Award Winning Author Steven Freeman in Tucson for Discussion and Book Signing

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Feb 20, 2007 8:31 PM EST

Linked to groups: AuditAZ

Dear Arizona Activists,

We have a great treat for you. Steven Freeman, award winning author and election integrity activist will be presenting and having a book signing in Tucson at 6:30 pm this Friday. For those in Tucson, please stop by and meet Steven and bring your questions. If you are in the Phoenix area, consider driving down. I am sure we will still be going at 9pm.

You can find out more about the event and about Mr. Freeman's book: Was The 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? by clicking on the AuditAZ website.

In addition, we just learned that Paul Lehto will be joining Steven so we are getting a double treat. Paul is an attorney with the Election Defense Alliance.

You can RSVP for the event by responding to this email or clicking on the listed event...or just show up. We have the capacity for 250 people and would love if we could get a full house.

Be sure to check out http://auditaz.us website regularly, as we have 16 bills currently in the Arizona Legislature that have to do with election issues. We will be advocating for some bills and opposing others.

Thank you for your ongoing support for Election Integrity.

Cheryl and John
AuditAZ

"Raise More Hell": A Tribute to Molly Ivins

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Feb 1, 2007 3:29 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network

Syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer Wednesday evening, January 31st -2007, at her home in Austin, TX.

I met Molly at DeanFest (aka DemocracyFest) in June 2005. Whatever impression you get of her from her columns, nothing can compare to the great Ms. Molly in person. She was so full of intelligence, passion, humor and life!

During the Saturday Night Blowout, one of the bands was playing and they started to talk about how great Molly was and then after speaking her praises, decided to sing her praises. Molly was so moved, she got up from her seat at the table on the right side facing the stage, and was looking over the railing at the band and all the people looking up at her. I caught this photo:

 

 

Molly Ivins was a true progressive: a woman who loved this country and spoke out forcefully of the dismantling of our country at the hands of those whose agenda was their own power at the cost of our communities, constitution, and compassion.

I had Molly's column bookmarked on my main homepage. Her most recent column:

America already has voted against a surge

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."

More of her recent columns can be found here: Molly's Writings. Once of my favorite Molly articles was this January 2006 article Not. Backing. Hillary: Equivocation in Democratic party has gone on far too long -- time for real leadership 

Don't forget this tribute column and another great on by AlterNet.

Floridagal reminded us that Molly Ivins endorsed Howard Dean for President in the 2004 races.

I will leave you with another photo, Molly speaking at DemocracyFest...

 

 and these final thoughts. There are at least three of my blogger friends who have suffered from breast cancer, so I can imagine the loss of Molly has an even bigger impact on them beyond the political hope she inspired. Fran, Judy and Linda...here is hoping you continue to be well and that our government starts addressing the real causes of cancer and funding the right areas to end this disease once and for all.

Oh, and to the DFA community...as Molly always said...RAISE MORE HELL!      

Why Arizona's Election Integrity Groups Opposed Prop 205

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Jan 29, 2007 4:48 PM EST

Linked to groups: AuditAZ

from ACER

You already have the right to vote by mail

And 15 other reasons to vote

NO on Prop 205

1.   No exit polls on election day to verify the accuracy of the vote.

2.   Greater chance of fraud. Since ballots go to every household around the same time, if not the same day, targeting neighborhods with an all-vote-by-mail system becomes much easier than when vote-by-mail is done by request and in conjunction with poll voting. There will also be many unvoted ballots floating around at apartment complexes, retirement homes, schools, multi-unit mailboxes, etc.

3.   Takes away voting at the polls. Since everyone will be mailed a ballot, only provisional ballots will be allowed for in-person early voting and voting at the polls.

4.   Precincts are audited at 2% while early ballots are audited at 1% so Prop 205 would cut in half the hand audit election integrity activists fought so hard to get.

5.   "The most important concerns raised by these procedures focus on increased opportunities for corruption. Indeed, the most prominent recent election fraud court cases involved absentee ballots— Dodge County, Georgia in 1996 and Miami in 1997. Dodge County involved two competing candidates for the Democratic nomination for the county commission bidding against each other for absentee ballots inside the county courthouse. In Miami, fraud so pervaded the absentee ballots that an appellate court eventually threw out all absentee ballots and declared a winner based solely on the machine vote."†
"Concerns over coercion are especially acute in settings where voters may be reliant on care givers, as in nursing homes."†

6.   Turnout results are mixed - "There is no evidence that liberalizing absentee voting laws or enacting early or vote-by-mail schemes has increased voter turnout dramatically"†, "sixteen states and the District of Columbia had turnout increases in 2000 that exceeded Oregon’s"†, "[i]n every presidential election year since Texas began early voting in 1988, the voting turnout increase in Texas has been less than turnout increases nationwide"†, "the increase is noticeable only in low profile contests."‡

7.   Matching of signatures is slow process, not done by experts, a potential problem for elderly voters and those whose signature changes over time.

8.   If there is a problem and a voter does not get their ballot by mail, it will be hard for them to vote a regular ballot.

9.   Initiative does not improve Arizona’s Vote by Mail system, it just gets rid of polling places. Precinct cast ballots are the only ballots checked for over-votes and allows the voter to correct mistakes.

10. DRE Touch-screen voting machines will still be used, so this initiative does not guarantee a paper ballot for every voter.

11. Voters who do not have residential addresses or updated ones will likely be disenfranchised--people in nursing homes, people who move frequently, people who use post office boxes and people without addresses for whatever reason.

12. Slowness - In Washington State in 2000, over half of all ballots were cast absentee count in Washington meant that recounts in two very close races, U.S. Senate and Secretary of State, were not ordered until three weeks after Election Day. Recounts in less visible local races were similarly delayed.

13. Inaccuracy - in the 2004 Republican primary in legislative district 20, a race initially won by 4 votes, had a machine recount that found 505 errors - 465 (92.3%) of which were the vote by mail ballots.

14. Premature decisions - Just weeks before the election, after some early ballots have already been sent out, the information came out about Mark Foley. And, in a high profile US Senate race in Minnesota, Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash less than 2 weeks before the election - after many voters had already cast their mail-in ballot.

15. Last, but not least, is the feeling of civic participation people feel going to the polls, and the demonstration to other countries of how democratic governments operate with the consent of the governed.

REFERENCES

† Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. 2001. Voting: What is, What Could Be. California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Website

‡ Report for the Commission on Federal Election Reform. 2005. Co-Chairs: President Jimmy Carter and Honorable James A. Baker, III. Ballot Integrity and Voting by Mail: The Oregon Experience. Dr. Paul Gronke, Director, EVIC at Reed College.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Report on Florida Voter Fraud Issues

The National Nurse Bill Updates & Thank You!

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Dec 15, 2006 3:52 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network

National Nurse Newsletter

www.nationalnurse.org
December 15, 2006

A Note of Thanks

To Congresswoman Lois Capps, the original sponsor of HR 4903, the National Nurse Act of 2006; the 42 House Congressional House members representing 19 states who co-sponsored the bill; the national, state, and local organizations who endorsed HR 4903; the graduate and undergraduate nursing students who chose this as their project for policy and leadership classes; the journals, newspapers and newsletters who wrote about the National Nurse/Campaign; and last but not least, the thousands of supporters who sent in health tips, letters of support, and financial contributions, the National Nursing Network Organization extends our gratitude and appreciation. We look forward to continuing our efforts working side by side with you in 2007 to establish an Office of the National Nurse.

 

Encouraging Words From Congressman Barney Frank (MA):

“Congressman Frank states he is pleased to support H.R. 4903 and looks forward to supporting it in the 110th Congress.”

Think grassroots politics doesn't work? 

Check out what this group is doing to promote the National Nurse Act of 2006.

Click "Read More" below for more testimonials:.

Read more

Campaign for Office of the National Nurse makes American Journal of Nursing-December 2006 Issue

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Dec 1, 2006 11:30 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network

Picture submitted to the AJN-Teri Mills and Alisa Schneider

The National Nursing Network Organization commends the American Journal of Nursing for publishing a story about The Campaign for a National Nurse in the December 2006 issue. This journal reaches over a million readers, including nurses who live abroad and who are now writing the team to find out how they can support the National Nurse proposal.

We appreciate the fact that AJN was willing to let nurses around the country and world know and better understand the premise of this campaign and then be able to come to this website to retrieve information about the proposal and the bill to decide for themselves if this is something worthwhile that they would like to support.

And our own Julie Ide from BFA and formerly the DNC writes in support of the bill (and looks marvelous with the braces off ;)

From A Concerned Citizen

I am a concerned citizen that strongly supports the establishment of the Office of National Nurse and HR 4903. Recently our family has experienced, first-hand, the effects of the national nursing shortage as we faced serious health issues for both my mother and my husband's father. It is essential that we, as a country, increase the visibility of nurses and teach their value to our society. This is how we will attract new people to this vital profession. HR 4903 does this by placing a qualified nurse in a position of national prominence. The National Nurse will promote health-care prevention -- an area neglected in our current health care infrastructure. And, importantly, nurses from across the country will form a built-in network -- available for national emergencies and ongoing health information dissemination and instruction. Please support this important legislation.

Julie Ide
McLean, Virginia

Germany seeks criminal prosecution of Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Tenet for role in abuses at Abu Ghraib & Gitmo

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Nov 10, 2006 5:15 PM EST

Linked to groups: Blog For America

With the recent passage of the "America loves Torture" Bill, the world is sending a strong message to America:

 "Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques."

Why Germany? This explains it:

"Germany was chosen for the court filing because German law provides "universal jurisdiction" allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. Indeed, a similar, but narrower, legal action was brought in Germany in 2004, which also sought the prosecution of Rumsfeld. The case provoked an angry response from Pentagon, and Rumsfeld himself was reportedly upset"

For all the focus on impeachment-- which I think is a futile exercise because it minimizes the crimes of this administration-- prosecution for war crimes may be the real avenue to accountability. Too bad Germany took the lead and not the US citizens revolting against their own dictators.

For its part, the Bush Administration has rejected adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds that it could be used to unjustly prosecute U.S. officials. The ICC is the first permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

Any Decisons Made?

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Oct 10, 2006 7:08 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Bloggers

Paine wanted a new thread and I have not been blogging lately, so...here goes.

16 Questions Rep. Ted Downing has of the Pima Board of Supervisors

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Aug 5, 2006 11:50 PM EDT

Linked to groups: AuditAZ

That still remain unanswered.

pimademocrats.org/images/diebold...

Continue the conversation

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Aug 2, 2006 8:52 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Bloggers

Great ideas flowing on the original thread. I transferred the comments but the links didn't come over. So, I will still include the link to the original thread in the group url and we can continue our ideas on this thread.

Parallel Processing - Blogger's Gathering

Written by: fIrEfOx! on Aug 2, 2006 8:48 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Bloggers

Below is Rich's original post. JC had the idea that we should form a group to make it easier to access the thread of conversations and organize.

If you would like to become an organizer, let me know and I will add you in the settings.

-----------------------------------------------------------
This is not a blog entry intended to replace the main thread but as "parallel processing" on a single topic which has been under discussion on BFA and HEP (and maybe other places) since DFest, the idea of having an informal bloggers' retreat somewhere. Little or no programming, isolated location, cooler temperatures :), heavy on the interaction and networking.

Let's use this thread to discuss the idea, propose locations, ideas, and perhaps down the road volunteer to organize.

Depending on the size and what we're trying to do, here are some interesting location possibilities:

WVa: www.aceraft.com/pages/lodgingata...

DC area: www.nvrpa.org/cottages.html...

by rich^kolker on Thursday, 07/20/06 @ 08:58 AM | Edit post |