So I have dusted off and am back

What a hurricane season. And it isn't even over. I have lived in south Florida my whole life. Been through a few storms growing up. But it was just a handful until last year. We were hit directly by two hurricanes last year. Then again with Wilma last month. That's three hurricanes in fourteen months.

So I have not been blogging. My house is fine. We had lots of tree canopy damage at my place. But the electric and phone are all restored. You should expect to see more of me now that I am reconnected with the cyber world.

Locally, lots of amazing things are happening. We will have at least one solid candidate this election cycle out of a crop of four prospectives. We will begin a film series in January partnering with a different organization every month.

Statewide we have an amazing IRV initiative going on here in Florida. I went across the state to Sarasota to help gather signatures and hopefully the voters of Sarasota will soon have the option to implement IRV.

Coming up in January I have my court dates for the civil disobedience arrests from DC in Sept. I will let everyone know how that turns out.

And in December I plan to go to New Orleans to cast away the corporate holidays and replace it with a better pastime, helping them rebuild.

So I am glad to be back and hope to have lots of new content for the inquiring minds.

peace,
echo

Press Release from the Green Party of the United States

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
starlene@greens.org


MEDIA IGNORE MOUNTING EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD VOTE
FRAUD AND ELECTION MANIPULATION, CHARGE GREENS


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders urged the
mainstream media to cover evidence, including a
report from the non-partisan Government
Accountability Office (GAO), which found that
electronic voting machines can be manipulated
without detection, along with other evidence of
election fraud and obstruction.

"Why won't the media cover the GAO report?",
asked Gwen Wages, co-chair of the Green Party of
the United States. "Just as major newspapers and
broadcast media ignored indications that
intelligence of Iraqi WMDs and collusion between
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda had been cooked
before the U.S. invaded Iraq, they're now
ignoring the destruction of American democracy."

After Election Day, 2004, Green presidential
candidate David Cobb <http://www.votecobb.org>
led efforts to investigate widespread reports of
vote obstruction and manipulation by Republican
and Democratic officials in Ohio and New Mexico,
especially targeted at African American and young
voters. Unlike 2000, the major U.S. media
dismissed evidence compiled in 2004 by the Cobb
campaign and revealed during hearings led by Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.) that Ohio Secretary of
State J. Kenneth Blackwell and other Republican
election officials used various means to fix the
election's outcome.

Greens cited recent news about election
manipulation, covered in independent print and
Internet media:

? The GAO's 107-page report
<http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf>,
released publicly on October 20, confirms that
electronic voting machines are not secure, can
easily be hacked, and often use secret, in-house
software that is neither certified nor adequately
inspected. The report supports many claims
widely dismissed as 'conspiracy theories' that
George W. Bush was placed in the White House
through a fixed election in 2004, repeating the
2000 election theft. Mainstream media ignored
the report's release.

? Voter Action <http://www.voteraction.org>
reports that New Mexico election officials have
refused to allow the voter plaintiffs in a law
suit challenging the results of the 2004
Presidential Election (Patricia Rosas Lopategui
v. Rebecca Vigil-Giron, et al.) to inspect
electronic voting machines. ("Plaintiffs Blocked
During Discovery Phase of New Mexico '04 Election
Lawsuit", The Brad Blog, November 12, 2005,
<http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002008.htm>)

? Investigations by journalists Bob Fitrakis and
Harvey Wasserman exposed electronic vote
manipulation to prevent passage of four election
reform proposals on the ballot in Ohio, after the
outcome on November 8 was inconsistent to the
point of statistical impossibility with polls of
voters conducted by The Columbus Dispatch. ("Has
American Democracy died an electronic death in
Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?", The Free Press,
November 11, 2005
<http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1559>)

The Green Party has called for voter-verified
paper ballots to provide an auditable record of
votes cast on computer voting machines, and for
voting machine source code designed to be open
for public inspection and verification before and
after an election.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

"Federal Efforts to Improve Security and
Reliability of Electronic
Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities
Need to Be Completed"
United States Government Accountability Office,
September 2005
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf
http://www.gao.gov/htext/d05956.html

"Deep-rooted Voting Irregularities Persist,
Watchdogs Say"
By Catherine Komp, The News Standard, November
10, 2005
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2585

"Powerful Government Accounting Office report
confirms key 2004 stolen election findings"
By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, Axis of
Logic, November 1, 2005
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_19846.shtml

"None Dare Call It Stolen: Ohio, the election,
and America 's servile press"
By Mark Crispin Miller, Harper's Magazine,
August, 2005
http://harpers.org/ExcerptNoneDare.html


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