Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, Jan 22

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410085

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. BRAD BLOG: WaPo Reports on Hacked Diebold Machines & Other Electoral Mess!

Washington Post Reports on Hacked Diebold Machines and Other Electile Dysfunctions in Sunday Paper!
Reports Story of Last Month's Leon County, FL Election Results Flip and Even October's GAO Report on Lack of Security, Accuracy in Electronic Voting Machines!
Better Late Than Never!

We're torn between complaining about Washington Post's delinquency in covering anything to do with our crumbling electoral system and jumping for joy that they've actually filed a credible report on the problems we (and many other "conspiracy theorists", "sore-losers", "tinfoil hat wearers", "anarchists" and "insurgents") have been yelling and screaming about for months -- if not years!

Given our endlessly optimistic nature, however, and the dearth of honest-to-God reporting by the Mainstream Corporate Media on these matters since...well, forever...we'll go ahead, slap a siren on this item, and focus on the "victory" side of things!

In tomorrow's paper, page A6, in a "Special to The Washington Post", Zachary Goldfarb covers the matter of last month's hack of Diebold optical scan machines in Leon County, Florida which completely flipped the results of a mock election test without a trace being left behind.

As well, for the first time, WaPo even discusses some of the findings of the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) 107-page report on the failures of electronic voting machines which was released last October!...

READ ON!: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002313.htm
(Had the wrong link previously, now fixed!)

---
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution has begun...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us

*** The BRAD SHOW On the Air via RAW RADIO!
*** http://www.BradShow.com
*** Broadcast coast-to-coast and around the globe!



Thanks to BradBlog here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x206818

[MelissaB]

8. the article

As Elections Near, Officials Challenge Balloting Security
In Controlled Test, Results Are Manipulated in Florida System

By Zachary Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 22, 2006; Page A06

As the Leon County supervisor of elections, Ion Sancho's job is to make sure voting is free of fraud. But the most brazen effort lately to manipulate election results in this Florida locality was carried out by Sancho himself.

Four times over the past year Sancho told computer specialists to break in to his voting system. And on all four occasions they did, changing results with what the specialists described as relatively unsophisticated hacking techniques. To Sancho, the results showed the vulnerability of voting equipment manufactured by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, which is used by Leon County and many other jurisdictions around the country.

A touch-screen voting machine is demonstrated. State and county election officials are demanding that electronic balloting systems leave a paper trail that can be audited when results are disputed. (By Kiichiro Sato -- Associated Press)

Sancho's most recent demonstration was last month. Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, manipulated the "memory card" that records the votes of ballots run through an optical scanning machine.

Then, in a warehouse a few blocks from his office in downtown Tallahassee, Sancho and seven other people held a referendum. The question on the ballot:

"Can the votes of this Diebold system be hacked using the memory card?"

Two people marked yes on their ballots, and six no. The optical scan machine read the ballots, and the data were transmitted to a final tabulator. The result? Seven yes, one no.

"Was it possible for a disgruntled employee to do this and not have the elections administrator find out?" Sancho asked. "The answer was yes."


More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012101051.html

[MelissaB]

2. Internet conspiracy theorists, take a bow. The Great WahPoo Acknowledges U

As Elections Near, Officials Challenge Balloting Security

In Controlled Test, Results Are Manipulated in Florida System

By Zachary Goldfarb

Special to The Washington Post

Sunday, January 22, 2006; Page A06

snip

Questions about the security of electronic voting machines have been circulating widely in recent years. But many of the concerns have been dismissed as the fantasies of Internet conspiracy theorists or sore-loser partisans who could not accept that their candidates simply got fewer votes. Critics have not demonstrated that any real elections have had returns altered by the manipulation of electronic voting systems.

But the questions raised by Sancho, who has held his post since 1989, show how the concerns are being taken more seriously among elections professionals.

snip

"You have to admit these systems are vulnerable and act accordingly," Hursti said.

snip/grin

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012101051.html


Thanks to Wilms here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410128

[MelissaB]

3. Diebold fate hangs on whether its voting software can be fixed By Ian Hoff

Diebold fate hangs on whether its voting software can be fixed By Ian Hoffman

By Ian HoffmanSoftware files have company in double bind with state, feds, STAFF WRITER


For more than two years, Diebold Election Systems Inc. has hit one political or technical snag after another trying to reap more than $40 million in voting-machine sales in California.

Now only a collection of tiny software files on Diebold's latest voting machines stand in the way of those revenues and more. Last summer, a Finnish computer expert using an agricultural device found he could rig the votes stored on Diebold's memory cards and rewrite one of those files to cover his tracks.

The revelation posed a double problem for Diebold: Not only could its optical-scanning voting machines be hacked, but state and federal rules for more than a year have forbidden those files in voting machines.

This week, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, UC-Davis and a private, testing lab in Huntsville, Ala., are studying those files under strict promises of confidentiality. What they find could bear directly on what kind of voting systems almost a third of California counties will use in the 2006 elections and indirectly on Diebold's viability as a voting company.

More: http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_3427025

[MelissaB]

4. discussion

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410161

[Wilms]

25. Diebold's Letter To Pennsylvania: A Rebuttal

Diebold's Letter To Pennsylvania: A Rebuttal

By Roxanne Jekot, CountTheVote.org

January 21, 2006

On January 3, 2006, the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pedro Cortes and his consultant Dr. Michael Shamos submitted a series of questions to Diebold Elections Systems regarding the AccuBasic (which Diebold also calls ABasic) reporting scripts used by their AccuVote TSX touchscreen voting system. Diebold responded in a letter dated January 5, 2006. While Diebold's answers in this letter apparently met with "the statisfaction of the Secretary and his consultant", they are wholly unsatisfactory to the voters in Pennsylvania whose democracy is being entrusted to Diebold's equipment.

While failing to adequately answer Pennsylvania’s questions, Diebold did make some serious revelations. Specifically, while Hursti used old firmware (1.94w), Diebold confirms in Appendix A that their newly certified firmware (1.96) will behave with the same lapses in security. They confirmed that the Zero Total Report relies on the public counter variable and NOT database (ballot image) contents and that Diebold’s basic point of security is dependent on the Windows Operating System security. After years of scrutiny and published reports by computer security experts worldwide, Diebold has still failed to close the most basic security flaws in their source code.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=815&Itemid=113


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410219

[Wilms]

26. Making Diebold "Okay" For Pennsylvania

Making Diebold "Okay" For Pennsylvania

By John Washburn and Roxanne Jekot, VoteTrustUSA Voting Technology Task Force

January 22, 2006

Last week the Department of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania released a report confirming the certification of the Diebold TSx touch screen voting machine and reversing an earlier decision to deny certification for the Diebold OS central count optical scanner. The state continued to deny state certification of the Diebold precinct count optical scanner. The report reveals how the Department of State of Pennsylvania and their expert consultant worked together with Diebold to fabricate a justification for certifying machines in the state that contain prohibited code and have the same potential of being hacked undetectably that was demonstrated in a well publicized test in Florida last month. The report refers to this test as the “Hursti Exploit”.

snip

How Diebold and Dr. Shamos Made Diebold "Okay" for Pennsylvania

First, Dr. Shamos claims on page 5 of the Pennsylvania report that AccuBasic does not reside on Diebold’s general election management software (GEMS). Aside from the fact that this statement is false, it is also beside the point. Nowhere in the paper Harri Hursti submitted to the National Institute of Science and Technology or in his Full Report is there any assertion that the AccuBasic resides on the central GEMS server. The “Hursti Exploit” involves only the memory card in the optical scanner and the AccuBasic file on that memory card.

Dr. Shamos’ mention of the GEMS server is a completely spurious distraction. Once the voting machine's memory card has been pre-stuffed, all the electronic records - the memory card contents, the poll tape printed by the machine at the end of the day, the machine level data in the GEMS database, every summary number from the GEMS database, every report printed by the GEMS central tabulator - stem from a single source and that source is the corrupted memory card. Because there is a single source, every electronic record will be in agreement - and incorrect.

(It is worth noting that none of the electronic records would agree with totals derived from hand counts of voter verified paper records and this inconsistency would be revealed in a routine manual audit. But Pennsylvania, unlike 27 other states, does not yet have a requirement for a voter verified paper record.)

Next, Dr. Shamos claims that the prohibition of self-modifying code, dynamically loaded code, and interpreted code found in section 4.2.2 of the 2002 VVSG does not apply to the Diebold equipment (both optical scanners and touch screen DRE’s) because of an exception. Section 4.2.2 reads:

“Self-modifying, dynamically loaded or interpreted code is prohibited, except under the security provisions outlined in section 6.4.e.”

The only problem is that there is no section 6.4.e! It doesn’t exist.

snip

http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=814&Itemid=113


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410249

[MelissaB]

5. Did Bush actually carry Ohio in 2004? (16 comments )

Mark Kleiman

Did Bush actually carry Ohio in 2004?

(16 comments )
READ MORE: George W. Bush, 2006
There's room for doubt. It seems that Diebold's optical-scanning voting machines can be made to produce results bearing no relationship to the votes actually cast.


Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kleiman/did-bush-actually-carry-o_b_14243.html

[MelissaB]

6. County Commissioners' Court to consider reducing number of early voting lo

County Commissioners' Court to consider reducing number of early voting locations
Colin Guy

Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
01/22/2006


By Colin Guy
Staff Writer

County Elections Administrator Ruth Sloan will approach the Commissioners' Court Monday to discuss the possibility of reducing the number of branch voting locations for early voting from three to one because of limitations on the availability of electronic voting equipment.


Sloan said the Texas Secretary of State's Office does not require any branch voting locations for early voting among counties with a population less than 120,000, but in previous elections they have provided the additional locations as a convenience to residents.


However, Sloan said she recently learned that the 50 electronic voting machines acquired by the county last year cannot be used for both the republican and democratic primaries, which limits the number of machines available at each precinct. Additionally, she said state regulations require that separate equipment be used for early voting and election day. She said this is necessary because of record retention requirements by the secretary of state.


"That left me 28 (machines) to spread between four branches," Sloan said. "I need 15 (at the election's office) because the heaviest amount of early voting is at this office and you like to have four to five machines at other locations (and) you want to keep one or two as backup in case of machine failure."


More: http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15977813&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475621&rfi=6

[MelissaB]

7. NC: An Elections Challenge

An Elections Challenge
Winston-Salem Journal
Sunday, January 22, 2006


Kathie Chastain Cooper's retirement as the director of Forsyth County elections presents the elections board with the huge challenge of finding her replacement. The board will have to move carefully, because the elections director does a crucial job in a field that's had more than its share of problems in recent years.

Few Americans will ever forget the nightmare problems in Florida during the presidential election of 2000, and many Americans still claim that malfunctioning voting machines and poorly trained voting officials cost Al Gore that election. Closer to home, Carteret County lost more than 4,400 votes when an electronic voting machine ran out of storage capacity during the 2004 elections, resulting in the race for state agriculture commissioner being contested for months.

No American in the 21st century should have to worry that his or her vote will be lost, but that remains a very real - and understandable - fear for many. Whether voting in national, state or local elections, Americans should be able to have confidence that their vote will be correctly tallied.

...snip

Chastain Cooper is recommending that her deputy elections director, Laura Gerardi-Dell, be her replacement. She is a worthy candidate for the job, and the board should certainly give her careful consideration, as it should any other serious candidates for the job.

Continued voter confidence will be riding on the board's replacement choice.

More: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_ColumnistArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137833571750&path=!opinion&s=1037645509163

[MelissaB]

9. One Big Electoral Mess...

One Big Electoral Mess...
As Revealed by California State Senate Hearings on Transparency in Elections
'Warts on Parade' as Voting Registrars Discuss Problems with Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S and Many Other Electronic Voting Systems...

"Turn around and look at all the people behind you," Bowen said gesturing at a gallery full of voting activists. "These are all people who care about transparency in the elections process. It's not about me knowing or you knowing, it's about anybody else in the state of California who cares about elections to assess for themselves what's going on."
-- "Officials assess e-voting glitches: Confidence in electronic systems may be wavering" Oakland Tribune, 1/19/06

Such was the sometimes contentious, sometimes exasperating atmosphere, apparently, in Sacramento this week when State Senator Debra Bowen, transparent election champion and Democratic candidate for Secretary of State convened a hearing on the current electoral mess in the Golden State. The hearing was held by the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee which she chairs.

County Election Registrars from all over the state were called to give a report on how things are going (not well, apparently) and Election Integrity advocates filled the gallery to witness the goings on.

There was actually quite a bit of coverage by the media, some better than others, but overall, it's nice to see an open forum for oversight and discussion of the state of democracy in this state. All the while, so much that is involved with the most fundamental element of democracy -- the vote -- has been done in secret corridors of power, darkened Boards of Election back rooms, Private Corporation board rooms, and of course, inside the uninspected, none-of-your-business software of completely untrustworthy, unaccountable electronic voting machines.


More: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002311.htm

[Wilms]

24. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410127

[MelissaB]

10. Electronic voting (an article about voting in the US from Nigeria)

Electronic voting

Michael Uchebuaku
Lagos

As part of calls for electoral reform, many have advocated electronic voting as one way of safeguarding free and fair elections in Nigeria.

The Problem with Electronic Voting Machines

Analysts agree that after 2000, voting machine problems in the United States made international headlines. The U.S. government appropriated money to fix the problems nationwide. Unfortunately, electronic voting machines, although presented as the solution, have largely made the problem worse. This doesn’t mean that these machines should be abandoned, but they need to be designed to increase both their accuracy, and peoples’ trust in their accuracy. This is difficult, but not impossible.

According to experts, a voting system has four required characteristics:

1. Accuracy. The goal of any voting system is to establish the intent of each individual voter, and translate those intents into a final tally. To the extent that a voting system fails to do this, it is undesirable. This characteristic also includes security: It should be impossible to change someone else’s vote, ballot stuff, destroy votes, or otherwise affect the accuracy of the final tally.



2. Anonymity. Secret ballots are fundamental to democracy, and voting systems must be designed to facilitate voter anonymity.



3. Scalability. Voting systems need to be able to handle very large elections. One hundred million people vote for president in the United States. About 372 million people voted in India’s June elections, and over 115 million in Brazil’s October elections.



4. Speed. Voting systems should produce results quickly. This is particularly important in the United States, where people expect to learn the results of the day’s election before bedtime. It’s less important in other countries, where people don’t mind waiting days or even weeks before the winner is announced.

These computerized voting machines are easy to use, produce final tallies immediately after the polls close, and can handle very complicated elections. They also can display instructions in different languages and allow for the blind or otherwise handicapped to vote without assistance.

However, analysts say they’re also more error-prone. The very same software that makes some computerized voting systems so friendly also makes them inaccurate. And even worse, they’re inaccurate in precisely the worst possible way.

Another issue is that software can be hacked. That is, someone can deliberately introduce an error that modifies the result in favor of his preferred candidate. This has nothing to do with whether the voting machines are hooked up to the Internet on election day. The threat is that the computer code could be modified while it is being developed and tested, either by one of the programmers or a hacker who gains access to the voting machine company’s network. It’s much easier to surreptitiously modify a software system than a hardware system, and it’s much easier to make these modifications undetectable.


More: http://www.independentng.com/sunday/ccjan220603.htm

[MelissaB]

11. Loot the Vote

Loot the Vote

Posted: 2006/01/21
From: Chris Floyd

In fact, this year's congressional races and the presidential contest in 2008 are already over, and the Bushists have won, although some of the candidates have not yet been chosen.


Things are looking a bit grim for the Bush Faction these days. Their chief bagman, Jack Abramoff, is in the clink, naming names. Their top congressional enforcer, Tom Delay, is in the dock, sinking fast. Their "war of choice" in Iraq has stalled in murderous quagmire. Their poll numbers are plummeting , as scandal after scandal -- corruption, despotism, torture, incompetence, deceit -- turn the American people against them. What then will be the fate of these brutal, bungling, bloodstained goons when they face the voters in the coming elections?
Why, victory, of course!

In fact, this year's congressional races and the presidential contest in 2008 are already over, and the Bushists have won. It's true that some of the candidates have not yet been chosen – including whatever front man the goon squad picks to replace the kill-crazy klutz from Crawford – but the vast machinery of electoral malfeasance that propelled this extremist faction to power over the wishes of the electorate in both 2000 and, yes, 2004, is not only still in place, it's growing stronger all the time.

No one has laid bare the malodorous innards of this democracy-devouring monster better than Mark Crispin Miller, whose new book, Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too, takes us back to the dastardy of Election Day 2004 and the hydra-headed campaign of vote-rigging that preceded it. This second heist of the White House is one of the great untold stories of our time – even though it was largely carried out in plain sight. Miller performs the simple but increasingly rare act of journalism and gathers a mountain of overwhelming evidence from publicly available material. This is no "conspiracy theory" stitched together from anonymous sources, strained inferences and dark innuendo, but a solid case based on official records, sworn testimony, eyewitness accounts, news reports – and the Bushists' own words.


More: http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=507580

[MelissaB]

12. PA: Voting system proposal gets OK

Voting system proposal gets OK

Sunday, January 22, 2006

By Karen Kane, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Butler County commissioners decided on a split vote last week to take the next step toward touch-screen balloting despite pleas from a citizens advocacy group and admissions from the county's election director that any new machines may have to be altered sometime within the next couple of years.

Though Commissioner Glenn Anderson voted no, the yes votes by commissioners Scott Lowe and Jim Kennedy secured a proposal by the county election director that formal negotiations begin with Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb.

Director Regis Young said he had evaluated about a dozen prospective vendors and had settled on ES&S, a company with whom the county has been doing business since the 1980s. ES&S provides software and ballot cards for the county's current punch-card system.

Some members of a local citizens group, Butler County Democrats for Change, complained that ES&S is not the best vendor, citing problems the company has had with touchscreens in other locales. Mr. Young discounted the criticism, blaming human errors and not the machines for any problems.


More: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06022/640937.stm

[MelissaB]

13. MN: Voting machines spur argument

Voting machines spur argument
County likes current elections equipment, but state won't approve it

BY ALEX FRIEDRICH
Pioneer Press

Washington County election officials are wrangling with the state over which ballot-marking machines to buy to assist blind and disabled voters. On Tuesday, they will hear public comment about what they should do.

The county needs to approve a purchase plan Tuesday even though it's still at odds with Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, who has rejected the machines Washington County wants to use.

Like three other east-metro counties, Washington bought high-tech voting equipment a few years ago — and is now chafing under state orders to change brands. County officials say they have perfectly good equipment and a switch would waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

"This is bull," said County Board Chairman Bill Pulkrabek. "This is why I hate government" at times.

The disagreement is over how counties must comply with the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. It states that machines used in the 2006 elections must offer blind and disabled voters more privacy and independence.

In December, the state approved Automark ballot-marking machines — which are manufactured by Election Systems and Software — for the disabled. So far, 83 Minnesota counties have agreed to use them.

But Washington — like Anoka, Dakota and Ramsey counties —already had spent more than half a million dollars on machines manufactured by a different company, Diebold, when the county automated its voting process in 1999.

The problem? Washington's Diebold equipment isn't compatible with the Automark machines the state has chosen.

More: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/13667295.htm

[MelissaB]

14. J. Kenneth Blackwell/Ohio watch

[MelissaB]

15. Anti-abortion rally attracts 400 marchers

Anti-abortion rally attracts 400 marchers

By Feoshia Henderson
Enquirer staff writer

Maria Federspiel, 8, and Rita Field, 9, of Fairfield,walk down Seventh Street Saturday during the 22nd annual "Pro-Life Rosary Procession and Rally."


DOWNTOWN - Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell told an anti-abortion rally crowd that legalizing abortion was part of an ongoing effort to take religion out of public debate.

"There are forces, cultural, social and political, that are trying to run faith and religion out of the public square," said Blackwell, a Republican candidate for governor this year.

Blackwell was one of several political and religious speakers who marched Saturday from City Hall to the Hamilton County Courthouse for the 22nd annual "Pro-life Rosary Procession and Rally."

Blackwell said these events were crucial to bringing public attention to the views of people of faith.

About 400 people turned out for the rally, nearly double what organizers from Norwood's Immaculate Conception Church had expected.


More: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060122/NEWS01/601220345

[MelissaB]

18. Liberal preachers trying to silence him, pastor says

Liberal preachers trying to silence him, pastor says

Saturday, January 21, 2006
Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


The Rev. Rod Parsley challenged critics to identify themselves.


Vehemently denying that he plays partisan politics from the pulpit, the Rev. Rod Parsley said yesterday that he would not be silenced from preaching about moral issues by liberal ministers who this week filed a complaint against him with the Internal Revenue Service.

Parsley, in a news conference at his sprawling World Harvest Church complex in southern Columbus, labeled the complaining pastors as the "anonymous 31" and called on them to reveal their identities.

...snip

But Parsley said such fears are unfounded: "They are brothers. We will embrace them as brothers. . . . We’ll unleash the troops to pray for them."

In a rare action, the 31 asked the IRS to investigate whether the evangelical megachurches headed by Parsley and Johnson, along with three affiliated organizations, should lose their tax-exempt status for participating in partisan politics.

The complaint alleges numerous instances in which the churches promoted conservative Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a GOP candidate for governor, at religious events, in voter-registration drives and in educational materials.

IRS regulations prohibit pastors from: endorsing candidates on behalf of the church; distributing materials favoring one candidate or political party; and providing one candidate exclusive opportunities to speak at church services.

Parsley called Blackwell "a principled and courageous leader" and acknowledged making personal financial contributions to Blackwell’s campaign while giving nothing to the other gubernatorial candidates. But, he said, "I have not nor will I endorse Secretary Blackwell or any candidate for governor in my capacity as the president" of a tax-exempt nonprofit entity.


More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/01/21/20060121-B1-05.html

[MelissaB]

19. Pastor: Political charges not true

Pastor: Political charges not true

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
The Associated Press

ON THE NET:
Parsley's Web site: http://www.breakthrough.net/

Blackwell: http://www.kenblackwell.com/


COLUMBUS - A pastor with ties to one of three GOP candidates for governor said Friday that a complaint filed with the IRS over those connections is off base and part of a liberal political agenda.

Pastor Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church acknowledged making political contributions only to the campaign of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell but said he's within his rights as a citizen. Blackwell also appears at events with Parsley and provided Parsley a glowing blurb for his latest book.

"I don't check my citizenship at the door of my church, nor do I check my Christianity at the door to the Statehouse," Parsley said. "As a private citizen, I am more than entitled to contribute to a political campaign."

...snip

Blackwell has dismissed the complaint as an attempt "to run God out of the public square." He says he's been invited to events sponsored by Parsley and Johnson because of his support for a successful 2004 ballot issue to ban same-sex marriage and his stance against abortion.

Blackwell is a favorite among conservative voters because of his positions, including his backing of anti-tax initiatives.

More: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/NEWS01/601210433/1056

[MelissaB]

20. RELIGION BRIEFS

...snip

Fired minister responds to critics

HARTVILLE, Ohio -- A prominent evangelical minister has fired back at critics who charge him and others with mixing religion and politics, saying they are guilty of the same sin -- if sin it is.

Accused recently by a group of moderate clergy of using his pulpit to benefit Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Rev. Russell Johnson described them as part of an "unholy alliance" and "secular jihad" against expressions of faith.

Thirty-one clergy members on Sunday asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax-free status of Johnson's Fairfield Christian Church and affiliated organization, Ohio Restoration Project, which is trying to rally pastors to take an active role in this year's statewide races.


More: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/13669896.htm

[MelissaB]

21. Pastor says tax guidelines not brokenClergy member admits donating to Blac

Pastor says tax guidelines not brokenClergy member admits donating to Blackwell, but says church in clear

By Dennis J. Willard and Doug Oplinger
Beacon Journal staff writers

...snip

The complaint
In their letter, the pastors said that over the past two years Parsley and his organizations have featured Blackwell at events designed to promote his candidacy.

They maintain Parsley also is leading a ``partisan'' effort to register 400,000 voters to support Blackwell and is distributing ``education'' materials designed to broaden the candidate's support.

The IRS is being asked to determine whether Parsley's churches and affiliates should lose their tax-exempt status, whether the churches and their managers should pay taxes on political expenditures and whether an injunction should be filed to prevent political activity.

The 31 pastors also asked the IRS to examine similar activities by Pastor Russell Johnson, who heads the Fairfield Christian Church and the Ohio Restoration Project.

In an event Tuesday in Hartville, Blackwell was the keynote speaker for Johnson's group.


More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/13678890.htm

[MelissaB]

22. Ohio's patriot pastors

Ohio's patriot pastors

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Dave Daubenmire
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


"Make sure that when the shootin' starts, all of the enemy is in front of you" – an Army vet.

Rod Parsley is pastor of mega World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio, and host of the TV program Breakthrough, broadcast on stations all around the world.

Like so many television evangelists, he has developed a reputation in some circles as a money-grubbing name-it claim-it ministry. He has built a large ministry and now he spends much of his time feeding it, with techniques that some find offensive.

Say what you will, he has yet to fall into the chasm of seeker-sensitivity so prevalent today and still preaches a sin-killing message, although the opulence at his church sure raises eyebrows.

Russell Johnson is pastor at Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, Ohio. A faithful man of God, Pastor Johnson has labored for two decades, doing all he can to impact the small midwestern town in which he lives. He encourages his flock to be involved in government, and his congregation is home to several local elected officials, including the sheriff of Fairfield County. Pastor Johnson makes no bones about his position on the issues and publicly supports any candidate that agrees with the moral positions his congregation promotes.

Together, Pastor Parsley and Pastor Johnson have decided it is time to take the cultural war seriously. Parsley has founded The Center for Moral Clarity, and has been hosting gatherings of thousands of Ohio's pastors in attempt to get them to engage the culture. Johnson is head of Ohio Restoration Project and is recruiting hundreds of "patriot pastors," training them in cultural stewardship

As their efforts begin to draw national attention, the enemy is beginning to draw its swords. Crying the old worn-out saw "separation of church and state," a group has taken their complaints to the IRS, asking that Parsley and Johnson be investigated for violating their tax-exempt status.

Who is this group, you might ask, that is opposing these pastors?


The ACLU? Nope.

Americans United For Separation of Church and State? Sorry.

Moveon.org? Move on.

People for the American Way? Negatory, Big Ben.

No folks, the whistleblowers in the case happen to be "31 church leaders from nine denominations" in the Columbus area. That's right, chums, the church is blowing the whistle on the church. Seems they don't like the fact that Bible-believing churches are standing up.

I say it is about time.


More: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48437

[MelissaB]

23. Video

Pastor Says Allegations Over Political Activity Baseless
Fairfield Christian Church Also Mentioned In Complaint

POSTED: 3:43 pm EST January 20, 2006
UPDATED: 7:16 pm EST January 20, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A religious and political heavyweight is countering criticism that he used his church to push an agenda at the polls.



Rod Parsley


The Rev. Rod Parsley said he may play politics while at home, but not at work and especially not while behind the pulpit, NBC 4's John Ivanic reported.

Parsley, of the World Harvest Church, is one of the most powerful Christian and conservative leaders in Columbus and America.


For video and rest of article: http://www.nbc4i.com/news/6282495/detail.html

[MelissaB]

16. Goodbye Terry Gross, we never knew ye—on liberal media denial

Goodbye Terry Gross, we never knew ye—on liberal media denial

By Joe Bageant
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jan 21, 2006, 20:34

Having come to understand that mainstream media are in the business of selling fried chicken and cars, giving Wall Street head, and stealing bandwidth from the public’s airwaves, none of us expect them to question anything afoot in the empire. We quite understand they cannot be wasting profitable air time on a nation whose collective memory is 30 seconds long.

So we watch them pull their punches and wait for the commercials, which are their whole point anyway. If, god forbid, you are the pointy-headed type interested in details, turn on NPR. And if you consider yourself hipper than the couch taters out here in Budland, go onto the net and visit Salon. Or if you are so worldly and hip you are a downright commie, then subscribe to Mother Jones. That’s the way it used to be.

But now we are seeing what were once considered the more intelligent and in some cases more principled media such as NPR, Salon and Mother Jones distance themselves from meaningful controversy -- pulling the few wimpy punches they have. (Bullshit controversy, however, is still in fashion.)

We are talking about Mark Crispin Miller’s new book, Fooled Again - How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They’ll Steal the Next One, Too (Unless We Stop Them). Miller has become a known and respected progressive figure, one of the few in-your-face bespectacled lefty author types with any credibility. But when it comes to promoting Fooled, the guy can’t even get arrested. No interviews, nothing.

In fact, these days even his cash bounces -- Miller can’t even buy a spot on National Public Radio for his book. Now you may be saying to yourself: “Public Radio doesn’t sell advertising.” Which would make you one of those delusional souls who believe that shameless brand hawking by the oil companies and the financial establishment on NPR is not advertising. I mean, after all, ADM and Wal-Mart? NPR has sales people out chasing these sponsors. They sell these damned announcements. The only difference between NPR’s “paid sponsorships” and the puke jock shows’ commercial radio ads is that the NPR folks don’t have a real rate card. Which is either stupid or brilliant, I’m not sure.


Much more: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_443.shtml

[MelissaB]

17. ...snip

All of which still leaves those crooked elections lingering as the backdrop to, or perhaps harbinger of, the 2008 elections, despite the lack of reporting on it. Reporters may perhaps be bound by a duty to refrain from assumptions. But I sure as hell ain’t. And I’m assuming that if the Bush junta got away with it the first time, they will keep right on doing it until somebody breaks their goddamned legs. People like Katherine Harris, Karl Rove and Republican Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell haven’t climbed to the top of the GOP dung heap because of their morals and restraint. They are big time Republicans precisely because they are willing to steal chickens and lie to the sheriff.

At some deep national level we all know, George W. Bush has no right to be farting into the oval room desk chair. Even the few genuinely moderate Republicans not driven into hiding by the Brownshirts look sheepish when you bring up Florida and Ohio. Yet Americans go on pretending that everything is okay. The people pretend along with the media that George W. Bush belongs in that chair. Pretend that his is the face of a man capable of deep and serious thought, that the smirk is not really a smirk and that he really gives a rat’s ass about those coffins at Dover or those black people in New Orleans. They pretend that it was not farcical when he told the nation this week that despite the city being soaked in petro-toxins and defined mainly by bulldozed piles of rotting timbers, clothing and sewerage, overturned cars and botulism filled refrigerators, “New Orleans is still a great place to bring the family and have fun.” They pretend that strange nationwide spider web of bitter GOP operatives could not possibly have worked together in Ohio and Florida and heaven only knows where else. Everything is okay.



:rofl:

[Wilms]

27. Nice one, M.

:hi: