1 http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/330/index.html You can watch this online, in case you missed it first time around. While you’re at it, send it around to your friends. Make some noise.
2 In “Exposé: Holt Bill Was Revised by Microsoft, Diebold, and ES&S” by Mark Crispin Miler, he quotes an email correspondence with Michele Mulder, Holt’s legislative aide who has been a guiding force behind HR 811. Miller points out that in the original version of the bill, Holt provided for software to be “readily available to everyone.” Now, that section has morphed into secret software “available only to ‘qualified’ individuals, who must sign strict non-disclosure agreements.”
Mulder disagrees with Miller’s characterization and writes,
That's not what the bill said when introduced. Therefore, you can take up your concerns with Microsoft and others in the proprietary software industry. During Committee proceedings they lobbied very heavily against the language that was in the bill as introduced and none of you lobbied in favor of the language that was in the bill as introduced, and thus, the software industry won. It's very simple, really.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/genera_mark_cri_070711_expose__3b_rush_holt_2c_.htm
This is where we are with current legislation.
Here's a five-step plan guaranteed to make an obscure company absolutely notorious. First get into a business you don't understand, selling to customers who barely understand it either. Then roll out your product without adequate testing. Don't hire enough skilled people. When people notice problems, deny, obfuscate and ignore. Finally, blame your critics when it all blows up in your face.
He’s talking specifically about Diebold, but he could have taken a page out of the playbook of any of the vendors.
click here
4 Read Howard Stanislevic in “Congress Is from Venus; Californians Are from Mars” to understand important differences between what just happened in CA and pending federal legislation.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but as I read the documents from the top to bottom review and decertification of e-voting systems by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and her team, I'm stunned by the contrast between these documents and what passes for election integrity legislation in the US Congress. Venus and Mars have more in common than these proposed laws and regulations do; but one thing's clear: not unlike Venus, Congress is full of hot air!
http://e-voter.blogspot.com/2007/08/congress-is-from-venus-californians-are.html
Special thanks to BradBlog and his guest bloggers, without which I would be infinitely more out of it, and to my part-time editor, Ariella Brunwasser, for stepping up to the plate. Thanks for your patience, readers. When you’re not feeling up to par, everything takes 10 times as long and comes out slightly addled. I have great trust in you that you will fill in the blanks.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=39915 This Catch-22 is for the truly masochistic. It addresses the eternal question “cui bono (who benefits)?
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