"Voting-Machine Testing Lab Suspended Over Lax Methods
In voting news, the New York Times is reporting the laboratory responsible for testing most of the nation’s electronic voting systems has been barred from approving new machines after election officials concluded it hasn’t kept proper records. The company, Ciber Inc. of Colorado, is the largest tester of voting machine software in the United States. Experts say Ciber’s lax procedures could mean many current machines were not properly tested for crucial features like vote-counting software and security against hacking. Aviel Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins, said: “What’s scary is that we’ve been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified… This calls into question those systems that they tested.”"
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Negroponte to Resign, Become Deputy Secretary of Statefunny. can you imagine him working for condi?
In news from Washington, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte is reportedly set to resign to become deputy secretary of state. Negroponte has overseen the nation’s fifteen spy agencies since his appointment in April 2005. His career includes stints as Ambassador to Iraq after the US invasion and ambassador to Honduras, where he played a major role in the US efforts to topple the Nicaraguan government. Former National Security Agency director Navy Admiral John McConnell is expected to be named Negroponte’s replacement.
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Group: Exxon Spent $16 Million to Discredit Global Warming Science
Meanwhile, the oil giant ExxonMobil is again being accused of funneling millions of dollars towards public campaigns to discredit the science behind global warming. On Wednesday, the Union of Concerned Scientists said Exxon gave sixteen million dollars to more than forty groups over a seven-year period. The group says Exxon used the money to help create a false debate to prevent governments from curbing global warming caused by human activity.
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Nixon, Reagan Ordered Spying on Rehnquist Witnesses
And finally, newly-released FBI documents reveal both the Nixon and Reagan administrations ordered the monitoring of witnesses set to provide critical testimony about former Chief Justice William Rehnquist. In 1971, the Nixon White House ordered the FBI to run background checks on witnesses in Renquist’s initial Senate confirmation hearing. When Renquist was nominated to chief justice fifteen years later, the Reagan administration told the FBI to check on the witnesses and find out what they planned to say. The FBI obtained the names from then-assistant attorney general John Bolton. Bolton was the Bush administration’s UN ambassador until last month.
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Journalist Avoids Watada Hearing, Remains Prosecution Witnessyay.
And finally, this update on a story from yesterday’s broadcast – a judge has ruled independent journalist Sarah Olson does not need to testify at Thursday’s pre-trial hearing for First Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Watada is facing six years in prison over his refusal to deploy to Iraq. Olson is challenging her subpoena to testify based on her interview with Watada earlier this year. On Tuesday, Olson was told she will not need to appear at the pre-trial hearing but will remain on the prosecution’s witness list.
4 comments:
"He's a State Dept. guy and a damn good one."
The guy is a snake. Look at his role in lying about Honduran death squad activities in the 80s.
Someone speculated on one of the Air America talk shows today that perhaps they are setting up Condi to take over as president in case the Bush/Cheney cabal has to step down (and therefore have Negroponte in line to take over her spot in the State Department. That sounds downright scary to me to think of Negroponte in as Secretary of State.
On Negroponte, I really wish I could find someplace to easily get the documentary that I saw the tail end of here at Democracy Fest last year, and now subsequently I wish I was more adamant about trying to get a DVD copy of the DVD the guy had brought with him to show it then (and perhaps swap it for a copy of "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq" or something like that. Anyway, you can read more about this film here.
This film sounds like a pretty good indictment of what Negroponte had been doing down in Honduras many years back when he was more visibly up to no good.
I'm tempted to write a note here to see if I can get a private copy of this, though I'm wondering if they'd want to charge a small fortune for it if I did, as many do with unreleased films.
If anyone knows of another link where one can get this film, let me know.
Chris,
Lt. Watada took an oath of service to defend the Nation and the Constitution from enemies, both foreign and domestic.
When the "Commander-In-Chief" circumvents the Constitution to take the nation to war, based on lies, he is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, and our form of government, a subversive, in fact.
US Servicemen and women do not take an oath to dumbly follow any order they are given. You have heard of the Nuremburg trials, have you not?
As for what we would be calling for if a Democrat were in office, when Lyndon Johnson was President, we did not call for the imprisonment of Vietnam war resisters.
Das Bush said our Constitution is just a piece of paper and no doubt keeps his copy of it in his Crawford outhouse. I suppose with shit for brains, that's to be expected.
What Kathleen said!!
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Lt. Watada here in Seattle at the annual ACLU Bill of Rights dinner where he was one of the honored guests, as was James Yee, the Muslim chaplain from Guantanamo, and Lt. Commander Swift, the JAG attorney who won the Supreme Court decision in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld.
Ehren Watada's courage in standing up for the Constitution is supported by many. He possesses and, more importantly, demonstrates, the qualities that may be all that can prevent a nuclear attack on Iran, if those highly placed in the military do what they should be doing instead of just looking to protect their careers. This was reported in The American Conservative way back in August 2005. Cheney is plotting a scheme against Iran similar to that of Operation Northwoods against Cuba.
Maybe now we will have some decent hearings that will bring this crap out in the open and publicly neuter it.
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