Letters to the Editor/<br>  Free Press Forum

Re: In essence, the GAO study makes it clear that no bank, grocery store or mom & pop chop shop would dare operate its business on a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one on which the 2004 election turned.

Not true. Almost every major organization has significant flaws in their computer security (user passwords are just one example). Minor organizations like mom and pop stores are likely to have far more security problems than the voting machines did.

Banks might do an ok job, but the other organizations wouldn't.

Just notice how often that windows (sic) comes out with security releases that you need to install to avoid someone gaining possible control of your computer (Eg a total security breach). It's about once a month.

The more complex a computer system is, the more likely there is to be a major security flaw. Most of them just don't get noticed, because you'd have to stumble into the flaw (get lucky).

Thanks for all the good work guys.

None of this Bush disaster would be possible without the right wing talk radio monopoly. We know Bush and the GOP don't care how many people protest at state or federal capitols. They WILL care if people protest at their local talk radio stations where their propaganda is broadcast.

Right wing radio is the only place the lies can be repeated over and over to a largely captive audience- "to catapult the propaganda", as Bush said. That is the GOP base and that is what makes red states red. Many progressives and sensible people ignore it because it gives headaches and nausea but it permeates this country with boundaries over which people like Dan Rather cannot pass.

Talk radio is where the "immigration crisis" has beeen blown up far enough to pass the real id legislation but more importantly has been used and will be used to knock down any real election reform.

Thanks for the on-site report of the stolen Ohio, etc. vote. But when I tried to forward this a dozen people I know who would appreciate this info, I find your web guy has limited the number addresses you can input to only TWO! Help. Who has time to enter two at a time and then start all over or am I missing something?

Hi... I just read Bob and Harvey's article on the stolen elections.  

This webpage documents on video the testimony of Mr Clinton Curtis before a congressional committee. Mr. Curtis, who is a computer programmer, testifies that in October of 2000 he created a software program to skew the results in an election where electronic voting machines are employed. He also names Florida rep. and Dieboldt lobbyist Tom Feeney as the "customer" who commissioned this work. It's time to get beyond the exit pole debate and go after the people criminally responsible for creating the debacle that the US nows finds itself in... because if the US wants to be purveyors of democracy to the world, it had best start attaching a product "best-before" date.

Evidently, it can easily turn sour... 
Gary

http://www.iwilltryit.com/fixed1.htm

Hello,

I didn't see the articles that you refer to in your piece b/c I don't read mother jones or tom paine's website. But I just wanted to send the criticism your way that you folks shouldn't act as if the left is not embracing that the election was stolen. You guys are obviously aware that Jon Conyers, Ralph Nader, David Cobb, Amy Goodman, Jesse Jackson and many other notables of the left have supported your ideas about the election. I think also In These Times has printed articles on the stolen election, and articles on the voting fraud have been up on commondreams.org and buzzflash.com. So anyway keep on keeping on, your latest piece that I have seen is informative like all your articles, and i think a good portion of the left does believe that the Republicans stole the 2004 election. I wonder how long elections have been stolen in this country I don't know if anyone has done the investigating/research to answer that. I of course don't know the full extent to which your efforts are being attacked and undermined by your supposed comrades at arms, but I think you have more support than you realize.

All the best,

-Sean

I like the article by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman October 18, 2005 entiled : Why can't the left face the Stolen Elections of 2004 & 2008?

A lot of information seems to surface now a days regarding stolen elections. I'm under the understanding from researchers that this is a standard norm in governmants  If we go back to the Roman Empire it is the standard norm of stolen elections. Lyndon Baines Johnson knew that President Kennedy stole the election in 1960 in all probability LBJ helped by way of Big Politics, Big Religion,Big Business or Corporations and there Banner Corps. And then when they were done with LBJ according to Lady Bird the Secret Service expired him.

And the article below sums the arguement:

Columbus, OH. The ruling elites are at it again, baiting and switching your votes. What could have been honest election reform in Ohio turns out to be a way for officials to concentrate their power, removing it from voters.

Issue 2, mail-in voting, allows for a secret vote count, because we citizens aren't watching the ballots get deposited and then counted. "There are some civic duties for which your presence is required - voting is one of them." [1] When we trust our elections officials, we get what happened in '00 and '04. Without much thought, it's easy to see how mail fraud can happen. Vote no on Issue 2.

Issue 3 returns campaign limits from $10,000 per person to $2,000 - which was the law on the books before the Ohio legislature secretly increased the limits in late December - without allowing for public comment. Vote for this issue, but understand that our goal is to implement publicly financed campaigns and eliminate private contributions. Big Money has dirtied our elections process.[2] In our current system, those with more money get to vote more. This is not democracy - this is plutocracy, which is what we have today.

Dear Mr. Fitrakis and Mr. Wasserman:

I am writing in response to your recent article.  I am not a "leftist."  However, I was an election protection attorney in  Toledo and spent four days there during the 2004 election.

I saw, first hand, the stealing of an election.  I saw the long lines, the broken machines , the challenged voters, the misinformation, and more.  Like you, I do not understand why the press did not extensively cover what happened and still do not understand why the American people, and especially the Democrats, aren't doing anything about it.

We can't "unelect" W, but we darn well better do something to prevent the Right Wing from hijacking all future elections!

Amanda D. Howland, Esq.

America's warmongers have always run afoul of their own evil nature, greed and arrogance... they never know when to stop... the tragedy is that the human herd has always allowed such monsters to rise to power with their fearmongering followed by their warmongering followed by their soothing words that only the monsters can save the herd from stampeding over some imaginary precipice...

I think the answer lies in the body politic of the Democratic ( so called ) Leadership Council.

I remember reading someplace that Felix Rohatyn said.....fifteen years or so ago...

A great infusion of extreme right money was being poured into Republican coffers, and the Repubs were "following the money." At taht point, the democrats gave up being the opposition party, and smelling all that money, learned the financial advantage of SHARED POWER with the Rebublicans.

The DLC now, as I write this, gets vast monies from the extreme right.....

Only the grass roots ( old Deaniacs, faithful to Howard dean and his vision) keep any hope of taking our country back....We cannot and must not follow the DLC'ers.....the grass roots will have to put of their own candidates , support them, and get them elected.