Tricounty DFA: Emergency Requests For Us - Bush Spy Scandal
Hello Everyone;

First, a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you all!

I wasn't intending to send out an update before the holidays -- most of us are pretty preoccupied with the holidays, but we are all being asked contact everyone we know on an emergency basis to call attention to what is, unbelievably, the biggest Bush scandal yet.

Last weekend Bush admitted to breaking the law in illegally spying on Americans. The big question is why? In 28 years the special, secret intelligence court has only turned the government down four times -- and the Administration can go to the court retroactively to get permission. Columnist David Sirota puts his finger on it -- they were spying on political dissidents -- on us. That's why they can't go to court. Read Sirota: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/bushs-need-for-speed-a_b_12550.html

We all must speak out to prevent this from being swept under the rug. This is an impeachable offense, a basic threat to our freedoms. John Dean, Nixon's former counsel during Watergate, who would know, says it is clearly a high crime under the constitution:

What can we do? First, Governor Dean explains the stakes and asks us to sign a FOIL with him in the next 48 hours: http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/12/did_george_bush.php
Rep. Louise Slaughter asks us to sign a petition: http://votelouise.com/page/petition/SpyHearings
Also Working For Change.org: http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=20070

We can also call our Senators to demand the Senate investigation Sen. Spector has agreed to will be real. http:www.senate.gov


Also, Kirsten Gillibrand's website is now up! www.gillibrand2006.com/

I'd like to also let everyone know we will probably be having our meetup on the second Wednesday of January rather than the first; big doings in 2006 with the Gillibrand campaign! More on this in an update next week, but at the last meeting we agreed to schedule a formal endorsement of Kirsten in January. We'll also have lots of news about a very special DFA Training Program in our area and the exciting field program to Take Back the 20th Congressional District. The talk is over. Now we get to act!

Again, have a great holiday!

My thanks to you all,

Larry
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 10:21 PM 1 comments

 
Tricounty DFA: Addendum! Missed some stuff!
Hello Everyone:

My apologies for this second message:

1. Saratoga Meetup to Feature Walmart Move
2. Gillibrand Fundraiser December 14
3. More On Governor Dean's comments


1. Saratoga Meetup to Feature Walmart Move

There will be a DFA-Link "meetup" this month at the home of coordinator Pat Friesen at 7pm Wednesday, December 7th. Featured will be a showing of Robert Greenwald's new expose, Walmart, The High Price Of The Low Price. Greenwald's film has been getting national attention. Greenwald has garnered nation acclaim for his films which include Outfoxed, Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism and Uncovered, The War On Iraq.

The address is 36 Thoroughbred Drive in the Village at Saratoga. Take South Broadway to Crescent St. (NOT avenue) - across from the park and Dance Museum. Turn on Crescent St. - take first, immediate left which is Thoroughbred. Go to the end of the street - take a sharp right.

(My apologies for missing this!)

2. Gillibrand Fundraiser December 14

Lewis and Patricia Titterton And Pat Friesen, Nan Guslander, Shane Williams-Ness, and Joanne Yepsen Cordially invite you to a fundraising reception IN SUPPORT OF KIRSTEN RUTNIK GILLIBRAND. Democratic Candidate for US Congress in NY-20

Please Come & Meet Kirsten
Suggested Contribution: $50 - $100 - $250

Wednesday, December 14th
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

At the home of Lewis and Patricia Titterton
6 Autumn Lane
Saratoga Springs, New York

Please make checks payable to: Gillibrand for Congress
P.O. Box 1279, Hudson, NY 12534

To RSVP, please contact Sean at
sean@gillibrand2006.com or
(518) 751-2555


From Albany: Take the Northway (87) to Exit 14. Turn left (east) onto 9P (Union Ave.). Go
less than ¼ mile, take the second left onto Meadowbrook Road. Go 1.3 miles on Meadowbrook and turn right onto Autumn Lane. House is # 6 Autumn Lane, the second house on the right.

From North of Saratoga: Take the Northway (87) to Exit 14. Turn left (east) onto 9P (Union Ave.). Go about ¼ mile (over Northway bridge), take the second left onto Meadowbrook Road. Go 1.3 miles on Meadowbrook and turn right onto Autumn Lane. House is # 6 Autumn Lane, the second house on the right.

There are more reports tonight on the speech Governor Dean made to the Democratic National Committee WInter Convention in Arizona.

Dean laid out a victory program for next year. Here is a link to additional reports on his remarks, which I will paste below.

Thanks everyone!

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/12/4/16535/1316#readmore


DNC Meeting in Phoenix, Part 2
by Jenny Greenleaf


...Gov. Dean talked some more about Katrina. After the hurricane, DNC staffers who wanted to go help were encouraged to do so, and the DNC paid their salaries while they were down in Louisiana and Mississippi. He told a story about two young women staffers from the finance department who were sent to Mississippi and found themselves teamed with 5 young women from the Southern Baptist Convention.
The staffers first thought about whether or not to mention who they worked for, but decided that they were proud to be associated with the DNC and so told their teammates where they came from. There were a few lifted eyebrows, but everyone was busy. And after three weeks of handing out blankets, water, and food together, one of the Baptists told one of the Democrats, "You know, we're all trying to do the same thing."
It's a small story, but Dean said that it's people like that who change perceptions about Democrats--and that when one of these young women are sitting in church being told that Democrats are evil, they'll think about it differently. Personal experience trumps being told that Democrats are evil by your pastor. Personal experience trumps being told Democrats are wrong by your teacher. Personal experience trumps being told that Democrats are bad by your parents. He urged us all to start talking to all the people we know who didn't vote our way. (He also mentioned that it's gotten a lot easier in the past few months.)

Dean talked briefly about the national house party program. Its kickoff featured 1000 house parties around the country. These weren't fundraising events--they were to get people together and kick off the national precinct organizing plan. Look for more of that kind of thing
He mentioned that the DNC had put $5 million into the Virginia governor's race and put some people on the ground in California to help defeat the initiatives sponsored by the "One Terminator."
Dean said, "We still have a long way to go. The collapse of confidence in the Republicans is not enough to show the world that we are better leaders for the American people. We are going to offer a real program of reform for this country." He then laid out the Together, America Can Do Better agenda, which is when he really got animated and started sounding like the Dean the Candidate. (He's good, and some of the following will sound very familiar to long-time Dean supporters.)
"We want real tax reform and middle class tax fairness. In three tax cuts, we've had one bill that gave a small tax cut to the middle class, but at the same time college tuition went up even more because of the cuts to the grant and loan programs."
"We want a strong national defense. We offer real security--we have seen the hollow promises of this administration, and we starting to coalesce around a vision for homeland security." He mentioned John Murtha's resolution, which the DNC members reacted to with a long standing ovation. Dean proposed a strategic redeployment and said that we needed to get the National Guard home especially. He referred us to the Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis' paper on Strategic Redeployment at the Center for American Progress.
When we control the White House, "we may have to send troops someplace, but we will be honest with them and the American people, we will listen to the military, and we won't make up a strategic plan three years after we've gone into another country." (Lots of cheering here. Note to Matt: people were talking about Iraq quite a bit.)
"Health insurance for all is the right moral value to have." He related provision of health insurance to the availability of jobs, specifically mentioning GM's healthcare woes.
"We need a strong public education system and an end to unfunded centralized government mandates. Let local areas run their own schools." It's fine to have testing, but teaching to a test all the time does not produce good learning. "We need to trust people to know what's best for their schools."
"We will offer real reform and honesty in government. We will write a code of ethics to apply to congress and the administration. There will be no golf trips, no fat contributions to influence legislation." Under the ethics/corruption banner, Dean also mentioned that it's unethical to pay journalists to write flattering reports, and that a Democratic Attorney General will enforce the law for American citizens and not a political party. (This was in reference to the AG's office coming down on the wrong side of voting rights legislation. Dean specifically mentioned the new ID requirements in Georgia and called them unconstitutional.)
Then he got really wound up with: "It's immoral to let small children go to bed hungry while cutting school lunch programs. It's immoral to bankrupt the retired by cutting medical care while they're losing pensions. It's immoral to intrude in private family decisions--we want their government out of our lives. We ought to be proud of our values in this party. Many of us in this room benefitted from the Republican tax cuts, but all of us would gladly give up the extra money. Their party is selfish."
"Social Security is important because it cements us as a people. We are all in it together in this country." (Meaning that we all help take care of each others' parents.)
"We will do a lot of things to win back Congress, but there is one thing we will not do--we will not divide America. The Republicans used the word "quota" to divide people in 2002. In 2004, they put gay marriage, which was already illegal, on the ballot in many states. In 2006, it's going to be immigration."
"We need to enforce our border laws, that's true. But Bush is talking about locating all the illegal aliens in this country and deporting them. He can't find a 6 foot 4 Saudi, but he's going to find 11 million people?"
On the guest worker program: "The Republicans are creating a program of indentured servitude, which drives down wages for everyone."
Dean said that yes, borders laws need to be better enforced, but if people have been here for years and worked hard and paid taxes, we should have a program that enables them to become citizens. Bush should not have turned his back on Mexico because of their opposition to the war. The real answer is to help Mexico grow so people will have jobs there and not feel compelled to come to the US.
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 12:37 AM 0 comments

 
Tricounty DFA: Wednesday "Meetup"/DFA-Linkup Reminder, Voting Forum, Dean -- Five Point Program
Hello Everyone!

In This Update:


1. "Meetup"/DFA-Linkup Next Wednesday
2. Voting Forum WIth Bo Lipari of New York Verified Voting
3. Write Letters To State Board
4. Dean Letter, Leno and Major Address At DNC Winter Meeting: Five Point Campaign


1. "Meetup"/DFA-Linkup Next Wednesday

Our December meeting will be held next Wednesday, December 7th at 7pm at the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe in downtown Glens Falls.

On the agenda for this month:
*We'll be reviewing a very successful year for DFA,
*Discussing last week's voting forum and what we can still do
*Next Year: Specifically the 2006 Congressional race and what we can do:
* Endorsement
* A Training Day
* A Field Program Based On Dean Campaign Tactics

To reach the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, from Northway Exit 18, travel east into Glens Falls. Past the Hannaford, bear right at the Stewart's store, go past the Post Office and the Hospital to the intersection with the light just before the five points downtown. The Cafe is on the left on the corner of Hudson Ave., Exchange Street and Elm Street, just before the five point intersection in downtown Glens Falls. From the East, go to Hudson Falls and at the circle downtown, go down the Hudson Falls hill just past the Catholic Church. Proceed straight past the trash plant and Glens Falls Cement works to Warren Street, go to downtown Glens Falls. At the five point intersection, go past Domino's Pizza onto Hudson Ave. The cafe is just past the interesection on the right.

2. Voting Forum WIth Bo Lipari of New York Verified Voting

Last Wednesday we hosted Bo Lipari, the Executive Director of New York Verified Voting ( http://www/nyvv.org ) for a special forum on the decision New York State and local counties will have to make on the purchase of new voting machines to replace our existing lever action machines, which will no longer be usable in the future because they are not adequately handicapped accessible.

Lipari spoke for an hour and then answered questions for almost another hour. He made a powerful case that new fully computerized voting machines are not only extremely expensive budget busters for local communities, but are extremely unreliable and trouble prone. For instance, there are currently attempts to push ahead with certification of certain touchscreen machines, but at present the vendors have not been able to produce a touchscreen or DRE machine that actually meets legal standards, including a working voter verifiable print out. It is, in effect, an experimental technology at the present time.

Vendors are pushing touchscreen machines because their profit margins are far higher. These machines can cost as much as a small car, believe it or not. When we consider how many election districts there are in any given county and the number of machines involved, the expense is into the millions. (And it is all OUR money.) According to Lipari, actual costs always exceed projected costs. In terms of purchse costs alone, DRE's usually cost at least twice what a optical scanner costs,

Touchscreen machines are already being abandoned.

*In 2004 the Republic of Ireland bought $60,000,000 worth of touchscreen voting machines from a Dutch company that is marketing machines here under the Liberty brand. The machines were then junked after a government commission concluded they were unreliable. It is now costing the Irish government $800,000 a month just to warehouse the scrapped machines while it decides what to do.

*In Miami-Dade County, Florida in March 2005 a coding error caused DRE's to lose hundreds of votes. A major scandal ensued. The Supervisor of Elections was forced to resign. After study, the new Supervisor of Elections concluded the machines were too unreliable and recommended that Miami-Dade scrap $24.5 million in new touchscreen machines.

*In 2004 security experts hired by the State Of Maryland tested Maryland's touchscreen machines to see if they could be "hacked" into, that is, penetrated by malicious computer programmers. They succeeded in hacking the machines. The security firm rated the Diebold machines with an "F" for security. They cited a gauntlet of problems: a security hole allowed remote dial-in. They were also found to be vulnerable to a "man-in-the-middle" attack, where someone could intercept a message between touchscreen voting machines and central tabulating computers, replacing the real results with a bogus one. Maryland is also abandoning a touchscreen purchase.

There is a clear alternative: paper ballots, optically scanned. Most of us are familier with this technology; it's the very same technology you use when you buy a lottery ticket. You fill in a bubble to record your vote. If you choice isn't clear or there is something wrong, the scanner will reject the ballot, just the way it would reject a lotto ticket with seven bubbles filled in instead of six. That means you can't vote twice for the same candidates by accident. PB/OS is the most reliable and cheapest system, both in the near and the short term. Touchscreen machines require an operating cartridge that can only be programmed by the vendor, at a typical cost of $500 per cartridge! Maintenance costs are also very high, as are storage costs. Scanners are compact and can be stacked for storage, bulky DRE's cannot.

Paper Ballot/Optically scanned system are also cheaper than touchscreen machines because only one scanner is required per polling place -- with touchscreens at least one and oftentimes two or more machines are required per precinct.

46% of all US counties use scanners counting 35% of all US votes. Scanned ballots systems are also friendly to the disabled, and further, they are easier for precinct Election Inspectors to learn how to use. Touchscreen machines are very complicated, require a computer orientation by inspectors, which means much more training (an further cost). One implicit strike against DRE's is that most of our present Elections Inspectors, most of whom are senior citizens, would not transition to the new machines. It is often extremely difficult for local Boards of Elections to find people to fill these slots at all under present circumstances --

Optically scanned systems have the lowest rate of errors, and the paper ballots used are easy to recount manually, if the need arises, such as a recount. Oklahoma has been using optically scanned paper ballots for 14 years without any problems at all.

There are many more details of Lipari's presentation that I could recount, but these highlights will give a sense of the case for Paper Ballot/Optically scanned systems and against touchscreen DRE's.

3. Write Letters To State Board

What can we do? First, we can write letters to the State Board of Elections. The companies that make these machines make both scanners and DRE's . Write to the State Board of Elections and demand they insist the companies submit both scanners and touchscreen machines for certification. For the details go to: http://www.nyvv.org/currentAction.shtml

Later we can follow up with letters to our local boards.

Here are some additional links with info on the growing problems with touchscreen voting machines. Diebold, the biggest manufacturer was asked by the State of North Carolina to place the computer code that operates the machines into escrow in case there were questions about the code. This would protect their intellectual property rights while maintaining a deterrence against fraud. Diebold refused, which startled many observers. What's the problem? They are now threatening to leave North Carolina.

httptp://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/29/212755/49
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/1/18714/1284
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1201-05.htm

4. Dean Letter, Leno and Major Address At DNC Winter Meeting: Five Point Campaign

Governor Dean gave a major address to the Democratic National Committee at it's winter meeting in Arizona this weekend.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120300821.html

The Governor laid out a Five Point Plan as a common agenda for Democrats to rally behind and I quote:

"This is going to be the same platform in Alabama and Arizona as it is in Northern California and the Midwest," Dean told the Tribune on Friday. "We are going to run the same campaign everywhere in America, and that’s how we are going to win."

"You can’t trust them with your money," Dean said. "You can’t trust them to tell the truth. You can’t trust them to manage the war. You can’t trust them if you have a natural disaster. Now tell me why people are going to vote for Republicans?"

The Five Points

• Honesty and integrity in government
• New Iraq policy to reduce the military’s role and its vulnerability to attack
• Limit outsourcing of American jobs and create new ones through energy independence
• Moving toward universal health care
• Improving public education"

For a fuller account of the Five Point Plan: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=54497

Governor Dean also sent out an earlier letter detailing how Democrats will win in 2006.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/30/9205/6845
He also made a great appearance on the Leno Show.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/1/114425/743
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 4:08 PM 0 comments