When the Sky is Full of 0’s and 1’s
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(Permission to forward and reprint granted, with link to http://www.blackboxvoting.org)

You might be the one to help us crack this case.

At issue: A YES-NO question: Do Diebold touch-screens have a problem similar to that
identified in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County, Florida — the devastating hack
of the Diebold optical scan system. Just a YES-NO question.

Black Box Voting has now obtained certain NEW specific information indicating that
the answer with the touch-screens will be �YES.� One of our researchers has identified
an interpreter, which appears to be specifically prohibited by 2002 FEC standards, inside
a Diebold touchscreen system.

What is needed now is to confirm this finding with a “pedigreed” Diebold touch-screen
system � ie., one to which we are given legitimate access with one of our publicly known
experts. We will have to show that what our protected source has found is also present in
a system delivered by Diebold for use in actual elections. This cannot be a stolen system,
a specially souped-up system (i.e. one that Diebold chooses), or a system used without
authorization of its custodians.

Please immediately make contact with those you know to see if you can facilitate a quick
YES-NO examination of an official Diebold touch-screen voting system anywhere in the
United States or Canada. We know what we’re looking for. We know where it is. We
simply need to confirm that it is ALSO in one of the systems delivered to public officials.

Note that in July, Diebold sent �threat� letters to its customers, warning them not to allow
examination of their systems. However, in December Black Box Voting was shown to be
correct when we alleged that there was executable code and an interpreter in the optical
scan machines/memory cards. Diebold lied, under oath and in writing, to secretaries of state
and purchasing officials about this. Now, the entire Diebold product line has been called
into question, and we believe our findings will soon spill over into other vendors’ products
as well.

Following our demonstration in Leon County, Florida, California refused to certify Diebold.
Pennsylvania has now refused to certify Diebold. Diebold has now been dropped from
counties in Florida and Missouri. Diebold has refused to give its source code to North Carolina,
most likely due to the NC requirement that allows POLITICAL PARTIES to examine the source
code, which would risk revealing the problems exposed by the Black Box Voting projects
conducted with Harri Hursti and others.

If you may be able to help with this project, please call Bev at (206) 335-7747 or Kathleen at
206-354-5723 or the main office at (425) 793-1030 or send to bev@blackboxvoting.org.
Telephone or send an overnight letter (sent by Fed X but not U.S. Post Office, to 330 SW 43rd
St Suite K PMB 547 Renton WA 98055) The contents of our e-mail was penetrated by an
outsider in late November in connection with confidential plans for upcoming testing,
so we do not recommend that you contact us by e-mail for this particular endeavor.

The sooner the better. It is important to roll back use of ANY MACHINES WITH PROHIBITED
CODE well in advance of the 2006 elections, in order to allow local jurisdictions to make
other plans.

We went to The Little to see the The Squid and the Whale last night. The tag line for the movie is “Joint custody sucks” and is the story of 2 children of to PhD writers who are divorcing. Told from the point of view of the 2 children it shows the affect a divorce has on the children. Complicated by the fact that neither parent is perfect it is tough to pick sides as a viewer. This is also shown through the children, one of which sides with one parent and one with the other. The overall problem I had with this film was that both parents were PhD writers and living in downtown NYC. I guess divorce happens in all types of house. Even so, the problems that the kids dealt with were universal to most children of broken homes and they did a great job of drawing us in. Seeing the credits at the end expalined the stunted style of some of the scenes, Wes Anderson has a credit for producer. Overall, a good movie that everyone should see.

Not of the year…just of the week.

I have had some free time at work and started keeping track of new posts on The Big Takeover (the greatest music mag ever, one of 2 that i subscribe to, the other being The Wire ) and each writer has a top 10 that they update frequently. So I have been inspired to make a list, and try to update it frequently as well.

1. Richard Swift - Collection Vol. 1
This 2 cd set compiles everything that Swift has done. Amazing kitchen sink pop made a few years ago but sounds as if its from 60 years ago.

2. Ron Sexsmith
Kirstie and I picked up a bunch of his stuff latley. “Other Songs”, “Whereabouts”, “Cobblestone Runway” is where we have started, and I wonder where has he been all my life. Just our luck that we start to get into an artist after they came to town.

3. Anne Summers - Very Classy
Just put this on my iPod. I still know every song by heart. “I’m taking all my pills/for long life/and I’m throwing them all away”. Classic power-pop that should have been everywhere.

4. francoiz breut - vingt a trente mille jours
I dont understand a word of french, but her voice fits perfect with the spooky keyboards and atmospherics of the songs. The album has a creepy open feel, the sounds of spaces, reverb, and color. The album cover is dark and red, quite fitting.

5. Liars - It Fit When I Was a Kid
I was super excited to see that Dr. Wax had this behind the counter saturday. The cover is the edited version, which is fine by me. The music is just as good as their last album (They We’re Wrong So We Drown), starting with heavy beats and moving to beautiful drones. Perfect tease for the new album.

6. Belle & Sebastian - If Your Feeling Sinister (Live @ Barbican London)
iTunes only release with all proceeds being donated to the DEC’s Asia Quake Appeal. Very good quality sound wise and playing. Makes me want to see them live again.

7. Blur - s/t
This and 13 are the best things they have done.

8. double digit weather
After 0°F weather for the past few days 11°F seems like a heat wave

9. Wipers - 3-cd box (Is This Real?/Youth of America/Over the Edge)
Being that my iPod is getting full, this box set pushed off a couple of Buzzcocks albums. It’s ok though because I have listened to those enough in the past 6 months.

10. Le Concorde - Universe and Villa
I guess when the weather gets cold all I want is pop. This is hands down the best pop album of the year.

A $300 million Pentagon psychological warfare operation includes plans for placing pro-American messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the U.S. government as the source

This is a pretty interesting article, seems that the US doesnt think that the press is outside the realm of control. Scary.

read more | digg story

• Newsday.com: Witnesses heard no talk of bomb
  (tags: miami shooting politics news)

• Shooting puts air marshals in spotlight
  (tags: miami shooting politics)
• ABC News: EXCLUSIVE: Shoe Bomber Alert Preceded Airport Shooting
  (tags: miami shooting politics)

Chicago Tribune | Air Marshal Kills Passenger, Citing Threat

WTF…no.no.no WHAT THE FUCK!

So now we let police shoot first and ask questions later. I thought this was innocent until PROVEN guilty. According to the story, even after the shooting, the man is already dead, husband of 20 years, they found NO BOMBS ON THE PLANE! This has gone way to far to the other side. We are getting way to parinoid and need to take a step back and rethink these things. All these marshalls couldnt catch up to the guy and pin him down. Where they too scared of getting blown up themselves. Well here is news for you, your line of work is dangerous. TO SERVE AND PROTECT. You dont get to choose who to serve and who to not. Couple this incident witht the one in England and things start to get really scary. Officers of this caliber are very well trained markmen. They know where to shoot a person where it will only wound them and where it will kill them. If they have to resort to shooting they should attempt to wound so that a fair trial and investigation can take place. Isn’t is what our fore fathers wanted.

You gotta love the empty bottle and their free monday shows. Monday is not usally a good night for us, but since one of our favorite local Chicago (by way of texas) bands was playing we couldn�t pass it up. The band I speak of is Palaxy Tracks, who have released one of the best records of the year, the perfect �12 rooms�. They were 2nd of 3 so it made the deal even sweeter, we could get home at a reasonable hour.

We got their a bit after the first band went on, Rain Delay Theater. It was just one guy with a couple of keyboards, a laptop and a few other things I couldn�t quite make out. He was good in the sense that the songs were tight and coherent, but he really didn�t do much with the music. The songs were along the lines of club music: heavy bass beat, an interesting albeit clichéd arpeggiated melody line, and some throw-away lyrics. It was fun, you could dance to it if you wanted too, but not really what I am into.

Inbetween bands Jarret from another local fav of ours , Walter Meego, spun everything from hip-hop to funk and techno. It was a nice tease being that we are seeing them open for the amazing Caribou this Friday at the Subt.

Now for the reason we came out, Palaxy Tracks. We had seen them less then a month ago open for Canasta, and picked up their new album, 12 rooms, which came out in april. I am not sure how we missed that release, although its not surprising seeing how each time we see Palaxy Tracks they push the other bands records more then their own. In Feburary when we saw them they made the comment that if you wanted to by some merch that you might have to find a band member in the crowd since they forget to actually go back to their booth after their set. During this show he informed the crowd that the headliners, Mobius Band, came all the way from the east coast (NYC, and Mass.) and that we should help them out and buy their record.
The set they played tonight was more of the earlier records then the new one, although they did play my favorite song �Camera� and a few others off the new one.

The headliners, Mobius Band, had gotten one favorable review of an early EP on the fork and then slamed for the LP. We stayed for about 4 songs and I thought they were ok, nothing special. They claim to mix electronic with indie-rock, and really all they do is use a synth drum pad and a sampler along with the regular guitar/bass/drums line-up. Being a three piece with all this stuff meant that usally one band member was doing double duty, be it playing guitar and triggering samples, or playing bass and keyboards. This made them not only look ridiculous but also a bit sloppy. The songs were fairly straight forward pop songs, but nothing really grabbed me.

Maybe I am just overly cynical today, or just overly enamored with Palaxy Tracks.

Chicago Tribune | Where you can, can’t smoke

What a deal. NOT. Most of the things on this list you couldnt smoke at any way. Come on. When was the last time you could smoke in a movie theather, or a public elevator. I was hoping for a ban on smoking in bars and restraunts, where the most damage is done to employee’s and non-smoking patrons. I went to San Fran a few years ago and saw The Delgados play at a club called Bimbo’s. We walked in, watched the opener and a few songs in I turn to Kirstie and ask “Does something seem missing to you” and we both went “Doh” San Fran is no smoking. Double bonus is that inbetween bands all the smokers (and there were lots of them) rushed out side, giving up their choice spots on the floor. So you could go and see a show, get a spot on the floor where you like, and leave the night not smelling like smoke, or having your eyes tear over from the thick haze. But, you say, the deal says that restraunts and bars have until 2008 then they will be no smoking too. Not really.

* Bars, taverns and other public areas or workplaces that install air purification devices that ensure the same air quality inside as outside can seek an exemption from the smoking ban.

We have all seen those things. They could never clean out all the air in, for example, The Empty Bottle and make it like the air outside. This is just a great loop hole for restraunt and bar owns to use in the future.
This is a great step, but on a very long journey. We must not give up the fight for clean air in all public spaces.

So a recapp..a few days late. Started this friday off with a nice 7 mile bike ride. A first for me in sub freezing weather. (it was about 18-20°F out) I wore a t-shirt, a sweater, by winter jacket, a scarf, gloves, my helmet, pants, socks and shoes. Carrying my book bag with my lock in it coupled with all the clothing added a bit of weight that I wasnt used to while riding. For the first mile or so I was cold but not uncomfortable, after the next couple of miles my heart rate really picked up and my body was fairly warm. For the rest of the trip I was actually sweating and the only part of my body that was really cold was my legs, I should have worn long johns and an extra pair of socks for my feet. Since the ground was clean, the snow from the previous night didnt stick to the pavement well, riding wasnt to bad. I was going to Pritzker school to help judge a science fair, I mostly followed Damen ave which has a bike lane for 75% of the way.

When I got there I was actually a bit early so I had a small breakfast at Sweet Thang which included coffee and a quiche. Headed over to the school after that and judged 8 different science projects ranging from a sociology experiment to the effectiveness of various brands of mouth wash. Overall pretty fun, interacting with kids at that level and time where you may be able to make a diffence and swing them toward science is really great.

Afterward I rode back home to then meet kirstie and go to the MCA and see their Tropicalia exhibition. Its a really great look at the late 60’s to early 70’s in Brazil and the art and music that was created under the social and political changes that were going on. We spent 2 hrs there and will have to go back a few more times before it leaves in early Jan. So much to take in. Its layed out very well in the 2 large rooms on the main floor and includes posters, album covers, videos, props, full displays and interactive peices that are just overwhelming. Its very difficult to try and condense so much in even this large space, but I think they did a good job. Kirstie and I are now obsessed with Brazilian music from this period. We already really liked Os Mutantes and Tom Ze so we had an idea but now there are ppl like Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Gal Costa. (For the record Dusty Groove is a great place to find a bunch of this stuff on cd and vinyl.)

To finish off the day it was a show at The Beat Kitchen . We went to see “The Island” (who kirstie got some great pictures of during their set ) and since we never miss an opener also caught “Locks” and Make Believe . Starting off, “Locks” were ok. Musically they played tight and loud guitar and drum pieces, with loops and samples that created a dark atmosphere. Then they added lyrics which were quite chlidish and lame. After that it was really hard to get into them. “Make Believe” were ok and what I would expect from a Kinsella off shoot. He came on stage in a full winter bubble coat, wool cap, and dark sun glasses and they played loud and jerky rejected Joan of Arc songs. Finally, the Island came on. 2 of the members used to be in this band called The Unicorns who were so great they toured themselves into the ground on one record. As the Unicorns they wrote quirky, complicated pop songs and the Islands continue in that tradition but on somewhat more mature note. Islands are twice as large, ppl wise, then the aformentioned unicorns and so the songs have a lot mroe going on in them. Violin and 2 (sometimes 3) guitars, bass, drums, and keyboard all perfectly placed and sewn together perfectly. They were plauged with some sound problems and a lost recorder, but that didnt stop them from playing right up to curfew. Which is the only beef I have with AA shows, the band has to finish before 11:30 and so the house actually started playing music which the Islands just played over to start their last song. Here is looking forward to the new album in Jan and a full tour.