Forensic Analysis Finds Venango County, PA, E-Voting System "Remotely Accessed" on "Multiple Occasions" by Unknown Computer

A voter arrives at Samaritan Village to vote
with new electronic privacy voting machines,
in New York, in this September 14, 2010
file photo. (Photo: Uli Seit / The New York
Times)

Monday 12 December 2011

by: Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog | News Analysis 

 

According to the Initial Report from a landmark independent forensic audit of the Venango County, PA, touch-screen voting system --- the same system used in dozens of counties across the state and country --- someone used a computer that was not a part of county's election network to remotely access the central election tabulator computer, illegally, "on multiple occasions." 

Despite the disturbing report, as obtained by The BRAD BLOG and posted in full below, we may never get to learn who did it or why, if Venango's County Commissioners, a local judge, and the nation's largest e-voting company have their way. And that's not all we won't get to find out about.

The battle for election integrity continues in Venango, with the County Commissioners teaming up with e-voting vendor Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) on one side, and the county's renegade interim Republican-majority Board of Elections on the other. 

The Commissioners and ES&S have been working to spike the independent scientific forensic audit of the county's failed electronic voting machines that was commissioned by the interim Board of Elections. Making matters worse, the Board has now been removed from power by a county judge, a decision they are attempting to appeal as the three-person board and their supporters continue to fight the entrenched establishment for transparency and accountability in the rural Western Pennsylvania county.

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Lehman Brothers: Financially and Morally Bankrupt

Lehman Brothers headquarters,
New York City. (Photo: Helge V. Keitel)

Monday 12 December 2011

by: Richard D. Wolff, The Guardian UK | News Analysis 

 

The lesson of Lehman Brothers' failures of fiduciary duty is that large-scale lending should not be entrusted to private banks.

Last week, federal court Judge James M Peck approved the final phase of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, which began with the investment bank's collapse on 15 September 2008. That bankruptcy, the largest in US history, precipitated the credit markets' disintegration that cascaded into the global economic meltdown that has deepened ever since. With roughly $450bn still owed by the bank, Judge Peck approved that Lehman Brothers has only $65bn left to settle creditors' claims. The latter must thus accept just over 14 cents for every dollar Lehman Brothers owed them. "Thieves," they are probably muttering.  READ MORE

 

Kids Eating Rat Poison Is an "Acceptable Risk" for ALEC

Bait Station (Robert McClure/InvestigateWest)

Submitted by Brendan Fischer on December 6, 2011 - 8:06am

Under the new rules, rat poison will no longer be sold "loose," in pellet form, for use in one's home or apartment, but can be purchased in "bait stations" (like the one pictured) designed to keep out children and other animals. Additionally, certain products known as "second generation," or "super-toxic" rodenticides, will no longer be sold to residential consumers, as they pose a special risk to wildlife. These products are sold under brand names like Havoc, Talon, Ratimus and d-CON. Both the second generation chemicals and other rodenticides will still be sold "loose" to professional exterminators as well as employees of farms, warehouses, and other commercial installations. But the pellets may not be used in areas where children may find them.
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Marianne Gingrich: Newt Told Me Callista Was Going to Help Him Become President

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 02:00 PM PST

By Heather 




What was touted as ABC's big blockbuster interview with Newt Gingrich's second wife, Marianne Gingrich, turned out to be more of a fizzle since the main headline to come out of it, that Gingrich had asked Marianne to have an open marriage while he was cheating on her with Callista, was already leaked well ahead of the interview airing.

I don't think Marianne Gingrich came off all that well during the interview since she basically just laughed off allegations that she might have participated in trying to solicit bribes from an arms dealer in the late nineties and strangely ABC did not push her in any way about whether there was any truth to them. I'm not quite sure why they bothered to bring up the scandal at all if they weren't going to probe into it a bit more deeply.

The one portion of the interview which I posted above that I found rather humorous was Marianne Gingrich's reaction to Newt telling her that his current wife, Callista, was going to help him become president.  READ MORE

The Daily Show: Newt Gingrich, Freaker of the Spouse

By Heather



After noting that within minutes of Rick Perry dropping out of the GOP primary race and endorsing Newt Gingrich, the announcement came that Gingrich's ex-wife, Marianne was, as he put it, “about to go Divorce Court on his ass”, Jon Stewart ripped on Gingrich for this not being the first, but the second wife that Gingrich divorced after finding out that they had a serious illness.

STEWART: Oh, it's the second of his three wives, Marianne. The Jan Brady, of Mrs. Gingrich's. The meat in his wife hoagie, The Empire Strikes back of his wives. The one that ends kind of sad, but in retrospect is really the best one. Well at least I can't imagine Marianne had as big a beef with the former Speaker than... as his first wife.

[...]

First wife cancer, second wife multiple sclerosis. Can Newt Gingrich be reclassified as a pollutant? A carcinogen? This guy's like the dioxin of husbands!
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Chuck Todd Is Concerned Stephen Colbert's PAC 'Makes a Mockery of Our System'

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST
By Nicole Belle 


(h/t Scarce)
Concern troll, thy name is Chuck Todd:

NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd admires comedian Stephen Colbert's send-up of super-PACs. But he thinks Colbert, who has declared his candidacy for "President of the United States of South Carolina," is going too far in injecting real-life politics into his own version of reality TV. [..]
"Look, he's got a shtick," Todd told a Winthrop University audience today. "I admire how he's educated his audience on super-PACs. (But) I think he's making a mockery of the system. Is it fair to the process?"
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Romney: We Need Someone 'Who's Lived in the Real Streets of America' as President

By Heather




I'm not sure which one of Mitt Romney's mansions he considers to be on the "real streets" of America, but here he was attempting to paint himself as some Washington outsider, everyday businessman during the CNN Republican primary debate.
Think Progress summed this up pretty nicely tonight:
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