29 June 2008: There But for Fortune II

Picture a young woman in the early 1970s getting off a plane in Los Angeles in the wee hours of the dawn, having saved money by taking an “owly bird.” The ride was luxurious—she may have been the sole passenger and felt like Onassis on that jumbo jet.

     But the airport was a different story, deserted but for a few depressing laggards sitting around. She went into the ladies’ room, not knowing what to do until 5 a.m., when the first bus to Westwood would come along.

     She came out of the bathroom and lit up a cigarette, a heavy smoker at the time. Then she began to gag uncontrollably. A man came up to her and watched her gag. “Are you lost?” he asked. She felt ridiculous. “No!” she said without further explanation, her pride wounded. He looked at her full of pity.

     The bus finally came.

     The homeless people in the District of Columbia can’t just hop a bus out of their condition, on to an opulent university that looks more like a country club.

     That is the closest experience I can think of in my sheltered life that reminds me of homelessness—nowhere to go until the bus comes.

     It’s coming in D.C., though—a project to end homelessness, sponsored by Mayor Adrian Fenty. A young professional who works for the Health and Human Resources Services department of the District government, Laura Zeilinger, described the program in detail to a room full of Washington Friends Meeting members and attendees. The program is modeled on successful counterparts in other large cities (more than 50), especially New York. It addresses all aspects of homelessness uncritically—not just the absence of food and shelter.

     It makes housing available to all homeless people, including those who are mentally ill, alcoholics, substance abusers, or all of the above. It will provide education in basic living skills, counseling, rehabilitation, detoxification, all without a hitch. They will have more than the humiliating, overcrowded shelters and soup kitchens they frequent now, where the employees, earning low salaries, do not treat them well. The aim of the program is not only to end homelessness but also to prevent it, catching the root causes before the damage runs its course, adding to the number of street people..

     The program will provide six thousand affordable housing units, including emergency units for evicted families, and when they can, giving them enough money to retain their leases—such funding will be provided once a year.

     There will be 500 units for chronically homeless families and the rest for individuals, the rent will be fully paid if the tenants need this. Such permanent housing can last for at least forty years.

     Another goal of the program is to address the root causes of homelessness, which differ with each individual or family, and customize their programs appropriately.

     The program cannot support those displaced by foreclosures, because rescuing them—that is, keeping them where they are--would require funding it does not have.

     The goal is to house four hundred of those most needy by October 1. Genderwise, the ratio here is 65 percent men to 35 percent women, we were told, because families tend to feel more protective of the "weaker sex."

     Said Laura, she and her colleagues go out on the streets between 4 and 7 a.m. to find homeless people and talk with them. Most are receptive and polite, she said. In addition, all of us should treat homeless people with respect, making eye contact and greeting them rather than pretending they’re not there. I feel so foolish mired in my own problems, passing by homeless people pushing shopping carts that contain all their possessions.

     What does God care about the neuroses of a middle-aged princess compared to those of a starving child in Darfur or a homeless person with nowhere warm to sleep in the winter? The miracle is that God loves all of us, I find. Suffering is suffering.

     Though homeless people fear and loathe the District police, who frequently re-locate them, another goal is to reduce the number of calls to 9-11 made by street people in trouble, calls that cost D.C. more in the long run than addressing the needs these calls express.   

     The program also reaches out to refugees from disaster scenarios like Katrina and the recent flooding in the Midwest.

     Working with the Washington Interfaith Network, the program will receive $60.8 million in New Funds for Affordable Housing Citywide and $50 million in land value to finance the development of new, affordable housing units. The federal government also responds to applications for assistance and contributes further to making the District what Mayor Fenty anticipates will become a “City of Opportunity.”

©

15 June 2008: Uncounted, a Film by David Earnhardt et al.

As a veteran voting rights activist, I learned little new from watching this magisterial history of the horrendous corruption injected into our electoral system since the rise of the Neocons in 2000, by way of Jebb Bush and Katherine Harris in Florida, among many others.

     But I appreciated the review and am anxious to spread the word around to the large percentage of people in this country unaware that a large percentage of their votes in the last eight years haven’t been counted or, in many cases, been counted backward to subtract from the totals of the candidates they favored.

     David Earnhardt’s expertise in choosing the right moments in the last eight years to highlight served another purpose in my life: it rekindled my anger and inspired me to keep fighting the fight.

     Though it occurs to me that half of the population in this country refuse to vote, so disaffected they are with the system or so uninformed of their rights. They may be further scared away from participating in such a corrupted process.

     I don’t meet such people too often but when I do, urge them to register. The film medium may reach out to them better than the printed word, so that all in all we accomplish more by getting the word out than remaining silent as our rights slip away

     Earnhardt’s film reviews the highlights of the last eight years and finds one of the constants, despite the nonpartisanship of the election rights movement: the Republican party is connected with the corruption, by way of large donations to their candidates by the large voting machine manufacturers, by way of the Republicans in power who have aided and abetted the ethical violations that have handed the Bushocracy the White House twice, unfairly.

     The Supreme Court absconding with the right of the Florida Supreme Court to determine how to handle the conflicts in their state that postponed the election result in 2000; the double role of Katherine Harris as Florida’s secretary of state and head of the committee to elect Bush; the complicity of Bush’s brother, Governor Jebb, who promised his state’s vote to “W.”

     The rush to purchase the disastrous electronic touch-screen and push-button “DRE”’s that were so easy to corrupt and manipulate in countless ways, including “vote hopping” from Democratic to Republican candidates by way of manipulating the proprietary coding [read: no one could check the programming to be sure that it was functioning reliably].

     The purposeful racism leveled against third-world citizens bound by large percentages to the Democratic party and therefore kept away from the polls by intimidation, misinformation, manipulation of paperwork, denial of rights on flimsy grounds, purposefully undersupplying to precincts where they voted, or supplying dysfunctional machines in stark contrast to the treatment of affluent communities bound to vote for Republicans.

     The control of the key battleground state of Ohio in 2004 by Kenneth Blackwell, also both secretary of state and leader of the committee to re-elect Bush; the long lines at the polls in pouring rain that forced many with limited amounts of time to leave without voting—those who persevered were forced to wait as long as 16 hours. The faking of a terrorist scare at another precinct. All that and much more crippled our rights in 2004.

     Diebold is the case in point Earnhardt uses to exemplify what has gone wrong in this country since 2004 (activist groups have formed since then to fight the corruption; more on this below). A large and powerful, Republican-connected manufacturer of paperless DREs, Diebold is responsible for dispersing dysfunctional machines in huge quantities—machines that have been proved hackable in less than a minute. The key to the programming so resembles a luggage key that anyone can open a blackbox in that short a time and infect the machine to produce votes for the candidate of choice.

     The mainstream press ignored this fiasco for as long as it could. Grassroots activists and then iconoclastic and brave journalists first began the publicity push. First the establishment corporates dismissed the activists’ claims and then finally took up the proliferation, but never soon enough to affect results and never to the degree needed.

     The film features heroes of the election integrity movement, including pioneers like Bev Harris, the few equally brave Members of Congress who dared speak out—John Conyers and Cynthia McKinney the earliest. The syndicated columnist Robert Koehler of the Chicago Tribune joined the fight early on. Then of course, the pantheon of others who arose from the grassroots are quoted, along with the courageous whistle blowers who sacrificed their careers to fight the corrupt behemoth.

     The earliest canary in the coal mine, Greg Palast, who exposed the list of illegally purged voters wrongly identified as felons, in Florida, is missing from the pantheon, though other pioneers who stood in front of the Supreme Court in mid-December are briefly photo’ed on that day they awaited the decision of the Supreme Court on who would next occupy the White House.

     Among the persistent activists quoted are Mary Beth Kuznik of central Pennsylvania, attorney Lowell Finley now of California, author Andrew Gumbel, New York activist Teresa Hommel, author Bob Fitrakis, blogger and speaker Brad Friedman, martyr Athan Gibbs, who started Tru-Vote, now up and running after ceasing operations after Gibbs’s death, Clint Curtis, Ed Felten of Princeton, Bruce Funk of Utah, Christine Jennings of Sarasota 2006 fame, and Jonathan Simon.

     Just as John Conyers’s slow, weary articulation serves as ground base to the film, a theme running throughout is the outrageous and chronic disconnect between exit polls and machine tallies. And there is much more to watch and learn.

     What can we do? Contact our representatives who must run for re-election every two years; say no to DREs, an area where we are making progress; volunteer to be a poll observer or worker- a job where the median age of employees is currently 72; write letters to the periodical editors local and national, lobby, and pass this film around.

     Where’s the outrage? We can, Barack Obama might say were he among us in this fight. Use of optical scanners, low-tech electronic voting machines that produce paper ballots, and revival of paper bllots are spreading. We’re succeeding but never has the need been more urgent to never stop. Election 2008 is upon us and it is up to us to keep our democracy functional and not go the way of places where notorious corruption for years has kept the wrong people in office.

     One citizen-one ballot must remain to perpetuate this historic experiment we call democracy, an age of enlightenment in history that must endure. Individuals have to take that step, says Bev Harris as the film ends and our part continues, strengthened, our outrage rekindled, our mission defined once again. Democracy: love it or lose it!

©

15 June 2008: Otto J. Nussbaum

I had a father until 1993, named Otto, which embarrassed me a bit, until I realized that when my mother called him “Ott” frequently, that’s what Penelope probably called her Odysseus, when he was home.

     Dad wasn’t home too often, always flying around on business, giving speeches, participating in seminars and conferences, holding offices including president. A socialist in his youth, he later became a Zionist—his father had taken a term off from university to work in the office of Theodor Herzl.

     Fleeing the Nazis, my father came here before the “final solution” in the late 1930s; he had been born in Budapest, raised in Vienna, and schooled in Moscow. There, once he graduated and told the Russians he did not intend to stay, he was given 48 hours to pack and leave. He never went back there, though once, at a conference in Prague, he ran into a professor from Russia and they had an emotional reunion.

     Losing family in the Holocaust, my father was determined to save his immediate family. A wealthy relative in England bribed the Nazis to free his father from Dachau, where he had been imprisoned doing hard labor for three months. My grandfather, who had been taken to Dachau on Krystallnacht, emerged a shadow of his former self, wrist tattooed efficiently with a row of blue numbers, and smoked himself to death thereafter, dying in 1960 after working sporadically as a bridge engineer.

     My father paid to bring over his father, mother, and one sister. The other, a medical student, immigrated to London where she worked for several years as a governess.

     Like my aunt, refusing help from well-established relatives, my father worked as a hospital orderly in New York City until he found a company in Trenton, NJ, who hired him as their chief engineer. He worked there for twenty years and to this day the family who owned that company are close friends with my family—those who are still living.

     From that humble beginning, he acquired 29 patents, including one for inventing the familiar ventilating infrastructure that releases both heat and air conditioning through the same outlet.

     He supported his parents until they died. He spoke French, Hungarian, Russian, German, and English—the last to a point where he was always correcting our grammar and New Jersey dialects at the dinner table. Because of this remarkable knowledge, he worked as a translator for the United Nations (on paper documents) and was sent to Warsaw, Poland, in 1960 for two months to serve as a technical assistant. He received a further offer to work in Santiago, Chile, for a year, but his employers wouldn’t give him that long a sabbatical.

     My father was one of the first to realize the promise of PCs and solar energy when their earliest incarnations emerged. So in the early 1980s in Huntsville, Alabama, we took lukewarm showers and were given home lessons in WordStar on the first word-processing software on Radio Shack mini-computers. He tried to teach me programming also, but I just wanted the word processing to input a novel I was working on.

     My father was no socialite—my mother attended to that end of things. On my wedding weekend, with our home thronging with fascinating guests from as far off as South Africa, my father rode around his home on his tractor mowing the lawn.

     But he was a humanitarian and idealist in some ways, hiring a black engineer, with whom he worked in his home office in the 1950s, and taught us all to respect him as my father’s colleague in an era that frowned upon that level of integration. When asked why he chose that iconoclastic route, my father said that the gentleman had simply presented him with the most qualified credentials. He too, had suffered from discrimination. He told us never to feel too secure anywhere as Jews, that all of his friends had turned against him in Vienna; my aunt lost her fiancé whom she had met in medical school. Years later they had a reunion in Vienna, so that she could experience closure with that era of her life.

     My father had found his picture in an issue of Der Speigel while riding a trolley car in Austria—thus having engineered the reunion.

     He’s been gone for fifteen years. He would have rolled his eyes around as we “mice” began to play after his severe abstemiousness had departed from our midst. We all began to travel the world.

     But my father had left a financial legacy guaranteeing that all of us would always have enough for food and shelter—no frills.

     But the legacy did not end there. He had taught us how to organize our lives, how never to stop until we found work that not only sustained us materially but also satisfied us intellectually and spiritually. Often he preferred his work to human interactions. He was never happier than in his attic office working away at contractual work he did in addition to his full-time job.

     He had taught us that we could survive the most grueling tribulation life could offer and learn to weather the good fortune that followed as well as the adversities. Upstairs in his aerie, inventing, translating, listening to foreign music and news on the “Telefunkens” he had put together himself, he sustained two families and was charitable beyond that, with his time for worthy causes and with what financial donations he could afford beyond that.

     A mixed bag indeed, you might say. He had little time to play with us. We feared his European domination of so much of our childhood. My mother was the approachable one. He was killed instantly in a collision just as 2003 was born. We were all shocked, all reacted differently. I was the one who told my colleagues at work to drown me with assignments so that I would not have to think about anything else—truly my father’s daughter.

     And we miss what he was able to give us, the traditional male foraging, the security that we’d always be taken care of, the amazing ascent from penniless refugee to world-renowned engineer, creator of computer programs that sold all over the world, inventor, solar engineer and insightful pioneer.

     He tried to retire at 65 but quickly became a caged animal, so at age 70 he found a job in a new field, chemical engineering. He was hired and oriented into this new field, specializing in water chemistry. He worked full-time in this capacity, also working as a contractor in his spare time, arising eagerly at 5 in the morning each day, including weekends.

     He died with a full head of dark hair, the health of a 55 year old, a survivor of level-4 melanoma; well I could write even more about this gifted man. A hard act to follow for my brother and me, but rather an ideal in many ways and an exemplar.

     Dad, on this day we remember both your merits and faults and rejoice in the full and satisfying life you led, cut off at a moment of triumph.

     My father was within one chapter of completing a textbook on engineering and had already found a publisher. He died in the act of endeavor and somewhere is still hard at work. He visits me occasionally, always telling me what to do: “Take care of your mother.” I try to obey him, as always.

©

1 June 2008: What’s Going On and Why?

There is a lot to dissect lately. I think psychology began before Freud—he himself drew heavily on the classical tradition for a reason. I am defending psychology because I think it will matter in this blog if not dominate it.

     Hillary Clinton weighs heavily on my mind—the one with more popular votes than Obama, whose lead, I read today, leans heavily on caucus victories even as she claimed key states like New York, California, and Pennsylvania.

     Hillary has been campaigning since 1992, if not 1969, when she graduated from Wellesley as the class speaker, her dark brows accentuating her power even then.

     Now her brows are no longer dark and she is traversing a tough place, a low she will get over soon. If Obama lacks her baggage, he will acquire it in a far more perilous place, the presidency. All we can hope is that his learning curve doesn’t arch into the ground.

     Hillary can bounce back, a pro who can easily turn tough; she can even run again, though she has used up so much and exerted so continuously, I wonder if she has the energy and wherewithal to do it again.

     And if Obama screws up, with the public give the Dems another chance in four years? The presidency seems to be the most difficult position in history, but the Golden Generation I’m sure will argue otherwise.

     To think that as a Wellesley frosh Hill was so intimidated for the first few days she considered returning to her small town in Illinois.

     I also wonder how different life would be now if her plan for universal health coverage in 1993 have been better, if she had known more. America will have waited more than fifteen years for its presumptive president to carry out her promise. If Obama succeeds, it will be sad in a way and few will look back to Hillary’s clumsy first efforts.

     Unless Hillary becomes his v.p. and he assigns her that task, now older and wiser.

     I’m assuming a Democratic victory in November, of course: Bam Bam vs. Bomb Bomb.

     And, by the way, the battle for the nomination was not black versus white—the White Christian male was eliminated early on—but male versus female. Obama isn’t black enough and this won’t be the first time that the gift of articulateness has led to greatness. Let words this time around be the seeds of resounding actions:

Out of Iraq and away from Iran

Universal health care

Curing the economy (universal wealth care?)

Peace through understanding—-a compromise between knowing that everyone wants what we’ve got or else thinks that we need what they’ve got

improved education

no more outsourcing

restoring Iraq to the way it was before we bombed it, sans Halliburton and its peers.

I mean, there is so much, far too much to accomplish in four years—I would maintain it’s the heaviest job description on the market, ever, so let’s hope that Barack surrounds himself with the right people. Can we assign each of the above bullet points to a cabinet secretary? We’ll need a Department of Peace, I’d wager, and guess who to lead it? Would O. go that far out on the limb of democracy, to that funny-looking, so-underrated visionary?

++++++++

And now to an even more universal issue: religion/politics—where does one end and the other begin if the most secular of items, the most heavily traded paper money and our Pledge of Allegiance, not to mention one of the most celebrated speeches of modern times, invoke God?

     And the two overlap so many times—sex, the third of the trio, not an issue here?

     The war against terrorism can be seen as one between a religious versus a secular government. That’s one perspective anyway.

     But recently I’ve experienced, vicariously, a clash between enlightened religiosity and governmental opacity.

     On January 11, some religious people, activating their religious principles, demonstrated peacefully in front of and barely inside of the Supreme Court building here in DC as it was deciding on issues related to the Gitmo prisoners. What rights do they have anyway?

     Plenty, the protesters answered. You can’t hold someone prisoner because of presumed guilt; you can’t hold someone prisoner because he/she was in the wrong place at the wrong time; you can’t hold someone prisoner without a trial, and so on.

     And you have no right to torture anyone physically. None.

     And so forty people barely inside the Court building and forty on the steps, all praying, received punishment of various degrees, mostly suspended sentences, low fines, probation that no one will care about, warnings to stay away from the Court building which no one will heed.

     But one seventy-seven year old woman will be imprisoned for ten days because she told the judge that her religious principles would not permit her to cease and desist.

     Here is a shining example of hypocrisy’s opposite—a shining event, activating God’s words; a blessed event in every sense and we are so lucky for those few brave people sacrificing a peaceful life for peace for all of us.

     Ultimately, I think they keep the rest of us going, though they receive little if any media attention. Most of us leave it to others and thank God there are a few.

     It does say something that, unlike the tortured prisoners in Gitmo, those protesting on their behalf aren’t tortured in return, at least physically. Nonviolent protest should always be slapped on the hand, nothing more. And then heeded.

     The trial occurred on May 27. One of the people I know who participated even though he was on probation for his last act of civil disobedience, received a prison sentence of one day—tomorrow, to be exact. What a waste of taxpayer money.

     Torture costs even more. And the expenses of war, mostly wasted, are far higher.

     And the toll in human suffering?

     Priceless. Like a credit card that should be demolished in a paper shredder in lieu of the human lives and liberties being demolished right before our eyes.

     Priceless.

©

29 May 2008: “Harris”ing Them into Quality Control

Short of Olympic figure skating or a clown act in the circus, there’s really no excuse for all the times an “oops” occurs in the electoral cosmos in this country. Oops, an election official didn’t boot up the machine in time; oops, the machine crashed again; oops, the light keeps going back to the wrong candidate on the screen.

     Citizens must invoke quality control where their votes are concerned. Think of the analogies again, if other vital industries in this country had occasion to say “oops” one thousandth, one hundred thousandth of the times oops events occur in realms concerning the vote, our constitutional right.

     No greater gesture of contempt for the people is there than the sad state of the voting process in its every aspect.

     The godmother of voting integrity, Bev Harris of blackboxvoting.org, was the featured guest on Voice of the Voters Wednesday evening.

&mnsp;    She had some surprising analyses to offer this evening, inventive and stimulating insights on what is happening and what we can still do about it.

     There are three areas where elections go bad, she said: One is the simplicity of those in charge of the ballot, who are frequently untrained—which works well in New Hampshire, where vote counting is done in public, but few other places.

     Two is the mind control achieved by bad talking points, suppression, misdirection, miscounting; we must see through these devices to what they are accomplishing and wage a better battle against them.

     Three is the projections based on exit polls when those who provide the figures are hidden from us, nor do we know how they arrive at their totals. In this grey area, there was no ooops on CNN during the primaries. It is either foolproof or manufactured. The projections were always on the mark.

     One of the reasons Bev is a pillar of IE is her ability to twist around truisms to show us how much we accept unthinkingly. I always esteemed exit polls, as do many others, for achieving a validity evasive within the buildings. But now I wonder.

     Another reason Bev is such a hero is the blackbox toolkit she offers at her Web site: myriad ways to combat those oopses that so overturn our democracy and constitutional rights.

     The tool kit is “focused on making 2008 as fair as possible.” She categorized activists into five groups: 1) Those who work behind the scene; 2) The hunter-gatherers; 3) The organizers; 4) The funders; and  5) The communicators. The latter group comprises those who are verbally articulate, as speakers or writers—of course the group she identifies with best.

     The point is simple: bring in whatever you can. If you have no talents, then give money. We couldn’t have gotten Harri Hursti here from Finland to achieve what he did without funding.

     Everyone has something to give. Bev’s toolbox encompasses all skill sets. Those who say they are too busy should think again, because the stakes are too high. They should rethink their priorities, she said.

     The top three issues this fall, she continued, are the five to ten million voters who will be kept from voting or stuck with provisional ballots (“second-class votes”) that are often not counted. Then there are the miscounts: the ES&S contraption that kept hopping around among the candidates—these Bev called the number crunchers.

     She spoke of some free software on the Web that harvests the vote counting process as it occurs; one of them can gather up results from all the states at once and follow them minute by minute.

     But finally, there are the robocalls used by the spoilers, as in Oregon, where people were called and told that instead of mailing their ballots they could bring them to “ballot collecting centers.” So much for vote-by-mail.

     In line with Mary Ann’s idea of the two weeks in September devoted to “Ready, Set, Vote and Check,” Bev suggested a further step: see if your i.d. matches their lists. If you say Bev and Beverly is on their list, you might not be able to vote. You can’t be too careful these days. Check and recheck where you are assigned to vote.

     If something goes wrong at the polls, be sure that a poll worker documents it in writing. In one instance, after summoned to witness a “hopping” machine screen, a poll worker reported the incident and the entire surrounding area received new machines.

     Lori asked Bev if she thought that protesting was effective or useful. The answer was, it depends on how you protest. She spoke of the effectiveness of the number twenty—how twenty protesters dressed in orange made quite a dramatic statement without uttering a word. Their presence alone was provocative.

     “After the written report, what happens next?” asked Mary Ann, who credited Bev with drawing her into IE.

     Propagate the report, answered Bev. Send notices to elected officials, the media, blogs, and networks.

     Mary Ann spoke of change occurring at the periphery and then of climbing up in the hierarchy, from “what” to “why.” As an illustration she referred to the Six-Day War and Israel’s battle with Egypt over Sinai. That was what they both wanted, but once it occurred to someone to ask why. Sinai was demilitarized, so that Israel could breathe easier and Egypt could have a territory dear to its cultural and historical tradition.

     In voting also, we must move up to the “why”s.

     We’re coming together more than we have before, said Bev. It’s about being sure that our country keeps its promises to the people—sovereignty. Blackboxvoting draws in people of all political persuasions, all who believe in EI.

     To assemble her toolkit, said Bev, she traveled the country finding out from grassroots activists what actions had been most effective for them, in terms of combining common sense, ingenuity, and creativity.

     Keep it simple, she said, something you do well; stay in your comfort zone.

     We need to get everyone involved, said Mary Ann—from youth to senior citizens, combining energy and wisdom.

     Mary Ann asked further what Bev had witnessed during the New Hampshire primary. “Beauty and the Beast,” was the answer. The public was welcome, but at the top level the under secretary of state was obstructing the counting, which of course led to problems.

     Go after the bad, but don’t forget the good, said Bev.

     She called Maine the actual “role model” state. When someone was caught tampering with the ballot boxes, stronger ones were purchased.

     In New Hampshire the polls are located in 239 different towns. The ballots have to be brought to one central location. This year the primary ballots arrived “in a mess.” Boxes had been opened and those in charge refused to lock them into a vault overnight, so the ballots were left out—what Bev called a “breakdown in the chain of custody.” Tracking the votes from the polls to the central tabulation point is also crucial.

     We can never do enough—to pay for years of lethargy or to rescue our democracy from those who took over while we slept.

©

25 May 2008: Memorial Day

For many years on Memorial Day, I’d attend Yardley, Pennsylvania’s small-town parade down Main Street. I’d bring my camera in search of the Great American Photo. When I achieved it, I didn’t stop, attached to the marching bands from Pennsbury High, the proud veterans who always brought a lump to my throat even though they were unfond of my progressive leanings. There were older vets driving in old cars, tooting horns. There were a few floats, modest ones.

     On the Memorial Day after 9/11, there was gloom, of course, and a certain amount of fear, but persistence also, and we all sat there as ever, along the sidewalks, baking in the heat.

     Children rode decorated bicycles proudly. The scouts of both genders, in full regalia, marched past us.

     My great American photo, which is posted in an early Memorial Day blog, is of a little girl clad all in red, white, and blue, obviously decked out just for this occasion. Her parents seemed ill at ease with my shadowy, voyeuristic presence, so I photo’ed the child from the back, small flag in hand. I’m sure they would have preferred a front page photo in the Yardley News, but mine seemed to be the only attention. The folks in folding chairs concentrated on their own kids, all squiggling around and in need of supervision.

     Today in DC, the mall toward the Washington Monument is lined with white paper birds, each one inscribed with the name of a young veteran of the Iraq or Afghanistan war. The empty boots are there too, I’m told, an exhibition that came to Princeton a few years ago, an exhibition none of the neo-cons or oilmen will come to view, fodder for the choir, not doubt, but jarring our memories as the achingly blue skies contrast with the eternal darkness of lives cut off prematurely..

     I think the vets whose lives have been ruined and/or severely altered by these wars should also receive tribute, perhaps with boots bent out of shape that will never be worn again, because their feet are missing or worse. But I have written this before.

     As we welcome the relief of a three-day weekend we remember those who died in the most excruciating line of work.

     Then there are those who died for peace. No holiday commemorates them. But in front of my apartment building stands a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, who proved that nonviolence could prevail, a kind of nonviolence that also claimed countless lives but ultimately prevailed.

     So I will go to the mall today, if the Metro is not too jam-packed, though the crowding is a good sign that people care at least as much as they did for the week of the Cherry Blossom festival.

     The irony is that during World War II no one chopped any of the trees down, though the Japanese had become our most bitter enemies. And the trees kept flowering during all that time. No one committed violence against them.

     There are all sorts of ironies tied up with warfare—for instance, that a woman seeking the presidency is brushing dirt off of her face, lambasted by the press. Few people doubt that more women in places of power could bring about a more peaceful world.

     Consider the constant horrors engendered by males in power throughout the ages. I’m not claiming that a woman in office would bring about peace, nor that other women in the past, so few of them, did not bring about peace while they held the power to. The process would be gradual as they began to consider the future more than the bloody past.

     A past so bloody that the ironic beauties engendered by all other forms of culture are amazing; they draw attention also. We appreciate them in peace. Let war become the fiction, war die on the printed page, war released into art become the norm, trading places with war by governments and terrorists.

     Now I’ll set off to the mall if I can. And realize how lonely it is to wish for a better world. And how lonely and how few and how powerless are the people who work for peace.

PS: The Metro was not at all jam-packed, but neither were there any paper birds nor empty combat boots. So I can't conclude any demography on which is the better draw, though I'd guess the festival. Today was motorcycle heaven at the mall. Endless droves of Suzukis, Harley Davidsons, and the like were puttering and roaring and revying all over the place. The streets were blocked off in their honor, even I-395. I didn't ask the police how many were there and then multiply by two--the standard practice at prog rallies etc. The police knew nothing of the sort of pageantry I had arrived there for. They're busy erecting the rudiments of the annual folk festival, which will feature Nepalese among others. By then it is too hot to endure the treeless mall. So what did I do? Googles of tourists and I crowded into the Museum of Natural History. The ultimate Museum that place is. I'll save it for another blog: "elephants, dinos, and the Hope Diamond."

©

22 May 2008: VoV: Changing the Mindset

This evening’s Socratic edition of Voice of the Voters featured hosts Mary Ann Gould and Lori Rosolowky, who interviewed EI celebrities Ellen Theisen of Votersunite.org and Susan Pynchon of Florida Fair Elections Coalition.

     The paradox unfolded through a dialogue between Ellen and Susan that broadened the dimensions of EI discourse. First came the conclusion that there is no ideal voting system. But then, the method is only part of the complete story. Rotating around the act of voting and the machines we use is the Who does it? Lots of people, some of them with malicious forethoughts.

     What is needed by the process is supervision. Elections must be verifiable as well as verified; observable as well as observed. The act of voting is what must be private. The rest must be open to and participated in by the public—a concerned public committed to accurate and honest election returns. That is how our democracy will continue.

     In other words, said Ellen, privacy must be protected in a public venue.

     Counting the votes must be public. Observers, from all walks of life, must be honest. Citizens must observe the entire process. Different self-interests create a good balance.

     The vote belongs to the people but the administration is out of our hands, said Mary Ann.

     Partisan interests run elections, said Lori, quoting Professor Alex Keyssar, last week’s guest on Voice of the Voters.

     Said Susan, hands-on observation is a huge challenge. Ballot transportation and storage are vital parts of the process. The time between the machine calculations and the counting of the ballots must be secure. In Florida, the ballots are stored in manila envelopes, which are in turn stored in vaults. Her group is working on a citizens’ guide to elections, trying for grant money to complete it. Bev Harris has an election “tool kit” on her Web site blackboxvoting.org.

     When hand-counted paper ballots are used, said Ellen, every single part of the voting process can be observed.

     We focus so much on actions, said Mary Ann, attempting to turn the mindset. What are the key principles?

     To encourage citizen ownership of a transparent process, answered Ellen. We take democracy for granted until serious problems result from this apathy.

     Added Ellen, we must watch the government in action as much as we must watch elections.

     Either we control our destinies or we don’t, said Susan. People want easy answers; they don’t think it is exciting to observe elections.

     How many activists have been poll workers? asked Lori. For her it was a most exciting process, filled with subtleties that must all be visible and observed.

     The problem is that the average age of poll workers is 72 and they work 13-hour shifts. This should change. Shifts should rotate every four hours. Youth must become involved. Each voter should participate in some part of the process.

     Susan said that all those interested should find out the relevant laws in their states about citizens’ rights to observe. In Volusia County, twenty-three provisional ballots were discarded because poll workers had forgotten to obtain signatures on the outside of the envelopes.

     Protecting a few ballots means saving democracy, said Ellen.

     It requires building trust into the system, Lori added.

     We need more than confidence; we need truth, said Mary Ann. Two days after Labor Day, we should have a Check Your Registration Day; during that time each of us should bring another person to register. Poor people can’t go on line to check their registration status.

     PFAW and NAACP, among others, can be contact points, said John Gideon, who had just joined the conversation.

     We can call it Ready, Set, Go, and Check, said Mary Ann. We can engage our representatives and candidates during a two-week process.

     The subject turned to Sequoia as John the news hound, also of votersunite, told listeners that this manufacturer, whose machines are used throughout New Jersey, is in danger of being taken over by Hart Intercivic; it is close to bankruptcy and claims to have forgotten about a $250,000 bond purchased from New York State. Sequoia had been pushing its machines there.

     John also reported on the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, which went smoothly, though a local election in Arkansas turned out to be problematic.

     But what do we want EI activists to focus on? What are the critical considerations? asked Mary Ann.

     To get out as many as possible to observe elections, answered Susan. All states have different operation laws.

     Participating at the polls is a way to really make a difference, she continued. That’s our challenge.

     It sounds simple, said Mary Ann, but it’s really critical. With Ready, Set, Vote and other strategies, we can all join together and make it happen.

©

19 May 2008: From Blindness to Truth

Simon Hayhoe, God, Money, and Politics: English Attitudes to Blindness and Touch, From the Enlightenment to Integration

Therefore, O Lord, let me preserve

The Sense that does so fitly serve,

Take Tongue and Ear—all else I have—

Let Light attend me to the grave!

--Theodore Roethke, “Prayer”

God, Money, and Politics may seem to be a misleading title for a history of attitudes toward and activities on behalf of blind people in England from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century. Actually, these three realms form the backdrop to the events described in the book. God as the force of caring and enough altruism to lift many of the blind off the streets as beggars to gainful education and employment—in short, productivity.

     Money was crucial to the establishment and maintenance of the schools formed to house and educate blind people, who learned useful crafts to support the schools: caning and knitting, for example.

     Politics formed the day-to-day dealings that enabled this elevation of blindness and appreciation of it as the most grievous of all disabilities [as Roethke prays to avoid in the epigraph above]. It also concerned the dealings between sighted and blind people and among blind people themselves. Hayhoe emphasizes that politics is too involved in this context and a handicap itself to many dimensions of overall progress, for all of us.

     There were during the Enlightenment blind professors and scholars—fully functional in society. But the majority suffering from sightlessness needed help and finally received it in an age dominated by the likes of Isaac Newton and John Locke, who introduced the study of God and light, and vision and light, respectively, into the discourse of their time and thereafter (see Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding).

     They were to bring some light into the life of blind people, at both the intellectual and pragmatic levels: from theory and research to housing and training in life skills. Blind people would gravitate away from their image as useless and indolent into productive participation in day-to-day society, slowly but more and more.

     And it all began with a question posed to Locke by William Molyneaux [in brief]: If a blind person can identify an object such as a cube by means of touch, will he recognize it immediately if he regains his sight?

     And thence to the late twentieth century, when England began in integrate blind people into society, another type of politics.

+++++

Ancient Greek mythology equated blindness with inner light, be it the poet Homer’s genius as a singer of epic verses or the blind seer Tiresias, punished for witnessing the nakedness of a goddess but thereafter a prophet and among the shades in Hades the only one to exhibit wisdom while the shades flit about (Odyssey, book 11).

     Not that these examples exhaust the repertoire of Greek attitudes toward blindness, but in the late seventeenth century, even at the mythic level, religion had other concerns.

     Dr. Hayhoe delves into the scholarship and research that evolved from that point, concentrating on the sense of touch that serves as the “eyes” of blind people. He does not dwell until later in the book, as do many, on the compensatory sharpness of the other senses that results from blindness. But he does show that blind people are capable of enjoying sculpted art forms and further that they can grasp the concept of perspective in visual art.

     One striking example of Dr. Hayhoe’s infrequent discussion of deaf-blindness concerns a girl taught to equate a sculpted anatomy with her own body parts, one by one. Blind people would also demonstrate their ability as sculptors. It’s hard not to think also of the Helen Keller story and her long road to consciousness through grasping the meaning of finger spelling and hence language. Dr. Hayhoe does discuss the development of the Perkins School for the Blind, where Keller went to school, from its beginnings to its development. It is also surprising that his mention of Braille, though developed in the late nineteenth century, does not occur until late in the book. One wonders what effect that had on blind people of all ages and backgrounds.

     He also discusses the fate of blind people whose vision is restored later in life. The experience is traumatic and at times lethal; those “cured” seek out dark environments, where they are far more at home. Annie Dillard, in her essay collection Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, shared this seemingly surprising outcome years ago.

     Hayhoe’s main concentration is England, land of Newton and Locke and hence an important birthplace of crucial insights. He does briefly compare other systems, finding that France, for instance, concentrated more on academics than hands-on practicalities, practices that did convince the British to pay more attention to nurturing the mind as well as preparing students with life skills. The institutes [terminology varied among countries] in Austria were concerned with emotional development.

     A most interesting aspect of Hayhoe’s narrative is the comparison between those blind from birth, others blinded early in life (and he finds little difference between the two) and adults blinded by diseases such as syphilis, who were far more likely to exhibit conventional behavior.

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.
 2His disciples asked him,
                    “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
 3Jesus answered,
 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned;
 he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.

                                                                                --John 9: 1-3

     This may have been true of Homer and to some extent Tiresias, but compare with this Hayhoe’s own take:

[T}hese people have never seen, and thus visual conceptions are a closed world they are controlled by but never grasp.

     Who is right? Homer and Tiresias or Hayhoe? One is poetry (compare Robert  Graves’s poem on this subject, which I can’t presently locate), the other perceived reality.

     Then the narrative turns to the subject of blind people and music, concentrating on  the situation in England (ahead of other countries in this regard and usually favoring middle-class over poor students), and revealing that their sense of hearing opened worlds to them denied to the deaf and the deaf-blind ( though in both categories it has been found that rhythms can be detected and enjoyed by physical contact with surfaces that capture them): worlds of esthetic gratification, new abilities to cultivate, and new avenues toward employment and productivity, from performance to piano tuning and intellectual education—music, recovering the association between blindness and performance without the claim that blind people excel others in this realm. It seems, though, that initially (the late 1800s) at least the instruction was confined to male blind people. The great composer Edward Elgar was among those providing instruction.

     Music was to become a vehicle for integration of this formerly shunned category of humanity into mainstream society—but only gradually.

     A first major step, at the dawn of the twentieth century, involved discovery of ways to treat the diseases that habitually led to blindness—affecting not only the victims but their offspring, and thus reducing the number of blind subjects in general. Moreover, those blinded by direct participation in World War I generated more interest in and benevolent actions toward such heroes, including special homes for them and respectful treatment.

     Hayhoe then anticipates the human-rights movements in the nineteen sixties that promoted the accommodation of public facilities to handicapped populations in general, including blind people. The United States led in this effort, which also, of course, heralded the further mainstreaming of disabled people into society at large.

     England proceeded more slowly in this direction. The 1981 Act, coinciding with the United Nations International Year of the Disabled, allowed for the integration of blind children into the regular school systems but without funding or training of teachers in how to interact with their new charges. The education system in England was already overburdened for lack of funding, but teachers were nonetheless awarded pay raises. This event Dr. Hayhoe puts forth in his Conclusion as a prime example of the politicization of all forms of education.

The single biggest factor influencing education . . . were the moral, political and financial motivations . . . above the heads of both teachers and students.

     The above quotation reiterates the elements of the book’s title, which he concludes applies to all education, not just that of disabled populations. Furthermore, the most disabled people comprise society itself, blind to the advantages of understanding not only those who are disabled but all students. Not only teachers, but society at large must educate itself in an understanding that fundamentally, as a “neo-phrase” expresses it, “We’re all in this together.”

     I can’t help but say that although the sense of touch is part of the book’s subtitle and at times paired with it throughout, the narrative focuses heavily on blindness and touch largely in the contexts of crafts and sculpture. Blindness dramatically enlightened by the sense of hearing receives equal emphasis.

     The book is beautifully organized from the beginning, with an introduction that clearly anticipates in order the discussion that  follows, and each chapter section and chapter ends with a summary, so that the reader can never be lost in density and is able to enjoy a guided content. There are also frequent chapter subheads. I think, however, that the book would benefit enormously from an index, which perhaps can be added to a second edition.

                                                                                   --Marta Steele

14 May 2008: On Screen and in Print: The State of the Vote

The last eight years could be called The Age of Limitations, as people have been far less aware of their power than the pointlessness of reaction. This evening on Voice of the Voters, hosted by Mary Ann Gould and Lori Rosolowsky of the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity, the theme was Obstacles to Democracy: Denying Votes and Turning Away Voters.

     In the first segment, Lori interviewed the famous filmmaker David Earnhardt, who has been traveling the country with his feature-length documentary Uncounted, which will be shown next Tuesday, May 20, 7 pm, at the County Theater in Doylestown, PA.

     Earnhardt said that he has been showing Uncounted  mostly in independent theaters, starting with Sacramento and culminating in thirty screenings which he attended and hosted. He called dissemination of the film a “win-win” situation for election integrity (EI) activists: they attract the choir but also friends and family and a few other curious individuals.

     “We leave each city . . . in better shape,” said Earnhardt.

     The niche is not so much “artsy” as “neighborhood” types, those who have been loyal to their independent theaters for years. A healthy cross-section of the population is represented, mostly in their thirties to fifties. Students have yet to be reached in sufficient numbers, though Earnhardt is direct mailing brochures to thirty-five hundred colleges and universities throughout the country to gain invitations to classrooms.

     Overall, he said, the issues draw people together at a nonpartisan level; they cut to the core of our identity as a democracy, a “grand experiment.”

     And why the theater in preference to DVDs? Earnhardt cited the pros and cons of each: there is power in the communal experience; film as an art form is always greater on the big screen. With DVD showings, however, the disc can be stopped for discussion and the atmosphere is more intimate and homey, more conducive to lively conversation.

     Mary Ann said that CVI is planning a film consisting of comments and reactions to the crisis in voting in this country. Those who attend the May 20 screening may be interviewed for their opinions and suggestions.

     Even at this late stage preceding election 2008, Uncounted might influence Pennsylvania to offer paper ballots tallied centrally, she said. Theirs is the worst state for voting—fully 25 percent of all paperless machines in the country are in the Quaker State.

     For more information on how to host house parties for screening Uncounted, visit www.uncountedthemovie.com.

++++++++

The next segment of Voice of the Voters consisted of a lively conversation between Professor Alex Keyssar, specializing in history and political science at Harvard University, and Professor Mark Crispin Miller, a media studies expert at NYU and prolific activist.

     The theme, centered around Keyssar’s award-winning book The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000), was the Constitution, the right to vote, and the state of our American democracy.

     Keyssar’s book analyzes the diminishing vibrancy of our democracy. Voter turnout, even for presidential elections, is remarkably low: 30 percent in nonpresidential elections and 20 to 25% in local elections. Moreover, incumbents tend to remain seated while challengers in most cases fail.

     We nonetheless cling to the mythology that the U.S. is an exemplary democracy, which reflects both aspiration and ignorance of other democracies in the world.

     How does all this reflect the Constitution? asked Mary Ann.

     Keyssar answered that the right to vote is implicit but not otherwise actually worded in the Bill of Rights [where the large majority of rights do center on voting]. The effects are subtle, but real, he said. It is easier for states to interfere with the voting process, so recently exemplified by the Supreme Court decision to support Indiana’s law requiring voter i.d.'s to avoid voter fraud although none has existed in that state for decades.

     Our voting system excluded African Americans and women for years, and poor people were only given the vote in the 1960s.

     Describing Keyssar’s book as bracing and edifying, Mark Miller asked for the implications of “turnout not impressive.” Exit polls, for example, don’t measure those who do not vote, and this number includes people eliminated by illegal processes such as caging, felon lists, and others.

     Said Keyssar, the “muted optimism” in his book will be only further muted in the second edition he is working on, which will be published in a few months.

     The best turnout figures, he said, are based on the number of votes cast. The number of eligible voters is not easy to determine, and the number of no-shows is not measured. Some districts don’t even count absentee votes. Because of the purging of voter rolls, both legal and illegal, actual figures are skewed so that the number of voters may seem to increase when it really remains the same as in previous years.

     And what does turnout mean? The Constitution has counted African Americans as eligible to vote since 1900, though reality tells a different story.

     The blame was laid largely on the political right—their view that the public is apathetic and dense. Miller labeled this a “campaign to keep people from voting.”

     Moreover, the Bush administration will not allow an updated census. A subversion of the system is feared, if it hasn’t already happene--a system dedicated to limit the ability of the poor to participate in politics. Turnout varies by state and also social and economic status. Those affluent and well educated turn out in droves, while others hang back or are suppressed.

     The right interprets this behavior as poor people’s contentment with the status quo. The more it can eliminate the poor and aged from the tally, the more their status quo can persist, reducing the Democratic vote by 4 to 6 percent.

     Keyssar compared the number of cases of voter fraud in this country—eighty-six since 2002—to the tens of thousands prevented from voting through Republican machinations. “The franchise is a partisan battleground,” he said.

     New York state, a case in point, required naturalization papers from some immigrants and required reregistration for each election cycle, he continued. At one time only two days were designated for voter registration, and they happened to be the two High Holidays for the Jews, who were obviously prevented from full representation as a result.

     Keyssar’s views on voting machines match those of CVI and other EI groups: optical scanners are the best we can do at this moment, and DREs are, well, “the pits.” Election officials must not be partisan, he said. “This is a great time to make the system more fair and democratic.”

     But the establishment and the media don’t want to get involved.

     Said Miller, we must engage the public in this debate, move out of [what I call] the Age of Limitations, a difficult project and one the media treat as tangential anecdotes.

     “Change always happens on the edge,” said Mary Ann, the strategist.

     Echoing John Adams, Miller said that the public must be [somehow] informed: the issues are civic, their effects far-reaching. We need a functional democracy.

     This is not the time for complacency, added Keyssar; the Iraqi constitution allows all citizens the right to vote.

     “The basic design should be to encourage people in rather than out.”

©

30 April 2007: Remote Voting—Who’s Counting?

This evening’s edition of Voice of the Voters, hosted by Mary Ann Gould and Lori Rosolowsky, focused on the pros and cons of remote voting, that is, both vote by mail (vbm) and Internet voting.

     The nationally known roster of guests included Barbara Simons, of the National Workshop on Internet Voting; Charles E. Corry, of the Equal Justice Foundation; and Gentry Lange, director of the No Vote By Mail Project.

     Dr. Corry, first to be interviewed, pointed out that vbm ballots are counted by computerized machines; citizens can send in as many as they want to [theoretically], thereby using this modernized system for ballot stuffing. Moreover, the ballots are counted in unsupervised back rooms.

     The advantages of this system are that it removes pressure from the voting process—voting can begin as many as ten days prior to election day; there is no need to hire and train election judges; the cost is less; the turnout improves; and this system is more convenient—it is possible to vote at a kitchen table rather than wait in long lines in the rain.

     But another problem with vbm is that 25 percent of the population in this country move every year. The ballots, therefore, don’t always reach registered voters, and each ballot must be accounted for. Moreover, one third of the electorate is disenfranchised in that those who missed a previous election may not receive another mailed ballot. In this regard, systems of course vary throughout the country as to the category of election missed: county, state, federal, whatever.

     An audience questioner wanted to know how those voting from home can deal with coercion, that is, vote buying and selling and electioneering. There is no protection, as opposed to the polls, where it is supposedly present. [Vote buying and selling can occur in any scenario imho—MNS]

     But is there not more pressure in the voting booth, where a voter may have to make quick decisions about issues he or she was previously unaware of?  asked Lori. Does vbm allow for more voter education? Well, yes, said Dr. Corry, but consider that over the final two weeks before an election, things can happen after one’s ballot has been sent in that can alter a candidate’s portfolio altogether. Scandals can occur, for instance. A candidate might die.

     And what of all the rejected ballots? Ten to twenty percent of mailed-in ballots are returned; the database that contains address changes is not used.

     Mary Ann noted ruefully that more and more localities seem to be moving toward vbm. Does this harbinger more voter fraud? The interesting answer was that the higher up the municipality hierarchy, the more difficult it is for voter fraud to succeed.

     Gentry Lange, another EI activist who resides in Washington State, now opposes this system that seemed more desirable when compared with the issues surrounding black box tampering, hacking, and malfunction. He thinks it would make more sense to carry paper ballots, already filled out, to the polls.

     In King County, WA, alone, six thousand votes were rejected, and half of these were simply tossed out. Lange nonetheless favored vbm until he witnessed the rejection of his friends’ votes. Moreover, he realized that there was no privacy possible in the absence of polls and secret ballots. Most people in King County oppose vbm, he said. The ballots must be folded and thus easily jam the machines that count them.

     Eighteen bullet points at novbm.com, the Web site of the No Vote By Mail Project, sum up all the reasons vbm is not the ultimate in twenty-first-century voting solutions.

     And if we look to our legislators for solutions, said Mary Ann, how can we better educate them to act effectively on our behalf? Are there legislators leading the fight against vbm? What of the problem that ballots can be received after election day as long as they are mailed on that day or postmarked no later than that date? This can protract the counting process right into the day certification is required.

     Mary Ann waxed sentimental about the community aspect of voting at the polls on a quasi-holiday, a chance to discuss issues and mingle with neighbors and friends.

     Barbara Simons wrapped up the show by discussing her interest in Internet voting. In 2002 she learned from her Stanford colleague David Dill that Silicon Valley was about to purchase paperless machines. They warned against it, unheeded, though a paper they subsequently wrote in opposition to expatriate and military absentee voting via the Internet was more influential. Three weeks after publication, this project was dropped. There was no way to keep the ballot secret and no way to verify that a vote had been received and counted.

     In Geneva, Switzerland, she said, there is Internet voting, but experts are laboring to make the system more secure. And as to the future of such a system, no large program can be free of bugs, nor free from outside hackers and inside employees corrupted into manipulating votes and totals.

     And so, said Mary Ann, our voting system is out of control. It is even difficult to audit a vote. Manual audits are necessary, said Simons—the closer the vote count, the greater the audit must be.

     What questions must we ask? To be sure, how easy is a system to audit? An optical scanner is far easier to audit than a voter-verifiable paper trail. But any sort of remote voting is insecure, she continued. We are moving in the right direction, slowly.

     Paperless voting is on its way out. Both precinct- and central-based optical scanners are preferable to it.

     Why try to fix a system that isn’t broken? Gentry Lange had asked. His question might actually apply to SCOTUS, the recent victory of Indiana’s stringent law that requires picture i.d.s of voters, at the Supreme Court level. In other words, since Indiana can’t produce evidence of one instance of voter fraud, what’s it all about, anyway? Why is it a consideration at all? And yet experts predict that such legislation, which already exists in other states, will spread even farther.

©27 April 2008: Politics and Religion

politics:

I made a special trip north last week to witness the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania on the 22^nd. I expected a lot of flap about the Bucks County commissioners’ refusal to consider the introduction of paper ballot systems to replace their push-button, ineffectual toys. I expected national attention to a sort of scandal of epic proportions, the future of our voting system sloughed off, but as one of the heads of the Coalition for Voting Integrity has reiterated, election integrity has no sex appeal.

     I sped into Doylestown, the county seat, at what I thought would be a strategic time to catch the action, close to lunchtime, but the streets were empty. I first came to Obama headquarters, where they attempted to sit me down at their phone bank or canvas, so I left and next arrived at the Democratic Party office, which was empty. I bought a button, “Another Proud Democrat,” and so costumed came to the local polls, where there was dismal silence and a friendly Republican who tried to chat me up charismatically while the Democrats turned away. Then I dropped the name of a fellow CVI’er also an active Democrat, and at least inspired a bit of friendliness among my fellow partisans.

     Not much action today, they said. So, feeling silly, I left with an empty reporter’s pad and drove to my former hometown, Yardley, where a Republican and Democrat stood outside the polls making uneasy conversation. The Democrat was glad to see me while the Republican scowled. It turns out that he is married to a member of the borough council.

     We rapped for a while about local events and gossip that had occurred in my absence. The vote in Yardley had so far that day exceeded all previous records—five hundred before noon, as opposed to the average ninety who usually showed.

     Still no blog really, though a harbinger of what was occurring throughout the state, record voter turnout, thanks in part to Obama’s appeal to previously disaffected youth, and thanks in part to Hillary Clinton’s well-advertised roots in the state and her appeal to the oppressed working class and senior citizens. Pennsylvania has more senior citizens than any state except Florida.

     Pennsylvania is also the swing state with a record amount of push-button and touchscreen voting machines, which guaranteed all the glitches that did occur, from votes counted backward to trouble booting up machines, the resulting long, impatient lines of would-be voters, and other routine problems that DREs occasion.

     And so thence, according to a pattern emanating from New Hampshire, where Hillary won in all precincts with optical scanners while Barack won where votes were hand-counted—Hillary won by a margin bordering on 10 percent. Recall that she needed double digits to qualify for further campaigning.

     I think that both candidates should begin to campaign against McCain, and the one who proves to be more effective should receive the nomination.

++++++

religion:

On April 20, at the Friends Meeting of Washington, fifty Quakers, Jews, Christians, hybrids, and others gathered to hear a panel of six Muslim women of diverse origins inform them and answer many many questions.

     Mimi, co-organizer and native of Vietnam, was joined by colleagues who regularly speak around the Washington, DC, area: Rahima, Alexa, Ola, Sumiyeh, and Hajar, a Mexican American. All are married to Muslims but only one was born and raised Muslim, and she had lived in England before emigrating here.

     Ola began the event with “Islam 101,” for audience members unfamiliar with her religion: Muhammad issued the last testament with the Qu’ran, which is the word of God from cover to cover. Islam means peace through submission and submission through faith.

     At this point, the audience already had questions, including “Why, if there is so much love among all religions, is there not peace among us?”

     Holy cow.

     The best answer among these extremely well prepared panelists was that there is evil in the world. Added Hajar, according to the Qu’ran those who turn away from God will meet with scourge.

     One-sixth of the world’s population is Muslim. The majority of Muslim men “like” jihad.

     But the teachings are perfect and the shari’a system of law is perfect.

     An Iranian member of the audience said that hatred does not proceed from religion, that the Jews, for example, who live in Muslim countries are welcomed there and well treated. Politics is what engenders conflict.

     Ola continued Islam 101 at this point. There are five pillars of Islam: God, prophecy, pilgrimage at least once to Mecca, fasting, and prayer five times a day.

     Jesus is important in Islam. In the Qu’ran he commands Muslims to emulate his apostles in their support. There is a longer account of Jesus’ birth in the Qu’ran than in the Gospels.

     Said Sumiyeh, the family is important in Islam. Men and women are equals but not identical (their relationship was later described by Olla as balanced)—and because of this stereotyping occurs that women are considered inferior. In fact, as in Orthodox Judaism, they are considered more spiritual than men. They have the right to education, owning property, and choosing their spouses. A little-known fact is that Muslim men have a dress code also, but “there are not too many men’s fashion magazines,” she reported to an amused audience.

     Women are the bedrock of family life. Hajar finds Muslim life very liberating. She converted to Islam eight years ago and during the subsequent time has known the greatest peace of her life. She is married to an Egyptian.

     Mimi, a convert from Buddhism, recounted that amid four different African countries she visited, the feeling was that Muslims were bad, cannibals. She said that such issues became politicized after 9/11, including the impression that Muslim women are victims.

     Muslim women have voted since the fourteenth century. They had the right to serve in the government and divorce (they receive their dowries back also), as well as serve in the military, short of driving tanks. Some led battles.

     It is up to us to get together to deny the wishes of fanatical governments, was the conclusion of the panel discussion.

     During the question-and-answer period that followed, we learned that Muslim women dress so modestly to emulate the Virgin Mary and of course to be like her. Said Ola, the man of the family works and the proceeds go to the family, but the wife can save money to use for herself. Negligent husbands are imprisoned. Said Hajar, attorneys inspect mosques several times a year to be sure women are treated well.

     Charity is required of Muslims several times a year, as are social action and good works.

     A member of the audience pointed out similarities with Judaism: strict dietary laws, humane killing of animals as food (prayers are recited during this ritual), and the taboo against eating milk and meat together. No pork is allowed and meats must be well cooked to eliminate the consumption of blood.

     Another member of the audience who has lived in the Arab Middle East noted the pragmatism of these dietary laws (and recall how in the Middle Ages the Jews avoided the Plague)—for instance, it is forbidden to eat already-dead animals except if one is starving in the desert and comes across one.

     And, surprisingly, on the hajj to Mecca women are not allowed to wear veils. Both sexes dress in white and become indistinguishable from each other.

     Though traditionally Jews and Muslims have dwelled together in harmony, Zionism created a schism between the two religions and now, in addition, Sunnis no longer marry Shi’a.

     Women in Saudi Arabia are most restricted and those in Iran considered most equal to men—they are allowed to attend the Olympics, for instance.

     Though at this point in the most interesting discussion I had to leave early, discussion lasted another half hour. Afterward, the panelists went into the meeting room to pray, and the audience was encouraged to observe the ritual and join in, while the women explained each step of this five-times-a-day pillar in their lives.

©

18 April 2008: Hilary Won, But Obama Will Win, and then . . . McCain?

“Then there are the cultural issues. Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News are taking a lot of heat for spending so much time asking about Jeremiah Wright and the “bitter” comments. But the fact is that voters want a president who basically shares their values and life experiences.”

Paul Krugman and David Brooks both wrote in today’s New York Times about the humanization of Barack Obama from “We can!!!” to “We will.”

     The above quotation is from Brooks’s op ed (sometimes he does make sense). Indeed, the ABC news commentators are taking a lot of flap from the Progressive authorities I usually agree with. They find the debates hosted by Cable stations CNN and MSNBC lots better.

     At this nadir in the debate history of the current Democratic showdown, despite the two important primaries to follow, the word is that we watched the last Democratic candidates’ debate last night.

     Another word is that even if he did poorly last night, Obama will win the nomination.

     But precisely what we need is someone superhuman to take over the hardest job in the world. Someone who doesn’t buckle under with fatigue. Someone who sparkles with self-possession even toward the end of this harrowing fight for the Democratic nomination.

     One thing we must own up to: despite all this sympathy for Barack and huge cloud of obfuscation encompassing media ineptitude and Barack’s self-revelatory fatigue, poor guy, maybe, just maybe, Hillary won the debate last night and no one wants to admit it.

     According to Krugman, Obama may well win the nomination but will have a hard time up against McCain, not because both will tire more easily than Hillary, but because one in five Democrats have said they would prefer McCain over Obama, who is statistically behind in many of the key states that would put him over the top in November.

     We heard earlier that Obama was the one out of two who could squash McCain. Now we have cause to wonder.

     But it is not up to this obscure blogger to speak about next November—rather, all I want to say is that Hillary did better last night. She won the debate.

Period.

Paragraph.

End of blog.

©

17 April 2008: Hopping Around with Hope

Even as Hill and Bam-Bam were duking it out on prime time ABC, with Stephanopoulos out in left field still smarting from Travelgate, there was much to take in on Renaissance Radio also, where three different EI affiliates from three different regions were interviewed.

     From Georgia, Garland Favorito of VoterGA.org spoke of their lawsuit that challenges the legality and constitutionality of electronic voting (compare New Jersey’s lawsuit still pending). From Florida, Ellen Brodsky of the Broward Election Reform Coalition discussed the “Mystery of Broward County,” that is, the turnout of 110 percent of their electorate in 2006. From Pennsylvania, Sara Haile-Mariam spoke encouraging words about “youth on the ground” in anticipation of the April 22 primary that the whole country will be watching, even CNN.

     Strait, this evening’s host, first cautioned voters on how best to deal with the Danaher DREs, how best to try to get the vote counted and not lost in cyberspace. Press the button decisively and make sure to examine the screen carefully to be sure you’ve voted for those you want in office. Then don’t leave before pressing the green “vote” button, or else your vote will be discarded by others to clear the screen.

     Garland Favorito, the first guest interviewed, recalled that Georgia was the first state in the country to sprint to DREs after the Florida catastrophe in 2000, and the only state to use the same machine throughout—in this case the Diebold Accuvote DS R6.

     There was one problem with the sprint: Georgia’s constitution requires secret ballots and audit trails, neither of which the Diebold DREs supply.

     Georgia’s new secretary of state agrees with Favorito’s group and supports its lawsuit. The defense, led by the state’s attorney general, hinges on the definition of “ballot,” challenging that those gestures “touched” into cyberspace create a ballot of sorts.

     The constitution also requires a verifiable vote, which the Diebolds in question can’t provide, coughing up when requested a carbon copy of the tabulated result.

     Begun in 2006, the lawsuit is due to be settled in the next few months. And then, said Favorito, there is bound to be an appeal to Georgia’s supreme court by either side, something his side won’t be able to support without pro bono legal assistance.

     The suit is against the state, not Diebold, which has remained remarkably distant from this activity. There’s no need for technical expertise in this case, Favorito clarified. But if his side wins, the nation will know.

     Details are available at voterga.org. They want to hear from people all over the country and fundraise also, if possible.

+++++

     To the tune of the new song “Stop Me Before I Vote Again,” Ellen Brodsky of the Broward County Election Reform Commission, spoke of the “110 percent turnout” recorded by the same machines, ES&S Ivotronic, that plagued Sarasota two years ago. The machines have a long history of counting backward, she said.

     The reason for the 110 percent turnout? Other precincts’ votes were combined in the report turned in after the election. Brodsky’s group challenged these results to a chilly reception. No testing of the machines was carried out, but there was the consolation that Broward County was not alone in this quandary, which was reported elsewhere also.

     Re the complicated and long-desired introduction of optical scanners to replace the Ivotronics and their peers, contracts with vendors vary throughout the state, including performance bonds. Benchmarks also vary.

     Broward County, if you haven’t guessed, suffers from the worst voting problems in the state, whereas the neighboring Miami-Dade enjoys the best situation, including a responsible supervisor of elections working hard to train voters and poll workers in time for the November election.

     The best county falls short though, said Jim, lacking a good performance bond.

     Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act also falls short. Audit data requested from the 2006 election has not yet been provided despite their two-year struggle. Thousands of votes had been lost even when the information was finally provided, because of missing files.

     The state is trying to cover up such poor election administration, said Brodsky. Her group plans to work closely with the secretary of state toward better outcomes in the future. Pro bono lawyers are hard to come by, she added, though Volusia County is lucky enough to have one.

+++++

     At this point, Jim repeated his advice to listeners from Pennsylvania about how to tame the DRE beast if at all possible, and supplied some names and numbers, which can all be accessed at saveourvote.com and voiceofthevoters.org. Mary Ann Gould will also be happy to answer election-day questions. She can be reached at 215-357-5026.

     Lori Rosolowsky next interviewed Sara Haile-Mariam, a graduate student of activist and author Mark Crispin Miller at NYU. In her report, “Youth on the Ground,” this vibrant and enthusiastic young activist spoke of her pre-primary work in the state, which included voter registration, door-to-door canvassing, and “phone begging.”

     In contact with people from all backgrounds and ages, Sara reported enthusiasm among youth but little interest in election integrity. She said she found more undecided voters than in the past because of the lengthy head-to-head race between Obama and Clinton.

     Sara admitted to being a recent convert to these issues, drawn out by Obama’s candidacy.

     She lamented the media’s concentration on identity politics rather than policy, based on the assumption that the voters are dumb. “Stereotyping doesn’t work,” she said. People are crossing lines to choose their candidates.

     Sara decided on a career in journalism early in life, when she learned in school that journalists are the “watchdogs of society.” Their performance these days is, to say the least, disappointing, with their emphasis on controversy and their attempt to manipulate opinions, denigrating their public.

     Lori’s advice was to seek out alternative media sources.

     There is not enough attention to transparency, said Sara, despite the recent GAO report that emphasizes its importance. We must pressure politicians to pay attention to these and the many other problems of the election integrity movement. We can work most effectively at the grassroots level. The recent belittling of the value of exit polls is another issue of importance, where there is the need to “change the mindset.”

     The problems afflicting us now will take generations to fix, Sara concluded. Youth are energized and mobilized to confront them head on.

     “We must be that one America.”

2 April 2008: No Foolin’, but Helpless, Helpless, Helpless

The day after April Fool’s Day was no laughing matter for two congressional committees voting on voting bills.  The Universal Right to Vote by Mail, HR 281, was passed by the House Administration Committee, so that those who wish to vote absentee—that is, on paper ballots—won’t have to lie anymore.

     So while Representative Susan Davis, who sponsored the bill, had cause to celebrate, HR 5036, Representative Rush Holt’s emergency bill that would reimburse any municipality that chose to opt out of touchscreen voting in favor of  paper ballots, passed out of the Committee on House Administration adulterated. Now, instead of providing for paper ballots, the bill will authorize hooking touchscreen machines up to printers, a measure that has caused so much trouble in New Jersey that an effort has mounted to postpone implementation until after election 2008.

     And even with “evidence” of who or what you have voted for, visible on paper rolling out of the printer, many voters forget to look. The concept is new. Think about it. We just flipped some levers, pulled a great big handle and presto the curtain opened and our vote was cast. Old habits die hard.

     Personally, I voted on an absentee ballot in DC last month, giving the reason that I wanted to vote on paper. I got it.

     If I had my way, we would never grow old, and Edwards, my candidate, would already be sparring with McCain and besting him hands-down.

     Back to John Gideon’s appearance on Voice of the Voters, broadcast Wednesday evenings from 8 to 9 on Renaissance Radio in South Jersey. He packed a lot into the program’s final five minutes.

     At that point my sound system was crackling, so I had to go to his daily newsletter to figure out what he actually said, but in other news, New Jersey’s problematic Sequoia touchscreens will finally be examined by Princeton University expert Ed Felten, famous for hacking into a touchscreen in less than a minute. Oh, the palace of lies erected by the touchscreen universe is collapsing like a sand castle attacked by high tide.

     But not yet in Pennsylvania, where VoV host Mary Ann Gould said that 25 percent of all the touchscreens in the nation are located. She urged all Pennsylvanians to vote and report any problems they experience. She mentioned two Web sites in this context: www.voteraction.org and www.voiceofthevoters.org. Pennsylvania is the state most at risk in the country, with no way to prove who voted for whom in most counties.

     Why is New Jersey, flooded also with touchscreens, less at risk? I figured this out myself. It’s not a swing state, leaning toward the blue most of the time.

     Having reported what I found most newsworthy this evening, I cannot bypass a rising star who was interviewed first, Clint Curtis. You have probably heard of him. A head