Was this open letter to the Md. media on Md. TV or published in the Md. media?

The letter has, so far, only been published right here at BRAD BLOG, Dan.

YAYE KEVIN!!!

He's my senator!!!

Kevin: I'd like to just ask you, if you're still here by any chance......

Did you ever seriously interview that congressman from florida? Did you find out anything about that incident really? A Dr. Piotr Blss? I'm curious because I found a Dr. Blss under investigation.....

Doug E.

The elections officials remind me of the computer learning ads in my area.

A lady comes on and says her daughter is better "on the computer" half the time than she is ... and then adds that her daughter is about 4 years old.

Ignorance over voting machine technology is not ipso facto a sign of moral depravity, it can be just one of those things.

However, people in election offices should know enough to not listen to the vendors as if they speak only truth.

You know what would really speed up getting rid of electronic voting machines? Putting these people in jail, who put them in. Now, it's obvious they broke law, ramming them in without following the law.

There's really 2 points here:

1. Can these people be thrown in jail for installing unsecure electronic voting machines, and illegally installing them. Once an official is thrown in jail for this reason, why do I know they will be more careful next time?

2. Do some "hound dog" journalism, and find out who orchestrated installing these machines against the law (everywhere, not just Md.). I'm sure it goes beyond the "voting officials" who are "officially" in charge of it. Why else would they install them at the speed of light with all disregard for the law and vote security?

There's something up, with how fast they were/and are being installed, in light of them not passing vote security and frankly the law. What was the hurry, and who's behind it???

You don't install machines which are the basis of our country's democracy "willy-nilly", and then go back and take them out, after Bush-Cheney ruin America for the next few decades...

These people who installed them are the real criminals. There's always nutcakes like Bush-Cheney running for office. They wouldn't have gotten in if it wasn't for the "PEOPLE WHO ILLEGALLY INSTALLED UNSECURE MACHINES"!!!

Are the Dems at least "behind the scenes" pushing some of these decertifications? Their official silence on the matter of electronic voting machines is shocking to me. Yes, Dredd, it's the Republicans fault, but why are the Dems officially silent on this whole matter? Isn't even Conyers chiming in about vote fraud on electronic machines? Maybe he is (?) and I didn't see it (?).

START THROWING PEOPLE IN JAIL FOR RUINING OUR DEMOCRACY!!!!!!!!!

And I have to start bashing site like Huffington Post, DailyKos, AmericaBlog, etc...supposedly "liberal blogs", who are silent about vote fraud on electronic machines. And people like Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and Arianna Huffington. THEY have the clout to bring this out in the open by talking about it. Do they not believe it? Where's "our guys" who have the clout and celebrity to bring this discussion into the mainstream? They STINK for not talking about it. That's why BradBlog is the best blog, because he's talking about the #1 issue in America.

Why isn't the Huffington Post scattered with articles about proven vote fraud on electronic voting machines? Should we start going there and posting links to articles about this? Will they post them? What's going on here?

Kevin Zeese is my hero

Big Dan I was listening to Ring Of Fire on Air America this afternoon,Harvey Wasserman was on from The Free Press.He was talking about Diebold and the stolen 2004 election with Bobby Kennedy. First time I listened to this show for a whole afternoon and I was really impressed.Bobby referred to the stolen election of 2004 five or six times and I was in and out of the car for about three hours. I'll be listening to this show again. Makes me wonder,did you read on Raw Story about wanting to postpone voting in New Orleans? Maybe with everybody fighting about voting machines,this is the time for them to suspend elections? Just a thought.........

Even the majority of us on this BLOG sometimes seem to not be aware of the way the senate and the house of our own nation work. I don't like how it works but I do know how it works.

The majority party controls. They control who is the chairperson of each and every committee.

The majority party controls. They control who, therefore, can subpoena witnesses, subpoena documents.

The majority party controls. They control what, therefore, subjects are covered or covered up in each committee.

The majority party controls. They control the makeup of the committees so that they have a majority on those committees.

Are you aware that for TWELVE YEARS there has not been an oversite hearing concerning Whistleblower Protection laws? Until last week a hearing began on these issues (that is because they know November is close).

Twelve years ... is how long the republicans have been in control, and they are the ultimate rubber stamp to the fascist regime.

The democrats are the only other party that has the potential for becoming the majority party. The other parties do not.

So rather than doing the republican talking point dance, and blaming the democrats for what the republicans have done, blame the republicans.

And hold them accountable in the November elections so that democratic chairpersons will subpoena documents about the lies, torture, spying on Americans, giving up of our ports to foreign nations, and ruining our good reputation in the world.

A hodgepodge of parties, green, libertarian, and democrat, will still be the minority party which can do nothing under the current structure of congress.

This is not the time for elegant perfection of political parties, because we are bleeding to death. This is not the time for smiley face bandaids on our wounds.

It is time to take back the house and the senate or face the death of democracy bleeding to death.

SUPPORT CLINT CURTIS

about asbestos cancer and prostate cancer,asbestos Cancer also called malignant prostate Cancer
mesothelioma is a disease in which
prostate Cancer (malignant) cells are found in the sac lining the chest (the pleura) or abdomen (the peritoneum). It is a rare form of cancer. Most people with malignant
mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they breathed asbestos.

Big Dan #7

Answering your first question, it depends on where you are talking about.

The states were originally called "experiments" and the intent and focus while drawing up the US Constitution was to allow them to make their own laws.

What was illegal in one "experiment" or state was legal in another. And that is the way it is today. Laws even vary from county to county within states. Most states follow the English Common Law (a hostile foreign enemy at the time of the formation of the constitution, whose "common law" we adopted), but Louisiana does not. It follows the code Napoleon, the applicable legal concepts of the French.

So it depends on the law of the jurisdiction where the voting machine is.

Along comes federal law to establish a standard to which all the states must comply. This is limited because congress, without constitutional provisions to support them, cannot tell the states what to do.

Hence, houston, we have a problem.

Kevin Zeese

I want to know how you would change things by being elected in place of a republican or a democrat to the senate.

The senate is controlled by the republican party, and all committees of the senate have a republican senator to chair them, plus a majority of members from the republican party.

The sole independent in the senate today, is chair of no committee and is in the minority on each and every committee he sits on.

That independent cannot select a subject upon which to have a committee hearing, cannot subpoena witnesses or documents, or overcome the republican vote on that committee should the committee decide to vote along party lines, which happens in the great majority of committee votes.

So, what would you do to change the realities of political science applicable to senate committees if you win and the total goes to two independents in the senate minority?

Answer to Dredd

Again you aren't understanding the issue fully. It is not just republicans in control, it is DLC democrats & their friends as well.

People like Kevin Zeese would replace the entire committee, not a few seats. By simply throwing out the machines there would BE NO majority...we'd put independents everywhere.

Doug

This is the real issue the power brokers are frightened of. Vote fraud is as old as voting, but it seems enough people are able to become enlightened on the blogs (like this one) and other independent news sites, to start seeing the light. We are witnessing a rising tide of enlightened people. Soon we will reach critical mass and then no floodgates will stop the clamor of the people for representative government.
We never should trust government, we should participate, monitor and lastly control our government.

Doug #16

I did not ask you a question, but since you "answered" I will reply.

You show your abject ignorance of how the senate committe system works. Even tho I supplied links that actually show how it works (link here). Official senate links.

Therefore your statement "People like Kevin Zeese would replace the entire committee" is laughable. It cannot be done, and you should not make false statements on behalf of another.

Get a grip on the reality of the US Senate and the way it works if you want to answer for someone running for that senate.

I hope Kevin's response is not as pathetic and ill informed as yours is.

Dredd

As I said I don't believe that is true whatsoever that only "one party" or two parties can get on the senate committee.

I believe that is total BS, but that is because I come from a different background than you do. In fact, if publically financed elections were mainstream and we get rid of the voting machines, independents could take over the senate in a heartbeat.

And you know what, it is just like they did in Vermont. So I don't want to hear spin on an issue I know very much closer than you.

Doug

The legal structure of our congress does not support a multi-party system, and is designed really for a two party system. This is not good.

Under the law of the House and Senate, "the Senate divides its tasks among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and 4 joint committees" ... "The chair of each committee and a majority of its members represent the majority party. The chair primarily controls a committee’s business" (link here).

Take an example where republicans win 30 seats, independents win 28 seats, greens win 29 seats, and democrats win 13 seats. We can now easily see that this will not work well.

The republicans with 30 seats end up as the majority party. Remember that the majority party and the majority are not the same thing in our example. The majority is 70 votes (greens, indys, and dems), but the majority party is 30 republican seats.

Therefore, they get the committee chair on each committee, and they get the majority number of members in each committee.

So, in our system, the majority of seats would be governed by the minority 30 seats.

Anyone see any way to improve this?

Senate Standing Committee; Chair, (R=repub; D=dem); (Member Count)

Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; (Chambliss, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Appropriations; (Cochran, R); (15 R, 13 D)
Armed Services; (Warner, R); (13 R, 11 D)
Banking, Housing,and Urban Affairs; (Shelby, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Budget; (Gregg, R); (12 R, 10 D)
Commerce, Science,and Transportation; (Stevens, R); (12 R, 10 D)
Energy and Natural Resources; (Domenici, R); (12 R, 10 D)
Environment and Public Works; (Inhofe, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Finance; (Grassley, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Foreign Relations; (Lugar, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Health, Education,Labor, and Pensions; (Enzi, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; (Collins, R); (09 R, 07 D)
Judiciary; (Specter, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Rules and Administration; (Lott, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Small Business and Entrepreneurship; (Snowe, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Veterans Affairs; (Craig, R); (08 R, 06 D)

"Dissatisfied with the nation's direction, Americans are leaning toward wanting a change in which political party leads Congress — preferring that Democrats take control, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Democrats are favored over Republicans 49% to 36%." (link here).

"In an ominous election-year sign for Republicans, Americans are leaning sharply toward giving Democrats control of Congress, an AP-Ipsos poll finds. Democrats are favored 49 percent to 36 percent." (link here).