush's involvement, one thing is clear: These men must now be repudiated by President Bush, Congress and the American people if we are to find our way out of the mess they've made in Iraq.

Cosmetic changes to the White House staff will achieve little for the Bush Administration and less for the country. As long as the perpetrators of the yellowcake uranium fraud
http://www.commondreams.org/%20views03/0706-02.htm and the abuse of terror suspects are in positions of power and honor, nothing will change.

Breaking the power of this cabal is the prerequisite to moving toward a solution in Iraq.

The first reason is obvious: Cheney and Rumsfeld still control the levers of power within the Administration. They are dedicated to imposing "regime change" throughout the Middle East to install governments subservient to the United States. They remain in a position to manipulate evidence and provoke incidents--even to entangle us in a new war with Syria or Iran.

The second reason is less obvious but perhaps even more important: The US government is unlikely to find partners for making peace as long as it is dominated by a clique that is perceived as having manufactured the case for war, encouraged torture and alienating the American people.

Indeed, the level of foreign distrust has risen so high that a senior Administration official recently told the /Washington Post/, "The debate in the world has become about whether the US complies with its legal obligations." The world won't cooperate with the United States to develop new solutions for Iraq until the cabal is removed and repudiated.

Any other President faced with policy failure and plummeting support would have brought in a new team long ago. As the stalemated war in Vietnam became increasingly unpopular, Lyndon Johnson replaced the war's architect, Robert McNamara, with Wall Street lawyer and Washington power broker Clark Clifford. When Ronald Reagan's popularity plummeted after the Iran//contra/ scandals, he brought in a new, more moderate team that pursued a whole new set of broadly popular policy initiatives.

Some Republican Congressional and party leaders urged George Bush to emulate Reagan's strategy
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-12-bush-%20comeback_x.htm in the aftermath of the Libby indictment. They were summarily rebuffed.

George Bush's bunker mentality is creating a nightmare for Republicans. They clearly perceive their defeats in the recent election as flowing from their identification in the public mind with the President and therefore with the Iraq debacle. And many believe they are already headed for personal and party defeat in 2006.

Republicans are now scrambling to put distance between themselves and the war and other presidential policies. But that is unlikely to cure their malady. After all, if people want to repudiate the President, voting against Republicans is the obvious way to do it.

Of course, Republicans could put plenty of distance between themselves and the President by initiating impeachment proceedings for using false intelligence to lead the country to war. But this is unlikely unless and until he is personally pinned with crimes so heinous that Republicans have no choice.

One possible way out for Republicans is to pressure Bush to purge those who have led him and the country into disaster--/a k a/ the cabal. A new team of moderates would be charged with /changing/ the course rather than /staying/ it.

If the past is any guide, President Bush is likely to hold out against such an action for as long as possible. But Republican critics of the Administration might find some interesting bedfellows.

Blame for a failed and unpopular war is not good for the military. Top military officials today are facing the same doom to their institution and careers that their predecessors faced as the prospects for military victory and popular support drained away during the Vietnam War. Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha's startling call for withdrawal from Iraq bears special significance, as he is an acknowledged ally and spokesman for military leaders on Capitol Hill. The cabal's efforts to promote war with Syria and Iran threaten the military with an even greater fiasco. They have a strong interest in putting the blame for America's catastrophe on the likes of Rumsfeld and Cheney.

Rumsfeld and Cheney have tried to blame the intelligence "failures" that they used to get us into Iraq on the CIA and other intelligence agencies. That gives these agencies a motive for putting the blame back where it primarily belongs--on the cabal. This week, sixteen former intelligence officials asked Bush for a pledge not to pardon anyone involved in the Plame leak. And former CIA director Adm. Stansfield Turner accused Cheney of overseeing policies that allowed torture of terror suspects and damaged the nation's credibility. Just as a top FBI official was the Deep Throat who secretly blew the whistle on Nixon in the Watergate scandals, so might intelligence officials have evidence that would be damning to Cheney, Rumsfeld and their advisers.

It is impossible to predict just what string of circumstances would lead these forces to act. It might be resistance to the Administration's next attempt to draw the United States into war in Syria or Iran. (Congress put its first serious constraints on President Nixon when he expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos.) It might be the release of still more evidence of criminality--more indictments from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, for example. It might be a dramatic surge in US deaths in Iraq--remember the Tet Offensive, Lebanon and Mogadishu. Or it might simply be the accumulation of failures--something reminiscent of the Politburo's removal of Khrushchev for "commandism and hare-brained schemes."

Though it may seem a liberal fantasy, a breakup of the cabal is already on the political radar screen. Libby, one of its top operatives, is under indictment. Cheney has isolated himself even from Republican senators by his outrageous defense of the right to torture, and conservative pundits are demanding that he reveal the truth about his involvement in the Plame outing. Rumors of Rumsfeld's future resignation have appeared in the press.

Most of these officials serve at the pleasure of the President. Republican Congressional and party leaders add their voices to those already calling for a Bush Administration house-cleaning. If the President continues to refuse, they have a wide range of hardball threats, ranging from investigations to defeats for his legislative programs. Such actions were almost unthinkable as long as they desired the President's support, but Republicans who fear being tarred along with the President have strong motivation to jump ship if he doesn't shape up.

Bush can't fire Cheney, but increasing attention to the evidence of Cheney's "high crimes and misdemeanors" is likely to grow if he won't leave voluntarily. And unlike a President, a Vice President can be prosecuted while in office.

A focus on the cabal can also help Democrats and progressives address the strategic dilemma they face. Obviously, Bush is ultimately responsible for the policies that have made him so unpopular with the American people. But it is hard to parlay his unpopularity into a force for change--at least until election time.

The President can be removed by impeachment, but that is unlikely unless Democrats control both houses of Congress. But by putting a big part of the blame for Bush's disastrous policies on Cheney and his henchmen, Democrats and progressives can help make the cabal such a liability to Bush and the Republican Party that they may have to excise it.

We're probably stuck with President Bush for the next three years. But leveraging Cheney, Rumsfeld and their advisers out of power could turn a new page in America's relations with the rest of the world. It would be possible to develop new roles in Iraq for US allies, Middle Eastern countries and the United Nations. And the embattled parties in Iraq could begin negotiating their own future, free from manipulation by a US leadership determined to impose its own vision on their country.

The Justice Department has signaled for the first time in recent weeks that prominent members of Congress could be swept up in the corruption investigation of Jack Abramoff, the former Republican superlobbyist who diverted some of his tens of millions of dollars in fees to provide lavish travel, meals and campaign contributions to the lawmakers whose help he needed most.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11090.htm

THE mysterious source who gave America’s foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington’s biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11087.htm