Anti-Election: DC Poverty, Corporate Sponsorship, Your Voice is Your Vote

“He who casts a vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything.”
-Joseph Stalin


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Live tonight at 7:30pm ET. US election coverage with Paul Jay and guests.

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Join us tonight for a Real News live event. Paul Jay will cover the election results, tune in to coverage from various news networks and interview special guests to discuss what lies ahead.

Confirmed guests include:

Thomas Ferguson	Jérémie Bédard-Wien
Margaret Kimberly	Norman Solomon
Alexsandr Buzgalin	Leo Panitch
Robert Johnson	Mike Elk
Mark Karlin	Jennifer Taub
Kambale Musavuli	Jill Stein
Adrienne Pine	Ralph Nader
Frank Hammer	Dennis Kucinich
Jerry Epstein	Vijay Prashad
Jeff Cohen	Phyllis Bennis

Visit therealnews.com/elections to watch the event and for more info.

The Peoples Press - Powered By People - For People

Not For Profit - For Global Justice

"We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice." - Woody Allen

"Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves." -  Herbert Marcuse

"In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy." -  Matt Taibbi

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests." - Gore Vidal

"Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in senate." - Orson Welles

Whether or not he said it, Stalin’s quote has entered into folklore. For a vote to mean anything, those counting the ballots must have a greater respect for the integrity of democracy than they have lust for power.

Since Stalin’s time, the technology has changed. With electronic voting machines, which leave no paper trail and are programmed with proprietary software, the count can be decided before the vote. Those who control the electronics can simply program voting machines to elect the candidate they want to win. Electronic voting is not transparent. When you vote electronically, you do not know for whom you are voting. Only the machine knows.

According to most polls, the race for the White House is too-close-to-call. History has shown that when an election is close and there’s no expectation for a clear winner, these are the easiest ones to steal. Even more important, the divergence between exit polls, perhaps indicating the real winner, and the stolen result, if not overdone, can be very small. Those who stole the election can easily put on TV enough experts to explain that the divergence between the exit polls and the vote count is not statistically significant or is because women or racial minorities or members of one party were disproportionately questioned in exit polls.

There have been recent reports that, because of costs, exit polls in the 2012 presidential election will no longer be conducted on the usual comprehensive basis in order to save money. If the reports are correct, no check remains on election theft.

Digital Votes

In a fascinating article in Harper’s Magazine (October 26, 2012) Victoria Collier notes that in the old technology, election theft depended on the power of machine politicians, such as Louisiana Senator Huey Long, to prevent exposure.

With the advent of modern technology, Collier writes that “a brave new world of election rigging emerged.” The brave new world of election theft was created by “the mass adoption of computerized voting technology and the outsourcing of our elections to a handful of corporations that operate in the shadows, with little oversight or accountability. This privatization of our elections has occurred without public knowledge or consent, leading to one of the most dangerous and least understood crisis in the history of American democracy. We have actually lost the ability to verify election results.”

The old ballot-box fraud was localized and limited in its reach. Electronic voting allows elections to be rigged on a statewide and national scale. Moreover, with electronic voting there are no missing ballot boxes to recover from the Louisiana bayous. Using proprietary corporate software, the vote count is what the software specifies.

The first two presidential elections in the 21st century are infamous. George W. Bush’s win over Al Gore was decided by the Republicans on the US Supreme Court who stopped the Florida vote recount.

In 2004, George W. Bush won the vote count although exit polls indicated that he had been defeated by John Kerry. Collier reports:

“Late on Election Day, John Kerry showed an insurmountable lead in exit polling, and many considered his victory all but certified. Yet the final vote tallies in thirty states deviated widely from exit polls, with discrepancies favoring George W. Bush in all but nine. The greatest disparities were concentrated in battleground states – particularly Ohio. In one Ohio precinct, exit polls indicated that Kerry should have received 67 percent of the vote, but the certified tally gave him only 38 percent. The odds of such an unexpected outcome occurring only as a result of sampling error are 1 in 867,205,553. To quote Lou Harris, who has long been regarded as the father of modern political polling: ‘Ohio was as dirty an election as America has ever seen.’"

The electronic vote theft era, Collier reports, “was inaugurated by Chuck Hagel, an unknown millionaire who ran for one of Nebraska's U.S. Senate seats in 1996. Initially Hagel trailed the popular Democratic governor, Ben Nelson, who had been elected in a landslide two years earlier. Three days before the election, however, a poll conducted by the Omaha World-Herald showed a dead heat, with 47 percent of respondents favoring each candidate. David Moore, who was then managing editor of the Gallup Poll, told the paper, ‘We can't predict the outcome.’”

“Hagel's victory in the general election, invariably referred to as an ‘upset,’ handed the seat to the G.O.P. for the first time in eighteen years. Hagel trounced Nelson by fifteen points. Even for those who had factored in the governor's deteriorating numbers and a last-minute barrage of negative ads, this divergence from pre-election polling was enough to raise eyebrows across the nation.”

“Few Americans knew that until shortly before the election, Hagel had been chairman of the company whose computerized voting machines would soon count his own votes: Election Systems & Software (then called American Information Systems). Hagel stepped down from his post just two weeks before announcing his candidacy. Yet he retained millions of dollars in stock in the McCarthy Group, which owned ES&S. And Michael McCarthy, the parent company's founder, was Hagel's campaign treasurer.”

Vote theft might also explain the defeat of Max Cleland, a Democratic Senator from Georgia. As Collier documents:

“In Georgia, for example, Diebold's voting machines reported the defeat of Democratic senator Max Cleland. Early polls had given the highly popular Cleland a solid lead over his Republican opponent, Saxby Chambliss, a favorite of the Christian right, the NRA, and George W. Bush (who made several campaign appearances on his behalf). As Election Day drew near, the contest narrowed. Chambliss, who had avoided military service, ran attack ads denouncing Cleland – a Silver Star recipient who lost three limbs in Vietnam - as a traitor for voting against the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Two days before the election, a Zogby poll gave Chambliss a one-point lead among likely voters, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Cleland maintained a three-point advantage with the same group.”

Rigged Game

“Cleland lost by seven points. In his 2009 autobiography, he accused computerized voting machines of being ‘ripe for fraud.’ Patched for fraud might have been more apt. In the month leading up to the election, Diebold employees, led by Bob Urosevich, applied a mysterious, uncertified software patch to 5,000 voting machines that Georgia had purchased in May.”

"We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Diebold consultant and whistle-blower Chris Hood recounted in a 2006 Rolling Stone article. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done. . . . It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state. . . . We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from [Bob] Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level."

When the Republican Supreme Court prevented the Florida recount in the deciding state between George W. Bush and Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, the Democrats’ response was to acquiesce in order not to shake the confidence of Americans in democracy. Similarly, John Kerry acquiesced in 2004 despite the large disparity between exit polls and vote counts. But how can Americans have confidence in democracy when voting is not transparent?

For now Republicans seem to have the technological advantage with their ownership of companies that produce electronic voting machines programmed by proprietary software, but in the future the advantage could shift to Democrats. Early voting aids electronic election theft. Successful and noncontroversial theft depends on knowing how to program the machines. The victory needs to be within the range of plausibility. Too big a victory raises eyebrows, but if the guess is wrong in the other direction theft fails. Early voting helps the voting machine programmers decide how to set the machines.

Voting 2.0

The absence of transparency is a threat to whatever remains of American democracy. In the Summer 2011 issue of The Trends Journal, Gerald Celente made the point that “if we can bank online, we can vote online.”

Think about it! Across the globe, trillions of dollars of bank transactions are made each day, and rarely are they compromised. If we can accurately count money online, we can certainly count votes accurately online. The only obstacles blocking online voting are entrenched political interests intent upon controlling the ballot box.

The lack of transparency has given rise to election litigation. On October 29, The Washington Post reported that “thousands of attorneys, representing the two major presidential candidates, their parties, unions, civil rights groups and voter-fraud watchdogs, are in place across the country, poised to challenge election results that may be called into question by machine failures, voter suppression or other allegations of illegal activity.”

Voting online, if properly arranged, can provide the transparency that the current system lacks. While the GOP might remain active in voter suppression, the Democrats could no longer vote graveyards, and the count of those who do manage to vote would not be subject to secret proprietary software.

In 2005 the nonpartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform concluded that the integrity of elections was compromised by those who controlled the programming. Proprietary private ownership of voting technology is simply incompatible with transparent elections. A country without a transparent vote is a country without democracy.

Netanyahu Vows to stop Iran, Even in Defiance of the United States By Times of Israel staff Asked in an interview whether, if reelected in January, he would "pledge that Iran won't have a nuclear program by the end of your next term," Netanyahu said simply, "Yes." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32955.htm When will the Killing War in Iran Begin? It Already Has By Stephen Gowans If the plutocrats and their loyal political servants in Washington and Brussels have to kill numberless Iranians to secure these benefits, they will. And are. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32958.htm Election Day Propaganda? Obama Adviser In Secret Talks With Iran Supreme Leader: Report By CBS News A senior adviser to President Obama is reportedly leading secret talks with Iran http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32956.htm There's A Reason Why All Of The Reports About Benghazi Are So Confusing By Michael Kelley There's evidence that U.S. agents-particularly murdered U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens-were at least aware of heavy weapons moving from Libya to Syrian rebels. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32954.htm Obama's Libya Failure Robert W. Merry That intervention set in motion events that aren't good for Libya, for the United States or for the world. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32950.htm The Permanent Militarization of America By Aaron B. O'Connell, Americans are subjected to a daily diet of stories that valorize the military while the storytellers pursue their own opportunistic political and commercial agendas. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32957.htm Third Party Debate #2: Tackling the issues the mainstream ignores Video By RT Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32951.htm Why Obama Will Disappoint Progressives and I Voted for Him Anyway By Cenk Uygur If you think there's no such thing as a free lunch, you can be sure there's no such thing as a free $10 million donation to a politician. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32952.htm  "I Don't Vote" Where are all the Bright , Honest Intelligent Americans? By George Carlin - Video If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32953.htm

Hard News  

   

32 killed, 46 injured by car bomb near Iraq military base: A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives detonated the vehicle near an Iraqi military base as soldiers changed shifts north of Baghdad today, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than 46, according to authorities.
http://is.gd/tUOPw7

Ten killed, 40 hurt in bombings near Damascus: "At least 10 civilians were killed and more than 40 wounded, some in critical condition, when three improvised explosive devices detonated in the working-class district of Waroud in the suburb of Qudsaya
http://is.gd/MkTtbv

Brother of Syrian parliament speaker assassinated; UN envoy says country in a catastrophe: - Gunmen killed the brother of Syria's parliament speaker as he drove to work in Damascus on Tuesday, the state-run news agency reported, as the international envoy for Syria warned the country could become another Somalia.
http://is.gd/xoOWal

Syrian fighters fed up with 'cowards in exile': Syrian rebels at the front are turning against their commanders, accusing them of being cowards by fleeing abroad and failing to unite a cause that has been increasingly hijacked by Islamists.
http://is.gd/oL3L8c

Libya helps bankroll "Syrian" Rebels: According to a budget released by the Syrian National Council and posted to its Web site late Sunday, the Libyan government contributed $20.3 million of the $40.4 million that the opposition umbrella group has amassed since its creation in October 2011. Qatar gave $15 million, and the United Arab Emirates contributed $5 million, according to the document.
http://is.gd/69mZK6

In case you missed it:
How US Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria: The Times of London reported that a Libyan ship "carrying the largest consignment of weapons for Syria ... has docked in Turkey." The shipment reportedly weighed 400 tons and included SA-7 surface-to-air anti-craft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
http://is.gd/t9Vt2I

In case you missed it:
Benghazi "Consulate" Was CIA Post:  Among the tasks performed inside the building was collaborating with Arab countries on the recruitment of fighters - including jihadists - to target Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.
http://is.gd/U3uY6r

In case you missed it:
Slain U.S. ambassador recruited jihadists: Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador murdered in Libya, played a central role in recruiting jihadists to fight Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, according to Egyptian security officials speaking to WND.
http://is.gd/ydpwJk

Russian FM says Syria rebels have 50 Stingers: "You know perfectly well what Stingers are intended for, all the more so that the leaders of the (rebel) Syrian Free Army have repeatedly said that civilian planes will be a legitimate target."
http://is.gd/8XaqKp

How much did this cost the CIA?
7 more Syrian generals desert post in time of war: Seven generals who recently defected from the Syrian army arrived with their families at the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday and were allowed to enter the country at the town of Reyhanli in the southern province of Hatay under tight security measures.
http://is.gd/BjrSDD

Syria shuts down all offices belonging to Hamas: Hamas leaders are now based in Qatar
http://is.gd/8nDpqV

In case you missed it:
Hamas realignment leaves 'Resistance Axis' reeling: The Qatari emir's visit to Hamas-ruled Gaza last month underscored the degree to which the axis has unravelled and sent a powerful message the governments in Damascus and Tehran, which views the Arab Gulf state as an arch foe.
http://is.gd/TwVMVi

Israel says preparing to counter Palestinian UN bid:
The comments came as Israel's private Channel 10 reported that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman last month pledged to ensure the "collapse" of the Palestinian Authority if the bid for non-member status at the General Assembly goes forward.
http://is.gd/vaX0nN

Israel's plan to Illegally build eastern Jerusalem housing has PA seeing red: In addition, the ministry reissued tenders for 72 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. The units were not sold when offered last December, according to Peace Now.
http://is.gd/tcMSyq

Turkey indicts IDF commanders over Gaza flotilla deaths: Relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have deteriorated since Israeli marines stormed the Mavi Marmara aid ship in May 2010 and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists on board.
http://is.gd/6SiGlN

Israel ready to strike Iran: Netanyahu: "I am, of course, ready to press the button if necessary," Netanyahu said in the interview.
http://is.gd/0kKt2g

Mossad 'defied Bibi order to prepare Iran strike': Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan feared that an unauthorised military strike would inevitably follow and did not carry out the order.
http://is.gd/xj7X1H

Consider the source:
Israeli think tank simulates aftermath of 'successful' strike on Iran nuke facilities: An Israeli think tank with close links to the government has simulated what would happen in the Mideast and internationally if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities -- and concluded that reaction would be "in the direction of containment and restraint," not the trigger for a larger war.
http://is.gd/K5RkPX

Fact or fiction:
Israel and Iran hold 'positive' nuclear talks in Brussels: A handful of officials from both Israel and Iran are involved in the two-day event, ostensibly in their capacity as private citizens, in what was billed as an academic seminar.
http://is.gd/ixbbBD

Iran Talks Surprise Has Observers Mystified Ahead Of Foreign Policy Debate:
The news from The New York Times Saturday evening that the U.S. and Iran had agreed "in principle" to one-on-one nuclear negotiations, had every appearance of an "October surprise" -- a last-second international event designed to tip the scales toward the commander in chief.
http://is.gd/KNs839

In case you missed it:
Iran says will take part in nuclear-free Middle East conference: Iran said on Tuesday it would take part in a proposed international conference in December on creating a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
http://is.gd/M2RnVg

Iran says three Arab countries let Israel use their air space to attack Sudan: Tehran's foreign minister says countries were told in advance of last month's attack on Khartoum munitions factory
http://is.gd/eExkAc

Secret war against Iran and its allies heats up: From a suspected Israeli airstrike in Sudan to cyber warfare in the Gulf and a drone shot down over Israel, the largely hidden war between Iran and its foes seems heating up and spreading.
http://is.gd/iE7pPA

'Iran to build oil pipeline to Afghanistan': The Iranian deputy oil minister says the Islamic Republic and Afghanistan have agreed to build a pipeline in order to facilitate the exports of Iran's oil products to its eastern neighbor.
http://is.gd/bN56ZU

Afghanista: Ten killed in separate incidents: Ten people were killed and three others injured in separate incidents of violence in different parts of the country during the past 24 hours, officials said on Monday.
http://is.gd/PsAFgq

U.S. Soldier 'soaked in victims' blood': A US soldier accused of one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was captured on surveillance video running out of the darkness with the blood of his victims smeared on his face and soaked into his clothes, a prosecutor said.
http://is.gd/cW3d75

In case you missed it:
Anatomy of a Massacre: Video - Yalda Hakim travels to the villages where the massacre took place and interviews survivors of the attack
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30942.htm

George Monbiot: Obama and Romney Remain Silent on Climate Change, The Biggest Issue of All: Op-Ed : Despite hurricane Sandy, neither Obama nor Romney will speak about global warming. The danger this poses is huge
http://is.gd/EK5wAD

Hacking voter machines: Easier than ever imagined:
Millions of Americans are already waiting for hours outside of polling places to vote for the next president of the United States. All of that might not matter though, as some security pros say the entire election can be rigged all too easily.
http://is.gd/7wu8eI

Secret money for GOP door-knockers: There's so much secret money in conservative politics that even volunteers are getting paid - and paid well.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83330.html

Greece grinds to halt amid mass austerity strike:
A far-reaching national strike against new austerity measures has left Greece paralyzed. Thousands are marching in the streets of Athens in protest against measures that unions say will sink the country's already-flagging economy.
https://rt.com/news/greece-strike-austerity-protest-065/

London Fire Brigade proposes closing a quarter of its stations: London mayor Boris Johnson announced last month that the London Fire and Rescue Service must reduce spending by £65 million over the next two years. A number of the proposals for achieving this that have been leaked to the press will all involve drastic cuts to staff and services.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/fire-n06.shtml

UK: Taxman admits Government powerless to force multinationals to declare profits: The Government is powerless to stop large multi-national companies like Starbucks and Google from paying almost no tax on their profits in this country, Britain's most senior tax official admitted today.
http://is.gd/kHNJPi

France to give businesses $25 billion tax break: France's government has promised €20 billion ($25 billion) in tax credits to businesses as part a "competitiveness pact" that it hopes will spark innovation and lower unemployment - but falls short of calls in a recent report for a "shock" to the economy.
http://is.gd/Cin7NH

HSBC Prepares to Face U.S. Money Laundering Charges: HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) said it's likely to face criminal charges from U.S. anti-money-laundering probes and the cost of a settlement may "significantly" exceed the $1.5 billion the bank has set aside.
http://is.gd/bT4pXV

     

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Tom Feeley Information clearing house

kosmicdebris...........the activity of activist is to sound the alarm clock  and facilitate the slumbering masses awakening to a reality void of strife and polarization....