READER COMMENTS ON

"Tale of the Tapes: Wisconsin's 'Dog-and-Pony Show' Faith-Based Supreme Court Election 'Recount'"

(126 Responses so far...)





COMMENT #1 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/20/2011 @ 7:19 am PT...





I was amused when I went to post this at Digg. They provide a number of categories under which an article may be posted. You have to choose one. I wasn't quite sure whether I should post this one under "politics" or "gaming."

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... Jay T said on 5/20/2011 @ 7:42 am PT...





The problem is that no one cares. The supposed left leaning, Main Stream Media certainly is not that. It's much easier to talk about needing picture ID's to vote because that's a nice sound bite. Also, other than this blog, who else heard about Clay County? Exactly. No one cares.

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/20/2011 @ 8:06 am PT...





Is it really "no one cares," Jay T? Or is it that too few who "would care" are aware? Truth matters!

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]

... patginsd said on 5/20/2011 @ 8:26 am PT...





The media is not our friend.

The media cares not a whit about clean transparent verifiable elections.

The Fourth Estate is DEAD.

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]

... karenfromillinois said on 5/20/2011 @ 8:27 am PT...





the gab claims its safe guards the chain of custody but when almost every safe guard is broken it says it does not matter cause look the machine spit out same result i am disappointed you did not touch on the gab going to the attorney general to deny open record requests..every time i hear or read that the gab has "ownership" of the requested paperwork(as i did again yesterday)a chill goes down my spine and 6 weeks after the election the gab has not told the voters of wisconsin the first most important number needed in an audit..how many people voted wisconsin law calls for election results to be accurate(or allows judicial intervention if a more accurate result will be acheived)

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]

... PMom_GA said on 5/20/2011 @ 9:31 am PT...





If nothing else, this just proves absolute incompetence, from the county clerks, the elections staff and the GAB. WI knows what it needs to do - vote 'em all out at the first opportunity. Then, get rid of the machines.

COMMENT #7 [Permalink]

... Alex said on 5/20/2011 @ 9:41 am PT...





We are told that because Wisconsin has paper ballots, we have a verifiable election system, because we can always go back and count the paper to check the computer output. It's bad enough that they make it very difficult legally or politically to have a recount, but if the recount mindset is to verify the original election outcome, not create an outcome independent of the original, then our elections are not verifiable. They are a sham where the gate keepers are only trying the best they can to prove what was originally reported (true or not).

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]

... Jared S. said on 5/20/2011 @ 10:06 am PT...





Unbelievable what is happening here. On top of it all, new voter regulations are being passed all over the country to make it more difficult for left leaning folks to vote. There's no end to the insanity of all this.

COMMENT #9 [Permalink]

... Mary K said on 5/20/2011 @ 10:21 am PT...





We must have exit polling for the next election in Waukesha County. Exit polls are the cross check used around the world to determine true voter intent and accuracy in election reporting.

COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/20/2011 @ 10:39 am PT...





Exit polling simply adds weight to the argument that the numbers had been deliberately skewed, Mary K. They don't change the results. The only way to ensure that the candidate who wins is identical to the candidate who received the most votes is to apply Democracy's Gold Standard--hand-marked paper ballots, publicly hand-counted at the precinct level before the press and all concerned citizens. The towns in New Hampshire that conduct this form of transparent elections complete their hand-counts faster than their machine-counting counterparts. Then again, the machines must be a whole lot smarter than we mere mortal human beings. They're capable of counting all the votes one week before the votes are cast!

COMMENT #11 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/20/2011 @ 11:45 am PT...





A often made disconnect from PMom_GA (@ #6) - "WI knows what it needs to do - vote 'em all out at the first opportunity. Then, get rid of the machines. Um...but WI has to vote on those machines to determine who gets into office that WILL get rid of the machines. ... a Catch 22 that Joseph Heller would have a field day with. Brad. Thank you. I'm *so* relieved to see it all, so meticulously detailed and documented for the whole world to see. And this time, Brad-fly, BEFORE THE RECOUNT IS EVEN OVER! Remarkable turn-around time considering the complexity of these EGREGIOUS "irregularities" we're getting from all over the wards in WI that had so many "problems". (Can't believe how much stuff is in here that I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT! HOLY WhhAAA!) This piece is beeauuuuutifully framed, Brad. I don't know how you managed to pull that off. It's long, I know...but it's still too short.

(*maybe more later on the foia stonewalls from the GAB, as Karen suggests? Cuz she's right...that's been GOB-SMACKING. And I mean every single one of those caps.) Great job, Brad. SO relieved, so grateful. Whew. Now I can go down for a nappy! Maybe even a swift shot of vodky before hand. Now let's all "tell it to Maddow", BradTribe. We are conducting a coordinated effort to POUND HER FACEBOOK COMMUNITY PAGE (where you can post links and photos as well as commments) here: https://www.facebook.com...w/109539659076817?ref=ts

COMMENT #12 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/20/2011 @ 11:49 am PT...





And you might suggest she have Brad Friedman on her show to discuss this further, break it wide BEFORE the critical-to-us-all upcoming WI RECALL ELECTIONS - all taking place on one damn day - JULY 13th. (12th?) ...I would be very surprised if she's allowed to cover it. I share the skepticism of most of us here on that. But if she even looks at ONE PIC of these ballot bags (hallo? DUCT TAPE?!) - I don't think she'll be able to look away. It might inform her coverage in ways we can't predict...

thanks, my Brad-peeps!

COMMENT #13 [Permalink]

... Randy D said on 5/20/2011 @ 1:12 pm PT...





Jeannie Dean, you captured my thoughts exactly on the "vote them out, then change the machines" logical fallacy. As far as Rachel Maddow covering this, I think it is possible. Olbermann was the only television news broadcast to cover the irregularities in Ohio in 2004.

COMMENT #14 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/20/2011 @ 1:49 pm PT...





I hope Rachel will cover this but I'm skeptical. In a piece the other night about how successful politicians go out there and pound the flesh shaking everybody's hand(leading up to a report on Gingrich's difficulties the first day he tried this)she cited Bush's successful campaign of 2004. As I usually do when anyone on TV makes a direct or indirect reference to George Bush winning any presidential election, I objected out loud to the TV that Bush did not win that election. I don't think Rachel heard me. It's confounding that she acts like she doesn't know much about this(election integrity issues) or that it doesn't matter. I don't get it.

COMMENT #15 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/20/2011 @ 2:07 pm PT...





My sweet, sweet wonderful David Lasagna ~! (how you've been on my mind and HOW I WISH YOU WOULD FACEBOOK!) - and to ALL my favorite, but crusty, EI Brad-blog tribe - behold the RACHEL MADDOW show from April 8th: http://youtu.be/Vr_8Z8YREjQ RE: "smelling a pattern in these mysterious, last minute Republican victories..." GREAT BACKGROUND report re: Kathy Nicolaus' criminal history / "found" 7500 votes / and all kinds of juicy details reported IN DEPTH, BY RACHEL, you guys. FWIW, this recount is *really* different. I know we're all heart-broken... But do get over there, please, no matter how skeptical. We have a real shot with this one, you guys.

It's the kind of bad recount that comes along once in a ... well, never.

It comes along once in a never.

It's the UNICORN of bad recounts, my peeps.

And the stakes have never been higher...for us *all*. Please help us support WISCONSIN.

It's most urgent. Gotta run now to a glam hollywood party that I don't give a flying, crapping rat about. PLSE TELL RACHEL. AND DIGG / REDDIT / RETWEET THIS MO' FO FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!!!

COMMENT #16 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/20/2011 @ 2:11 pm PT...





...and THIS from Rachel on April 10th: http://youtu.be/lGM5LE33nnw (might have the info on these backwards...but this one covers Kathy Nicholaus' BIZARRO world PRESSER, where she was just so strange I'd LOVE to hear a body language expert weigh in....do we know any? Cuz her VOICE is wavering...) You guys, she already gets it! Now let's see if MSNBC will AIR what Brad had reported. It could really happen.

COMMENT #17 [Permalink]

... ProtectOurElections said on 5/20/2011 @ 2:15 pm PT...





From this excellent article: At this hour, with approximately 21,500 votes still being canvassed from the Waukesha "recount", there are 7,008 votes now said to be dividing the two candidates. If an appeal were held today, the Kloppenburg campaign would need to show that just 3,504 votes for Prosser, out of the 1.5 million cast in the election, are "irregular" or "defective" enough in some fashion that, if they were excluded from the results, there is a good "probability of an altered outcome" in the election. There are approximately 3,600 "reporting units" in the state. Which means that less than one flipped vote per reporting unit would be enough to change the outcome of the election. Yet, according to the GAB's statement linked in the article: G.A.B. staff has created an internal review process to check each ward’s recount totals against the original canvass totals to look for variances of plus or minus 10 votes. Any ward in which 10 more or 10 fewer votes are reported is flagged by staff for follow-up with the county clerk for an explanation of the reason. So far, we have found no significant, unexplained variances of vote totals. Staff will continue to review Waukesha County’s results as they come in each day until the recount is complete. So a ward can have a variance of nine votes without being flagged, there is often more than one ward in a reporting unit, and, I repeat, only one vote per reporting unit flipped from Kloppenburg to Prosser would be enough to reverse the results of the election. But, of course, that's not important enough for the G.A.B. to determine even deserves "an explanation."

COMMENT #18 [Permalink]

... zapkitty said on 5/20/2011 @ 3:54 pm PT...





Off-topic but very relevant... If it's actual voter fraud it must be a GOP operative... and this time it's in Wisconsin: http://host.madison.com/...0-a6e0-001cc4c03286.html ... and no, the new WI voter suppression law would not have stopped her from doing this.

COMMENT #19 [Permalink]

... Dennis Kern said on 5/20/2011 @ 4:05 pm PT...





To: Nathaniel E. Robinson, Elections Division administrator If you are so interested in “enforcing the election, ethics, lobbying and campaign finance laws vigorously to reduce the opportunity for corruption and maintain public confidence in representative government”, then why did Kathy Nickolaus have unfettered access to the vote bags, machines, and software during the course of the Waukesha recount? She admitted in a phone conversation on Thursday May 19 that, not only did she have all the votes stored in her vault, but also made a special area in her office for them.

COMMENT #20 [Permalink]

... Jon5 said on 5/20/2011 @ 5:26 pm PT...





The voters in Wisconsin will accept this because it just makes people too uncomfortable to face the fact they no longer have any control over their government. They would rather focus on the recall elections but for the life of me I have no idea why they think the results of those will be any different. This is not even artful stealing of an election. I am starting to think even if Prosser and Nickolaus were caught on video stuffing ballot bags on election night it would be explained away as getting an early start on the recount.

COMMENT #21 [Permalink]

... art guerrilla said on 5/20/2011 @ 5:46 pm PT...





um, i realize i'm an old fogey, but facebook is evil...

the *IDEA* of facebook is great, but they are compromised, and so are you if you are on it...

i know there is at least one open software solution that is addressing that (diaspora), but it will depend on a critical mass of people using it before facebook is relegated to sheeple who don't know better...

again, i realize it is an excellent organizing tool for activists, but it is also a one-stop intelligence gathering windfall for the feebs, etc...

just sayin'...

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

artguerrilla@windstream.net

eof

COMMENT #22 [Permalink]

... karen said on 5/20/2011 @ 6:30 pm PT...





that the GAB allows those fed ex mail type plastic bags as "secure" ballot boxes is ridiculous...the duct tape bag is one of two things, both horrible...either bag was accidentally ripped open when being handled with no one signing witness to the event or it was sliced open and votes rigged and then taped back together....ballots should be in secure sealed containers that can not be opened accidentally and can not be opened without ruining tamper proof seal...anything less than that is height of incompetence and I would contend planned to allow rigging

COMMENT #23 [Permalink]

... Justin said on 5/21/2011 @ 2:54 am PT...





Looks like it is up to Kloppenburg now as to whether to challenge the recount and the open ballot bags, now might be the time to let her know the considered opinion of people who have been watching this: http://www.jsonline.com/...epolitics/122364728.html

COMMENT #24 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 5:47 am PT...





Yes, Ernie, "truth matters". That is why we have these "truth wars" where words and machines fight for the local truth, where ever it may be. It is getting more and more difficult to tell if "might makes right" or "right makes might", but what is clear is that they both produce the same result.

COMMENT #25 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/21/2011 @ 5:59 am PT...





No, Dredd. The truth is the truth. The fact that you're having trouble spotting it because the air is so thick with BS does not change that basic reality.

COMMENT #26 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 10:38 am PT...





Ernie, @25 Ah, the beloved altruism. "My truth is better than your truth." Truthers Rule! For example, once upon a time the great minds in California led the fight, sterilizing more people (thousands upon thousands) than Texas (0) which eventually led to the holocaust (Link). "The term "siren song" refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad result." It isn't that I am "having trouble spotting it", it is just that I am skeptical of anyone who demands that their truth is the only truth (the ultimate BS BTW).

COMMENT #27 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 11:22 am PT...





"My Truth Is No Better Than Your Truth" (Public Defender Blog)

COMMENT #28 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/21/2011 @ 2:16 pm PT...





Oooh! ZAP! Good post. From the article you linked to at #18: "Petryk, Malszycki's boss, is one of several co-sponsors of the controversial voter ID bill that passed the Senate Thursday. In a post on Facebook the day of the 2010 general election, Malszycki said she had voted for GOP candidates Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, Dan Kapanke, Mike Huebsch and J.B. Van Hollen and planned to return to her South Side neighborhood the next day." ...ya don't say?

COMMENT #29 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/21/2011 @ 3:24 pm PT...





Dredd wrote @26: Ah, the beloved altruism. "My truth is better than your truth." So truth is a possession? Me thinks, Dredd, that capitalism has had an adverse impact on your thought processes.

COMMENT #30 [Permalink]

... Vic Anderson said on 5/21/2011 @ 4:45 pm PT...





Obvious FRAUD demands a REVOTE!

COMMENT #31 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/21/2011 @ 6:38 pm PT...





FTA: violations of chain of custody are of little concern [to the GAB]. So long as the newly tabulated results largely match the results printed on the poll tapes by the computer tabulators at the end of Election Night on April 5th, that is, essentially, close enough for government work. That's just great, GAB! So, what guarantees do we have that the individuals responsible for wide-open, re-taped and remarked ballot bags did not (a) manipulate the memory cards, as academic study after academic study and Hacking Democracy demonstrate can be done by a malicious insider with minimal access to the system, and then (b) stuffed the ballots to match the manipulated opt-scan results? None, of course. While we can't say for certain that insiders manipulated the results, what we can say is that the massive chain-of-custody violations are precisely the type of cover-up any reasonable person would expect to see if unlawful insider manipulation of the e-voting systems had taken place. In the face of such massive irregularity, the suggestion that those who did not have insider access prove that fraud was committed behind closed doors is patently absurd, though it does suggest just how far down the rabbit hole our electoral system has traveled.

COMMENT #32 [Permalink]

... Sandy Byrne said on 5/21/2011 @ 6:52 pm PT...





all of these irregularities need to be exposed in the media - there is no way anyone in their right mind could rule out deliberate tampering of this election with all of these anomalies, therefore the election itself has ABSOLUTELY NO INTEGRITY - should be challenged in court, and a re-vote should happen and hand-counted if need be to protect the VALIDITY OF DEMOCRACY ITSELF!

I still do not understand how Prosser can claim a win and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel can report this - with all of these oddities as mentioned in the Brad Blog. So is the Earth flat and not a sphere just because it appears that way, and some people may want to believe that, even though our research into science and mathematics tell us otherwise, come on!!!

COMMENT #33 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/21/2011 @ 8:18 pm PT...





#32 "I still do not understand how Prosser can claim a win and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel can report this." Esp. with the job that he was supposedly voted into. Deciding cases lower courts could or didn't handle properly. Irony is so ironical. Would be interested in knowing how closely this recount is being followed in Wisconsin. All the effort that went into the protests seems to have dropped off the radar screen of the progressive websites and Democracy Now.Quite suddenly and inexplicably , or not.

COMMENT #34 [Permalink]

... JACQUELINE JANECKE said on 5/21/2011 @ 8:35 pm PT...





UNBELIEVABLE BRAD! i'm hopeful that this gets the exposure we all know it needs and desperately deserves. thanks for serving the cause --- it feels like such a dark hour in wisconsin --- but i'm hoping your article makes the rounds and people begin to wake up. and hopefully the powers that be will be exposed afterall. we have QUITE a case....thank you for pulling it ALL together. i'm amazed at how accurate and complete this is. thank you from the bottom of my heart.

COMMENT #35 [Permalink]

... ian fairchild said on 5/21/2011 @ 9:48 pm PT...





If Democrats were concerned at all about the integrity of the electoral system, then your objections might have more merit, but as it stands it is easier to vote than buy Sudafed, thanks to Democratic policies. Go figure. Within the admittedly loose standards, it appears the 'Pubs have won. Let it rest. "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE"

COMMENT #36 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 10:07 pm PT...





Ernie @29, Yes, capitalism has had an impact on my thought processes, just like it has had on yours. But what that has on truth being a possession escapes me. Could you elaborate on that?

COMMENT #37 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 10:09 pm PT...





Ernie @29, Yes, capitalism has had an impact on my thought processes, just like it has had on yours. But what effect that has on truth being a possession escapes me. Could you elaborate on that?

COMMENT #38 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 10:10 pm PT...





Sorry for stuttering Ernie, it is just that I talk too fast sometimes.

COMMENT #39 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/21/2011 @ 10:12 pm PT...





"My Truth Is No Better Than Your Truth" (Public Defender Blog)

COMMENT #40 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/22/2011 @ 5:30 am PT...





"Worse, if the results printed on the poll tapes are the ultimate proof of the accuracy of results, what happens when --- as discovered among poll tapes from the City of Pewaukee in Waukesha County late last week --- the "recount" uncovers "Official Results Report" poll tapes dated a full seven days before the actual election was held?" This Wisconsin episode seems to be a public nightmare more than it seems to be an adult election.

COMMENT #41 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/22/2011 @ 5:53 am PT...





(#35) ~ Er...Kloppenburg is an *INDEPENDENT* candidate, so nice try with the false LEFT paradigm, but it doesn't work for this race. Guessing you weren't told that as part of your "disinfo trolling" training. Should be in the handbook. Might wanna E-MEMO your bosses (and cc you're co-workers, while you're at it.)

COMMENT #42 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/22/2011 @ 6:10 am PT...





Harold Camping ("end of the world on 5/21") is blaming a Diebold machine for his date calculation, pointing out that the Diebold machine's date was a week off. "Die bold" is their new saying ...

COMMENT #43 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/22/2011 @ 6:14 am PT...





Jeannie @41, Good eye. Have you read The 25 Rules of Disinformation? It is a good read. Election officialdom and their minions seem to have disinfo mastered.

COMMENT #44 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/22/2011 @ 6:39 am PT...





Dear Jeannie Dean @15- Thanks for the love! As for the Rachel shows you link, I know about them, I saw them. They were great as far as they went but what I mean by her not covering election integrity issues is that she doesn't really connect the dots the way our young master Bradford does time and time again. She doesn't lay out the fundamental flaws of the machines, the oh so many ways they can be fucked with, the oh so many instances that would seem to indicate that they HAVE been fucked with(or not worked for one reason or another), chain of custody problems, etc. You know, the basic nature of the problem of our(lack of) election integrity. She doesn't explain how thoroughly unreliable, undemocratic, and faith based ALL of our elections currently are. And so of course failing to do all that, she doesn't HARP on the topic as she does with so many other issues that she cares about. The enormity of the problem is thus missed. The ongoing nature of the problem is thus missed. The fact that as a result of how completely compromised our elections are we are living in a banana republic is missed. And that these largely unmentioned problems make it well nigh impossible to effect the change she would like to see and works so hard to bring about on all the other issues she covers so brilliantly is missed.

COMMENT #45 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/22/2011 @ 6:57 am PT...





David @44, "She [Maddow] doesn't explain how thoroughly unreliable, undemocratic, and faith based ALL of our elections currently are" ... That is a key. It would be so good if we could convince people of that. People are angry at each other because the voting public thinks "the other guy" votes stupidly. We activists think, instead, that conclusion is based on an unknown, because we are unwilling to swallow the conflicting, murky results with a strong dose of blind faith. We want to KNOW because we want to base our understanding on knowledge instead of the election faith. The way Brad lays this one out should shake the faith of some, and we should be here to help them by letting them know we have been there in the early pain and we are still standing. Still standing and demanding that government get back to the golden basics of paper ballots properly counted in strictly protected public events where the evidence (ballots) are handled like our nation depended on it (it does). Ernie is correct that there is only one truth (a number) for each election, and that truth is the faithless, knowledge based true arithmetic ... the true tally. But floating above all that is this dark cloud of a notion that faith in election priests leads to the truth. But to the contrary we plainly see that the faith leads to the republican truth, the democratic truth, the independent truth, and all the banter about "my truth is better than your truth". Like you said "The fact that as a result of how completely compromised our elections are we are living in a banana republic is missed."

COMMENT #46 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/22/2011 @ 7:55 am PT...





Here's a little exercise, Dredd: Truth = Objective Reality Accepted truth: JFK was assassinated in Dallas, TX. Only one of these alternative scenarios can be truth. A. Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK. He acted alone. B. Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK. He acted in concert with one or more individuals. C. Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill JFK. One or more other individuals did. Acquisition of sufficient facts to determine whether (A), (B) or (C) is true results in knowledge. Knowledge = Discovered Truth. The fact that different individuals, without sufficient facts, believe either (A), (B) or (C) to be true does not alter the fact that only one of those three possibilities can be true. Truth, as an objective reality, is a constant. The fact that inadequately informed individuals hold different theories as to what is true does not mean that each individual "possesses" a different truth. It simply means they are not in possession of sufficient evidence to know the truth.

COMMENT #47 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/22/2011 @ 1:10 pm PT...





#44 The partial truth in shows like Rachel's is the reason that I stopped looking at the news programs on TV..eventually stopped looking at all of it. TV got awfully boring.Truth is so much more interesting.

COMMENT #48 [Permalink]

... Sark said on 5/23/2011 @ 5:23 am PT...





DRE voting machines with a paper trail are used in my area. The first time I voted using the DRE, I was told not to worry about that print out on the side; that it was just in-case they needed to do a recount and that they could always print another one. I had spent hundreds of hours and dollars trying to keep DRE voting machines out of my state so I knew this poll worker had been fed the local board of elections propaganda. I know the numbers are small but it would be interesting if there was a way to find any of the voters that voted using the machines that produced blank paper trails and see what they have to say. Any trained poll worker would have known something was wrong that needed to be fixed before the machine was used for voting. Also, I thought that the machines were to have something in place to prevent the paper from being put in backwards. All voters that had to use the machine should have been informed about the paper trail and to notify a poll worker if there was nothing printing. Again, I know the numbers here are small but because states have laws saying that if there is no paper print trail the machine can just print one, I am concerned. Look what happened in the SC senate race which I think was a clear case of seeing exactly how much election fraud could take place and and be upheld.

*OT*

I am also concerned that the use of internet voting is slowly and steadily advancing.

http://thevotingnews.com...on-takoma-park-md-patch/

It would be helpful if all voters refused to vote via the internet. I think they would refuse if they knew how easily their vote could be manipulated.

Peace,

Sark

COMMENT #49 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/23/2011 @ 7:25 am PT...





One other comment on Rachel-- The biggest red flag of all that Rachel Maddow is not on board with reality vis a vis our current state of no election integrity occurred last week. In the course of some report, as one piece of evidence to support the point she was making, she mentioned that Alvin Greene had won in South Carolina. As if that actually happened as reported. With no hanky panky. My heart sank. We all have our blind spots. For one of hers to be our faith-based election systems is very weird. I used to write her and Olbermann comments and appeals to look at election integrity issues, Sibel Edmonds, etc. Never heard anything back. Never knew if anything was getting through in the slightest. Tried twice to join her comment club but I'm so awkward and unskilled with computers and it seemed like they wanted you to jump through a infinite series of hoops, I said, fuck it. Maybe I should go back and try to get on their comment blog site or whatever. Maybe a lot of us should. And politely, insistantly, relentlessly bring up our election issues until it gets up the chain to Rachel.

COMMENT #50 [Permalink]

... Alan8 said on 5/23/2011 @ 9:56 am PT...





This is totally unacceptable in a democracy. The Democratic Party bears some of the blame for their consistent refusal to investigate the numerous credible reports of Republican vote-counting fraud over the last decade. The election must be done over, with paper trails, observers, and exit polls.

COMMENT #51 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/23/2011 @ 10:24 am PT...





Ernie @46, Anyone can reach overall truth, but very few if any, reach "The Truth". Thus, "The Truth" is the province of an extremely small number of people, the rest of us clinging to our version because it is all we have available. So it is really a fools errand to espouse "The Truth". Even in higher mathematics, the province of the provable, the greats have proven that it is not the realm it is cranked up to be. Consider Gödel, Penrose, and Turing's undecidable realm. In a sense "faith and many truths" is far safer than the Orwellian concept of "The Truth", which comes only with having "The Power" to declare "The Truth". I think it is a rule that to the degree one espouses "The Truth" is the degree to which one is weak in higher math, and the degree to which one is an authoritarian. That being said, my truth is no better than your truth.

COMMENT #52 [Permalink]

... Chris Ar said on 5/23/2011 @ 10:55 am PT...





I am shocked at this right wing conspiracy to give Kloppenburg even more votes. Prosser is an evil genius.

COMMENT #53 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/23/2011 @ 11:38 am PT...





Next election, Print your own tape with your own date. The media won't cover it anyway. The courts don't care. Problem solved. Oh waait..

COMMENT #54 [Permalink]

... James150 said on 5/23/2011 @ 11:55 am PT...





This is absolute garbage and a wast of the readers time. Try some science fiction site . . .their fantasy stories are much better. Nothing to see here . . .move along . . .nothing to see here . . .Prosser won. we comon sense people knew that on election nite . . .nothing to see . . .move along . . .move along . . . (gotta heard the idiots out of here before they take up residence or hurt themselves)

COMMENT #55 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/23/2011 @ 12:34 pm PT...





One story has it that the election has now been certified, Prosser truth wins.

COMMENT #56 [Permalink]

... Time4Reality said on 5/23/2011 @ 12:44 pm PT...





Let's take a page from Wisconsin. Let's keep recounting until Klop wins! Hey it worked in Minnesota...

COMMENT #57 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/23/2011 @ 1:54 pm PT...





#49 "Maybe I should go back and try to get on their comment blog site or whatever. Maybe a lot of us should. And politely, insistantly, relentlessly bring up our election issues until it gets up the chain to Rachel." Maybe we all should. It has worked in places like Egypt,Tunisia and now Spain. The people are fed up. I think that there is a lot of effort to keep election fraud out of the news and on progressive web sites by those who steal the votes.. Noticed that Amy Goodman covered the demonstrations well in Wisconsin, then went to foreign news. This SC election in Wisconsin is just as important as the demonstrations. Kudos to Daily Kos for covering some of the inconsistencies.

COMMENT #58 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 1:58 pm PT...





Dear wonderful, tenacious, rightly cynical and slightly crusty fellow Brad-villians: Please believe me when I tell you that we have compiled more inculpatory evidence of criminal malfeasance / ballot tampering / election fraud by a group of co-conspirators along with their "so called" independent Genaral Accounting Board than we've ever had on record. And I am keeping meticulous records. You can see a full cached collection of evidence received / photographed by WI RECOUNT volunteers, documented here (Ballot / poll tape / FOIA /irregularities and handwriting samples)... Bradpeeps, you won't believe your eyes: https://www.facebook.com...4784.328197.308145459783 ...I have also set up a permanent cache of

COMMENT #59 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 2:08 pm PT...





(con'd) ...the statistically and demographic anomalies from WI RECOUNT, compiled in helpful graphs and charts, here: https://www.facebook.com...4784.328256.308145459783 Again, very worth while to view - don't make me spank you. You guys, the impossible math is lining up PRECISELY with where the ground reports are coming in re: bad ballot bags, mismatched serial numbers, missing seal numbers from inspectors' reports, anomalous poll tape time stamps, more votes than voters...it's an unprecedented ground up CITIZEN INVESTIGATION we're conducting, and we *should* have more than enough to give Klopp some real steam should she choose to contest... Remember, Klopp only needs to prove that 3504 ballots are "irregular" enough for evidentiary consideration that they may have changed the outcome of this election. Well, if ever there was enough evidence of that, we have it. It's already over. They forced the fit in time for certification, but there will be far too much evidence of a (potential) crime, and MORE than enough evidence to throw the results of this election....and it's RECOUNT, into question. A botched recount like this one? Never. Ever. Happens. It's a glorious opportunity to seize, and I urge you all, no matter how skeptical, to bear witness: https://www.facebook.com...sk=group_197815633590513 Dael Esher, KarenfromIllinois, Emily Levy, Sally Castleman and Richard Charnin could really really use some expert EI help over there. We can't keep up with the feed, anymore.

COMMENT #60 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/23/2011 @ 2:19 pm PT...





Thank you Jeannie Dean for all your hard work. You have cheered me up today with having so much evidence. Firedoglake has a post up about the Posser win. Little acknowledgement that there might have been some recount problems. One comment was interesting. Kloppenburg signed Franken’s legal team ~ looks like she’s gonna need ‘em. I hope she takes it all the way. Because it stinks to high heaven.

COMMENT #61 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/23/2011 @ 2:56 pm PT...





The ironically monickered "Time4Reality" (taking his/her time) said @ 56: Let's take a page from Wisconsin. Let's keep recounting until Klop wins! Hey it worked in Minnesota... Are you suggesting there were mountains of documented irregularities in Minnesota?! We covered the MN "recount" in great detail here, but appeared to have missed, um, all of them. So please do us the favor of offering links to that documentation so we can investigate and report here ASAP! Unless, of course, you're pulling that charge completely and entirely out of your ass. Thanks in advance!

COMMENT #62 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:08 pm PT...





Wrong again, Dredd. I never discussed some all encompassing "Truth." I'll leave that to the mystics. I am speaking about ascertainable truth. The kind of truth that can be verified, scientifically. For example, it is a likely truth that one of these two Supreme Court candidates actually received more votes than the other --- the likelihood of a flat out tie being remote. The problem is not the reality of that truth but an opaque voting system that is not geared for universal ascertainment of that truth. We know that e-voting systems can be gamed by insiders. We have a number of facts that "suggest" that the system was gamed, especially given the massive post-election irregularities that the insiders would prefer not be examined. The fact is that, outside of those who may have committed election fraud, there is no way for most of us to ascertain "the truth" --- that either Kloppenburg or Prosser actually received the most votes. That doesn't alter the fact that there is "a truth" --- that one of the two candidates actually received the most votes. It just means that this particular truth may never be verified. (Under Democracy's Gold Standard --- hand-marked paper ballots, publicly hand-counted before the media, candidates and voters on election night, that truth would have been easily ascertained and no "recount" would have been necessary.) Truth is a constant. Ascertainment of the truth is the variable. Ya dig?

COMMENT #63 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:16 pm PT...





Ernest @62, In New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932), the great Justice Brandeis said that the states are experiments, free to find their own truth that would be different than the truth of the other states. The federal government would mediate, in a sense, and have the greater truth that those 50 experiments ("states") could not violate. There is truth and there is truth. I am fine with yours. I am fine with mine.

COMMENT #64 [Permalink]

... rvrctyrdnck said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:23 pm PT...





So if you are a judge and you go elected with tainted votes how could you possibly rule on tainted evidence? Imagine a scenario where the defense has proven beyond a shadow of doubt that the chain of custody has been violated. Now imagine that same attorney asking judge Prosser to recues himself for because he had an ESTABLISHED disregard for the in viability of the entire concept! If Wisconsin voters have to put up with him for 10 more years man oh man would I love to see this case come before his court and watch him squirm and try to get out of that one!

COMMENT #65 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:29 pm PT...





Adding: *AND*, fyi, as if catching up to them via Richard Charnin' (TIA) and KarenfromIllinois' sacred math isn't enough! For the first time we're seeing statistical verification of the bad "official results" and how that reporting lines up with the chain of custody breaches in the wards of interest. You guys we're onto 'em in real time! And as if you need more juicy news to whet your whistle for the WI WONK...check out our trolls! Ask yourself, why so screetchy? (And even more dumb than normal)...have their forced narrative / regular BOGUS defensive talking points been THROWN OFF by just how badly this recount has gone? And, more importantly, can we outnumber them on the new media feeds / social networking sites just this one time? 3 trolls in this thread...

many more of us. RELATED: Watch how the PROSSER-heads / vendors normal lines are changing...used to always be: "There is no evidence (that the machines failed, that votes were mistallied) publically villainizing any challenger who has rightfully requested a recount in a super-squirly election with questionable results... Well, they're changing up their lines.

And not everyone seems to be getting the memo.

Our trolls here, proof! (Dredd, SOoooOO funny that they ACUTALLY HAVE A MANUAL! I was kidding about that. LOL!!)

COMMENT #66 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:39 pm PT...





"Tell it to Rachel", here via her FB community page: https://www.facebook.com...l-Maddow/109539659076817 FOLLOW her and POUND HER with TWEETS, here:

http://twitter.com/#!/MSNBCRachel

COMMENT #67 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:47 pm PT...





Adding Rachel Maddow's FB show page (more members / same posting options, best one to use, probably,) here: https://www.facebook.com/therachelmaddowshow We've also been hitting up my Comedy Clown Satire Activst GODS Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. As Dorothy Fadiman's amazing doc "STEALING AMERICA: VOTE BY VOTE" points out, they have been the source of the best, and most accurate, info on election fraud to date. "Let's get Brad on Colbert", here:

https://www.facebook.com/thecolbertreport Website:

http://www.colbertnation.com/ Stephen's PERSONAL FB page (limted features for posting, but you can message him) here: https://www.facebook.com...-Colbert/105550416146299 (The above links, which, fyi, is read by his staff / farmed for fun stuff to use on the show, so GREAT ones to hit up) THE DAILY SHOW Community FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow THE DAILY SHOW FORUM:

http://forums.thedailyshow.com/ ...k! That's a start! (Oh, and hi, Trolls. Might as well join us. You're outnumbered this time.)

COMMENT #68 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 3:53 pm PT...





Oh, and plse DIGG / REDDIT / TWEET / help circulate this one, if you can (or even if you won't) PLEASE.

When tweeting it, use Brad's direct TWEET button so we can ping it up into the most tweeted... Use hashtags #WIVOTE, #WIRECOUNT, #WIRECALL and ESPECIALLY #WIUNION. Thanks in advance, BradTribe!

xoxox! (Thanks, Molly! - Means a LOT.)

COMMENT #69 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/23/2011 @ 7:48 pm PT...





Why would I want to go to such a disgustingly fascist corrupt list creating website? Facebook Spy

Facebook Spyware

Facebook Spy app

Facebook Spying

Facebook Spydetector

Facebook Spy software

Facebook Spy viewer

Facebook Spy browser

Facebook Spybrowser account

Facebook data

Facebook data mining

Facebook data worm

Facebook exploit

Facebook exploit 2011

Facebook financials

Facebook financial statements

Facebook finance

Facebook Financial Records

Facebook Financial statement

Facebook Financial Reports

Facebook Financial aid

Facebook Financial model

Facebook Goldman Sacs

Facebook's $50 Billion Goldman Goldmine

Facebook CIA

Facebook CIA Front

Facebook CIA Connection

Facebook CIA Funded

Facebook DHS Comment policy

Facebook TSA share your photos

Facebook lawsuit

Facebook Lawsuit settlements

Facebook Lawsuit Privacy

Facebook Lawsuit CFO

Facebook Leaked

Facebook Data leak

Facebook Authentication leak

Facebook Two-Factor Login authentication Such a solid foundation for taking down internal corruption in government.

COMMENT #70 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/23/2011 @ 7:51 pm PT...





[PDF]

Facebook Subpoena / Search Warrant Guidelines - Cryptome http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/facebook-spy.pdf What could possibly go wrong?

COMMENT #71 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/23/2011 @ 8:23 pm PT...





Ugh. Nevermind.

COMMENT #72 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/23/2011 @ 10:26 pm PT...





Dearest Jeannie Dean, Special thanks, praise, and love to you and all the others working so hard in Wisconsin on all that stuff. Give Sally Castleman a squeeze for me. (I used to be her elf.) much love,

Dave

COMMENT #73 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 5:30 am PT...





I feel the seething angers building, get mad, go ahead, it's long overdue, every American ought to be seething. Jeannie Dean is not bad, Facebook is. When playing the masters game under master's rules, expect defeat every time.

COMMENT #74 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 5:47 am PT...





Why is is so hard to contact Rachel or Colbert? Are they even real people? They are not my friends, I don't even know them. If they can't talk like a normal person then what's the point? My opinion is their for profit shows are more important than reality on the ground. Why just in 2011 should they help? Have they helped in 2010? 2009? 2008? I am sorry, but I don't see it. I haven't seen justice in our elections for a decade, and I've actually seen deception where I looking beyond a decade. So go ahead play the big media game but remember, it's a lost battle when you play within the masters game using master's rules. The only thing left is to shake up their entire game. That means facing down the BS wherever it resides. They have us running in ignorance and fear, but they ultimately fear being faced down. I won't say go get a facebook account, because I know the truth about facebook.

COMMENT #75 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/24/2011 @ 7:40 am PT...





Dear Tra La, Trouble for me with the part where your message has truth in it is that it's so hard to make out because of the rest of your attitude which seems mostly comprised of gloom, doom, and dismissiveness for ideas not close enough to your own. It seems to me that there have been plenty of instances when revolutions DID occur in places where tyranny was the rule of thumb. It also seems to me that there is no single universal recipe for what is successful in bringing about such change. I think we're pretty aware here of how fucked up things are and the odds against us, so preaching to us about that just comes across as a bit of a nag, which doesn't help. For me, the smart play is to try to fight back on ALL fronts. To go at the tapestry of dysfunction at any place that we're personally moved to. There's plenty of room and work for everyone. If you don't think Colbert, Stewart, and Maddow have been helping raise consciousness around here that's your business. But on that particular aspect of what's been discussed here, you're living in a different reality than I.

COMMENT #76 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 8:39 am PT...





Oh they have raised conscious, but they re-phrase everything in dumb ed down speak. They can't fire off real questions which go directly to the heart, cause they will be unemployed. I can write Brad, and he'll respond. I can't write them. They blacklist just like CAFR. It's a game, the networks own it, but the establishment makes the rules. Such rules mean employment or the street for the players. A game You can't win. Maybe it will take another decade for this truth to come through to you. Meanwhile, It's already reality for me. There is something to what you say on fighting on all fronts, just don't play "their game" So, break their game, it's long overdue, and no longer sustainable. How is it I can write to a band and get a reply, but when it comes to the media, abc, cbs, fox, pbs, nbc or to my senators the reply is fake BS? They are NOT my friends. I don't know them, nor do I agree with their half measures, or half ass bs. The big picture is reality. That big picture for me is the destruction of everything I swore an oath to protect. Did I waste my time serving this country? Or am I serving it right this second?

COMMENT #77 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 8:49 am PT...





The doom and gloom is a simple search technique. I propose to anyone thinking about a facebook account, they get a blank paper, and draw a line down the middle, on the left side put what is bad about facebook, on the right put what's a beneficial. I'll bet the left column will outweigh the right. Sure facebook and twitter (might as well start adding them all in) was great for Tunisia, even Egypt, but America isn't Egypt nor Tunisia. I hope you see what I am saying.

COMMENT #78 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 9:31 am PT...





Dear TRA LA LA LA LA ~ Read you here a lot, have for years. Thank you *so* much for your service to our country...as I know how bright you are, I can only imagine how what you know now distorts the good, decent, patriotic reasons you served. You write: "Sure facebook and twitter (might as well start adding them all in) was great for Tunisia, even Egypt, but America isn't Egypt nor Tunisia." No, it's not. But WISCONSIN might be.

As a student of the TWITTER REVOLUTION in Iran after their stolen election in 2009, and an obsessive witness in Tunisia, Egypt, and now Wisconsin - there's more cross-over there than you might realize. (In fact, remember when the people of Egypt bought PIZZA for the protestors occupying the WI capital? Those connections are still in place.) You wouldn't BELIEVE what's happening in Wisconsin; they are daily under SEIGE (voter ID just passed last week, making it that much harder for students / the elderly and the poor to vote in the upcoming, critical recall elections) in addition to everything else that's being rammed through under what is likely an unelected body of representation. Just because it's not on our news feed right now, WI has NOT stopped fighting. Right now they're fighting ALONE. When those revolutions you speak of were in process, being swept in on a wave of new media and citizen journalism; the TWEETS ahead of the news, the news confirming what I watched uploaded by "new friends" on the ground there in real time...! I posted here at Bradblog - thrilled with the implications of what was happening, how these tools could be used to help us in OUR next stolen election. Everyone here shit all over it. Told me TWEETING for for 'TARDS...that I was operating on an INSECURE SITE; that I was wasting my time...and even to "GET OVER IT, AHMADINIJAD WON!" (Former moderator here) I couldn't believe it. And so, not surprisingly, everyone here missed one of the biggest stories of the year...missed an opportunity to fight alongside the Iranian people, comporting themselves with such grace under fire (literally) after experiencing OUR cause de vivre; a people under siege who were only asking us for ONE THING: to bear witness. And everyone here blew the (and me) off. I was so pissed at this group about that, my Bradblogians, my tribe for not caring - I didn't comment here for months... It was an incredibly cynical reaction to a beautiful uprising, and this community, who KNOWS STOLEN ELECTIONS and obsessively reads up on them...did NOTHING. And outside of you - very few readers here EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED in IRAN. (So glad you do, btw. Encouraged to read that in light of your above comments...)

COMMENT #79 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 9:48 am PT...





Look, I hate FACEBOOK. I KNOW what the limitations are, BELIEVE ME, TRA LA. We've already had some really creepy..er...glitches. That's not the point. We have a BRIEF WINDOW (very brief) to use the technology to our advantage before it's TOTALLY unavailable. It's the best tool we have to organize / mobilize huge ground to top networking in real time that ALLOWS us a way around the maddening media... ...and for now, at least, it can have real impact. The model for social networking you describe above is EXACTLY the model we are using FB for FOR THE TIME BEING. ...and I don't care if they SPY ON ME. I'm already on every list there is. (Had K9 units assigned to my ELECTION INVESTIGATION in NH, trying to keep me from filming their ballot stuffing operation) so you'll forgive me if I'm beyond caring about "insecure" social networking sites. I, for one, am tired of fighting from a cage. So I don't give a flying crapping rat if they can see us figuring them out and try intimidate us. Only means we're close, and they're scared. Too many of us catchin' on. But fighting them we are in, WI - and my report here was to let you all know that we're succeeding! I know we are all angry, cynical and helpless, use to arranging our firing squad in a circle...MISSING OUT ENTIRELY ON WHAT WE CAN COLLECTIVELY AFFECT. It's like pulling teeth around here to get this group to even DIGG BRAD! EVEN IN LIGHT OF ALL WE KNOW ABOUT HOW HE HIS BEING "BURIED" by right wing troll groups at DIGG and other circulating sites... You guys KILL me on that. I love you, but when I see 80 comments and NO DIGGS, I get pissed.

It's SO easy to do. It takes two seconds.

AND, not fer nothin', IT'S YOUR INTERNET VOTE!

...completely missed by the people here who are so dedicated to voting. It would be NICE, but I'm not holding my breath, if FOR JUST ONCE, this community would ACTION something OTHER than witty comments / sad banter / intellectual arguments about TRUTH, and the general co-miserating we've come to need around here for commune on an issue that has broken all our hearts. How often do I ask anyone here for anything, Tra la? Really. This is my second request since June of 2009. Your counter-productive response was exactly the opposite of what is needed, exactly the line I got from this group upon my last desperate plea. I get why. I do. Tired of banging on the door of this whole community to act when and where they can. Fighting too many bad guys (by ourselves) to fight the good ones. I give up. (Thank you David L. Perfectly put, as always. xoxo! -jd)

COMMENT #80 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 9:59 am PT...





http://www.amazon.com/Th...id=1306230207&sr=1-1 "Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival" by Maziar Bahari (the FB organizer from EGYPT who led the way to a government reform...ON FACEBOOK.

COMMENT #81 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 10:29 am PT...





What OF the problems?

Gulf Of Mexico (Put public in charge, let them roll out new technology)

Fukushima (fuck Um, rip out all the crap around the first three buildings and bury the fucking shit somewhere?)

Russia (they're mad like bees right now)

China (I think China has America in it's interests)

NK v SK (fucking stupid standoff retardation from hell about to bite us all in the ass)

EU (Want's money to bail out more bs)

others (a fucking myriad of problems) Not Gays, Guns, Taxes, Pension cuts, and Horrid Insanity. L@@k 4 CAFR. You want me to put science up, I don't do science, I do electronics but you wont search CAFR. All I hear on TV is bla bla bla the mall was closed, burned, destroyed. The storm was bad, the athlete was indicted for steroids, the pot guy with four oz got life. While a fukaShima Dirty bomb reins down on us all. Health, Wealth, Prosperity Bitch3z

Differences between General Budgets and CAFR

Climate Indeed

TL;DR

SLEEP

F0 bummer again bruce lee way get it? lol

(at least kick me on a good note)

COMMENT #82 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 10:48 am PT...





I know, Tra. I hear you. I do.

Love your handle even more now...all of your posts make more sense to me within the context of your posts, here. NOT kicking...asking for help on this one thing.

Not being heard because you are frustrated with all...is frustrating.

Best. - jd

COMMENT #83 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 10:57 am PT...





IN Fairness, this thread was catching some dates. and other problems. At the beginning by Brad. 3/30/2011

vs

2011/0405 if I had to judge

too bad they ain't in the same format

both dates but put together with different ideas

which is legal date? Two times. Or fake two times. See this is why this can't continue. Exactly wht I am sayin.

COMMENT #84 [Permalink]

... Tra La La La La said on 5/24/2011 @ 11:14 am PT...





more ew

-CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports)

-ELECTONIC VOTE TINGYS (Diebold, Sequioia, etc)

-HA0rpz The days of BTFD might be coming to an end after these last 2-3 sessions

COMMENT #85 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 5/24/2011 @ 11:27 am PT...





rvrctyrdnck #64, Your point is well taken. All elections are local in a sense, and the locals will have to suffer. If WI has an election system that produces what other states do not consider to be truth, then those other states are free to do a better job of it. To set the example of a better truth. They can start by melting down or scrapping the sicko voting machines and returning to paper ballots counted in a competent manner for all to see.

COMMENT #86 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 11:56 am PT...





Ha! That window of time I was referring to? Just got a lot shorter! "...Facebook’s managers are deploying a new software upgrade that will dismantle myriad groups of like-minded political activists unless they get a special software-key from the company. "...The new software-upgrade will automatically archive all groups. Once archived, each group’s past activity will be still be visible on Facebook, but the groups’ administrators will lose access to their lists of group members. That means the administrators lose contact with everyone in their groups, and will be forced to recruit all those members again – unless Facebook provides them with the special upgrade software..." Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2...ical-bias/#ixzz1NITsvu52 "...Facebook managers are providing very limited information about which groups are being favored with the new key, prompting some activists to complain about possible political favoritism among Facebook managers, and many other activists to experiment with techniques and tricks to get the needed upgrade-key. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2...ical-bias/#ixzz1NITgf0B3 http://dailycaller.com/2...fears-of-political-bias/ So what does this mean? Means I have to find a way to back up my entire GROUP WALL / archive it asap. It's now a living historic record of a stolen election, being TRACKED, by citizen activists and ground volunteers. You guys...I don't know if I can stress how urgently I need your help. **THAT FB PAGE HAS LIVEBLOGS FROM THE WAUKESHA LIVEFEED! A RECORD THAT HAS REVEALED ALL KINDS OF INCRIMINATING, INCULPATORY EVIDENCE OF WHAT APPEARS TO BE A BALLOT TAMPERING / ELECTION RIGGING OPERATION> THE MINUTES WE LIVEBLOGGED, CLUMSILY, HAVE TAKEN FOREVER TO HIT THE GAB WEBSITE / MINUTES THEY'VE TRIED TO CHARGE JKLOPP FOR!! We DON NOT HAVE TRANSCRIPTS; WE ONLY HAVE SPOTTY RECORDINGS AND EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS!*** THAT FB PAGE has an EMBEDDED LIVE BLOG THERE FROM (almost) EVERY DAY FROM THE WAUKESHA RECOUNT LIVEFEED. I listened everyday, aghast, and typed what I couldn't believe I was hearing. Now, thanks to eyewitness accounts and networking to the clerks and observers on the ground in the WI RECOUNT NIGHTMARE...I've confirmed most of it. And I know I heard *right*. Doubt the minutes (or transcripts) will reveal much, because THAT IS WHERE KLOPPS MISSING VOTES ARE.

COMMENT #87 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 12:00 pm PT...





Please, please, please...if anyone has extra time today, we need help archiving that wall. It's a lot of info, and Dael and I can't do it by ourselves. Even if you can get over there, take some screen shots of the docs we have / download the permanent cache of ballot anomalies (linked above) and statistical anomalies (linked above) and get over to our DOCS tab...we have more critically important info there than I can fill you in on. I've been trying to archive as much as I could on the fly...but it really is just 4 of us over there, trading shifts babysitting a huge effort. You can find us here (at least for the next 30 days:) https://www.facebook.com...7815633590513&ref=ts Last try. Last post.

COMMENT #88 [Permalink]

... Bryan Bliss said on 5/24/2011 @ 12:45 pm PT...





this is honestly overwhelming yet galvanizing on how we need to be more active, indeed even proactive in spreading the word and being the media ourselves. Blogs like yours that summarize and present the facts seem to be our only window into the corruption that threatens our democracy especially when the corporate media shunts what should be valuable airtime to sinnyness stories, fluff and even more corporate spin and distraction.

thanks and keep it up.

COMMENT #89 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/24/2011 @ 2:35 pm PT...





Jeannie Dean said to TraLaLa @ 79: Your counter-productive response was exactly the opposite of what is needed, exactly the line I got from this group upon my last desperate plea. Please keep this in mind, JD: You are responding to only TraLaLa with your thoughts there. While I don't know how many of "this group" responded unsatisfactorily during your previous plea, allow me to remind you of how many read The BRAD BLOG (and comments) versus how many actually post comments here. The difference between those two numbers is enormous. So please don't take any one commenter, or any several commenters as indicative of the entire community that reads along here. Hope that reminder is helpful! And thanks for your continuously tireless efforts!

COMMENT #90 [Permalink]

... zapkitty said on 5/24/2011 @ 3:42 pm PT...





Jeannie Dean, what do you need? Online storage space for a backup of that site? Do they have tools for that or even permit you to back up your stuff offsite?

COMMENT #91 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/24/2011 @ 8:59 pm PT...





#79 At the risk of showing how computer illiterate I am, how do you do a digg? Have never done one. Thought they were fixed to make conservative posts more popular.

COMMENT #92 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 5/24/2011 @ 11:10 pm PT...





Can't tell you how much I appreciate the spanks / thanks, Brad. Nice backhanded smack during what might be my darkest hour, way to (publically) shame me while I'm taking up the mantle on your behalf. There are no words to express my disgust and sorrow. Did you even look at your own archives before this pubic smack? Doubt it. So, these posts will not only be my last posts on this THREAD, they will likely be my last posts here, PERIOD. Allow me to do some research for you one last time, and this time - from your own blog: https://bradblog.com/?p=7224 COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... Agent 99 said on 6/13/2009 @ 3:27 pm PT... On the one hand, I don't find it so surprising at all that Ahmadinejad would have won by a healthy margin. There's a lot of irony in Mousavi's complaints in this regard, held over from when he was prime minister, and while the affluent in Tehran, the youth, and the expats may have been heavily in favor of Mousavi, the entire rest of Iran, that may well take understandable pride in the ayatollahs' stand against injustice, and resent the "international" pressure against them, very well might have voted for Ahmadinejad. There is also talk that some of his performance in the recent debates would have reminded them of certain facts being ignored by the Mousavi camp. On the other, al Jazeera is reporting that the computerized voting will be reviewed to check the results. That can't be a good sign. If you ask me, the whole vilification of Ahmadinejad for stuff he did not say, and for questioning what most find reprehensible to question, is completely overblown, and everyone freaking out that a figurehead who cannot do what the ayatollahs don't want him to do is some kind of a villain is stupid, and dangerous. COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... Agent 99 said on 6/14/2009 @ 3:32 pm PT... I WOULD LIKE TO DRAW EVERYONE'S ATTENTION TO THIS POST AT A HIGHLY RESPECTED BRITISH LEFTIST BLOG. Ahmadinejad won. I've been scouring the internet and every news outlet I can find remotely trustworthy, and, dammit, this is mostly our media on a smear campaign. COMMENT #11 [Permalink]

... onyx said on 6/14/2009 @ 3:44 pm PT... Let's see... The media is blasting fraud allegations without backing it up with any data. I had to dig some but I found a pre-election poll that showed Ahamdinejad with twice the votes of Mousavi. Not very convincing, but plenty to cause me to hold my opinion. Doesn't seem very similar to Ohio to me where the hard evidence was plentiful and the media completely silent. To me it's exactly the opposite - media raging and no evidence - yet anyways. I haven't made my mind up on this yet and I'm a bit surprised that so many Brad Blogger have!... COMMENT #14 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean in LA-13 said on 6/14/2009 @ 5:03 pm PT... 99 - Wha!? Even Iranian clerics and high ranking military officials are calling this election a stinker. (From HuffPo:) Grand Ayatollah Sanei in Iran has declared Ahmadinejad's presidency illegitimate and cooperating with his government against Islam."

and

"Former head of Revolutionary Guards contests election. Rezaei, the conservative candidate and fmr head of Revolutionary Guards, apparently publishes open letter strongly contesting iran election." http://www.huffingtonpos...ions-viole_n_215189.html Not only that, but I understand the most glaring anomaly from the Iranian Ministry is the numbers indicating Mousavi lost his own home town. According to every polling expert in the region, that's damn near impossible. Meantime, reformist politicians have been arrested, observers barred from witnessing the count, news crews are having equipment and video confiscated, Iranian police are defecting to fight along side Mosavi supporters, and now it would seem like the regime is sending in thugs on motorcycles to kill kids at University of Tehran (unconfirmed). Does this sound like the behavior of a legitimate president elect to you? As for the press - CNN wasn't adequately reporting on Iran at ALL until we started a "CNNfail" thread on Twitter. (CNN has since addressed the criticism and responded with better coverage.) Interesting note: some Iranians have posed the idea that the percentages were just "flipped" --- that Mousavi actually won the 63 percentile, and the regime was just so frightened by his margin of victory they thought little of inverting the numbers to favor themselves. Made me think if your info re: some machine tabulation is correct, then well, as you say, that info certainly lines up with all we have hurt ourselves learning about stolen elections. Yes, 99 - I, too, would like to see more information on the numbers and to know more about how this fraud was perpetrated. I haven't been able to find much, either. But with a partial "news blackout" in the region, it doesn't seem as though that news is going to be forthcoming right away. Hell, it takes us years and years in this country to get that data. I don't want to second guess your "highly respected British Blog", but! Twitter, where Iranians are tweeting this revolution directly, is a more...immediate source of information. http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23iranelection Technology finally rises to meet it's highest power and finest hour, IMHO. Captivating. If only we'd had Twitter in 2004... COMMENT #15 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean in LA-13 said on 6/14/2009 @ 5:09 pm PT... The best on-the-ground Iranian election coverage I've found so far: http://www.michaeltotten...9/06/insurrection-da.php (reliable reader-supported blogger, just like someone we know...) COMMENT #16 [Permalink]

... Agent 99 said on 6/14/2009 @ 5:49 pm PT... I believe we are victims of a purposeful campaign to misrepresent the candidates and the election in Iran, akin to the media blitz of bald-faced lies about Russia's fight with Georgia last summer, Jeannie. Robert Fisk's sources insist there was no rigging, a bunch of pre-election polls reflect Mousavi with no kind of lead as was reported here. He may have been a contender in Tehran, and with expats, and maybe largely due to propaganda from the West, but not across Iran. In the rest of Iran Ahmadinejad is revered for helping the poor. He feeds them, gets them educations, works hard to raise their prospects. The more advantaged are pissed off at him for spending a quarter of the country's money in this effort, saying it is causing inflation. He may be a bumpkin fundamentalist who squelches the more cosmopolitan instincts of some of the people, and I certainly can't hang with the executions and the dress code stuff, but it turns out that he has gone a VERY long way to help the common man in Iran. So, in a way, personally, I'm surprised he didn't win by a bigger margin. I have a bunch of links at my blog that point to different conclusions and they aren't flimsy... especially not those polls at the Lenin's Tomb link. We scream about being propagandized by our own MSM, but fail to see just how propagandized [blinded] we are when the chips are down. We believe the reports of the JSOC assassination teams sent into Iran. We believe the reports of U.S. funding for terrorist groups to help destabilize Iran, bring about regime change, so Halliburton can go in and rake in more bucks there. We hear about this stuff for years, and we see Obama going right along with it, but then, when the best opportunity to create intense enmity toward the regime is at hand, suddenly we start believing the MSM and the outrageously overblown Mousavi campaign malarky we've been being fed.... A lot of very smart people are falling for it..." (more from SAME FEED)

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... [Deleted] said on 5/24/2011 @ 11:11 pm PT...





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... [Deleted] said on 5/24/2011 @ 11:41 pm PT...





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COMMENT #99 [Permalink]

... Jon5 said on 5/25/2011 @ 9:14 am PT...





Excuse me if I break in on your private argument to bring this back to wisconsin and the stolen election. I would be interested to find out if anyone has any idea on the odds of some relief thru the courts?

COMMENT #100 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/25/2011 @ 1:04 pm PT...





I liked this blog better when ignore the trolls was respected. Jeannie Dean puts in time as well as interest in election integrity. In fighting is just where the opposition wants us. Ignore the trolls helps with harmony. Not having much luck signing up with rachel Maddow and other FBs. If you could give some instructions, I would appreciate it. This could be very important if there is litigation re.Wis. recount. And Jeanne , it would seem your evidence would be invaluable to the Klopp team.

COMMENT #101 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/25/2011 @ 1:36 pm PT...





Jon5 @ 99 asked: I would be interested to find out if anyone has any idea on the odds of some relief thru the courts? The Kloppenburg camp is holding their cards close to their vests as of now Jon. They have repeated the mantra that they are reviewing the data, etc. and have not yet made their determination whether they will challenge or not. I could offer speculation as to whether they will or won't, but it wouldn't be worth all that much, as it it would just be speculation. I will say this, however, the media (and the Prosser camp and the G.A.B.) have put a lot of pressure in place to NOT challenge, largely using the line that "Klopp gained only 300 votes through a meticulous recount" to help pressure her not to challenge. Of course, they make no note of the vast irregularities discovered, nor of the fact that, unlike absentee ballots, irregular or defective non-absentee ballots are NOT removed during the recount, and are included in the canvassed "certified" totals instead. The only way those ballots come out of the count is if Kloppenburg files a judicial review at this point. So the game is already stacked against her (or any similarly challenging candidate) under WI statutes.

COMMENT #102 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/25/2011 @ 1:43 pm PT...





Molly @ 91 asked: At the risk of showing how computer illiterate I am, how do you do a digg? Have never done one. Thought they were fixed to make conservative posts more popular. It's easy, Martha! See that "DIGG" button at the bottom of every single story here at The BRAD BLOG? Just click it! If you're not already signed in as a DIGG member, you'll have a REALLY quick sign-up process. After that, you'll remain always logged on (if you like), so all you have to do is click the DIGG button at the bottom of BRAD BLOG stories! It helps a LOT. As it does when you do the same thing to REDDIT stories by clicking the up arrow on the REDDIT button (when it appears --- they've been having some problems, it seems, of late with their server.)

COMMENT #103 [Permalink]

... molly said on 5/26/2011 @ 12:05 pm PT...





Thanks Brad. Will do. Sorry I haven't been doing it all along. Had a very wise boss who was discussing problems where I worked. She said, "First , rule out ignorance." Know it is hard to understand my kind of super ignorance of computers when you have been brought up with them. You are very patient. Appreciate your high standards with this site.

COMMENT #104 [Permalink]

... Ralph Swoboda said on 5/26/2011 @ 9:01 pm PT...





Brad, This and prior posts highlight half a dozen plastic ballot bags from Waukesha County. Each appears to contain maybe a hundred ballots, and each has a tear or opening next to its seal big enough, you imply, for ballots to have been easily added or removed. From your pictures, readers will judge for themselves whether that would have been possible (let alone easy) without ripping the thin plastic bags, most of which look stretched tight by their seals. But, charitably to your point of view, maybe it was possible for some unknown somebodies to stuff each of those few bags with a couple dozen more Prosser ballots. And/or remove an equal number of Kloppenburg’s. (Although the latter would have been hard to do without also removing Prosser ballots --- statistically impossible to avoid if you pulled out more than a few because you would be working blind through the narrow openings and would then have to stuff the real Prosser ballots back in again without crunching or creasing them – and all this activity without tearing the thin plastic or breaking the fragile seals.) But then there would need to be scores or even hundreds more of such bags – not just the few that were found – each with that same dozen or so switched ballots. Nothing less casts valid doubt on Justice Prosser’s 7,004 vote margin. Anyway, that’s not my main point here. My main point here is to wonder why didn’t you tell us, Brad, just exactly what happened when those specific Brookfield ballot bags were actually opened and inspected under the watchful eyes of Kloppenburg lawyers and the reserve judge who oversaw it? Your readers are keen to get the whole story, not just the bits you can spin into something sinister. So, obviously, since you didn’t tell us, we can confidently conclude that all the lawyers found were (1) ballots that added up to the same vote counts as those bags showed on election night, with (2) vote spreads pretty much the same proportion as in the other Waukesha County ballot bags. In other words, yawn, a big “so what.” Surely you would have been eager to tell us if those bags were stuffed chockfull of nothing-but-Prosser ballots. That might have been a real “smoking gun" but it’s now obvious, Brad, you don’t have one. Likewise with the voting machine tapes you make such a big deal of in this post. From your numbers, they add up to about 80 votes for Prosser, and no evidence whatever of actual misconduct by anyone. If you find 6,924 worth of more bad tapes (or even a couple thousand), there’d be something to talk about, but you haven’t. And, similarly, we must have missed your in-depth reporting on the sensational disclosure of “completely unsecured” ballots, because all you actually document are 79 from Verona, and even your report demonstrates that glitch to have been harmless. So we’re still a long way from 3,502 doubtfuls, aren’t we, and that’s the bare minimum hurdle for Kloppenburg to stay in court. Anyway all your arguments are for naught unless it is true that voting machines were actually hacked. Your assertion that they could have been doesn’t mean they were. And you know as well as I do that it is morally wrong to accuse people of criminal misconduct unless you really do have sound evidence. I’m confident that’s not your intention. I could spell out why every anomaly you’ve reported is a “so what,” but fair-minded readers can and should read every word of every piece you’ve written on this subject. What they will find are dramatic headlines, followed by statistically insignificant anecdotes and other superficial detail, but mostly a lot of arm waiving, insinuation, and groundless conjecture. What they will not find anywhere in your lengthy postings are hard data showing that X compromised ballot bags plus Y mislabeled tags plus Z whatever elses represent enough votes to even theoretically swing the election by 7,004. And while that kind of data is required for Kloppenburg to not get laughed out of court, it still gets her nowhere by itself. There has to be credible evidence that such anomalies actually throw the outcome into doubt among anyone but the true believers who were already convinced before they read your blog. And that’s evidence you haven’t begun to give us. All you’ve documented are the minor, innocent screw-ups to be expected when mostly elderly volunteers work long past their bedtimes under the pressures of election night. We could redo the election a dozen more times and it would be no closer to the perfection you apparently think is required to avoid suspicion. Clearly, you put a lot of time and effort into exhaustively covering this story. As the muckraker you are pleased to call yourself, you were no doubt eager to find malfeasance. If must be a real bummer for you to have failed. But take heart, Brad. All your hard work amounted to a great public service, and I for one sincerely appreciate it. I plan to share your blogs with as many people as I can. Because with Assistant AG Kloppenburg presumably set to announce her legal appeal tomorrow, all Wisconsinites of good faith should be made aware of the real deal. And the real deal is that ace investigative reporter Brad Friedman looked closely into the election and found nothing that raises legitimate doubts about Justice Prosser’s victory or the honesty of Wisconsin’s election process.

COMMENT #105 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/26/2011 @ 10:36 pm PT...





Ralph Swoboda - Thanks for your comments. They largely speak for themselves, however a few are actually worth responding to. Before that, I should note that it doesn't seem like you read this article (or ones prior) particularly carefully. But to the parts worth response: you know as well as I do that it is morally wrong to accuse people of criminal misconduct unless you really do have sound evidence. No one has been accused of criminal misconduct other than those for whom "sound evidence" has been presented. No one. That would, indeed, be morally wrong. As morally wrong as it would be to accuse someone of doing that, without presenting any evidence at all. What they will not find anywhere in your lengthy postings are hard data showing that X compromised ballot bags plus Y mislabeled tags plus Z whatever elses represent enough votes to even theoretically swing the election by 7,004. That is correct. While just over 3,500 irregular Prosser votes removed from the count would be enough to swing the election, as per WI statutes, I do not have the resources to be in all 72 counties, or to even be in one, for that matter, or to read all 3500 pages of minutes in this short time (which does not include Waukesha's minutes that are STILL not posted for the public, and likely are at least that long on their own.) However, I am happy to report on what I can, demonstrate how terrible Wisconsin's election system is, and hope that those who do have the resources are able to take appropriate actions to bring real, citizen-overseeable, transparent self-governance and democracy to Wisconsin. They deserve it. I'm sorry you seem to feel otherwise. All you’ve documented are the minor, innocent screw-ups to be expected when mostly elderly volunteers work long past their bedtimes under the pressures of election night. Others can and will judge what we've reported here on its merits and determine what it is worth or isn't. But I'm quoting the above so I can mention how absolutely appalling, how shameful, how "morally wrong" it is --- and you are --- that you would attack patriotic volunteer poll workers, without "sound" evidence, or any evidence at all, as you just have. You, sir, should be ashamed of yourself. I suspect, however, that you are not capable of that. Best of luck in your fight against democracy out there. Wisconsin will overcome you nonetheless, I am quite certain. And thanks again for your thoughts.

COMMENT #106 [Permalink]

... Ralph Swoboda said on 5/27/2011 @ 1:58 am PT...





Brad,

You sure had me fooled. With your purple prose about “Wisconsin’s ‘dog and pony show’ faith-based ‘recount”” and your claim of “messes and mistallies across the state,” one might be forgiven for supposing you were talking about the whole state and not just the handful of places you have sufficient time to report on accurately.

So thanks for honestly admitting why there’s so little real beef in what you’ve written so much about.

All the best,

Ralph

COMMENT #107 [Permalink]

... DES said on 5/27/2011 @ 1:24 pm PT...





It's interesting how some people are only interested in the details of election administration when it leads to big, dramatic upheavals. "Good enough for government work" is good enough for them. They don't want to hear about elections officials who don't follow their own procedures, smirk at and ignore established professional standards, and allow Mack-truck sized holes in security and chain of custody --- unless it's gonna result in a big showy overturned election. Luckily, documenting irregularities in our elections is important to many, many more folks --- those who actually care about the non-partisan administration of our public elections, and yes, even the very unsexy, unshowy details and following wherever they lead. It's inevitable that the 'nothing to see here, move along' crowd is dismissive of this level of documentation. Yet they are always shocked --- shocked! --- when a major election with major implications for our future has major irregularities, when it's frankly too late to anything substantive about it. Too late to rectify the many factors that allowed irregularities to accumulate in the first place. 'Someone should have done something!,' they say....

COMMENT #108 [Permalink]

... Ralph Swoboda said on 5/27/2011 @ 3:02 pm PT...





DES,

I for one am fascinated by the details of election administration, which I why I spent a few hours reading all that Brad wrote on the Wisconsin spring election and recount, plus some of his prior posts on voting issues elsewhere. With elections as close as they are these days, it is important that we clean up any sloppiness, even if there is no evidence of actual wrongdoing. The mere possibility that voting machines can be hacked is profoundly disturbing.

But Brad’s flaming headlines implying widespread malfeasance that he now admits he can’t document are actually harmful to raising consciousness about real (rather than imagined) issues.Brad’s partisan exaggeration is simply self-discrediting and makes it easy for people to tune out and walk away. That’s a pity because he does have some important things to say.

Ralph

COMMENT #109 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/27/2011 @ 3:36 pm PT...





Ralph Swoboda, Your comments here do not jive with Brad's report as I read it. Did you really read this piece? There are many points Brad makes that you either don't address or misreport. I'd rebut you but I'm not at all convinced you've actually read the article yet. But, certainly, please do send out Brad's report to as many people as you can.

COMMENT #110 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/27/2011 @ 3:55 pm PT...





Brad, When you say--Despite those chain of custody violations, and despite the ability to actually confirm that all of the ballots counted during the "recount" were the ones actually cast....-- don't you mean--despite LACKING the ability to actually confirm that all of the ballots counted during the "recount" were the ones actually counted...? I can't make sense of it any other way. It's the chain of custody violations which takes away the ability to ascertain whether the ballots are the same, no? (Here's the whole sentence/paragraph in case that makes it easier to find-- Despite those chain of custody violations, and despite the ability to actually confirm that all of the ballots counted during the "recount" were the ones actually cast, and despite the Kloppenburg campaign's objections to them, as noted for the record in the minutes when many of the irregularities were discovered, the ballots are being counted and included in the "recount" results as per WI law, at the approval and discretion of the Boards of Canvassers in Waukesha County and elsewhere.) Great work as per usual.

COMMENT #111 [Permalink]

... DES said on 5/27/2011 @ 5:49 pm PT...





Okay, Ralph, so you object to Brad's word choice. Fair enough. Yes, "faith-based" voting is a snarky characterization of using unverifiable voting machines, but an accurate one: unless you are capable of seeing & verifying the data being recorded inside the machine, by definition you are taking the results on faith. If no human being counted the ballots in the first place, then by definition it can't really be called a RE-count, but at best a machine re-tabulation, also based on faith that the machine recorded what the voter intended. The 'dog and pony show' is a quote from another blogger. It isn't just "a possibility" that voting machines can be hacked, it has been done. None of these are inaccurate. Where you infer "malfeasance", others read incompetence and sloppiness. Oddly, we never get any complaints of "partisan exaggeration" whenever Brad reports on Republicans seeking accountability and verifiability, like, say, Joe Miller in Alaska or Doug Hoffman in NY 23, or criticizes Democratic officials like AZ Atty General Terry Goddard, to name just three. Weird, that.

COMMENT #112 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/27/2011 @ 6:06 pm PT...





David Lasagna @ 110 asked: don't you mean--despite LACKING the ability to actually confirm that all of the ballots counted during the "recount" were the ones actually counted...? Yes, I do. Thanks for the grammatical copy edit! Have corrected that. Much appreciated.

COMMENT #113 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/27/2011 @ 6:13 pm PT...





Ralph Swoboda @ 106 slurred: You sure had me fooled. With your purple prose about “Wisconsin’s ‘dog and pony show’ faith-based ‘recount”” and your claim of “messes and mistallies across the state,” one might be forgiven for supposing you were talking about the whole state and not just the handful of places you have sufficient time to report on accurately. It looks like Des already replied to your misconceptions about my use of "Dog-and-Pony Show" (quoting another observer of the "recount"), and of the use of the word "recount" in quotes. As to "messes and mistallies across the state", yes, there were messes and mistallies across the state. Did you not bother to peruse any of the daily "recount" updates posted by the G.A.B.? The ones showing miscounts in every single county? The ones where county after county, even now, fail to report "Total Ballots Cast" as directed by the G.A.B. the day before the "recount" even began several weeks ago? Have you not bothered to read any of the minutes posted by the G.A.B. from each county, documenting the many "messes and mistallies" seen in county after county? I'm fairly certain the answer to those questions is clear to both you, and everyone else reading along. I'm just surprised you didn't take this opportunity to take another shit on volunteer poll workers working to support your democracy and your right to self-governance, whether you give a damn about it or them or not. So thanks for honestly admitting why there’s so little real beef in what you’ve written so much about. And thanks for pulling more shit out of your ass, but not smearing it on poll workers this time! Have a great weekend, Ralph!

COMMENT #114 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/27/2011 @ 6:25 pm PT...





Ralph Swoboda came back for another helping @ 108, with: Brad’s flaming headlines implying widespread malfeasance that he now admits he can’t document are actually harmful to raising consciousness about real (rather than imagined) issues. Interesting that you (incorrectly) attempted to spank me in a previous comment by charging that it is "morally wrong to accuse people of criminal misconduct unless you really do have sound evidence," but have no problem with accusing me of "implying widespread malfeasance" without providing any evidence for that charge whatsoever. If you had any character, you would retract the insinuation and apologize for it. I'll not hold my breath for that, however. Brad’s partisan exaggeration is simply self-discrediting "Partisan"? For what party?? Kloppenburg is an independent. And, as Desi already mentioned above as well, why weren't you here calling me out for my "partisan exaggerations" when I was documenting the failures of Alaska's elections in support of Tea Party Republican Joe Miller after the 2010 general election? Or of New York's elections in support of the Conservative Party's Doug Hoffman after the NY-23 special election? Or of Texas' election in support of conservative Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith after the 2006 Republican Primary? Or of New Hampshire's elections after their debacle of a 2008 primary in support of Republican Albert Howard and against Democrat Barack Obama? And, the biggest question of them all, how much longer are you going to be hanging around here making an ass out of yourself? While I hope you do hang around, frankly, it's just sad to see you make such a fool out of yourself. But, at least you didn't attack poll workers twice in a row. Great work!

COMMENT #115 [Permalink]

... Ralph Swoboda said on 5/27/2011 @ 7:42 pm PT...





Brad, The first definition of “partisan” given by dictionary.com is “an adherent or supporter of a person, group, party, or cause, especially a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance.” Your words speak for themselves (along with the headlines on your blog), and I stand by mine. See you next week. Ralph

COMMENT #116 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/27/2011 @ 8:15 pm PT...





Ralph, I want to play the dictionary game, too. It's a fun one! (from merriam-webster.com) syllogism--2. a subtle, specious, or crafty argument sophistry--1. subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation Swoboda Specializing in Syllogisms and Sophistry

COMMENT #117 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/27/2011 @ 8:18 pm PT...





Ralph Swoboda, desperate to try and save any sort of face tried again @ 115 with: The first definition of “partisan” given by dictionary.com is “an adherent or supporter of a person, group, party, or cause, especially a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance.” Okay. I'll bite. To what person, group, party or cause as I am "partisan" towards? I asked you that previously, you failed to answer. Will you do so this time? Or obfuscate more in hopes of distracting from your many failures and embarrasments documented in this thread already? Your words speak for themselves (along with the headlines on your blog), and I stand by mine. Got it. It's "morally wrong to accuse people of criminal misconduct unless you really do have sound evidence," but it's perfectly acceptable to accuse someone of having done that with no evidence whatsoever to back up the claim. You stand by that. It's "morally wrong to accuse people of criminal misconduct unless you really do have sound evidence," and yet it's perfectly acceptable to accuse someone of charging malfeasance with no evidence to back up the charge whatsoever. You stand by that. Got it. You have no morals. And you stand by that. You also shamefully attack patriotic poll workers, and stand by that as well. Got it. We are all very impressed, Ralph. Keep up the bad work.

COMMENT #118 [Permalink]

... Ralph Swoboda said on 5/28/2011 @ 2:56 am PT...





Brad, When, in my original comment, I pointed out something on which we agree (namely, that it is morally wrong to accuse people of criminality without sound evidence), I was in fact being sincere when I added the very next sentence: “I’m confident that’s not your intention.” I did not mean that sarcastically, nor did I (nor do I now) believe that is what you’re up to. So that’s why I must immediately bring the following to your attention so that you can correct it without further delay. You stated in your post above: “All we now know is that, in fact, criminals --- particularly those insiders with direct and largely unfettered access to both the tabulating machines and the ballots, people like Kathy Nickolaus --- easily could have committed election fraud . . .” Brad, I truly am confident that this was a minor, innocent screw-up on your part and that you didn’t really mean to say that Kathy Nickolaus is a criminal insider – even though that is literally, grammatically what your words mean. Even if you think you were just being ambiguous (actually, you weren’t – it really was a screw-up) – that you meant “insiders like Kathy” and not “criminals like Kathy” (I try to be charitable) --- surely we’ll agree that you should not let this ambiguity go unresolved. We all make innocent, minor screw-ups from time to time – I do, election officials do (both paid and volunteers), even ace investigator Brad Friedman does now and then. Just wanted to give you a heads up so you can fix this one. Cheers,

Ralph P.S. Even if you and your resident fan club honestly can’t see it (I’m sure you really do think you are non-partisan middle-of-the-roaders), trust me Brad on this one as well: It is obvious to any visitor who is not a left-wing partisan that this site belongs to one. P.P.S. To save you writing another comment: Violating legal requirements is not criminal but it is malfeasance, which you do imply to have been widespread in this election. (Jeez, Brad, that’s what this posting was all about. I thought that showing malfeasance was exactly your goal here. It’s just that you haven’t shown anywhere near enough to justify a frivolous lawsuit by Ms. Kloppenburg seeking to invalidate her defeat --- which is what her non-partisans are hoping for.) P.P.P.S. Exposing the shoddy sloppiness of your work is so easy it’s hard to quit, but I’ve said what I came here to say and I’ve tormented you enough. So I probably won’t be back for awhile, if ever. So long, and peace.

COMMENT #119 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 5/28/2011 @ 6:56 am PT...





Ralph Swoboda-- I'll admit it, the one thing you singled out for focus in comment #118 was the ONE thing I wasn't sure about in reading Brad's piece(aside from my little edit suggestion). I'm not sure Kathy Nickolaus has NOT been involved in criminal activities(sure sounds like she's been involved in any number of as yet unexplained outcomes and procedures that would seem to stink to high heaven and about which you don't seem to care in the slightest) but as far as I know to date she hasn't been CONVICTED of any. So there may be some merit to that one point of yours. But while you have lots of attitudinal comments to make concerning that one highly selective item, you provide not a single word in answer to all the legitimate questions Brad puts to you. Not one. Slimy. "Calumny is at its best in poisoned exaggeration of real weaknesses and silence on merits." J'accuse.

COMMENT #120 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/28/2011 @ 1:30 pm PT...





Richard Swoboda, with tail between legs, suggesting he may never return again @ 118 said: When, in my original comment, I pointed out something on which we agree (namely, that it is morally wrong to accuse people of criminality without sound evidence), I was in fact being sincere when I added the very next sentence: “I’m confident that’s not your intention.” I did not mean that sarcastically, nor did I (nor do I now) believe that is what you’re up to. Ah, I see. In that case, having now looked into your background, Richard Swoboda of Madison, WI, I'll just note that it would be morally wrong to hide your background as a child molester when you comment here. Though, I'm confident that was not your intention. I do not mean that sarcastically. You stated in your post above: “All we now know is that, in fact, criminals --- particularly those insiders with direct and largely unfettered access to both the tabulating machines and the ballots, people like Kathy Nickolaus --- easily could have committed election fraud . . .” Brad, I truly am confident that this was a minor, innocent screw-up on your part and that you didn’t really mean to say that Kathy Nickolaus is a criminal insider – even though that is literally, grammatically what your words mean. Actually, I did not say at all "that Kathy Nickolaus is a criminal insider", neither literally nor grammatically, and I stand by the partial sentence of mine above that you have accurately quoted. If you feel I should have used different grammar, albeit mine is accurate and correct, I'll be happy to see how you feel I should have worded that phrase, and I will consider using it as a replacement if it might be clearer than the phrasing I originally used (the phrasing I stand by at this time.) Even if you think you were just being ambiguous (actually, you weren’t – it really was a screw-up) – that you meant “insiders like Kathy” and not “criminals like Kathy” (I try to be charitable) --- surely we’ll agree that you should not let this ambiguity go unresolved. If you bother to grammatically map the sentence out, you'll see that I did not write "criminals like Kathy", as you inaccurately charge, but rather "insiders...like Kathy". Though I'll take this opportunity to note that Kathy Nickolaus was granted criminal immunity in exchange for her cooperation with state prosecutors in 2002 when a number of her colleagues in the Assembly Republican Caucus were sent to jail after being found to have used government resources for partisan political purposes. Nickolaus was one of the government paid resources who illegally used her time as a paid state worker for partisan political purposes. And, for the record, sitting Justice David Prosser admitted to the same activities that his colleagues were sent to jail for, though after the statute of limitations had already run out on his being charged with the same crim