The keystone of democracy is....

[O]ver in Australia, a little company called Software Improvements put together a perfectly workable, open and verifiable electronic voting system based on the Linux operating system in just six months back in 2001. The Diebold, Sequoia and ES&S systems being marketed here in the States are Windows-based, using proprietary software that is closed to public view. Software Improvements’ lead engineer on the project, Matt Quinn... is quite militant about the use of open-source software on such projects:

"The keystone of democracy is information. You have a big problem when people don’t have enough information to make up their minds, or even worse, they have misleading information and make up their minds in a way that would be contrary to what they would decide if they had the full story. Any transparency you can add to that process is going to enhance the democracy and, conversely, any information you remove from that process is going to undermine your democracy. If a voting system precludes any notion of a meaningful recount, is cloaked in secrecy and controlled by individuals with conflicts of interest, why would anyone buy it? At the very least, give citizens the right to choose whether they want to use paper ballots, thus allowing each elector to be personally satisfied as to the integrity of the process in which they are participating."

Of course, Quinn is assuming that the current administration has an interest in hearing and implementing the will of the people. Being an Australian, he may be forgiven his naivete. Here in America, some of us are beginning to get the grim feeling that ballots, honest or otherwise, may not be sufficient to provide the regime change we so desperately and clearly need.

That excerpt was taken from an article at New York Press about voting fraud, which is a very good article on voting fraud, that starts out like this:

Somewhere out there in the wilds of America is a patsy, a Lone Nut if you will. He’s living a quiet life. Maybe he has a secret fixation, an obsession that no one around him, no neighbor, no co-worker, no family member knows about. Maybe he thinks he’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s soulmate. Maybe he wants to "rescue" Britney Spears.

When the Tecumseh Curse kicks in and bullets rip through the head of George W. Bush, this man will be called upon to take the fall, and fall he will. In the absence of an impeachment resolution, the Tecumseh Curse may be our only hope for regime change. Most likely our salvation will emanate from CIA headquarters in McLean, VA, but we can call it Wellstone’s Revenge.

Because the way it’s looking, an honest and fair election won’t do the trick.

I've long thought that there is a distinct possibility that Georgie will be taken out the hard way. It's not because of the Tecumseh Curse, or some madman, or truly even some Taliban. Although any of those things might be blamed. Rather, it's because we are running out of outrages that the American public can be guaranteed to fall in line behind for a continuing drive to dominion over the world. And so, I would be looking for it to be something from within, but seeming to be from without - blamed on Islamic fundamentalists or some other Arab terrorists perhaps. Pawn sacrifice. And Georgie is imminently sacrificable. Too stupid to even recognize the precariousness of his position. He wouldn't even know what hit him. And the Bush family could recoup some of their lost respect in the bargain - because instead of being a disgrace in the family business, the laughingstock of the world and the worst president in history, he'd suddenly be a martyr. Win-Win.

I bet old Poppy and that pit bull with tits* he's married to have already given the nod.

It's a possibility. Watch for it.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.


*I don't remember who called her that, but I can't come up with a more perfect description.