Bad Deeds for 8-1-2007

Diebold’s Voting Machines Can be Compromised by Hackers – Computer hackers can change election results on certain voting machines used in 25 Florida counties and not leave a trace, according to Florida’s secretary of state, who has given Diebold Election Systems until Aug. 17 to fix the problem or lose the right to operate in the state. A new study by Florida State University found that, despite recent software fixes, an ”adversary” could use a pre-programmed computer card to swap one candidate’s votes for another’s or create a ”ballot-stuffing attack” that multiplies votes for a candidate or issue on Diebold’s optical-scan voting machines.

Ohio 2004 Presidential Election Ballots Illegally Destroyed, Missing in At Least 56 of 88 Counties – Two-thirds of Ohio counties have destroyed or lost their 2004 presidential ballots and related election records, according to letters from county election officials to the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner. The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.

Not All Who Claim to be the News Objectively Report the News – The Intellectual Conservative has ranked the Top 100 Conservative Political Websites of 2007. Here are a few who ranked high:

    1. Drudge Report
    2. Fox News
    3. Wall Street Journal
    4. New York Post
    7. Boston Herald
   10. U.S. News and World Report
   14. Washington Times

All these websites were ranked higher by conservatives than the websites of Rush Limbaugh, Red State, or Ann Coulter. They are all entitled to publish their views, but they should not be claiming to be a legitimate news site or use misleading slogans like “fair and balanced.”

Republican Senator Ted Stevens, Under Investigation for Taking Bribes, is Threatening to Block the Senate From Voting on the Ethics Reform Bill – Republican Senator Ted Stevens, whose home back in Alaska was raided by federal investigators Monday in a wide-ranging corruption investigation, has threatened to place a hold on the Democratic-drafted ethics legislation just passed by the House and expected on the Senate floor by week’s end. The senator told a closed session of fellow Republicans today, including Vice President Dick Cheney, that he was upset that the measure would interfere with his travel to and from Alaska — and vowed to block it.

Regards,

Jim