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The article below should give you enough information to effectively tamper with voting machines. Here’s my suggestion:
1. Become a poll worker.
2. Take the voting machine home with you.
3. Tamper with the machine using the information below as a guide.
4. Place ALL votes in your precinct for PEDRO.

Reprinted with permission from http://www.blackboxvoting.org

Black Box Voting – Photos – Voting machine security seals penetrated

See photos below – a couple of 54-year old women from Black Box Voting bought $12 worth of tools and in four minutes penetrated the memory card seals, removed, replaced the memory card, and sealed it all up again without leaving a trace. This experiment shows that the seals do nothing whatever to protect against access by insiders after testing, and the seals also are worthless in jurisdictions like Washington, Florida, California, and many other locations where voting machines are sent home with poll workers for days before the election.

The Busby-Bilbray contest in San Diego now has proof that the optical scan machines sent home with poll workers subjected the tamper-friendly memory cards to an non-recoverable lapse in chain of custody. The recipe for tampering has been on the Internet for over a year: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf

The photos below blow apart claims by elections officials that voting machine “sleepovers” — sending voting machines home with poll workers for days or weeks prior to elections — are secure because of seals over the memory card.

Two Black Box Voting studies in Leon County, Florida proved that election results can be altered in such a way that the supervisor of elections cannot detect the tampering. Not to worry, we were told by elections officials. The memory cards are sealed inside the machines.

But then Black Box Voting purchased an optical scan machine and obtained discarded voting machine seals from King County, Washington. Here’s what we found:
(photo)
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-door-inside-nut.jpg

The cover can be removed without detection by removing five screws. Inside, all that stands between a pollworker (or an insider at the warehouse or elections office) and the open-for-business memory card is a washer which you can unscrew.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-card-put-in.jpg

See the memory card: It is the item in the slot that says “this side up.” Diebold’s first line of defense is a metal door that pivots down over the memory card slot.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-door-in-out.jpg

See how the door works: The hole in the right side of the door is over-large, so you can move the right-side bolt in and out at will. Therefore, they seal the right-side bolt.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-card-door-hole-in-bolt.jpg

See the hole in the top of the right-side bolt: The plastic seal is threaded through that.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-sealed.jpg

See the plastic seal: This plastic seal was used by King County. It had been broken and discarded, so we used the high-tech method of putting an orange rubber band on it to hold it together for this demo. The seal is pointless anyway, as you’ll soon see.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-screws.jpg

See the screws holding the Diebold AccuVote optical scan machine together: There are five. We tried a Phillips-head screwdriver on the thing.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-unscrew-case.jpg

See the screws come out: What’s inside?
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-card-unfasten.jpg

See the left-side bolt. Can you remove it? We stuck a small Allen wrench into the bolt.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-door-inside-nut.jpg

See that nut on the screw: (Red arrow) We got out a pair of pliers.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-remove-memorycard-door.jpg

Is it possible that Diebold does not know this??? Grasp nut with pliers, twirl Allen wrench and see what happens.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-card-seal-cracked.jpg

See the bolt come off. But can you get the memory card out?
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-card-opened.jpg

See the metal door pivot to the right: Remove the memory card.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/accuvote-memory-card-out.jpg

We then put it all back together without leaving a trace. Cost for materials: $12. Time: 4 minutes to open, remove card, re-insert card and re-seal everything.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

STILL GOING HOME FOR SLEEPOVERS in King County, Washington: King County elections officials told citizens on Aug. 29 2006 in a videotaped statement that they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT:
Black Box Voting has prepared a Citizen’s Tool Kit — basically a brain dump of the things that worked during our last three years in the field. It is organized into modules, each only a few pages long, bullet points, easy to follow.

Two modules can help you address this issue in your area:
Media Module: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit-media.pdf
(tips to get this into the media in your location)

Adopt a public official module: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit-adopt-an-official.pdf
(tips to educate, persuade, and hold public officials accountable)
——————————————————————————–
Full 20-Module Tool Kit is FREE: It is a Declaration of Independence for Citizens. You can download it here: (Adobe Acrobate 7 or higher recommended)
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.pdf
- It’s time for you to recognize your own power.
- You don’t need us.
- You don’t have to find someone to follow.
- Pick any module. Pick a single action in it. See it to its completion.
- You’ve just opened the door to an unexpected evolution.
“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” -– Declaration of Independence

That was the name of the band my college dorm-mate Joe Fraher was in. The band was called something else when he was in high school and penned such hits (in my own personal hit parade) as “Paralysis Pat” and “Ambulance Driver.”

They reformed briefly in college and renamed themselves “The Junior Executives,” possibly in order to wear 60′s suits when they played. The lead singer was an ROTC dude. Nice guy and really excited about the military, going on manuevers, military career, etc. which I couldn’t understand, having been in the Coast Guard reserve at the time and hating military life.

I found out what he’s up to now from reading my Santa Clara Alumni magazine:

“84 Col. Bart Howard relinquished command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One) at Fort Riley, Kan., and was named chief of staff of Combined Forces in Kabul, Afghanistan.”

Come to think of it, they opened their shows with a song called “Control Force.” It’s all making sense now.

That Ain’t Punk Rock

Played at the Progressive Organizing Center Grand Opening Office Warming Party in SF last night, and peace activist extrordinaire, Medea Benjamin, gave her speech into my microphone. It was actually the first microphone I ever purchased. Got it about 25 years ago. It’s obviously pretty sturdy. It’s an Audio Technica dynamic microphone, although I don’t remember the model. It’s still in my car or I’d have a look to see if the numbers are on it anywhere.

We were there to support Emily Drennen for the District 8 Bart Board. Anyway, fun show, but I was exhausted from an intense work schedule combined with the start of school for my kids, which means getting up 2 hrs earlier than I did last week. I was sitting “backstage” with Walter, the drummer for The Kat Downs Conspiracy. We were the only people there when a thin, serious woman with straight blonde hair and another woman with grey, crazy hair came up the stairs. They looked at Walter and me with a “what the hell is this” expression. I returned a “what the hell were you expecting” expression, and they continued walking, going upstairs for a short time and then returning to the party. Straight blonde, serious, thin turned out to be Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, and peace activist who was dragged out of the Democratic Convention in handcuffs because she unfurled an anti-war banner.

She was quite a talker and gave a good speech to the crowd. She had just returned from the Middle East where she and her group had toured Lebanon. Apparently the Lebanese blame the United States for Isreal’s latest invasion and bombing, and put signs on the bombing sites saying things like “american bombs killed 4 people here” and such. She was visiting a bombing site where 36 people had been killed in a residential area, and was asked where she was from. Against advice she told them she was from the United States, and the guy who asked went into his pocket. She was afraid he was going to pull out a gun and shoot her, but instead he pulled out a chocolate bar and gave it to her, saying “Americans want to kill us, but we want to be your friends and give you chocolate” or something like that. It was a very touching part of the speech, but I find it hard to believe that a guy in the desert is going to be walking around with a bar of chocolate in his pocket. Anyone who has put a bar of chocolate in their pocket will know that, even in the most temperate climes, it will melt and leak out of the wrapper in no time. Not to cast doubt on the story at all, but I don’t get that part. Maybe it was a tootsie roll or something.

Politicians like to talk and don’t like to stop. After the politicians came the wanna-be politicians. By the time we played our set, there was just the support act, Bright Brown, people who worked there, and a street person watching us. The street person really enjoyed the show though and said we would be a hit in Union Square!

I haven’t had access to my one and only Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Californication, since my divorce and subsequent CD divy. I loved the album and listened to it for a good couple of months solid, most notably when I was installing a new garage door opener. The task took me longer than it should have, with the removal or the old broken one, installation, and setting of all the tensions and sensors. Probably a good week of after-work sessions. And I listened only to Californication.

Since I had forgotten how much I liked their music, I didn’t jump at the first concert call by my friends. When a ticket became available at the last minute, I went.

To make a long story short:
1. Traffic/Parking=Medium Bad, Raiders game at same time.
2. Drinking=Yes. Concert tailgaiting bonus!
3. Beer=$10
4. OpeningBand=Mars Volta, good but girl-voiced lead singer (man) + long jam all-the-time
5. Danced-a-lot=Yes (rhcp only)
6. Moshpit=No! Not allowed. Much standing and looking (weird).

My friend, Kevin, who was the concert mastermind and illegal camera phone photographer has yet to send me some pics. So more to come (maybe)…

As part of “Music In The Park,” San Jose’s free summer concert series, the English Beat played in Plaza de Cesar Chavez. Beers were $6. I drank a Refreshé brand bottled water that I had purchased in bulk at Safeway earlier in the week. Since the English Beat, (not to be confused with The Paul Collins American Beat) had their heyday in the early to mid 80′s there were a lot of old people there:

I arrived during the The Odd Numbers set, who were playing in the support slot. They looked a little balder, older and less mod than when my band, Love Gone Mad, opened for them at Marsugis over 10 years ago. During that show the guitar player’s strap broke and he was forced to borrow my wide, ugly leather strap, ruining his sharp mod appearance. At that time they all wore matching 60′s suits complete with skinny ties. I also believe all guitars were Rickenbacker. He looked slightly disturbed inititally, but continued on to play a great set. This time, no such misfortune, just good old “The Jam” sounding rock.

Some of the old people noticed that when the announcer introduced the English Beat, he mentioned just about every musical genre except country and ska (ska being the correct categorization of the music they play). The only original member and apparent owner of the “English Beat” trademark was Dave Wakeling. Joining him on guitar was Lynval Golding, the original guitar player for The Specials, another original Two Tone british ska band from the ’80s.

They opened with “A Message to you Rudy,” which is actually a Specials’ song, but I like them too, so it sounded good to me. Very good indeed. They proceeded to play only good songs, which included almost the entire first album “I Just Can’t Stop It.” Then they played the hits from later albums (3 or 4 in total, I believe), and closed with another Specials song “Enjoy Yourself.”

This is what the show would have looked like if you forgot your glasses:

Instead of an encore, we were presented with members of the “Kids of the World International Conference” or something like that. International kids involved though, so can’t complain. Just be politely cleared out of the park by the SJ Police. Worked for me.

Yesterday my kids and I watched the Pleasanton Playhouse’s production of The King and I, with my nephew Max in the role of Louis, Anna’s son, and my niece Bridget (4th from the left) as a royal child. Very good acting and singing all around. M&M cookies and water during intermission. A good time was had by all.

As a footnote to my Manu Chao concert posting, my friend, who stayed for the encore, told me the guy just wouldn’t get off the stage. He played 5 additional songs, and then at the end, the band left the stage as they had entered, 1 by 1 while playing a song. When only the guitar player remained, Manu snuck up behind him, and the two of them played another song. Would have missed BART for sure if I would have stayed to see that. Next time I’ll drive.

Picture a huge bowl filled with thousands of people. That’s what the Manu Chao concert looked like. Getting there was easy. I took Bart and walked through campus. However I hesitated getting off of the train at the Berkeley station, because on the maps and schedules it is called the “Downtown Berkeley” station. No biggie, but you think they might be more detail-oriented with things like that.

It was pleasant to be on a college campus again, although I can’t pinpoint why. Once on campus I noticed that most of the people I heard spoke with accents. There was the french guy at the map. The english guy by the porta-potee. The hispanic girls in front of me in line. Another french guy asking someone if he spoke greek (he didn’t).

I got in line at 6:30, and was seated on the 5th cement slab row within 15 minutes, free cliff bar in hand, and water cap off. My friend Roque from work met up with me moments later. He is pictured below, certain that he is having a good time so far. The woman behind him is not so sure:
The theater filled up pretty fast. We tried to save a space on the cement for Roque’s friends, but two hippyish people sat there anyway, I guess questioning our authority to tell them what to do. Appropriate behavior for a Manu Chao concert, I suppose.

The opening band was Kiki from Mexico. They spoke and sang the first few songs in english. The lead singer wore black converse and jumped around a lot. The bass player wore a cowboy hat and did a modified Chuck Berry thing, kinda looking like he was on point in “the Nam” and gonna shoot somebody with his bass. He apparently suffered from repetive motion injury judging by the elbow and wrist supports he wore. Their songs were a bit repetitive, but I took a picture of them:

The picture came out so poorly that I decided it wasn’t worth taking a picture of Manu Chao. I have the oldest digital camera in the world, with a whopping 1.3 megapixel resolution.

So after Kiki we got some beers for $7 each, and I went to the rest room. The women’s line was so long that women started coming into the men’s bathroom. That’s the kind of crazy thing that happens at Manu Chao concerts.

It seemed like a long time before Manu Chao finally came out. People kept seeing the roadies doing sound check things and getting excited. If a guy came on stage with a hat, they started clapping. But when the towel guy lays the towels out, you know it’s on.

The band members came on stage, one by one. First the drummer came out and played for a while, then the percussionist joined him, then the bass, then guitar, then finally the man himself. He looked to be about 5’2″ or 5’3,” unless his bandmates were short, then he could have been smaller. The first few songs had a heavy dub/reggae sound, which was a nice surprise. I was familiar with a lot of the songs, some I wasn’t, but they were all good.

He played a lot of off Manu Chao and some earlier stuff like “Monkey.” Towards the end of the concert I noticed that they were in the habit of playing a slow song, and then speeding it up really fast to get the people whipped up into a frenzy. I didn’t feel like being whipped up into a frenzy the last couple of times, but other than that it was all good.

During the last song a couple of people (or should I call them jack-asses) climbed on stage and sang along with Manu Chao into the microphone . Much to everyone’s delight he didn’t kick them off stage right away. He put his arm around one guy and let him sing along. Then it got old and the bouncer dragged the guy off. The other person, sensing imminent doom, slunk away.

Fearing I would miss the last Bart transfer train and be stuck at the Bayfair station all night, I left after the last song, but before the encore. It sounded good though as I walked towards Bart.

I’m listening to South American recording artist Manu Chao in preparation for his concert tomorrow evening at the Greek Theater in Berkeley (note manuchao.com is owned by some bastard domain name pirate, so you can find his site at manuchao.net). My friend Jim Kay turned me on to him a year or so ago. Don’t know how he first heard him, but it was a damn good find. I can’t understand the lyrics for the most part, as he sings primarily in Espanol (you’d think as a Web designer I could code the curly spanish n thing, but no, haven’t had much reason to).

My friends, including Jim Kay, all opted out of going to the show. Prior or other engagements, or in other words, wives. I’ve been there, so I understand. I’m meeting a friend from work there, so I won’t be totally solo, not that I would mind. Anyway, should be a good show and I’m interested in seeing who shows up.

By way of explanation, I purchased a laptop computer from my part-time employer, ADP Probusiness. They are selling their old Dell Latitude laptops for $100 each. Unfortunately they don’t come with a wireless network card installed, which is important if you want to actually take advantage of the laptop’s portability.

I figured Dell would be the best place to purchase said wireless network card, and it seemed that way until I actually received the part (in 2 days) and found that it was missing a critical element. A small jumper cable, called a mini-coax in the manual, is required to attach the card to the computer’s antenna. I didn’t have one. Only two out of the approximately ten people at Dell I talked to on the phone would confirm that this was a requirement for the operation of the part I purchased. The others could not be bothered with such details and transferred me to another department as soon as the level of complexity surpassed their comfort level.

So there was no way that Dell’s organization could help me. I decided to send the part back. Even this plan was thwarted, because although they conceded that the blame was their’s, they still required I pay for shipping back to them using a tracked shipping service. Not acceptable.

Just finished ordering the required jumper, or mini-coax from discountechnology.com. Hope it works. Since I am helping other ADP employess set up their systems too, a lot is riding on this.