Have you guys seen Bill Bradley’s new ad. He’s on a new web design or something. But there’s an ad that goes to this site:
Does Bill Bradley think that he’s a democrat anymore? Or is he just some sort of crazy neocon without any sense of morality. I hope to salvage our good name and say that he’s not a Democrat.
( – promoted by SFBrianCL)
The story of Santos Reyes is a bizarre one. Reyes was thrown into prison under the 3 Strikes for CHEATING ON A DMV TEST. Yes, I meant to Yell that. That, my friends, is a travesty of justice of the worst kind. The case is currently being reviewed by the courts as to whether this sentence violates the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
Now, I’m no lawyer (oh, wait, yes I am), but this is not a tough question. But, you see, it’s a struggle for Arnold. Should he involve himself? Would that piss off his base?
Could the governor’s loose lips spring a man from prison? The National Latino Congreso held in Los Angeles last week may have laid out a blueprint for how Arnold Schwarzenegger could recoup some of his lost ground with Latino voters. On Thursday, the day before the Los Angeles Times reported racially questionable comments by the governor, Congreso participants unanimously approved a resolution calling on Schwarzenegger to free a Latino prisoner imprisoned under California’s three-strikes law for cheating on a Department of Motor Vehicles exam.
The Reyes’ case has drawn the attention of anti-three-strikes activists because his supporters say it is a prime example of the law being used to give long sentences to offenders who pose no public threat.
Reyes first strike consisted of stealing a boom box out of a house in 1981 when he was 17. His second strike came five years later when he was convicted of robbery. Prosecutors said Reyes threatened someone with a roofing knife during that crime, something Reyes has denied. He then had no offenses for the next 11 years, a period in which he worked steadily, got married and fathered two children. At no time, his supporters note, did he ever actually attack anyone. (CapWeekly 9/14/2006)
For a moment, ignoring the overcrowding problem, 3 strikes is just a simple violation of human rights. Reyes is something of a modern-day Jean Valjean with supporters such as his legal counsel Matt Gonzales, the former SF Supervisor.
3 Strikes is just plain wrong.
( – promoted by SFBrianCL)
(cross-posted at The Courage Campaign)
On Wednesday, the Center For Information Technology Policy at Princeton University released a report that proves that the Diebold Accuvote-TS voting machines can be easily infected with an untraceable malicious virus that steals votes and gives a result different than the true vote tally:
This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus.
Go here for the full paper.
UPDATE: The video that accompanies the study is below:
I contacted Chuck Hahn, Assistant Secretary of State Policy & Planning to get Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's response to this latest indictment of the very technology that he himself certified for use in California's elections. Remember that McPherson certified Diebold even after a study that his very own office conducted found "serious flaws" in the Diebold software. His certification was "conditional" apparently on their insistence that they would fix the vulnerabilities.
At the CA GOP summer convention, I asked McPherson directly what reassurances Diebold had given him that these flaws would be fixed. He simply said "I wouldn't have certified them if I didn't think they were secure." And when I asked if there's anything online or in the public record that can reassure voters of Diebold's good faith efforts, he told me that they held public hearings that anyone could attend. That's when Hahn stepped in, gave me his card and asked me to give him a call and he swept McPherson away.
So in the wake of this new revelation I did call him and e-mailed him to make sure they were aware of the report and to get the Secretary's response. I received a return e-mail from Hahn not long after that, which, while swift, was still quite dismissive UPDATE:he prefers not to be on the record so I’ve taken down the text of the e-mail. He’s been helpful and responsive so far. Hopefully we’ll get a swift response from McPherson soon. This is about keeping pressure on him to answer for his decision to re-certify these machines. As I say in the comments, it appears from his certification announcement that CA may not even be using the machine tested. But that’s not the end of the story, nor is it the end of the explaining we must demand from McPherson.