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July 31, 2006

Diebold: Rigged By Design

A California technology group acquired a Diebold TS vote machine and dissected it. On the motherboard of the computer they found this:

It's just a harmless little switch, right?

WRONG.

This switch allows the machine to have two completely different programs stored in it, and with just a screwdriver and a few minutes alone with the machine, it can be converted from the machine that voting officials "certified" to one that offers a completely different outcome for the election. With this capability, it's possible to rig every election run on these machines without anyone but a handful of people knowing it.

Remember when the CEO of Diebold promised to "deliver the Presidency to George Bush"?

Proof. Positive.

Posted by Steven at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2006

Guitarist Refused Entry By DHS

Update: I mischaracterized Emperor — it's a "black metal" band, which is distinctly different from "death metal". (Hat tip to Rich Boy.)

Death Black metal is style of pounding rock music that is particularly popular in Scandinavia. Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security are too busy listening to Christian Lite Rock and soliciting sex from minors to figure this out. I suspect they think "black metal" is Plutonium or something. (Plutonium is actually dull gray in color.)

This suspicion arises out of the fact that a member of the Norwegian death metal band, Emperor, has been blocked from entering the U.S. for a tour by the DHS. Why? No one knows. The other four members of the band have been issued visas, but despite appeals through diplomatic channels, guitarist, Samoth, has been denied. According to a news item at Blabbermouth.net:

Norwegian black metal legends EMPEROR arrive on U.S. soil for the first time in years one member short. Due to continued delays via the U.S. Immigration Services, guitarist Samoth is currently awaiting approval for legal entry into the United States. The process for the band's arrival started months ago and despite daily calls from both Norwegian and U.S. representatives of the band to multiple departments in the U.S. embassy in Oslo and Stateside governmental departments and agencies, his status still pends.

Samoth comments, "What can I say? As things stand today, I'm not allowed to enter the U.S. It's an extremely unfortunate situation and totally out of my control. The reality is that I'm still waiting for a 'waiver' that apparently has to come from the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. We have done everything we can and continue the dialogue with all agencies involved. It has been an exhausting and very costly process. I've had several visas issued in the past, and technically there should be no reason for them not to grant one now."

Uff da! Could our country get any dumber? Answer: yes.

Posted by Winston Smith at 07:08 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2006

Oh, Too Perfect

No postings recently. It's not that there's nothing to say, but rather too much. It's already covered on, like, 18,000 other blogs anyway.

As I was waiting around for something original to say, I found this post at Bitch, PhD. If you read no other blog post this year, read this one (and the ones it links to).

Posted by Winston Smith at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)