Life in the Empire
A Censored Headline and why it Matters
A Censored Headline and why it Matters:
German High Court Outlaws Electronic Voting
They reasoned that electronic voting is not verifiable because citizen votes are counted in secret. It is obscured a technology inaccessible to all but a very few initiates. Most importantly, the German high court noted, electronic voting machines don't allow citizens to "reliably examine, when the vote is cast, whether the vote has been recorded in an unadulterated manner" Mar. 3, 2009.
The written opinion effectively bars electronic voting in future elections based on the complexity of voting machines and the inability of voters to watch their vote being counted. This raises the bar of acceptability well above the meaningless solutions offered by "paper trails" for touch screen voting or the so-called "paper ballots" for computerized optical scan voting machines, the most popular form of voting in the United States.
Germany's 2009 Bundestag elections were conducted with hand counted paper ballots.
Have you heard that one of the world's leading economic powers, the fourth largest economy in the world, banned electronic voting; said it was undemocratic? Given the multitude of problems encountered in the U.S. and the number of questionable election results, wouldn't it make sense that when Germany banned electronic voting and replaced it with paper ballots, there would be at least a days worth of national coverage in the United States?
Nothing like that occurred. The Associated Press (Times of India) story on the verdict danced around the periphery of the world media market with coverage in Turkey, India, Australia, and Ireland. But there were no major media takers for the AP story in the United States.
There was every reason to carry the story. In a 2006 Zogby poll, 92% of the 1028 registered voters surveyed said they agreed with this statement:
Why did this happen?
There are certain vital stories that the U.S. corporate media won't touch. The most prominent censored headline is "Over One Million Iraqi Civilians Dead in Conflict." This figure has been known since 2007 while a previous survey showing 650,000 dead was spiked in 2006. The Iraqi civilians died as a result of internal conflict unleashed by the U.S. invasion in 2003. Had Bush-Cheney not invaded with the approval of a sleep walking Congress, these people would not have died as they did.
Another vital story that isn't covered is election fraud, fixing an entire election. The corporate media simply can't raise the possibility that election fraud exists. The preliminary steps enabling election fraud through computerized voting are outsourcing elections to private vendors; the lack of any verifiable connection between your vote and the voting machines processes; and, security risks.
However, corporate media are more than happy to cover the nearly nonexistent "voter fraud" stories about masses of illegal voters showing up at the polls. The Bush administration was only able to produced 24 convictions of citizens and non citizens combined over a three year period.
The media will discuss electronic voting malfunctions but they simply won't connect the dots. Computers function as programmed, by definition. "Malfunctions" during vote counting are part of any given program. When the errors benefit one side of the political equation, it is highly relevant to raise questions about intentional "errors." However, the treatment of these stories is always within the context of computer problems instead of a broad inquiry into why elections are outsourced to private vendors and the resulting risks and problems and. U.S. elections will be virtually dominated by one private firm out of Omaha, Nebraska, ES&S.
German Citizens Prevail
A recent article by elections activist Kathleen Wynne, former Associate Director of BlackBoxVoting.org, told the story of the story of the landmark German case with a link to an extensive radio interview with litigant Dr. Ulrich Wiesner (Electronic Voting Declared Unconstitutional in Germany).
Physicist Ulrich Wiesner, PhD and Prof. Joachim Wiesner, PhD, an eminent German political scientist, brought suit against the use of electronic voting machines in the 2005 Bundestag elections. The evidence gathered supported the findings of the court described above. While both Wiesner's on the suit have PhD's and distinguished careers, they brought the landmark case on their own as citizens. Undeterred by the odds and the dismissal of German politicians, they stood by their cause and won.
It's a great story, father and son team prevail against huge odds to ensure that all Germans get their vote counted. But none of the majors here bit.
These articles constitute most of the serious coverage of this story in the United States. Paul Lehto wrote two articles for OpEdNews.com on March 3 and 19, 2009: Germany Bans Computerized Voting, Will Hand Count in 2009 and German high court honors US democratic principles. Activist Bev Harris wrote a commentary on 3-19-09: Let's get off the hamster wh..., BlackBoxVoting.org. Newsweek ran an insightful column in its education section on June, 2009, We do not trust machines. While AP ran the story, it wasn't picked up and featured by any major media outlet in the United States. The International Herald Tribune also covered the decision but its sister paper, The New York Times, dropped the ball.
The Wynne article told the story of the citizens who made the decision happen, the Wiesner father and son team. Deadline Live with Jack Blood, the radio show, carried a comprehensive interview of German litigant, Dr. Ulrich Wiesner and follow up discussions with Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris
But that's it. The highest court in the nation with the world's fourth largest economy makes law that bans electronic voting after determining that computerized elections are fundamentally opposed to democratic principles. The decision applies directly to the electronic voting systems used in the United States. What do we hear from the U.S. corporate media? Just about nothing.
Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots
VoteRescue.org
Hacking the Electoral Law, Ulrich Wiesner, PhD, 23rd Chaos Communi...
German High Court Outlaws Electronic Voting
Justices of the German Federal Constitutional Court. Image
(DailyCensored.Com) The justices above are clearly the most rational group of high level functionaries in the industrialized world. They did what no other court would do in Europe or the United States. They effectively outlawed electronic voting. On March 3, 2009, the German Federal Constitutional Court declared that the electronic voting machines used in the 2005 Bundestag elections for the German national parliament were outside of the bounds of the German Constitution.They reasoned that electronic voting is not verifiable because citizen votes are counted in secret. It is obscured a technology inaccessible to all but a very few initiates. Most importantly, the German high court noted, electronic voting machines don't allow citizens to "reliably examine, when the vote is cast, whether the vote has been recorded in an unadulterated manner" Mar. 3, 2009.
The written opinion effectively bars electronic voting in future elections based on the complexity of voting machines and the inability of voters to watch their vote being counted. This raises the bar of acceptability well above the meaningless solutions offered by "paper trails" for touch screen voting or the so-called "paper ballots" for computerized optical scan voting machines, the most popular form of voting in the United States.
Germany's 2009 Bundestag elections were conducted with hand counted paper ballots.
Have you heard that one of the world's leading economic powers, the fourth largest economy in the world, banned electronic voting; said it was undemocratic? Given the multitude of problems encountered in the U.S. and the number of questionable election results, wouldn't it make sense that when Germany banned electronic voting and replaced it with paper ballots, there would be at least a days worth of national coverage in the United States?
Nothing like that occurred. The Associated Press (Times of India) story on the verdict danced around the periphery of the world media market with coverage in Turkey, India, Australia, and Ireland. But there were no major media takers for the AP story in the United States.
There was every reason to carry the story. In a 2006 Zogby poll, 92% of the 1028 registered voters surveyed said they agreed with this statement:
Citizens have the right to view and obtain information about how election officials count votes - 92% agree. New Zogby Poll On Electronic Voting Attitudes Aug. 21, 2006
That's exactly the proposition that the German court upheld. Surely there was an audience for the German decision but there was hardly a word from corporate media.Why did this happen?
There are certain vital stories that the U.S. corporate media won't touch. The most prominent censored headline is "Over One Million Iraqi Civilians Dead in Conflict." This figure has been known since 2007 while a previous survey showing 650,000 dead was spiked in 2006. The Iraqi civilians died as a result of internal conflict unleashed by the U.S. invasion in 2003. Had Bush-Cheney not invaded with the approval of a sleep walking Congress, these people would not have died as they did.
Another vital story that isn't covered is election fraud, fixing an entire election. The corporate media simply can't raise the possibility that election fraud exists. The preliminary steps enabling election fraud through computerized voting are outsourcing elections to private vendors; the lack of any verifiable connection between your vote and the voting machines processes; and, security risks.
However, corporate media are more than happy to cover the nearly nonexistent "voter fraud" stories about masses of illegal voters showing up at the polls. The Bush administration was only able to produced 24 convictions of citizens and non citizens combined over a three year period.
The media will discuss electronic voting malfunctions but they simply won't connect the dots. Computers function as programmed, by definition. "Malfunctions" during vote counting are part of any given program. When the errors benefit one side of the political equation, it is highly relevant to raise questions about intentional "errors." However, the treatment of these stories is always within the context of computer problems instead of a broad inquiry into why elections are outsourced to private vendors and the resulting risks and problems and. U.S. elections will be virtually dominated by one private firm out of Omaha, Nebraska, ES&S.
German Citizens Prevail
A recent article by elections activist Kathleen Wynne, former Associate Director of BlackBoxVoting.org, told the story of the story of the landmark German case with a link to an extensive radio interview with litigant Dr. Ulrich Wiesner (Electronic Voting Declared Unconstitutional in Germany).
Physicist Ulrich Wiesner, PhD and Prof. Joachim Wiesner, PhD, an eminent German political scientist, brought suit against the use of electronic voting machines in the 2005 Bundestag elections. The evidence gathered supported the findings of the court described above. While both Wiesner's on the suit have PhD's and distinguished careers, they brought the landmark case on their own as citizens. Undeterred by the odds and the dismissal of German politicians, they stood by their cause and won.
It's a great story, father and son team prevail against huge odds to ensure that all Germans get their vote counted. But none of the majors here bit.
These articles constitute most of the serious coverage of this story in the United States. Paul Lehto wrote two articles for OpEdNews.com on March 3 and 19, 2009: Germany Bans Computerized Voting, Will Hand Count in 2009 and German high court honors US democratic principles. Activist Bev Harris wrote a commentary on 3-19-09: Let's get off the hamster wh..., BlackBoxVoting.org. Newsweek ran an insightful column in its education section on June, 2009, We do not trust machines. While AP ran the story, it wasn't picked up and featured by any major media outlet in the United States. The International Herald Tribune also covered the decision but its sister paper, The New York Times, dropped the ball.
The Wynne article told the story of the citizens who made the decision happen, the Wiesner father and son team. Deadline Live with Jack Blood, the radio show, carried a comprehensive interview of German litigant, Dr. Ulrich Wiesner and follow up discussions with Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris
But that's it. The highest court in the nation with the world's fourth largest economy makes law that bans electronic voting after determining that computerized elections are fundamentally opposed to democratic principles. The decision applies directly to the electronic voting systems used in the United States. What do we hear from the U.S. corporate media? Just about nothing.
In this case, when a tree falls in the forest and just a few people hear it, it's no big deal. But it should be.
END
For more information on hand counted paper ballots and evidence for this case, see:Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots
VoteRescue.org
Hacking the Electoral Law, Ulrich Wiesner, PhD, 23rd Chaos Communi...
This article may be reproduced in whole or in part with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.
Views: 58
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Comment by waldopaper on October 21, 2009 at 4:42pm
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ok... here's how fucking inadequate I AM:
I wanted several groups to think about the word "cynicism." What does it mean? Where did it come from? Why is it important? I played a video in which one of the six (!!) survivors of Treblinka was (on site!!) giving his take on what caused nearly 300,000 corpses to be mass-graved under his feet: "Cynicism," he said... to a degree the world has never seen. Cynicism. Before the video, the usual question: "Is this going to be on a test?" During the video... a few people sleeping... a few texting... and one guy reading the sports page.
Here I am... in a room filled with cynicism to the gunwales... and I can't EVEN get them to see the fucking elephant in the fucking room.
Even if this story (electronic voting outlawed) were to play in US mainstream media... and even if credible talking heads connected the dots FOR them... most USAns wouldn't give a flying fuck because it doesn't have anything to do with them... right now.
Fucking cynicism.
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Comment by Michael Collins on October 22, 2009 at 3:59am
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Waldo, Treblinka is one of the great horrors. You responded. I can remember hearing about it from a witness. I responded. But damn, that is a room full of cynicism. How about the story that never picked up - the 1.0 million dead Iraqis who never had the benefits of "liberation" and "democracy"? That one actually ran here, in a few places. Nobody went after it. I think that to take a story of real horror, our world, needs to be repeated again and again with all the media fuss generated. Otherwise people just "tune out." It's just another of the horrors like the commercials for the starving people all over the world. But it's not adequacy on your part or any other truth teller's part that's at issue, it's our willingness to be awake while all this goes down and repeat it over and over.
I had this passing fantasy the other day, what would I say to Obama in this situation.
Obama: Mike, nice to meet you. What can I do better?
Collins: Stop killing people. The United States has to stop killing people in mass numbers over seas and incrementally here. It's just wrong. We're killing people as part of our foreign policy. What kind of sense does that make?
Obama: Well Mike, I wanted to have a nice conversation with you but ... officer, officer, could you escort Mike out of the building.
Fuck that. He needs to her that, Bush needed to hear that, they all needed to hear that on a regular basis. "Hey, Ike, Hell of a guy you are. How come you're killing those people in Central America? Any thoughts on why it's worth it to kill those people? One more question. Why did you wait until the END of your administration to give us the big warning about the military industrial complex? Didn't you notice while you were in office? Ever get a hint?" Ike: "Officer, officer ...
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Comment by pan on October 22, 2009 at 7:35am
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Waldo, I think cynicism implies a certain level of awareness. Can one be cynical and superficial at the same time?
A news editor who sees and understands the importance of a story about election fraud but runs the balloon boy instead is a cynic because he knows that his superficial viewers will stay with the balloon fraud but will just pass over the fraud that really counts (or doesn't count accurately).
The unwillingness of Americans to accept the information about the 1 million dead is a symptom of cognitive dissonance which was cynically manipulated by those who didn't want to see support for the invasion/occupation dissipate.
You never know when you reach students for sure. Sometimes the ones I think are useless lumps come back to me later and reveal that they actually were affected.
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Comment by Mouse on October 22, 2009 at 6:44pm
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I tried talking about the Iraqi 1.2 million figure today, at a class I was attending and left telling myself never to go there again. It was horrible.
People just aren't interested. They do not want to know. They protect their ignorance fiercely.
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Comment by BO on October 22, 2009 at 9:27pm
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"People just aren't interested. They do not want to know. They protect their ignorance fiercely."
That about sums it up.
So, it seems our corporate masters give us peeps what we desire, which is non-stop fantasy--24-7.
The truth is now what the consensus says it is. And you don't want to fuck with the consensus. Problem is, like most committees, the consensus is out to lunch and wouldn't know the truth if it hit 'em in the ass.
And, in comparison with the idiot majority, the truth sayer will always come across as a cynic. All you need to about human dynamics is in Mark Twain's book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Idiots always win.
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Mouse, good for you. Witnessing is an honorable task. An BO, Twain's flag told the truth too. Very good point. This is where I say that the Irish fought for 800 years ... etc. etc. but the Guinness bottles would be flying in my direction. Either we'll have a leap in consciousness triggered by some combination of events or we'll all go down the tubes together, quickly I suspect. In either case our problems are solved but the latter presents some grim prospects. I've been reading an excellent history of Iran lately: "Empire of the Mind - A History of Iran." Quite an amazing history filled with great accomplishments, victories, defeats - robust society ever changing. Then today I read about Nader Shaw, who sounded like the best leader for the best period ever. But he went mad and literally destroyed the nation with an impact that lingered through the early 20th century. A culture prolific in the arts and governance disappeared entirely, devastated by the costs of actually winning one battle too many. We're in a similar position in some ways and just the prospect of human culture dropping to a point from which it never recovers is a bit much to bear. Bill Clinton shares our pain but not the pain of the 250,000 Iraqi children under five who died during the years of full sanctions and relentless bombing.
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A powerful video that witnesses to the Iraq/Afghanistan occupation:
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Pretty powerful. Why does Al Franken always sound like he's got a mouth full of marbles?
In case you haven't seen Jon Stewart's commentary on the 30 senators who voted against allowing victims of rape the right to sue their companies.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Rape-Nuts Daily Show
Full EpisodesPolitical Humor Health Care Crisis
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Pan and Bo, great videos. I have to say that Jon Stewart is our very best public commentator. You need an audience for that and he has a good one, not as large as the network folks but much smarter and more connected to reality. This piece is pure Stewart.
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"Witnessing is an honourable task"
Well I'm finding it quite a solitary one here at painterpoet.com
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