George W. Bush Was Elected President
...and I have a bridge for sale...
The 2004 election was a close one that came down to the swing state of Ohio. Right?
Say, how would you like to own your very own bridge?
By a strange coincidence, exit polls conducted in areas with paper trails were accurate within a slim margin of error. In striking contrast, polls where there were no paper trails were off by a fairly consistent five percentage points, favoring George Bush--even in strong Democratic areas that showed John Kerry favored. (http://www.rense.com/general59/steI.HTM)
How could this have happened?
It’s the Voter Fraud, Stupid!
A detailed study by Johns Hopkins University reported, "We found some stunning, stunning flaws." "The systems....could be tricked by anyone with $100 worth of computer equipment." "Ballots could be altered by anyone with access to a machine, so that a voter might think he is casting a ballot for one candidate while the vote is recorded for an opponent." (http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf )
A USA Today article stated, "Most of the machines, including all of Florida's, lack paper records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount". "Over 20 percent of the machines tested by observers around the country failed to record votes properly." ((http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-11-03-evote-trouble_x.htm)
Where did these ridiculously flawed machines come from?
Most of them came from Republican-owned companies that contributed heavily to the Bush campaign.
Chuck Hagel was elected Senator of Nebraska in 1996 and re-elected in 2002 on ES&S voting machines. This was the first time a Republican Senator was elected in Nebraska in 24 years. Oh, by the way, Sen. Hagel was the owner, chairman and CEO of American Information Systems--now called ES&S--the company that counted the votes that elected him. Michael McCarthy, Hagel’s campaign finance director, is currently an owner and director of ES&S. (http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/votingmachines-new.htm)
At least that’s not the only company supplying our voting machines! Thank goodness there’s also Diebold, an Ohio-based company chaired by Wally O’Dell.
At a Republican fundraiser, O’Dell, who funded a $600,000 dinner for Bush Rangers and Pioneers, promised in a written memo to “deliver Ohio’s votes for George Bush.”! (http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm) Oops! Could that be why the software is secret and can’t be checked or verified by anyone?
Another company, American Information Systems was founded by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich. Bob is now the president of Diebold and Todd is a vice president over at ES&S. Isn’t it nice to see close families?
Sequoia voting systems was used by the state of New Jersey. When a request was sent to retrofit those machines with an auditable paper trail, the company refused. Maybe they were just too busy defending two of their executives indicted for paying an $8 million bribe to the Louisiana Commissioner of Elections. It’s not as if integrity would be important in a company counting our votes.
Speaking of integrity, remember the Arthur Anderson Company? They’re the ones indicted in the Enron scandal. We know how good they were with cooking numbers and destroying evidence. Through a series of corporate moves, an offshoot of the original company was formed, called Accenture. They were one of the companies given contracts by the Department of Defense to count the six million votes of the military and civilians overseas. Their corporate offices are in Bermuda, so it will be just one more instance of outsourcing. Accenture was probably referred by its most important business partner, Halliburton.
Another company contracted to provide Internet voting systems is VoteHere. Its chairman is Admiral Bill Owens, a former military assistant to former Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and Vice President Dick Cheney. Hmmm. Dick Cheney from Halliburton?
Sitting on the Board of Directors of VoteHere is ex-CIA director Robert Gates, who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan – Bush Sr. era. Didn’t I mention something about integrity?
Carlucci was also a Deputy Director of the CIA. He is now the CEO of the Carlyle Group and a business partner of George Bush Sr. Remember that Poppy Bush was also a former Director of the CIA. It’s good to see such admirable credentials since Carlucci is on the board of Populex, the company producing voting systems for Illinois.
In the past, the CIA has been noted for its black ops and coups. They must have changed their methods since so many former CIA directors are now on the boards of the companies counting our votes. Beside Gates and Carlucci, James Woolsey, Bobby Ray Inman, and John Deutsch sit on those boards. I feel more confident. Don’t you?
Now, about that bridge…
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