A must read link.............................

See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker

Again, my apologies for the typos. You see I am an amateur loud mouthed schnook, so my typos and errors are to be expected. It is because I am an amateur that my opinions are on the Salon's angry letters page, not on the main page, and not on HBO.

I have no problem with amateur nuts saying what ever makes them happy. But for Salon and HBO to give the stink of legitimacy to this particular group of amateurs shows the incompetence of both these media outlets.

Anger at the program, and holding my child at the time prevented me from giving a more rational argument (typing with one hand).

Any way, here is why this "documentary" is a rather hack piece of trash and propaganda.

The most important things to be aware of in any bit of propaganda are what is said, and what is not said.

What was said was a group of computer experts broke into the Diebold system in I believe it was 10 minutes. What was also said was that Diebold stated the methods used to hack their system would not have occurred in an actual election. What was not said was how these men managed to hack the system and why Diebold felt this method would be impossible in an actual election.

Without that key piece of information it is just inflammatory b.s. People without lives and conspiracy nuts will read into any statement made what ever they wish to keep their own fantasies going, but it does not make for an insightful documentary.

Later we see how inconsistent the "producers" of this glorified podcast are, when after detailing the perceived malfeasance of one election board, they join forces with another to show how bad the Diebold system is, completely ignoring the fact that the "evidence" they had uncovered showed that the malfeasance was due to the board's actions and not the machine's malfunction (additional votes for Bush on the "official" tape, but not on the "original", presumably pre-tampered Diebold tape found in the trash). I can see why a Florida election official might want to show the weaknesses in a system that keeps him from counting the votes the way he sees fit, but I can't for the life of me figure out how a hacker not in league with the election board would have gotten the access to the machines and cards that the hacker had. Sure the machines can be hacked, but can they be hacked without a corrupt election board's help? And aren't these systems actually more secure (as they need an outside computer expert in order to hack them) than ballot boxes that can simply be stuffed at the days end by the corrupt poll workers themselves?

The only actual piece of evidence they had that showed any possible criminality, the tapes that did not jive, is given a brief mention and never examined in detail.

Now that is either because these people were rank armatures who have no idea what their actual story is (election board corruption and incompetence as opposed to computer system weaknesses) or because too close of an examination would have shown errors in their suppositions.

Again, the film makes a point to show long lines at polling places, and discusses voter suppression briefly (a real issue of election fraud but one that had nothing to do with Diebold systems) but drops the ball when it wanders back to issues of computer security.

Additionally, the maudlin heart string pull about the man who died of unrelated causes during the filming of the project, was a cheap ploy, and completely unimportant to the issue at hand.

So yes, if you are intelligent, I doubt you would be persuaded by this film. If you already believe that the Diebold systems are too easily compromised, then this just reiterates your opinions. If you do not believe the systems are that easy to compromise this amateurish hack job just gives you reason to believe that such conjecture is the stuff of conspiracy nuts and whack jobs and allows others to further obfuscate the real threat to democracy, election boards that have their own agendas.

Sorry for all the typos the first time.

That this couple was down in mexico, and they found this cute little stray dog that was abandoned in the street, and was injured.

Any way, they took the dog back to their hotel, cleaned it up, and nursed it back to health. They became so attached to the dog, they decided to smuggel it back over the border.

They managed to get back home with out being searched, and left the dog and their cat home alone one day.

When they returned home, their cat was gone, and their dog was covered in blood.

They rushed the dog to the vet, who examined the dog, and informed the frieghtened couple.

That's not a dog, it's a mexican long haired sewer rat, and I think it ate your cat.

I also heard that couple were republicans.

from a friend that a 90 year old woman selected a Democrat for Texas governor and when she got to the summary screen, it showed a Republican being selected. She scrolled back to reselect the Dem and another Republican choice was selected.

She called up the voting booth people and they verified that this was the case.

Chicanery is the only way Republicans can win. Sad. But it explains why this country is becoming a fascist nation.

intelegent you ain't, fascisti. Keep trying for the GED; or join the Army. they don't care how stupid you are.

So... Diebold gives to Republicans and promised to deliver Ohio to the Republicans. Their voting machine are sanctioned in states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures. Then the story goes ignored by the three other TV networks (FOX goes without saying), owned by corporations that also give heavily to Republicans. The networks hire Republican "reporters" (Brian Williams, Cokie Roberts, Diane Sawyer, Bob Scheiffer) and feature Republican pundits, who give the whole affair only a passing mention as conspiracy theory by left-wing kooks who are just sore losers...

But it's not a conspiracy. Honest.