DRE Voting Machines

8/10/07

Editor,

My thanks to Chronicle Staff Writer John Wildermuth for his 7/31/07 story Makers of voting machines battle critics over UC study. The idea of switching from paper to electronic ballots seems like a natural these days but it requires thoughtful consideration and design.

Steve Weir, Contra Costa County clerk, was mistaken when he described the state sponsored study mentioned in Wildermuth's piece as having "more to do with headlines than with definitive science or the pursuit of legitimate public policy". Worse was Sequoia Voting Systems spokesman Steven Bennett's ill-informed contention that such studies are not "real world scenario[s]".

I can't imagine any more self serving clap-trap.

I believe there is a place for regulated Direct Recorded Electronic (DRE) voting in the future of the nation and California but I support California Secretary Of State Debra Bowen's decision last Friday to decertify DRE voting machines with the "potential for serious security breaches".

John Arnzt, San Francisco Director of Elections, would do well to support Ms Bowen's ban. He should require The City to use DRE voting machines that run only Free Software whose code is available for public review. It would be worth both the wait and the effort because it is the right thing to do.

End The War Now, Impeach Alberto Gonzales

05/30/07

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
450 Golden Gate Ave.
14th Floor

Fax 415 861 1670

RE: End the War Now and Impeach Alberto Gonzales

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

I was disappointed last week when, under your leadership,
the Democrats made the war in Iraq their own. Ok, you'll
try again in September but meanwhile more soldiers die,
more Iraqis die, the US becomes more entrenched and more
money is foolishly wasted. It will take a long time and
be very expensive for the US to entirely exit Iraq and
repair the damage we've done there. The sooner that
process begins the faster those ends can be achieved and
the less they will cost. I am pleading with you Speaker
Pelosi, end this war now.

I live in San Francisco's Mission district and I have
supported you over the years despite your role in the
dubious venture that is The Presidio Trust. I want you
to know, Ms. Pelosi, that as Speaker of the House I feel
you bear the major responsibility for allowing the
Democratic majority to squander the opportunities it was
given when the 110th Congress began.

If not the President's, Alberto Gonzales has put his own
impeachment back on the proverbial table. All the high
crimes and misdemeanors of this administration, the
illegal domestic eavesdropping, illegally deleted
government e-mails, voter suppression, signing statements,
torture recommendations, all of it must be stopped now.
If the Attorney General's dirty fingerprints can't be
found on each of these malfeasances I urge you as Speaker
to lead the way for the Democrats on the House Judiciary
Committee to shine the bright national spotlight of
outrage on all of it .

I should not have to remind you of Article II, Section 4
of the U.S. Constitution. It is not too late for you and
your Democratic majority to do what the voters put you
there for. Begin the impeachment of Mr. Gonzales now.
The process will not only prove that the Attorney General
has committed impeachable offenses but that he is also
guilty of an abuse of power and a violation of the public
trust. A series of public Judiciary Committee impeachment
hearings will go a long way toward redeeming the reputation
of our party as an effective opposition.


Respectfully,

Mike Ring
3350 22nd St
San Francisco, CA
94110-3067

And The War Goes On

This afternoon Senate Democrats sold out the American service men and women who are being maimed and killed every day. Today the Senate Democrats sold out the American people who gave them their mandate to End This War Now last November.

Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said it best on the Senate Floor today:

"Instead of forcing the President to safely redeploy our troops, instead of coming up with a strategy providing assistance to a post-redeployment Iraq, and instead of a renewed focus on the global fight against al-Qaeda, we are faced with a spending bill that kicks the can down the road and buys the Administration time."

Watch him here.

And the Senators are not alone. Nancy Pelosi, my own congressional representative I'm sad to say , and a whole slew of purported Congressional progressives were too afraid to seriously confront the administration and call a halt to this wrongheaded war Now by simply refusing to fund it. They have patched together legislation that gives Bush all the money he needs to continue the killing for the rest of his term,

Then Pelosi has the nerve to say "I will vote against this bill". Oh thank you Nancy! It is morally repugnant for you to have personally put together is phony bill and marshalled its support while allowing those of your two faced colleagues who have to confront anti-war voters at home to claim they voted against their own measure.

The Iraq War is now a Democratic War.

First Post

I'm currently reading Sephen Kinzer's 2003 book "All The Shah's Men: An American Coup And The Roots Of Middle East Terror". Kinzer is a NYT journalist and the book is a vivid account of the first US organized, coup d'etat of a Democratically elected leader of a sovereign nation. This is the story of the 1951 overthrow of the government of Iran. The CIA deposed Iran Prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh to prevent the nationalization of his country's massive reserves of oil. In his place, the US restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power whose tyrannical reign was the precursor to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.