POLITICS

AMAZING TRUE FACTS

WE have just discovered why Al Gore lost the 2000 election. It wasn't
because of Ralph Nader or Al Gore or even hanging chads. No, the best
kept secret of the Democrat's failure was who the head of the Democratic
National Committee was in 1999 and 2000. We don't want to spoil your
speculation but when you're ready search for AMAZING ANSWER below.

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COST OF HACKABLE, UNRELIABLE, INACCURATE ELECTRONIC VOTE MACHINES
MAY BE WHAT DOES THEM IN

BRAD BLOG - If you needed any more evidence to counter the argument that
it would be "too expensive" to dump all the shitty, unreliable,
inaccurate, hackable, disenfranchising touch-screen voting systems in
favor of paper ballots, just take a look at Utah. They're the state
which pushed out heroic 23-year Emery County Election Clerk Bruce Funk
because he had the temerity to allow independent computer security
experts to test the Diebold touch-screen systems the state was forcing
him to use. (The experts found massive security flaws described as "the
most serious" ever discovered).

Well, now Utah has finally discovered that their switch from punch-cards
to shitty, unreliable, inaccurate, hackable, disenfranchising Diebold
touch-screen systems has doubled the cost of their elections. And then
some. Get a load of this from the Salt-Lake Tribune...

|||| "I'm not sure any of us realized how much it is going to cost to
own and operate this system," said Michael Cragun, elections director
for the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

Those costs are so prohibitive that many Utahns in next year's local
elections will revert to a voting style used for generations: checking a
box on a paper ballot. ... City leaders are worried, having heard rumors
they may have to triple their election budget if they go with the
touch-screen machines. . .

"We are not sure everyone understood what happened when they flicked
that first domino over," Cragun said. ... Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie
Swensen says she had to double the pay for poll workers because of the
necessary training. She now spends $12,000 per month storing the bulky
machines. And all of the memory cards, batteries and other essential
machine accessories cost her office an extra $138,000 this year.

These costs will continue to accrue as Swensen and other county clerks
say they need more machines for the 2008 presidential election. ||||

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3929

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ABRAMOFF'S 2001 HOLIDAY GIFT LIST

[Obtained by R. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post]

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.): $250 box of Godiva chocolates

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.): $100 gift basket from Harry and David

Susan Hirschmann, DeLay's chief of staff: Godiva box worth $100.

Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.): some Jerry Seinfeld CDs.

Kathryn Van Hoof, lawyer for the Coushatta Indian tribe: a $200
Montblanc pen.

[Identical pens were to go to Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky,
two Russian oil executives who had hired Abramoff to help them arrange
meetings with DeLay and lobby for federal aid]

Nell Rogers, the Choctaw tribe's liaison with Abramoff and the person
who processed his firm's multimillion-dollar bills: Baccarat bowl.

Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, who agreed in October 2001
to help Abramoff stifle a new casino that could compete with an Abramoff
client casino: fruit basket.

Maynard Kahgegab, a chief of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe that signed a
costly lobbying contract with Abramoff in December 2001: Tiffany
platinum alarm clock valued at $295.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/
AR2006121901436.html


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AMAZING ANSWER

That lovable party boy, Patrick Kennedy

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