Programmer Built Vote-Rigging Demo for Florida Politician 606
Syre writes "therawstory reports that a programmer named Clinton Curtis says in a sworn affidavit (mirror) that he developed prototype vote-rigging software at the request of then-Florida state representative Tom Feeney. The affidavit has been turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, of which Feeney is now a member. Should we call for inspection and disassembly of all the voting machine code to see if it contains any of these secret vote tampering functions he was asked to include in his prototype?" A follow-up interview is available. A point to emphasize: he's not making any claims of actual fraud occurring in the Florida elections.
Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Example please...
Example: (Score:5, Funny)
Beat that.
Re:Example: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
Bev Harris comments (Score:5, Informative)
http://blackboxvoting.org/#feeny [blackboxvoting.org]
and why this may be disinformation here:
http://onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/120604Ma
We'll know more Wednesday (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.truthout.org/cblog.shtml [truthout.org]
Everyone has been speculating like wild over whether this is true and what the implications are. The affidavit also provides backup evidence to anecdotal accounts that police patrols may have been placed in spots intended to suppress the Black vote in Florida, for instance. It's really about intent, more than means.
Don't get your panties in a twist too fast (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't get your panties in a twist too fast (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but he's sworn under affidavit. I say we put an end to this quickly by disassembling the code to see if it's true. If it is true then this is something every American should be concerned with -- Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, or Anarchist.
Re:Don't get your panties in a twist too fast (Score:5, Insightful)
If the politician in question wanted a prototype built to show how easily it could be done - to show how insecure electronic voting machines are - doesn't that make him one of the good guys?
The key point in this story isn't that vote tampering happened (if vote tampering actually did happen, I will retract this statement!), but rather that any politician can buy a custom vote-tampering package for the next election. Now how good do all those promises of E-voting security look?
Re:Don't get your panties in a twist too fast (Score:5, Informative)
From the affidavit (bolding theirs): Of course, why you'd tell someone what you intend to do is beyond me. No one seems to come off very classy in this business. You'd also figure that if they were that free with their information, surely there'd be more people around to corroborate this guys story if it's true.
It's completely possible (Score:3, Funny)
Guess the programmer never heard of Perl, eh?
Re:It's completely possible (Score:5, Informative)
Cheers,
Craig
Re:Don't get your panties in a twist too fast (Score:3, Insightful)
A view from a country with an electoral commission (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean you don't have access to any copy of the source code, let alone every revision of a system used to determine elections? In that case the spec needs to be rewritten and the bank accounts of those responsible for making such a cretinous decision examined for evidence of taking bribes. This is one of the points where the "are you stupid, are you corrupt, or don't you care about doing your job" question needs to be asked, since there does not appear to be any other options available.
Forget the shiny new technology, if the entire voting process is not open to scrutiny it is open to abuse. A few jobs with a quick and nasty software company in a marginal electorate is not worth the potential for abuse. Perhaps a Federal election organisation running free, fair and consistant elections (two out of three is not good enough) like you see in other countries is the way to go - instead of things being down at the state or county level. There are a lot of countries that have built on a combination of the USA and Swiss election systems over the last century that may be worth looking at.
Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Goverments have been overthrown for less than this.
Only in countries where the populace still has some balls. The Ukraine is a current example.
These days the US is all about bread and circuses. Canceling the Sunday football schedule is more likely to overthrow a government than stealing an election.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
I come from Ukraine. You not say Ukraine weak. Ukraine is game to you?! How bout I take your little board and SMASH IT!!!
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
The issue isn't tha
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps it's just more refined in the U.S.?
Links proving US voter fraud via 2004 exit polls (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/epdiscrep.htm [appliedresearch.us]
link to pdf of study...
http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/Documents/ExitPo
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
1- A majority of people are too stupid to comprehend The One Truth(TM).
2- The Forces of Evil® (also know by their common name: Republicans©) who wish to destroy The One Truth(TM) formed a giant, secret conspiracy and overthrew the will of the people.
Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Reading this affidavit, I remember the odd disparity between exit polling and the offical results. It also seemed like an interesting coinicidence that Bush won Florida and Ohio and the election, with 51%, the number which the software was designed to produce.
I wonder if it is possible that the compromised source code (if it existed) is still on the voting machines. Wouldn't a savvy election-thief remove the ev
Re:US Exit Polls showed Kerry won by 5 points. (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/Documents/ExitPo
Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow! (Score:4, Funny)
Even more shocking: a story posted by Michael without the usual truckload of bias thrown in. I mean, heck... he actually makes a point of playing it down!
Re:Wow! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wow! (Score:2, Insightful)
The more I look the more I'm convinced that the USA is slipping into a 2nd world mindset. I believe the decline of Rome began like this.
I think I speak for all of us... (Score:2)
Re:I think I speak for all of us... (Score:5, Insightful)
This infuriates me for a different reason - the lack of vision of law-makers. I cant believe voting machines are not force to have open source code. I said personally many moons ago this would happen and ...
Its the only way to defraud fake conspiracy theories and protect peoples voting rights. People desserve to know exactly how their vote is being processed. Is mankind that stupid. Do we want revolutions and rebellions because people are too stupid to make voting (a fairly important task to be fair..pff) transparent, honest, whatever you want to call it..
Re:I think I speak for all of us... (Score:3, Insightful)
a paper printout is necessary.
Re:I think I speak for all of us... (Score:3, Insightful)
God Himself could come down and personally count the votes and you'd just accuse Him of being a pawn of the Religious Right.
Let me tell you your real issue: You just can't comprehend that your ideology might be rejected by a majority of Americans. The American's are
Re:I think I speak for all of us... (Score:4, Insightful)
You move into an apartment. Everything checks out fine. But that winter, you realize that your apartment doesn't have central heating, just a fireplace. Now, you bug your landlord that your apartment needs central heating, as the fireplace is not only a fire hazard, but it only heats up your living room effectively. You make do with the fireplace for the winter.
The next winter, your landlord pulls out the fireplace and puts in central heating. But there's a new problem. The heater not only doesn't work, it belches carbon monoxide into your apartment. You complain to your landlord, and he replies "Oh give it a rest. The only reason you have central heating is because you threw a hissy fit of hysterics last winter and DEMANDED it, screaming apocalyptic cries about freezing to death if you didn't get it."
You see the problem? Yeah, people like him demanded e-voting, but giving the people an e-voting system that is so fundamentally flawed as to not even allow a manual recount is worse than what they had before. Maybe they were a little naive in assuming that any e-voting system would conform with the concepts of good UI design for mission-critical applications (eg: ABMs), but you can't blame the public for the sorry state of voting machines by saying "you asked for this!"
For the record, I'm in Canada, and I'm happy with our paper voting system.
Just in case... (Score:3, Informative)
not as bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:not as bad... (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed. The wost fraud is taking place in plain sight. The problem is that for over 20 years there has not been a single candidate presented in a serious light that has not been a typical neoliberal "There is no alternative" [wikipedia.org] Reganite/Thatcherite. This of course makes sense, because the media outlets are corporate entities, and cannot be expected to cover something against their interests. Nor do they have to, the media [projectcensored.org]
Re:not as bad... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:FYI (Score:3, Informative)
Something's Fishy (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps Feeney was trying to set Curtis up?
M
Re:Something's Fishy (Score:2)
Re:Something's Fishy (Score:2)
Are you talking about the affidavit?
The incidents described in the affidavit happened in 2000.
I can't see the interview; is this where you're getting an idea of some long-running dispute?
Errmmm... (Score:2, Informative)
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start (Score:2)
Re:Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start (Score:2)
Re:Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start (Score:2)
IMPULSE 255
Re:Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start (Score:3, Funny)
How nice (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How nice (Score:2)
Re:How nice (Score:2)
Dupe, but with more info (Score:2)
As to the question, disassembling the code to make sure can't hurt anyone and would avoid lots of rumor mongering and conspiricy theories.
Re:Dupe, but with more info (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, come on! (Score:5, Interesting)
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the right-wingers are astroturfing the 'net with outrageous vote-rigging stories. This helps ensure that the real story of the Green/Libertarian recount in Ohio [votecobb.org] won't be taken seriously. Karl Rove is probably laughing his butt off.
Re:Oh, come on! (Score:2, Insightful)
Obviously... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Obviously... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Obviously... (Score:2)
Re:Obviously... (Score:5, Insightful)
Simply reporting that allegations exist and specifying that some of these allegations are in an affidavidit is responsible journalism. That there are allegations is a point of fact. When a tornado hits a trailer park, journalists are not required to look for a second opinion or go into background as to why that trailer park seems to attract tornadoes.
Re:Obviously... (Score:3, Insightful)
But if someone claims that a tornado has roared through their trailer park, destroying it, shouldn't the reporter at least go out to the trailer park to see if there's any damage at all? The bottom line is that in journalism, as in most othr things, the lines of demarcation are blurry. When it comes to what is a fact vs. what is an allegation, and what you treat as a fact vs. treating it as an allegation and w
Re:haha liberals (Score:3, Insightful)
Republican == "Upstanding, never lie, cheat or steal, or in any other way do anything wrong"
Democrat == "Lieing Commie pervert bastard who would do anything to anyone, just because".
Or maybe there are some good people with different points of view that arrive at them honestly on both side of the equation, and some that dont on both side of the equation.
If you believe the former, then *why* didnt those lieing cheating Democrats win this last election?
Re:haha liberals (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Obviously... (Score:2)
Re:Obviously... (Score:2)
Re:Obviously... (Score:2)
Re:Obviously... (Score:2)
Re:Obviously... (Score:4, Insightful)
I just don't understand you americans. I have undergrad studies in electrical/electronic engineering and I am currently mastering in comp. sci. I guess I could be considered an expert in electronique machines. If this was happening in my country I would be sending letters to my government and urging my peers, all experts in the domain, to give their opinion to the government. I am sure they would agree with me that we could say that our expert opinion is that electronic voting can't be done securely without a paper printout. I would make an expert only petition to support this claim.
Data in computers is very volatile, it can be changed on a large scale, in seconds without leaving a trace behind. It is invisible to the naked eye. The problem is not that fraud is that more likely with electroninc machine, the problem is that it is as easy to change a million vote on a computer, than it is to change one, you can do it in advance by putting some kind of malware in the system and you can do it without leaving a trace behind.
With paper ballots changing a million votes would requirer, that you physically destroy/modify ballots. It would take time, it would leave traces of evidence behind and it be much easyer to monitor the ballots to prevent fraud because you can see them with your eyes.
Were experts in the US ever surveiled about security of electronic voting? I would like to see the results.
Caches and more info (Score:3, Informative)
story [nyud.net]
interview [nyud.net]
blog [nyud.net]
Why I don't like the blogosphere... (Score:4, Insightful)
But if Woodward and Bernstein were bloggers, they'd've been happy to publish the skimpy information that started their investigation -- smug that they put one over on the press -- and let the whole thing degenerate into a partisan "Nixon Sucks!" style-flamewar.
.jebby (Score:2, Funny)
Let's do this rationally and carefully (Score:5, Interesting)
Can he produce call logs? Appointment books? Witnesses? Tapes or memos? Can he demonstrate an extraordinary knowledge of voting systems in the state of Florida?
There is a troubling taint of money on this: a "$200,000 award being offered by the nonprofit group Justice through Music for proof of voting fraud..." He is claiming he doesn't want the reward; money may have nothing to do with it. But we may have a grifter going after a score, directly or indirectly, by telling people what they want to hear. I am not saying either one: we simply don't know until more facts come out.
I fully believe we have arrived at a stage in american politics where a politician (yes, sure, a Republican politician) would tamper with an election. There is already plenty of documented funny business. I'm speaking of the felon purging in FL, stop-and-search roadblocks in OH, for instance.
Let's not forget the real moral of this story, illustrated by one thing Clint says certainly rings true regardless of the rest of his claims:
"I can't believe the Democrats were stupid enough to allow [this]," he says. "I can't imagine anyone going to a bank and not getting a receipt. But yet we have our voting machines that way. It strikes me as really odd that machines like that could even exist."
Re:Let's do this rationally and carefully (Score:2)
Oh, you mean it's so the people can verify that they got charged for what they actually bought rather than what the store says they bought? Or that the prices a person paid were what was marked on the shelf? Imagine that. A paper trail to confirm
Re:Let's do this rationally and carefully (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a misleading comment. What does he mean "the democrats allowed this"? The republican party has been in control of both houses for sometime now.
And the democrats HAVE been trying. In fact, a group of democrats proposed a bill called the RECORD Act of 2004 [loc.gov], which had a stated purpose: "To amend the Help Am
Re:Let's do this rationally and carefully (Score:4, Informative)
There wasn't even the simplest reality check done.
By all means (Score:3, Insightful)
There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about the claim that somebody might want to steal an election. The fact is that government contracters do a hell of a lot of stealing in plain sight, by hiring influential lobbying firms to steer business their way, or to move legislation and regulation in a way that is specially favorable to them. An election is worth a lot of money.
Nor, unfortunately, is there anything extraordinary about the claim that som
Re:Let's do this rationally and carefully (Score:3, Informative)
In the scientific sense, neither assertion is credible unless somehow independently verified. In practical terms, one could probably not evaluate either claim scientifically. There's simply not enough evidence, nor a way to verify the evidence that exists.
Your post actually brings up a good point. Even though the sta
What if? (Score:2, Funny)
America losing all faith in it's electoral processs... Civil War
John Titor being right... Priceless For all your time-travel needs, theres cash, for everything else, there's mastercard.
This is a red herring (Score:3, Informative)
Google is your friend. This guy has been accusing the same people (Feeney, etc.) of everything from overbilling the Florida Department of Transportation to spying for the Chinese for years now.
The real story is the uneven distribution of resources (e.g. voting booths & machines) to precincts based on their voting history. Traditionally Democratic precincts had their vote capped by doing this, preventing large numbers of people from voting, and the trick probably swung the presidential election. As that fact began to come out, sudenly there is an enourmous movement pushing the Black Helicopter theories.
Go figure.
--MarkusQ
Blackboxvoting.org doubts story (Score:5, Informative)
A busy guy (Score:5, Funny)
And did he do this before, or after, he typed up the Bush National Guard memos?
This should be simple to prove (Score:2)
From BlackBoxVoting.org (Score:5, Informative)
ABOUT DISINFORMATION: Like a good lie, it has elements of truth. Trouble is, the truth doesn't relate to the nuts and bolts of the story. For example in the Tom Feeney vote-manipulation story, people are documenting relationships between Tom Feeney and Yang, and between the writer of the story and other scandals, but so far the evidence presented does not back up the vote manipulation story itself.
DISINFORMATION IS DANGEROUS TO THE CLEAN VOTING MOVEMENT: Black Box Voting is finding real evidence consistent with fraud. We are even finding, in one of our investigations, evidence consistent with a systemic, or widespread breakdown in security, possibly exploited. Getting the facts is tedious, unexciting work, consisting of auditing and personal interviews, and it takes time. Many Americans want a magic bullet, a single shot that will blow the lid off everything at once.
That's risky. If the mainstream media continues to be bombarded with stories that sound credible, but aren't, when the real thing comes down the pike it will be ignored.
While MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and I had a run-in last week, I agree absolutely with Olbermann's earlier critique of the Madsen homeland security story, and this new Madsen story is just as weak. Most of both Madsen stories are bait and switch.
While real journalists "write tight" and include only the information directly relevant to the topic, Madsen wanders all over the place, recapping unrelated information from real news agencies, piggybacking onto their credibility, with only the most tenuous ties to what he is actually trying to prove. Analyze the meat of the story, taking out all the loose references to other stories, and Madsen's work gets very weak indeed.
Here are questions raised by the Feeney vote-manipulation story:
1. One of the most significant problems is that, while Clint Curtis describes a technique of writing a program, he never mentions HOW he supposedly got this program into the voting machines.
2. A second significant problem is that several of the Florida counties used different software in 2000 than they do now, and that various Florida counties use different manufacturers and different systems. Writing one program that would tamper with ES&S punch cards and Diebold optical scans at the same time is somewhat unrealistic. The questions this raises are these:
a. Which specific counties was this software supposedly used in for 2000, 2002 and 2004? Actually, from reading both the affidavit and the Madsen article, there is no evidence it was used anywhere.
- Madsen does a bait and switch when he discusses Volusia County. He starts by saying it is Feeney's district, and then actually goes on to report a story broken by Black Box Voting in October, 2003, about minus 16,022 votes for Bush in Volusia -- which appears to have nothing to do with the Feeney story. What systems was his vote rigging program for? Which manufacturers?
3. The techniques used to program a vote-rigging system in the Madsen article don't actually match the techniques in the affidavit by Clint Curtis, and neither one makes much sense. It's a simple matter to re-map a touch-screen to flip votes, and you don't need a special program for it. Simply switch the candidate ID numbers and it's done.
4. Most political shenanigans are not conducted by the candidate himself, but by operatives. It is certainly possible for a politician to hold several meetings in which he commits a felony in front of several witnesses, but that's not usually how it is done. A more common technique is an envelope full of cash left in a drawer of an operative, with at least one, sometimes more, buffer layers between the operative and the politician.
Clint Curtis says Feeney himself had meeting after meeting to directly discuss election rigging software. Could happen, certainly, but this seems unusual.
5. There are some statements that don't hang together from
Re:Cred poisoning! (Score:3, Interesting)
Cred poisoning has been used for ages all around the world with great success.
This smacks of classic Carl Rove tactics, similiar to the planted story that drummed Dan Rather out of the news business. While these two examples may or may not be examples of Carl Rove's poisonous politics, there are numerous, documented example
About Ray Lemme, the dead Inspector General (Score:5, Informative)
That's all that comes up in Google. Can anyone find out more? A "suicide" of an inspector general staff member of anything is inherently suspicious.
Stuff like this doesn't help. (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw this link a few days ago. Unfortunately he removed much of his more hilarious tin-foil hat content. The guy would actually do screen prints of sorta-related newspaper stories, then black out the names to make it look scandalous.
His demonstration program is underwhelming. You could make the same kind of thing to show any program could be trojaned.
Don't get me wrong, the e-voting situation is crazy and needs substantial reform, examination, and a general fixin'. But this guy is just another conspiracy guy trying to sell a book. [amazon.com]
Stuff like this does NOT help address the real problems in e-voting.
Fraudulent software explains... (Score:2, Funny)
who knows (Score:2, Redundant)
Please (Score:5, Informative)
A frequent charge levied after the 2000 election was voter disenfranchisement and ballot spoilage due, in large part, to antiquated, malfunctioning, or broken mechanical voting equipment. Legislation was introduced guaranteeing a minimum standard for the equipment and processes associated with voting in all jurisdictions. Since we are living in the 21st century, electronic systems were specified. $3.9 billion was set aside under HAVA to replace all mechanical punch card systems with electronic systems by 1 January, 2006. The goal is to ensure a consistency and fairness in the appearance and operation of the voting systems, both for voters and local election officials.
After the 2000 presidential election, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) [fec.gov]:
To establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections...
The putative reasoning for going with electronic systems was likely that since we have managed to design accountable and reliable electronic and computing equipment for the management of our power, medical care, money, etc., it likely was more or less assumed by the legislature that such accountable systems could also be applied to voting.
A bill has been introduced to amend HAVA. H.R.2239 [loc.gov] and its twin Senate counterpart S.1980 [loc.gov], discussed further here [verifiedvoting.org], will amend the Help America Vote Act such that there is "a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy" attached with each and every ballot cast by every voter, and that "any voting system containing or using software shall disclose the source code of that software to the Commission, and the Commission shall make that source code available for inspection upon request to any citizen".
Additionally, the three electronic voting manufacturers already have the ability to add permanent, individual voter-verified paper audit trails to their products. Some e-voting critics make it seem like vendors are resisting. However, it is the local election boards that are resisting (as well as the slow march of bureaucracy). The e-voting vendors will build - and sell - whatever municipalities will buy.
Disclaimer: this comes from a previous post of mine on the subject
Re:Please (Score:3, Insightful)
Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.
"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/20 [boston.com]
Re:Please (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do people so believe that the election just MUST have been rigged, retarded comments from Diebold's CEO notwithstanding? Can't people
Re:Please (Score:4, Insightful)
So, are you going to support the bills, or still fantasize about how the election was stolen?
You honestly believe that there was 3.5 MILLION votes worth of voting fraud? Or more than 150,000 votes worth of fraud in Ohio? And that the DNC, the Kerry campaign, the election monitors, the 3600 Kerry campaign lawyers, all just did nothing about it?
Of COURSE there was fraud and errors. Just like in EVERY election we've ever had! But the point is, everyone who matters, ESPECIALLY the entire DNC and the Kerry camp itself, didn't think there was any "fraud" that would even come close to being a "story", much less changing the outcome of the election. Remember 2000? Why wouldn't the same thing, multiplied by a factor of ten, have happened in 2004, in terms of media coverage, lawyers scouring through records and votes, etc?
Funnier still is your mention of "disparities" between rich and poor counties - that's the EXACT thing that HAVA is designed to FIX! You know, HAVA, that thing that is mandating *electronic voting machines*? I guess they just can't win. No matter what, you'll think that the big, bad, evil Republicans stole the election to further their goals of warmongering, lining pockets, and kicking pussy cats.
Re:Please (Score:3)
Actually, I said I didn't know for sure. You said categorically that it wasn't.
But don't let me get in the way of you kicking down your strawman.....
Re:Please (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Please (Score:3)
The people who count what? The votes?
I'm a software engineer. In a closed source system, there is no guarantee that what you put into the system matches what comes out of it. You can't prove the election was fair and square, and I can't prove that it wasn't. You made a categorical statement that it wasn't stolen, and then you committed several common logical fallacies, including multiple appeals to authority (which seems to be the thrust of your argument), but y
The important point here ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Folks, we need paper ballots. Counting them by bubblesheet scanner may be acceptable, but we need that paper trail.
If there was fraud in Florida, that's our opportunity to spread the word: that kind of fraud could be prevented by paper ballots.
Paper ballots are cheaper and more reliable than electronic machines, but the huge savings in money is nothing compared to the transparency, the paper trail and the difficulty in committing fraud that only paper ballots can deliver.
The whole story reads like a spy novel (Score:3, Insightful)
Like all good conspiracy stories it will be almost impossible to prove. It's the magic bullet all over again. I expect this to become American lore just like JFK's assassination conspiracies.
It is astounding to me that this country always manages to produce stuff like this. In my unscientific way it only leaves me to conclude that America is nuts - one way or another.
More Information (Score:3, Interesting)
This dup is extra annoying (Score:5, Interesting)
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13
In a nutshell, I spent about an hour going through goolge links of a few of the people involved in this story (either posting it or writing it or making it up) the URLs are in my original post. Anyway, they all have long histories of being politically biased, and spewing liberal FUD.
some points to consider:
- Would a undetecable application that is mneant to be cross platform be written in VB?
- why would a journalist, that is former NSA, and supposedly has all these tech credentials use an AOL addres? Fine it may work, and he might like it, but an AOL email address takes away a lot of credibility IMHO. (see original reply).
- If this had any validity, why was it not brought up sooner? There were articles on it back in 2002. It seems like the main stream Dems would have been all over this two or three years ago, if they thought there was any truth to it.
What I find disturbing is that slashdot would run this story twice. Clearly every article and source is biased, a quick google search quickly verifies that fact.
So what we get here is supermarket fluff and liberal FUD. We won't tolerate MS FUD, but leftwing FUD must be soooo MmmMmm Good that we get a double dose!
Curtis changed his story, for publicity (Score:4, Interesting)
Thank you [archive.org], archive.org:
Sunday, June 09, 2002
---
Feeney's role in FDOT contract dispute questioned
By LAURA ZUCKERMAN (laura.zuckerman@news-jrnl.com)
Staff Writer
TALLAHASSEE -- Clint Curtis thought he was doing the state a favor last May when he alerted investigators at the Florida Department of Transportation about what he claimed was fraudulent billing by an Oviedo computer firm represented by House Speaker Tom Feeney.
Today, Curtis is still adding up the personal and professional costs for doing what he calls "the right thing" and what Florida law requires of anyone who suspects mismanagement or the waste of public funds.
"I can't believe this is how it's supposed to work," says the veteran computer programmer who worked as a technology consultant for FDOT. "I thought I was doing my duty; now I wonder if I was just stupid."
Last May, Curtis "blew the whistle" on what he believed were violations of state law by Yang Enterprises of Oviedo in an $8 million technology contract with FDOT. Curtis worked for Yang prior to being hired by FDOT, and based some of his allegations on his involvement with the state contract while at Yang.
In the filing with FDOT's inspector general, who is charged with investigating suspected misdeeds, Curtis said Yang engaged "in a practice of false billing" and employed an illegal alien, a violation of state law and cause for the immediate cancellation of the contract.
More than a year after they were lodged, the allegations only now are being fully investigated by FDOT. The delay stems in part from the fact that FDOT shifted the focus of its investigation from Yang to Curtis and the FDOT manager who approved his hiring, Mavis Georgalis.
Curtis says the shift was prompted by Yang and its allies, including Feeney, to quiet Yang's critics.
Yang's attorneys say that's not true. They deny any instances of overbilling and say the character and conduct of Curtis and Georgalis are suspect.
The charges and countercharges have touched off a series of events and repercussions that are still being felt.
The tale stretches from Seminole County to the state capital, encompassing everything from lawsuits over intellectual property to claims of influence peddling by Feeney and culminating in the firing of Curtis and the resignation of Georgalis, who was in charge of the Yang contract.
It is the kind of drama best viewed through the high-powered lens of politics, for on its fringes stands Feeney, one of the state's most well-connected players, and at its center are questions raised by Yang and its defenders about the motives of Curtis and Georgalis.
The story is laced with conspiracy theories and conflicting commentaries, much of which is spelled out in court documents and other public records examined by The News-Journal during the course of a weeks-long investigation.
ALLEGATIONS ALL AROUND
Curtis says he now believes Feeney used his position as House speaker to stifle any investigation of Yang by FDOT, which, if true, would be a violation of state ethics laws.
But Feeney, an attorney whose clients include Yang Enterprises, denies he used his influence to benefit Yang and says he played no role when the firm secured an eight-year contract with FDOT in 1999 -- with a price tag not to exceed $8 million -- to provide a computer program to manage large volumes of information.
The relationship between Feeney and Yang predates the Oviedo Republican's rise to power two years ago as House speaker, with its origins traced as far back as the 1980s, when Tyng-Lin Yang, the company's co-owner, wor
Buried bills before bought Congress (Score:3, Interesting)
There are two bills before the US Congress that have been buried in committee since their introduction. Both these bills would require the use of open source software on voting machines and an auditable paper trail.
I urge all US citizens to write their representatives requesting action on these bills.
In my searches for open source voting software the best I've found comes from The Open Voting Consortium [openvotingconsortium.org].
It is time to _stop looking back. It is time to take action for positive change in the US system.sign me "Concerned Citizen"