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A pol-fect Storm?
Author: Raine    Date: 01/10/2008 13:26:46

So what really happened in NH?

There seems to be a lot of questions out there, and not just from myself. the Polls were wrong, the polls were wrong! My kingdom! the polls were wrong!

Now, I am not trying to be all on everyone. I really am not. I think what we saw in NH was a perfect storm of everything that is wrong with media coverage, the voting system, and America's need for instant gratification. NH voters DO take voting seriously, and I do believe that the polls WERE wrong to a large extent. I saw one poll yesterday that differentiated between undecided and undeclared voters... ask yourself, is there a difference? I also believe that a large portion of republicans ended up voting for Hillary. I do not know if the pollster's took this phenomenon into account. That certainly affected the numbers. It is why I don't like anyone but my party voting in my party primary. Call me a segregationist, but I believe in this strongly. If I were an independent, then I believe I should be able to only vote for members of that party. These are Primaries, not the general election... But, I digress, another topic for another time.

There is another disturbing question here. Were the optical scanners used to count the votes legit? I actually saw this very issue get questioned on MSM yesterday. I was floored. I don't think they went far enough. From BlackBoxVoting.org:

New England voting machine firm has executive criminal record
They program every single voting machine in New Hampshire, Connecticut, almost all of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine. But did state officials in five New England states ever do a criminal background check on this company's executives? Do the laws of these five states even ALLOW them to hire convicted criminals for services paid for by the state? What about over 500 local towns and municipalities?

According to my sources, LHS Marketing and Sales Director Ken Hajjar grew up with owner John Silvestro in Lawrence, Massachusetts. They both moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire, where Ken Hajjar was arrested, indicted, and pleaded guilty to "sale / CND" and sentenced to 12 months in the Rockingham County Correctional facility, and fined $2000. As things go for the politically connected, he was then given a deferred sentence and $1000 of his fine was suspended.
[...]

Hajjar doesn't limit his involvement in the voting machine business to sales. According to an interview conducted by Brad Friedman, Hajjar totes memory cards around in the trunk of his car and defends the boggling concept of swapping out memory cards during the middle of elections.

Hold onto your hats, there's more. Start with this YouTube video, if you haven't already seen it:



Bev Harris also wrote about this issue at Online Journal. The most significant part of this article is this:
Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.

LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.

So the real question here should not be how could the polls be so wrong, but rather....who owns your vote?

With Supertsunamirapturemegahuge™ Tuesday coming it, there is little precious time to look into what kind of machines your state uses. I myself need to find out if my vote will indeed count and that the State of Georgia counts it and not some private company. You should too.

Very disturbing news indeed. You can take a poll on that. See you inside.
:peace: and :heart:
Raine

 

175 comments (Latest Comment: 01/11/2008 04:40:19 by Mondobubba)
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Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:05:15
Good morning!

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:08:01
oooOOOOHHHH Brad Friedman! This dovetails perfectly with today's blog entry! :P

Comment by m-hadley on 01/10/2008 14:10:34
Hey there Raine,

Are you the Raine of Raine-tini fame?

I love your call-ins to the show =)

Cheers,

mfhadley

Comment by shelaghc on 01/10/2008 14:13:52
G'morning.



It's closet boxing day today at Chez' Shelagh



Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 14:14:56
Peace in the Middle East will be George Bush's legacy.











:rofl:

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:16:39
Quote by starling310: Peace in the Middle East will be George Bush's legacy.











:rofl:
Did you here the reason he gave on the news break??? "Becuase I am running out of time in my administration" :rofl:



Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:17:12
Quote by shelaghc: G'morning.



It's closet boxing day today at Chez' Shelagh

OOH! If you find my remote control, tell me!



Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 14:17:38
Quote by Raine:
Quote by shelaghc: G'morning.



It's closet boxing day today at Chez' Shelagh

OOH! If you find my remote control, tell me!





Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:19:03
Quote by m-hadley: Hey there Raine,

Are you the Raine of Raine-tini fame?

I love your call-ins to the show =)

Cheers,

mfhadley


guilty as charged... Good morning!

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:20:04
Momma getting a little blowback it seems. Now I feel a little badly for her.

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:23:33
BTW... FYI...



DEMOCRATS - "Soft" Delegate Votes (FL, MI sanctioned)

Need to Nominate 2,025

(available) 3,982



Obama, Barack 25

Clinton, Hillary Rodham 24

Edwards, John 18




REPUBLICANS- "Soft" Delegates (FL, MI, NH, SC, WY sanctioned)

Need to Nominate 1,191

(available) 2,319

Romney, Mitt 21

Huckabee, Mike 14

McCain, John S. 12

Thompson, Fred Dalton 8

Paul, Ron 4

Giuliani, Rudolph W. 1

Hunter, Duncan 1



Source: the green papers.

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:25:59
:huh:

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:27:10
to caller:

Comment by TriSec on 01/10/2008 14:27:58


Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 14:28:44
No one really has told me what Obama is "for" or "against."



Comment by TriSec on 01/10/2008 14:29:33
TRMS on Mitt the Twitt this morning...



Turns out he's the first Massachusetts politician of any kind to lose a NH primary, and that includes the write-in campaign of Henry Cabot Lodge in the 1960s...



He's toast.



I like toaste...



Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:33:12
Quote by starling310: No one really has told me what Obama is "for" or "against."

Silly girl. He is for hope and against Hillary.

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:34:34
So do we! Don't we??

Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 14:35:08
OMG...did I not learn yesterday? Don't discuss politics at work.

:star: 's boss ------> "I just don't think John ( Edwards ) should be campaigning when his wife is sick..."





Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 14:36:24
Quote by Raine:
Quote by starling310: No one really has told me what Obama is "for" or "against."

Silly girl. He is for hope and against Hillary.






Oooooohhh!



Thanks Raine.



Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:37:31
Is this Faye???

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:38:17
Quote by starling310: OMG...did I not learn yesterday? Don't discuss politics at work.

:star: 's boss ------> "I just don't think John ( Edwards ) should be campaigning when his wife is sick..."





WHA?????????? I suppose he thinks Elizabeth should just go home to die as well, eh?

Comment by TriSec on 01/10/2008 14:38:25
Message to Star's boss:



Narrow-minded misogynist tools like you shouldn't be allowed to vote. After all, doesn't the 'president' know what's best for everyone? Why disagree with him, then?





Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:41:33
Sorry Chris... Even Ron Paul experienced voter fraud.



Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 14:41:56
Quote by TriSec: Message to Star's boss:



Narrow-minded misogynist tools like you shouldn't be allowed to vote. After all, doesn't the 'president' know what's best for everyone? Why disagree with him, then?







The sad part is my boss is a woman.



Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:44:36
Check these numbers out.



With 99.66% of the vote counted for Dems, Hillary is at 38.99% and barack is at 36.39%.... seems to me that is a much smaller margin of victory than everyone is talking about.

Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 14:44:45
Good morning everyone.



What's up?

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:48:06
Does anyone want to email this to the show? Especially our beloved :clown:?



My computer is acting very sketchy, and I am on BobR's computer and the flaven and the technology drama and all.

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:50:00
wow, it is hard to get thru on the show

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:52:15
on hold... :P

Comment by m-hadley on 01/10/2008 14:53:20
Yes. Raine, it's me, "Faye" Steph's own radical militant librarian living in the oh-so-red land of Tulsa, OK. I'm having fun trying to follow along with this group, but I am at work and listening to Steph, so I am very distracted

Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 14:54:58
Quote by Raine: on hold... :P


Ssg got through. They better let you on.

Go Raine. Go Raine!

Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 14:56:12
Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:58:08
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by Raine: on hold... :P


Ssg got through. They better let you on.

Go Raine. Go Raine!


well we will see.

Comment by shelaghc on 01/10/2008 14:58:22
Yay! Closet #1 is mostly packed! Just need another box for some holiday stuff. But I'll call it finished.



Closet #2 starts at 9:00.



Tea time!



Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 14:59:09
What about pro-Edwards and pro-Kucinich calls?

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 14:59:09
Quote by m-hadley: Yes. Raine, it's me, "Faye" Steph's own radical militant librarian living in the oh-so-red land of Tulsa, OK. I'm having fun trying to follow along with this group, but I am at work and listening to Steph, so I am very distracted
I love thatI have either heard or met every member of this blog!!!



Comment by starling310 on 01/10/2008 15:00:51
Quote by livingonli: Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?




I'm of the opinion that there is some bad blood there. I think Edwards is still pretty miffed about Kerry conceding to Bush.



Comment by TriSec on 01/10/2008 15:03:05
Quote by Raine: Does anyone want to email this to the show? Especially our beloved :clown:?



My computer is acting very sketchy, and I am on BobR's computer and the flaven and the technology drama and all.




It's away!





Comment by shelaghc on 01/10/2008 15:03:19
Steph was wrong on one thing. When she criticized that one guy who said the people in New Hampshire were all old, she asked him about how old everyone in Iowa was.



Obama's camp admitted that they shipped in a slew of college kids from Iowa who were attending Illinois schools via bus. They participated in the caucuses for the very first time.



Obama's strategy essentially tilted the scaled in their favor. It's not against any rules, but it did give him a boost he might not have achieved otherwise.

Comment by m-hadley on 01/10/2008 15:03:52
Yep, Kerry is jumping on the Obama bandwagon. I wonder also why he is ignoring Mr. Edwards, just like the MSM, I guess. Perhaps Barack brought John Kerry to tears

Comment by TriSec on 01/10/2008 15:04:32
Quote by livingonli: Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?




Because he's an insincere flip-flopper who concedes at the first sign of trouble?





Comment by shelaghc on 01/10/2008 15:05:53
Quote by livingonli: Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?




That's something of a shame. But remember Gore/Lieberman?



How many former running mates are like best buddies after the election is over?



Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 15:06:11
Quote by TriSec:
Quote by livingonli: Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?




Because he's an insincere flip-flopper who concedes at the first sign of trouble?





The voice of experience. You think you could write him a letter about it since he's your senator?

Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 15:08:19
Quote by shelaghc:
Quote by livingonli: Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?




That's something of a shame. But remember Gore/Lieberman?



How many former running mates are like best buddies after the election is over?



Lieberman is another story entirely since he's a right-wing tool. He went from DLC to full-blown right-wing kiss-up since 9-11. Why doesn't he stop the threats and become a Republican already?

Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 15:10:33
I left my nose in Chicago.

Comment by shelaghc on 01/10/2008 15:13:31
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by shelaghc:
Quote by livingonli: Headline News is reporting that John Kerry is going to endorse Obama. Why not his former running mate?




That's something of a shame. But remember Gore/Lieberman?



How many former running mates are like best buddies after the election is over?



Lieberman is another story entirely since he's a right-wing tool. He went from DLC to full-blown right-wing kiss-up since 9-11. Why doesn't he stop the threats and become a Republican already?






LIEberman aside, again, how many former running mates are best buddies after the election is over.

Comment by wickedpam on 01/10/2008 15:16:51
Morning! :hug:

Comment by Raine on 01/10/2008 15:17:55
I am STILL on hold... I can't believe this!

Comment by livingonli on 01/10/2008 15:18:59
Quote by Raine: I am STILL on hold... I can't believe this!


Come on Rebekah. Do a Southern gal a favor? Even if she's not a native-born southerner.