MCM Email Re Upcoming House Vote On Voting Machines. We Either Stop It Or We Fuck Ourselves

[orleans]

(the second half was my phrasing in simpler terms)
CHECK OUT THIS EMAIL THAT I RECEIVED
email from mark crispin miller:

Subject: ALERT: House to vote on HR 811 next week!
Date:Friday, August 31, 2007 3:06:24 PM
Friends,

Michelle Mulder, counsel to Rep. Rush Holt, has just informed supporters
of HR 811 that the bill will come up for a vote on the House floor next week.

This URL will take you to the 8/31/07 edition of "The Weekly Leader,"
Rep. Steny Hoyer's bulletin, which notes that HR 811 will probably appear
on next week's docket:

http://www.majorityleader.gov/docUploads/027%20Weekly%20083107.pdf

Although we have done much, over the last few months, to weaken the bill's
congressional support, there is of course a good chance that the members of
the House, just back from vacation, will have lost their focus, and so may
vote this toxic legislation into law.

Please call your representatives in Congress, starting Tuesday: Contacting the Congress http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

And here are some useful links, courtesy of Joan Brunwasser:

Exposé: Holt bill was revised by Microsoft, Diebold and ES&S by Mark Crispin Miller
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_mark_cri_070711_expose__3b_rush_holt_2c_.htm
Ask your rep to vote NO on HR 811 NOW! why HR 811 as written should be opposed.

BradBlog asks people to call Speaker Pelosi's office to voice opposition to HR 811 (number provided): People for the American Way (PFAW) Continues Dishonest Lobbying Campaign for Holt Election Bill
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4802

Steve Rosenfeld on HR 811 and the right to sue over e-voting problems: http://www.alternet.org/story/50492/

Steve Rosenfeld on other dangers in the bill: http://www.alternet.org/story/52956/

Nancy Tobi's excellent critique of HR 811: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_nancy_to_070427_rebuttal_to_dill_s_s.htm

Please send/post this email far and wide.

MCM

okay--this is what we have to stop:
H.R. 811, ("The Holt Bill")

and this is why:

1) Cements secret vote counting into law by protecting the proprietary software of electronic voting machines and optical scan counters. How? By making the source code that runs the machines a government-recognized trade secret, available only to "qualified" experts, and then only if a strict nondisclosure agreement is signed!

2) Makes permanent the Election Assistance Commission, a shadow White House agency with four presidential appointees who wield total control over voting system standards. This commission, which was supposed to sunset this year, will have vastly expanded powers over elections from the federal level, extending their authority into state and local elections. This will further remove citizens from the election process, and hand ultimate power over elections to the executive branch.

3) Mandates adding printers to electronic voting machines to create a voter-verified paper trail (deceptively called a "ballot") - which SOUNDS GOOD, but computer programming experts and security engineers agree that it is easy to hack election software to record a vote one way on the paper "trail" while the software is recording the vote a different way. THIS IS WORSE THAN NO "PAPER TRAIL", because relying on audits and recounts is senseless: Both recounts and audits have blatantly been rigged and manipulated.

4) Has many big ticket items that will become "unfunded mandates", such as adding the printers to electronic voting machines, and other technology that has not yet been developed. Estimates for the state of New Hampshire alone indicate it will cost their taxpayers $60 million over the next 20 years. Texas' costs could be two or three times as much.

H.R. 811 threatens the security of our republic by taking elections totally out of the hands of the people. VoteRescue of Austin is asking all concerned citizens to call their representatives today demanding that they "Kill Bill H.R. 811" and support the reintroduction of the Paper Ballot Act of 2006 (formerly H.R. 6200). (For contact information for your representatives, see: www.congress.org )

The new version of H.R. 6200 (to be re-introduced soon by Rep. Dennis Kucinich with a new bill number) will require paper ballots, hand-counted at the precinct level for all federal elections by the 2008 presidential election. It will also guarantee transparent elections in which "citizens are in control", overseeing and participating in the total elections process.

The new H.R. 6200 will DEMONSTRATE A GOVERNMENT OF, FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE!

Many thanks for your help in this very urgent matter.

Vickie Karp, Abbe Waldman DeLozier, Karen Renick, Kathleen Wynne

Coalition for Visible Ballots/VoteRescue.org
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_vickie_k_070710_ask_your_rep_to_vote.htm

TOLL FREE CAPITOL HILL SWITCHBOARD NUMBERS (JUST ASK FOR YOUR REP)
1-800-828-0498
1-800-459-1887
1-800-614-2803
1-866-340-9281
1-866-338-1015

("CALL IT DIRECT, CALL IT COLLECT, BUT CALL IT TODAY!!" first thing tuesday if you can't leave a message for your house representative)

[orleans]

1. and a mcm email today re: moveon

Subject: MoveOn stacks the deck
Date:Saturday, September 01, 2007 4:45:40 PM

From Rob Kall:


MoveOn Shows Their Bias Again, In Another Flawed Poll--on Holt's HR811
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_070901_moveon_shows_their_b.htm

This is the third or fourth time Moveon has run a biased poll, setting up the answer by providing incomplete, one-sided information, this time on a bad bill it looks like they want to support. They leave out key information, ask members to vote, and if they do, based on the info Moveon provides, it appears moveon got member support. Shame on MoveOn



Rob Kall
opednews.com

"I honestly believe the future's going to be millions of little things saving us."
Pete Seeger on Democracy Now

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[orleans]

4. time to kick for tuesday phone calls n/t

[rucky]

2. How are all these lame-ass bills even getting out of committee?

'specially when we have folks like Kucinich and Conyers drafting bills left and right that never see the light of day.

[orleans]

3. good question. i don't know. n/t

[warren pease]

7. This is an honest question, right?

If not, I've been sucked into another practical joke.

Anyway, my answer is that the lame-ass bills pass through the hands of, for the most part, lame-ass committee chairpersons, who know that the brilliant strategists in the House "leadership" will refuse to bring anything of substance up for a floor vote.

So the good stuff, like HR 333 (Kucinich: Cheney impeachment) and HR 676 (Conyers: universal health care), never makes it to the floor. Meanwhile, idiot crap like declaring Sept. 17th Muffy the Shih Tsu appreciation day for taking best in show at the Klamath Falls dog expo sails right through.

But I'm just a cynical product of decades of political observation during which I've seen maybe 10 examples of political courage and hundreds of thousands of instances in which radical spine-ectomies ruled the day.


wp

[orleans]

5. it's tuesday. do you know where your reps are? n/t

[orleans]

6. cough.