by BOB KINCAID, co-founder of The Head On Radio Network (HORN)\

My Dear Fellow Americans

Sitting here in a hospital room in Summersville, West Virginia waiting to find out if a combination of genetic Calvinism, environmental toxins and my own mistakes have finally caught up with me, I heard playing on my roommate’s television an advertisement for some politician whom the announcer told me would “go to Washington and fight against Obamacare.” I am furious at a time when I probably shouldn’t be, but I may as well make the best of it.

Seldom do I pause to answer in writing the mad, hateful ravings of a right-wing, self-absorbed, Republican candidate for elected office; for if I did, I would never be able to get to the microphone to do it via radio every night. But since the question of healthcare is a matter of importance to Americans of good will across this once-great nation, and since I’m sitting in a hospital bed instead of behind the mic anyway, I feel compelled.

I think I should explain why I am here in Summersville, since so many Republicans, Tea Partiers, Birchers, and Libertarians have wasted so much time, energy, good will and MONEY to keep me from being here.

I am here because it has been made possible for me to be here. Men and women across this country have marched, pled, bled and died for me to be here. Forty thousand uninsured Americans died every year before enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Politicians have paid with their careers, thrown out of office by infuriated, unintelligent, frenzied citizens played like a whorehouse piano by the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, the Republican National Committee and right-wing talk radio goons like the Junkie Rush Limbaugh.

By Bev Harris, Founder of Black Box Voting

One important report below, and one quick update on the website hack follows.

An award-winning voting rights innovation -- which would work great in the USA -- improved voter lists in Pakistan, where an SMS mobile phone text-messaging system got 55 million voters to check their registration and polling location; voter turnout increased, and marginalized groups like persons with disabilities measurably increased election engagement. In addition, public voter list display at over 50,000 neighborhood locations helped resolve problems on the spot and aided in detection of systemically disenfranchised groups. Voter list display engaged everyone in list scrutiny and caught several districts involved in a voter list fraud incident.  Crowd-sourcing voter list accuracy increases public engagement in elections and could easily be expanded to any country.

http://blackboxvoting.org/reports/solutions-two-innovations-improve-voter-list-accuracy-turnout-and-reduce-fraud/

Did you know that there are awards for election transparency innovations? At the Global Conference on Electoral Reforms, Pakistan won an award for its voter SMS system. Public interest organizations like Ushahidi offer cash awards for innovations that enhance public participation.

“Election integrity is a complex problem, and complex problems require a suite of solutions. Progress can best be made through incremental continuous steps. So pick the step where you want to start.” — Eva Waskell

Great details - follow the link above for sources, more info!

By BEV HARRIS, founder of BLACK BOX VOTING

Black Box Voting forums, archives, documents shut down through denial of service attacks; also, see below for update on current indictments and law enforcement investigations pertaining to the voting machine industry and a tampered election.

OLD SITE HACKED

The vast, carefully-organized, and important ten-year work product at BlackBoxVoting.org was attacked by an unprecedented and relentless wave of denial of service attacks this month. At this time, the entire body of work has become inaccessible to the public except for a few articles on the new home page.

I had the body of the website redesigned and transferred it to a new hosting company, and I am in the process of transferring all archived material from the old site, using backup files, to a new location.

I ask for your special support with a donation:  http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
It would be a great shame to lose all the wonderful work submitted by so many dedicated election integrity advocates, and it will be a significant undertaking to rebuild the site.

Black Box Voting depends needs, and tremendously appreciates your support: Black Box Voting: 330 SW 143rd St Suite K, PMB 547, Renton WA 98057

It has been 9 years since Black Box Voting was attacked to deny access to our material. Frankly, I'm surprised that it has happened again, amazed at the level of vigor and the evidence of wave after wave targeted specifically Black Box Voting files.

By Terry Sneller

As far back in human history as we can determine, there have primarily been two classes of people – the ruling and the ruled. Rarely have there been groups of organized humans where one group didn't dominate the others. The means of control have varied from raw physical power, to beads, to gold, to superstition/religion, to control of resources, to land/territory, to intimidation, etc. One common thread that runs through most means of control is fear.

In our contemporary period of history, the Nazis honed the fine art of control through their development of fear- based propaganda. Through the decades, those lessons of how to control and then manipulate masses of people were not ignored by right leaning individuals and groups in their obsessive and psychopathic/sociopathic pursuit of power. In fact, those methods have been masterfully studied, improved upon and adapted to today's expanded and expanding forms of communications.

Today, the ruling class in America has a vast economic power base that has been used to seize control of ALL major industries, - not only in the US, but in much of the world as well. They rarely do anything illegal, as they now have the power to make the laws they live by. In our country, they now not only control our financial institutions, but the political, military, government, and industrial realms as well. Through their highly effective use and control of what is referred to as the “Main Stream Media” and the various voting processes, a relatively small group of sociopathically insane, but excessively rich, individuals have been able to manipulate the thinking and votes of a large enough percentage of the public to achieve effective political control.

by Montag

'Have been musing about how the NSA and the GCHQ got so chummy, and this opinion piece also made me wonder about how our own system evolved over time in the way it did.  Based on the anecdotal evidence, it seems that the U.S. has always been dependent in some ways on the British scheme of intelligence, as structured in government.  We forget nowadays that, in the longer view, the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA are all fairly recent constructs--the FBI is a little more than 75 years old (although it grew out of the earlier BOI--Bureau of Investigations--created about 25 years previously).  The CIA is only about 65 years old, and the NSA, a mere stripling at 60 years old.

To a considerable degree, we've followed the British model of organization.  The FBI is the analog of MI5, the CIA that of MI6 (thus purportedly separating domestic and foreign intelligence pursuits), with GCHQ originally handling signals intelligence and cryptography for both the military and civilian government, as the NSA has done for much of its existence (the notable exception being that NSA has its mandate as a military operation, with military leadership and funding from military budgets).

We've also followed the British tendency of taking its prime intelligence recruits from elite institutions--Cambridge, Oxford, Eton, Sandhurst, and the like, as our intelligence services are fond of Yale, particularly, and Harvard, and for a time during the Cold War, from elite Catholic universities such as Fordham and Notre Dame, most likely because idealistic young Catholic students might reliably become good Cold Warriors in the fight against godless Communism.

by Bev Harris, Founder of BlackBoxVoting.org

Two vaults being used in a special election for the Florida House were stolen last week. Unbeknownst to the burglars, they were caught on videotape. The vaults contained a voting machine, the electronic storage device containing all early votes cast, and 850 blank ballots. The motive isn't immediately clear, but here is what we know so far.

In this report, I've gathered some of the answers needed to examine how the burglary might have affected the election.

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office released a portion of the surveillance video; more information, contained in the police report, indicates there is additional footage not yet released to the public.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/SdwjiowLWcY