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Joan Brunwasser: BlackBoxVoting's Bev Harris Tackles the Holt Bill If you are subjected to a system which is ultimately controlled by concealed processes you are not really free,because you cannot displace your governors unless a handful of insiders wish to allow it. Such processes violate your human rights.Not just civil rights.Not just voting rights.Your right to freedom is a highest level right,and as stated in our Declaration of Independence,"an inalienable right, endowed by our creator." 5

Joan Brunwasser: New Study Asks "Was Prop 8 Straight?" The implication is that our elections are at great risk. If we cannot know our votes are being counted as cast, if our votes are counted by private companies with clear, self-avowed political intentions, if we know the equipment counting our votes is easily corruptible, if we are aware that the candidates truly elected may not be the declared winners, how can we think we have much of a democracy left? 3

Joan Brunwasser: Part Two: BlackBoxVoting's Bev Harris Walks Us Through the DOJ Anti-Trust Probe of ES&S It is essential for the DOJ to unravel true ownership behind ES&S,because if they don't,how will they know that the next entity is not just the same guys hiding behind a different screen?And how would we know that a divestiture wasn't just the same game,different name?So ES&S will probably be required to divest itself of its Diebold election purchase,but the devil will be in the details.We'll have to be exceptionally vigilant 3

Joan Brunwasser: BlackBoxVoting's Bev Harris Walks Us Through the DOJ Anti-Trust Probe of ES&S The genius of a truly democratic system lies in dispersed power and public controls over public elections. When you consolidate power to a single entity, you create a system that is perhaps tidy, but very unstable. Dictatorships are tidy. Democratic systems are messy, but the dispersal of power makes them stable. Centralized control destabilizes our democratic system of government. 3

Garland Favorito: Update on Georgia e-vote lawsuit Last week three separate complaints from three different citizens were filed against the office of the Inspector General for Secretary of State (SOS), Karen Handel. The complaints contend that the office improperly conducted investigations involving electronic voting machine controversies thus suppressing the controversies as a result of flawed investigations. 1

Joan Brunwasser: Part Two, Manifest Positivity: Talking with Dave Berman If there is to be Democracy, it is going to have to be local grassroots and ultimately come through municipal civil disobedience, where entire towns or counties or states defy a higher order of government that is attempting to direct actions against the people,most commonly through unfunded mandates. Like protecting medical marijuana patients, and refusal to legitimize the results of secret corporate vote counting machines.

Joan Brunwasser: Manifest Positivity: Talking with Dave Berman When the people lead,the leaders will follow.So,we are better served changing what we ourselves do,rather than continuing the unsuccessful and essentially futile task of asking or lobbying or even demanding change from the corporate/military/government/media juggernaut.A leopard can't change its spots and you can't get blood from a stone.Just don't keep doing the same thing & expecting a different result.

Margaret Bassett: "People in Afghanistan Want Change" In an interview, Abdullah Abdullah, challenger to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, discusses election fraud People in Kabul say your budget was tens of millions of dollars with much of it donated by Iran. "I can surely confirm that a foreign country was not involved. Contributions from the people were overwhelming, well higher than my expectations. They invested in a different political agenda. They want change." 2

Joan Brunwasser: *Vote of No Confidence in E-Voting Merger, Part Two: Talking with Democracy Warrior Nancy Tobi Their complaint points out that the e-voting companies now control nearly the entire voting system,from poll book management to vote-casting and -counting to results tabulation.The complaint takes note of the unconstitutional nature of this privatization of what are supposed to be public elections,and specifically the concealment of the voting system processes from public oversight through the use of computer programs 3

Joan Brunwasser: Exclusive Interview with Democracy Warrior, Nancy Tobi Holt's goal is nationwide,federally mandated and controlled,technology-enabled voting systems.Our goal,like that of the Founders,is government by the consent of the governed.These two goals are by their very nature mutually exclusive, and this is where the fundamental division lies between Holt others like me,who believe that you cannot have self governance with a privatized system of elections using trade secret software 5

Joan Brunwasser: More Alastair: Scoop's Mission, the 2004 Election, and Online Independents The internet is the best thing - perhaps the only thing - that has the ability to counteract the forces of corporate and elite power which are enveloping the globe and preventing us from reaching our full potential as humanity. Online freedom of expression is growing in power as the internet grows. We can see this most recently in Iran and during the last election cycle in the amazing Obama campaign. 5

Joan Brunwasser: Interview with Scoop's Alastair Thompson Welcome to OpEdNews, Alastair. You're an unknown quantity to many of our American readers. Yet your creation, Scoop.co.nz, been around for over ten years. Can you describe what Scoop is and what you do? 6

Joan Brunwasser: A New Hero Enters TN History Books Thank you,Sen. Burchett.Your intelligence,courage and sense of honor and fairness are what this country was built on,and what we must have in order for this nation to survive...A modern-day patriot, the latest in a long line of American heros who sprang from the hills of our Tennessee when they were needed to help keep our nation strong and safe â€” and free. Yesterday, you saved our democracy. 1

Cenerentola: The All-Time Greatest Moment in [Film] History A brief review of Palast's trio of short documentaries, Palast Investigates, in which the Truth Sleuth is at his best, turning over new rocks and shattering at least some of them.

The Candid Blogger: Recent Research on Medical Marijuana Despite the ongoing political debate regarding the legality of medicinal marijuana, clinical investigations of the therapeutic use of cannabinoids are now more prevalent than at any time in history. A search of the National Library of Medicine's PubMed website quantifies this fact.

Joan Brunwasser: Nancy Tobi, On her way to PowerShift 2009 Because of her extensive computer background,she has a special grasp of the problems inherent in computerized electronic voting.She sees the institutionalization of electronic voting through HAVA as a giant Ponzi scheme with national implications. She has been a proponent of public, observable vote counting and the need to educate people to do it right. She and Bev Harris of Black Box Voting are heading to DC this weekend for 3

The Candid Blogger: FDA Declares Form of Vitamin B6 a Drug he FDA is at it again. It has effectively banned a naturally-occurring form of vitamin B6 called pyridoxamine by declaring it to be a drug, reports the American Association for Health Freedom. Responding to a petition filed by a drug company, the FDA declared pyridoxamine to be "a new drug."

Joan Brunwasser: Following Up with Steve Heller, formerly known as the "Diebold Whistle-blower" I recently had the opportunity to catch up with election integrity hero, Steve Heller. Our last interview was back in August, 2007. Join me for this candid, exclusive conversation in which Steve muses about how his life has changed since 2004, and how he feels about that. 11

Betsy L. Angert: An Inauguration Invitation The invitation arrived in an electronic mail. As much as America wishes to be hopeful, I had none. I saw the communiqué and thought it would not be possible. I would never be selected to attend the inauguration. Of all the millions who are moved by this historic occasion, while I am amongst these, my anecdote is and would be far less remarkable. 1

Joan Brunwasser: More Election 2008 Stories: On the road in Iowa and Wisconsin Sharon Evans traveled from Chicago, where she lives, to Iowa first and then to Wisconsin to canvass and later get out the vote. This is her story.

Emily Levy: Velvet Revolution Calls on CA Secretary of State to Investigate Prop 8 Vote! We support the lawsuits challenging Prop 8 on legal grounds. We simultaneously call for Secretary of State Debra Bowen to initiate an investigation into the results of the Proposition 8 election, based on concerns raised by voters, election monitors and election integrity advocates.

Joan Brunwasser: More Election 2008 Stories: Election Judge Who "Helps" Voters Vote I noticed that there was a hispanic gentleman who seemed confused and a republican judge "helped" him. I noticed that he was reaching towards the screen to "demonstrate" how to use the machine and at that time I yelled "while I am glad to see you are helping to explain how to use the machine I don't think that a live demonstration means voting on his behalf". 2

Rady Ananda: You be the Election Judge: 11 Minn Ballots Representatives from the campaigns of Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken have been challenging ballots across the state. It's your turn to play election judge. Tell us how you would rule in the case of these 11 challenged ballots. 5

Rady Ananda: Milk and the White Night Riots Gay rights icon Harvey Milk is covered in numerous books and movies, including the Academy Award–winning 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk." His life is also the basis of a 2008 major motion picture, "Milk," starring Academy Award winner Sean Penn and directed by Academy Award nominee Gus Van Sant. This collection of videos, photos and personal accounts provides background for the Nov. 26th release of "Milk." 8

Phyllis Huster: *CA Prop8 Ballot Initiative Vs. Representative Rule, Let's Reaffirm LGBT Rights thru Representative Rule The real villians in the Prop8 California ballot initiative Failure are not churches, old people or black people. The real villian is the insidiously encroaching citizen masses ballot initiatives that were never a form of government our founding fathers endorsed. This article encourages spending money on electing LGBT and Gay Allied legislators as an antidote to marriage bans in 33 states.

Joan Brunwasser: Grant Park on Election Night Our good friend Jane,for many months a happy warrior in the Obama campaign,recalls being at Grant Park here.We've known her since she was born.The poignancy of her rapture is the real deal. "Two thirds of my life have been lived under a Bush regime. Every election that has really mattered to me has ended in heartbreak and gripping bitterness. To be quite honest, I don't think I really believed it would happen." 2

Mikhail Lyubansky: The Obama Apperception Test: What your vote (and the reasons behind it) says about your unconscious needs Like the Rorschach and the TAT, the Obama Apperception Test is based on the projective hypothesis – the notion, first introduced by Lawrence Frank in 1939, that "When people try to understand vague or ambiguous unstructured stimuli, the interpretation they produce reflects their needs, feelings, experience, prior conditioning, and thought processes." Obama provides a rare glimpse into our own political unconscious. 5

Washington Post Editorial Board: Obama Wins? Yes, 'Doonesbury' Calls the Election! Networks have long taken flak for calling elections early, but what are newspaper editors to do when a cartoonist "calls" an election several days in advance? That's the controversial question raised by next Wednesday's "Doonesbury," which Pulitzer-winning creator Garry Trudeau has already submitted and which has been sent to editors. 2

Margaret Bassett: Catholic Voters: 'Abortion Not the Only Issue' Majorities agree that good Catholics can vote for candidates who support embryonic stem cell research (60%), the death penalty (55%), and can vote for a divorced candidate (77%). On the other hand, majorities say that good Catholics should not vote for candidates who support same-sex marriage (54%), euthanasia (59%), and human cloning (76%).

M. Wizard: Time Magazine: 7 Things That Could Go Wrong on Election Day We can go to the moon, split atoms to power submarines, squeeze profits from a 99 cent hamburger and watch football highlights on cell phones. But the most successful democracy in human history has yet to figure out how to conduct a proper election. As it stands, the American voting system is a worrisome mess...