- Why you'll be shocked by what the being's DNA matches!
- How the genetics will be available to anyone to study
- How all profits from the film will go to a world-changing project
- How to set up a SIRIUS screening in your area
- The TV spin off
- His inexplicable and other-worldly experience meditating with the Dali Lama!
- What the S Team is, and how you can join!
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Episode 5 - Amardeep Kaleka Gets SIRIUS
Labels:
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DNA,
Dr. Steven Greer,
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proof,
SIRIUS,
Stephen Bassett
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Monday, April 15, 2013
Episode 4: Citizen Hearings on Disclosure with Stephen Bassett
Paradigm Research Group director Stephen Bassett talks about the upcoming Citizen Hearings on Disclosure - who will be there, why the hearings are important, and how they're designed to force truth from power!
Please check out the Citizen Hearings on Disclosure site
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
More Evidence American Democracy is an Illusion
Many Americans believe their country is the greatest nation on Earth. Why? Because of America's "freedom". Because of her "democracy". America holds democracy in such high esteem, its citizens don't balk at spending billions to join numerous conflicts abroad if they're told it's in the name of this beloved virtue, even while the country struggles to pay its own bills. Perhaps it would be best for America's military to stop fighting for democracy overseas, and start fighting for democracy here at home.
What follows is an article written by Bev Harris, founder of BlackBoxVoting.org. She and that organization have worked long and hard to expose electronic vote rigging ever since the Bush V. Gore debacle in 2000. If you consider yourself a patriotic American, you might consider it your duty to examine this issue. Sure, you may feel discomfort as you realize election results are handily fabricated in your "greatest nation on Earth". And if you're not the most patriotic American and instead believe she ain't what she used to be, you owe it to yourself to learn and understand how America's democracy is undermined at every level. It's not just money in politics influencing elections through lobbyists and campaign contributions. It's not just gerrymandering skewing district results. With electronic voting machines, election results can be - and are - fabricated.
That is, by definitiong, the undermining of democracy.
Black Box Voting has done the hard work - the research. Your part is easy. All you have to do is read. Extra credit if you pass it on.
CIBER THE BRIBER, AND OTHER ELECTORAL LAUNDRY
By Bev Harris
Next time you hear that voting machines are reliable and safe "because they have been tested and certified," think of this important article, which reveals proven corruption, payoffs and bid-rigging connected to Ciber, Inc., a firm that signed off on our voting machines. Ciber's okay was the foundation for federal acceptance of voting machines all over the USA.
A few weeks ago, I decided to examine electoral fraud from the other end. What happens if we start with known public corruption cases and work backwards to the intersection with elections?
What I found were kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes in New Orleans and Pennsylvania which both connect back to Ciber, the firm that supposedly tested and then signed off on most of the U.S. voting machines currently in use in all fifty states, on behalf of the federal government.
I learned of a now-admittedly corrupt government technology official who had placed, as one of his first priorities, setting up an Internet voting system.
And while looking into money-laundering systems, the mechanism that provides the juice for such corruption, I learned of a particularly odious situation: a New York City Democrat who bribed New York City Republicans to help him run for Mayor (as a Republican). "You pull this off, you can have the house. I'll be a tenant," he said.
As part of the New York deal, the bribe facilitator was to be appointed New York City Deputy Chief of Police when the would-be-mayor got into office.
My purpose in writing this is not to disgust you with politics. My goal is to show you what kind of corporations and people will inevitably end up in positions of control, to illustrate that insiders must never be "trusted" when it comes to conducting elections. There can never be a place where counting votes in secret, or governmental snooping on how we voted, or hidden money behind campaigns, or hiding records on elections, can be accepted by the public, yet that is happening right now.
THE REAL WORLD IS NOT ON TV
Vendors who do business with the government do participate in bid-rigging and kickback schemes, and both politicians and government employees sometimes deprive the public of honest services.
Take the situation in New Orleans, for example, involving former Mayor Ray Nagin, his chief technology officer Greg Meffert, technology vendor Mark St. Pierre, and go-between Ed Burns, who was facilitating payments through a company called Ciber Inc. These guys were doing an overhaul on the city's technology infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina. They were providing traffic and crime cameras. They were paying themselves for work never performed. They were taking kickbacks. They were bid-rigging. They were lavishing donations, trips and perks on candidates they chose.
What hit the front page was crime cameras and infrastructure, but a small news item contained this gem: One of them, Greg Meffert, was also hoping to set up Internet voting for the city of New Orleans.
"Greg Meffert, the New Orleans CIO ... said today that one of his priorities is to provide a secure Internet voting system," write Ellen O’Brien and Charlie Russo of SearchCIO.com. They quote Meffert as saying:
"Hey, we’re going to do Internet voting for real, in a real election, and you're going to vote and use kiosks..."
And they report that: "Meffert plans to model the New Orleans Internet voting system on the controversial model the Department of Defense had proposed using for overseas military." [1] (The Pentagon later scrapped that idea due to concerns about fraud.)
When you understand that whoever controls the Internet server controls the election, and that with online voting, the public loses its ability to see or authenticate any of the essential processes; when you learn that a technology official who has admitted to taking $860,000 in bribes,[2] planned to set up his own Internet voting system for New Orleans; when you discover that around this time, the same guy setting up the Internet voting system was making ten-thousand-dollar bets on election outcomes[3], you realize that Internet voting is nothing more than a large number of people acting dumb in the dark.
CIBER THE BRIBER?
But that's not all. While the New Orleans bid-rigging and kickback scheme focused on Nagin, Meffert and St. Pierre, money flowed through Ed Burns, in his position as president of state and local government contracts at Ciber, Inc.,[4] a company that in addition to acting as a conduit in the New Orleans technology money, acted as the "Independent Testing Authority" -- ITA, that handled testing for most of the voting systems in use in America today, and signed off on them, enabling election officials everywhere to tell us not to worry, the machines are safe, they have been "tested and certified."
A testing model will never suffice to replace public right to scrutinize its own election counts, but Ciber's testing turned out to be especially slipshod. How did Ciber get into position become, as the New York Times reported in 2007, "the largest tester of the nation’s voting machine software"?
Ciber's authorization to test voting machines was finally pulled in 2007, but only after Black Box Voting and others proved that a Ciber subcontractor, Huntsville Alabama's Shawn Southworth, was signing off on systems he had not really checked out, and a Black Box Voting hidden-camera interview of Ciber's Southworth ended up on national TV in the HBO documentary Hacking Democracy.[5] The US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) pulled Ciber's authorization as an "independent" test lab [6] but reinstated Ciber a couple years later. (Ciber's authorization is currently shown on the EAC Web site as lapsed.)[7]
One wonders how Southworth became Ciber's subcontractor, especially after three previous companies for whom Southworth did ITA testing bailed out. The mechanism in New Orleans may shed light on a hidden mechanism for voting machine authorization.
Ciber, the voting system ITA that signed off on Diebold voting machines, including the GEMS system with its double set of books and ability to count backwards, got caught in the middle of a contract-rigging and kickback scheme in New Orleans, on a different technology project. Here's how that worked:
A subcontractor named Mark St. Pierre worked together with New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert on a multimillion-dollar technology assignment. But it was not St. Pierre, but Ciber that invoiced New Orleans for exorbitant and sometimes impossible tasks and hours by St. Pierre's company (these charges included one person being in two places at the same time). [8] Ciber simply explained that they didn't believe they had the responsibility to oversee the work or check the hours for their subcontractor.
As reported by David Hammer of the Times Picayune: "Ed Burns, Ciber's former president for state and local government contracts, testified on Tuesday that his company's role in New Orleans was to serve as a billing mechanism for St. Pierre's Imagine Software and that the company had nobody in New Orleans overseeing the subcontractors. He said Meffert directed him to give all of the work to Imagine and "considered it an order." [9]
Ciber billed the City of New Orleans, then passed the money they got from New Orleans back to Mark St. Pierre. St. Pierre, in turn helped fill the pockets of New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert.
"The subcontracts [from Ciber to Imagine (St. Pierre's company)] appeared to be little more than a mechanism for directing payment from the city to Imagine and its related companies, " the city's independent inspector general alleged.[10]
THE PAYOFF: A RIGGED BID
Burns admitted that the payoff for Ciber's role as a "pass-through", or conduit, for these payments was Ciber getting the contract to update New Orleans computer systems, a $5.5 million-a-year deal. Though Burns referred to getting that contract as "winning a bid", it was a rigged bid.
Meffert arranged for St. Pierre to meet Ed Burns in San Francisco, to create the bid's requirements, thus assuring that Ciber would win the work. "So they were literally able to have the answers before the questions were even posted," Meffert is quoted as saying. "It's not open and fair. This was done to make sure Ciber would win the contract." [9]
And it wasn't just New Orleans: St. Pierre's company, NetMethods, also got government contracts working under Ciber in other locations in Cook County, Ill (Where Ed Burns current company is located] and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in Jackson, Miss.[11]
If the "carrot" for Ciber was a New Orleans contract, we should be looking into the "carrots" for Ciber in Chicago and Mississippi as well.
St. Pierre is now serving an 18-year prison sentence on the pass-through and bid-rigging schemes. Meffert pleaded guilty and is expected to receive eight years, though his sentencing has been delayed several times. Former mayor Ray Nagin also went down, likely to the tune of 15 years.
But Ciber's Ed Burns quietly waltzed away after testifying for the prosecution. He now runs a Chicago-based company called SLG Innovation, offering more help for the government, paid for by the taxpayer. According to its Web site,www.slginnovation.com/ the firm provides technology services for justice and public safety, and works with state and local health and human service agencies.
CIBER TROUBLES IN PENNSYLVANIA
Ciber secured more contracts paid for by the taxpayer, two of which were with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation (PennDOT), which also handles the Pennsylvania motor voter program.On Sept. 4, 2008, Ciber announced a $19 million contract with PennDOT's Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC), following an initial $8 million deal. [12]
But last month, a corruption investigation hit Ciber and its employee, Dennis Miller, listed as a Ciber vice president, and charged with bid-rigging, theft, and conspiracy. Criminal charges have been filed against eight current and former turnpike officials, employees and contractors. One of the whistleblowers in the case says $82 million in toll-payer funds have gone to or through Ciber. [13]
I have not got the documents on Ed Burns involvement in Pennsylvania, but one of my sources says he was there too. Was Burns involved in the Cook County deal? How about Mississippi? Why is he still out there tapping taxpayers instead of in jail?
For its part, Ciber is reportedly trying to distance itself now from both its own former president of state and local government contracts, Ed Burns, and vice president Dennis Miller.
Ciber's connection with electronic voting still exists, because voting systems Ciber signed off on are still widely used in U.S. elections.
This story should underline that trust in a secret counting process is dangerous, and that testing by any corporation or government employee can never replace public right to see the actual counting of the vote.
AND NOW, FOR A DIFFERENT INTERSECTION OF PUBLIC CORRUPTION CASE AND ELECTIONS: THE NEW YORK CASE
In New York, both Democrats and Republicans have been charged with selling access to the ballot for the New York City mayoral race. Malcolm A. Smith, a New York state senator since 2000 and acting Lt. Governor under former Governor David A. Patterson, paid bribes to at least two Republican leaders in exchange for ballot access (as a Republican, even though he's a Democrat) in the New York Mayor's race.
Like St. Pierre in New Orleans, Smith used a middleman as a money conduit. Whereas St. Pierre set up a deal with Ciber, whereby Ciber would hire him as a subcontractor and pass through payments to him from the City of New Orleans, New York State Senator Smith is alleged to have cooked up an even more off-the-books deal using former New York City Councilman Charles Halloran.
Halloran facilitated meetings with New York City Republican officials for the Democratic Senator Smith, who needed the cooperation of at least three of New York's five Republican party bosses in order to run for mayor as a Republican. Halloran, according to the US Attorney's office, helped negotiate bribes to Republican bosses on behalf of Malcolm Smith. For his work as a go-between he received both bribes and a promise that Smith would appoint Halloran to the position of Deputy Chief of Police for New York City.
This repulsive police-position-deal would intersect with elections in another way: Unlike other counties in New York, which run ballot chain of custody through the county election office, New York City places its police force in the middle of the electoral chain of custody. In 2008, for example, it was the police department that relayed election results to the public, instead of an elections office.
Political corruption spreads like cancer. According to charging documents , the New York bribery scheme spilled over into Rockland County, to a village mayor and deputy mayor for Spring Valley. Assisted by some of the same people involved in the Malcolm Smith election case, they offered to snatch up some village land using eminent domain in order to sell it off to a developer. The mayor had secretly cut herself into a partnership with the developer, and the deputy mayor received a bribe.
Corruption creates a neural system of one politician beholden to another. The public always needs to retain its right to know, to examine documents, and to see what's going on. Otherwise, who's gonna tell?
As Halloran explains, "That's politics, that's politics, it's all about how much. Not about whether or will, it's about how much, and that's our politicians in New York, they're all like that, all like that," (on this occasion, fortunately for us, he said this on tape and in front of an FBI agent.) "Money is what greases the wheels - good, bad, or indifferent." [14]
AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS...
Before we go skipping down the road trusting any politician to know what's best for us regarding our own right to see and authenticate elections...
Before we agree to some pie-in-the-sky idea that secret vote counting processes are safe because some company tested them...
Before we accept the idea that some legislators can pass a law telling us we have to cede over our right to know...
We need to understand that when it comes to elections, trust is childlike. It's wishful thinking. It's immature.
It's not how the world works, and we owe it to our children to remember that.
* * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] NEW ORLEANS CIO: KATRINA SPURS INTERNET ELECTION: SearchCIO.com - 09.26.2005,
By Ellen O’Brien and Charlie Russo
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/1129153/New-Orleans-CIO-Katrina-spurs-Internet-election
[2] Convicted vendor Mark St. Pierre seeks deal for aiding Ray Nagin probe: The Times-Picayune - August 27, 2012, By Gordon Russell
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/08/convicted_vendor_mark_st_pierr.html
[3] Trial's first stones thrown; Ex-City Hall vendor accused of bribery: The Times-Picayune - 10 May 2011, by David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/government_begins_bribery_case.html
[4] Former contractor Ciber gave tickets, parties to Mayor Ray Nagin, but saw no conflict: The Times-Picayune - May 10, 2011, By David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/former_contractor_ciber_gave_t.html
[5] Black Box Voting; Chapter 6, "Who's Beholden to Whom?", by Bev Harris
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-6.pdf
and
Hacking Democracy: HBO Pictures, 2006
[6] U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting: The New York Times - January 4, 2007, By Christopher Drew
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04voting.html
[7] Expired Accreditation Test Labs - Ciber Inc.: US Election Assistance Commission Web site, as of April 4, 2013
http://www.eac.gov/testing_and_certification/accredited_test_laboratories.aspx
[8] City aide cleans up after the storm ; Doing errands nets him $75.28 per hour: Times-Picayune - 18 March 2007, by Gordon Russell
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2007/03/city_vendor_gives_meffert_a_bo.html
[9] Greg Meffert testimony puts Colorado-based Ciber in crosshairs: The Times-Picayune - May 11, 2011, By David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/greg_meffert_testimony_puts_co.html
[10] Public, private lines blur at City Hall; Former tech chief's deals face scrutiny: Times-Picayune - 5 April 2009, by David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/publicprivate_lines_blurred_at.html
[11] Mark St. Pierre defends 'strategic partnership' with contractor Ciber Inc.: The Times-Picayune - May 24, 2011, By David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/mark_st_pierre_defends_strateg.html
[12] CIBER Wins $19 Million SAP Support Contract for Pennsylvania Turnpike: Press Release: Associated Press Newswires - 4 September 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=CBR:US&sid=aiPk4NDCGtTE
[13] Turnpike insiders who decided to blow the whistle were threatened, sometimes fired, says attorney general: Philadelphia Inquirer - March 14, 2013, by Paul Nussbaum
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-15/news/37717290_1_grand-jury-ciber-turnpike-job
[14] Complaint against Malcolm Smith et. al.: US District Attorney Southern District of New York - 3/29/2013,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/133604402/Smith-Malcolm-Et-Al-Complaint
The public must be able to see and authenticate these four essential steps for an election to be public, democratic, and valid: (1) Who can vote (voter list); (2) Who did vote (3) The original count; (4) Chain of custody.
What follows is an article written by Bev Harris, founder of BlackBoxVoting.org. She and that organization have worked long and hard to expose electronic vote rigging ever since the Bush V. Gore debacle in 2000. If you consider yourself a patriotic American, you might consider it your duty to examine this issue. Sure, you may feel discomfort as you realize election results are handily fabricated in your "greatest nation on Earth". And if you're not the most patriotic American and instead believe she ain't what she used to be, you owe it to yourself to learn and understand how America's democracy is undermined at every level. It's not just money in politics influencing elections through lobbyists and campaign contributions. It's not just gerrymandering skewing district results. With electronic voting machines, election results can be - and are - fabricated.
That is, by definitiong, the undermining of democracy.
Black Box Voting has done the hard work - the research. Your part is easy. All you have to do is read. Extra credit if you pass it on.
CIBER THE BRIBER, AND OTHER ELECTORAL LAUNDRY
By Bev Harris
Next time you hear that voting machines are reliable and safe "because they have been tested and certified," think of this important article, which reveals proven corruption, payoffs and bid-rigging connected to Ciber, Inc., a firm that signed off on our voting machines. Ciber's okay was the foundation for federal acceptance of voting machines all over the USA.
A few weeks ago, I decided to examine electoral fraud from the other end. What happens if we start with known public corruption cases and work backwards to the intersection with elections?
What I found were kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes in New Orleans and Pennsylvania which both connect back to Ciber, the firm that supposedly tested and then signed off on most of the U.S. voting machines currently in use in all fifty states, on behalf of the federal government.
I learned of a now-admittedly corrupt government technology official who had placed, as one of his first priorities, setting up an Internet voting system.
And while looking into money-laundering systems, the mechanism that provides the juice for such corruption, I learned of a particularly odious situation: a New York City Democrat who bribed New York City Republicans to help him run for Mayor (as a Republican). "You pull this off, you can have the house. I'll be a tenant," he said.
As part of the New York deal, the bribe facilitator was to be appointed New York City Deputy Chief of Police when the would-be-mayor got into office.
My purpose in writing this is not to disgust you with politics. My goal is to show you what kind of corporations and people will inevitably end up in positions of control, to illustrate that insiders must never be "trusted" when it comes to conducting elections. There can never be a place where counting votes in secret, or governmental snooping on how we voted, or hidden money behind campaigns, or hiding records on elections, can be accepted by the public, yet that is happening right now.
THE REAL WORLD IS NOT ON TV
Vendors who do business with the government do participate in bid-rigging and kickback schemes, and both politicians and government employees sometimes deprive the public of honest services.
Take the situation in New Orleans, for example, involving former Mayor Ray Nagin, his chief technology officer Greg Meffert, technology vendor Mark St. Pierre, and go-between Ed Burns, who was facilitating payments through a company called Ciber Inc. These guys were doing an overhaul on the city's technology infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina. They were providing traffic and crime cameras. They were paying themselves for work never performed. They were taking kickbacks. They were bid-rigging. They were lavishing donations, trips and perks on candidates they chose.
What hit the front page was crime cameras and infrastructure, but a small news item contained this gem: One of them, Greg Meffert, was also hoping to set up Internet voting for the city of New Orleans.
"Greg Meffert, the New Orleans CIO ... said today that one of his priorities is to provide a secure Internet voting system," write Ellen O’Brien and Charlie Russo of SearchCIO.com. They quote Meffert as saying:
"Hey, we’re going to do Internet voting for real, in a real election, and you're going to vote and use kiosks..."
And they report that: "Meffert plans to model the New Orleans Internet voting system on the controversial model the Department of Defense had proposed using for overseas military." [1] (The Pentagon later scrapped that idea due to concerns about fraud.)
When you understand that whoever controls the Internet server controls the election, and that with online voting, the public loses its ability to see or authenticate any of the essential processes; when you learn that a technology official who has admitted to taking $860,000 in bribes,[2] planned to set up his own Internet voting system for New Orleans; when you discover that around this time, the same guy setting up the Internet voting system was making ten-thousand-dollar bets on election outcomes[3], you realize that Internet voting is nothing more than a large number of people acting dumb in the dark.
CIBER THE BRIBER?
![]() |
| Ciber HQ in Greenwood Village, CO |
A testing model will never suffice to replace public right to scrutinize its own election counts, but Ciber's testing turned out to be especially slipshod. How did Ciber get into position become, as the New York Times reported in 2007, "the largest tester of the nation’s voting machine software"?
Ciber's authorization to test voting machines was finally pulled in 2007, but only after Black Box Voting and others proved that a Ciber subcontractor, Huntsville Alabama's Shawn Southworth, was signing off on systems he had not really checked out, and a Black Box Voting hidden-camera interview of Ciber's Southworth ended up on national TV in the HBO documentary Hacking Democracy.[5] The US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) pulled Ciber's authorization as an "independent" test lab [6] but reinstated Ciber a couple years later. (Ciber's authorization is currently shown on the EAC Web site as lapsed.)[7]
One wonders how Southworth became Ciber's subcontractor, especially after three previous companies for whom Southworth did ITA testing bailed out. The mechanism in New Orleans may shed light on a hidden mechanism for voting machine authorization.
Ciber, the voting system ITA that signed off on Diebold voting machines, including the GEMS system with its double set of books and ability to count backwards, got caught in the middle of a contract-rigging and kickback scheme in New Orleans, on a different technology project. Here's how that worked:
A subcontractor named Mark St. Pierre worked together with New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert on a multimillion-dollar technology assignment. But it was not St. Pierre, but Ciber that invoiced New Orleans for exorbitant and sometimes impossible tasks and hours by St. Pierre's company (these charges included one person being in two places at the same time). [8] Ciber simply explained that they didn't believe they had the responsibility to oversee the work or check the hours for their subcontractor.
As reported by David Hammer of the Times Picayune: "Ed Burns, Ciber's former president for state and local government contracts, testified on Tuesday that his company's role in New Orleans was to serve as a billing mechanism for St. Pierre's Imagine Software and that the company had nobody in New Orleans overseeing the subcontractors. He said Meffert directed him to give all of the work to Imagine and "considered it an order." [9]
Ciber billed the City of New Orleans, then passed the money they got from New Orleans back to Mark St. Pierre. St. Pierre, in turn helped fill the pockets of New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert.
"The subcontracts [from Ciber to Imagine (St. Pierre's company)] appeared to be little more than a mechanism for directing payment from the city to Imagine and its related companies, " the city's independent inspector general alleged.[10]
THE PAYOFF: A RIGGED BID
Burns admitted that the payoff for Ciber's role as a "pass-through", or conduit, for these payments was Ciber getting the contract to update New Orleans computer systems, a $5.5 million-a-year deal. Though Burns referred to getting that contract as "winning a bid", it was a rigged bid.
Meffert arranged for St. Pierre to meet Ed Burns in San Francisco, to create the bid's requirements, thus assuring that Ciber would win the work. "So they were literally able to have the answers before the questions were even posted," Meffert is quoted as saying. "It's not open and fair. This was done to make sure Ciber would win the contract." [9]
And it wasn't just New Orleans: St. Pierre's company, NetMethods, also got government contracts working under Ciber in other locations in Cook County, Ill (Where Ed Burns current company is located] and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in Jackson, Miss.[11]
If the "carrot" for Ciber was a New Orleans contract, we should be looking into the "carrots" for Ciber in Chicago and Mississippi as well.
St. Pierre is now serving an 18-year prison sentence on the pass-through and bid-rigging schemes. Meffert pleaded guilty and is expected to receive eight years, though his sentencing has been delayed several times. Former mayor Ray Nagin also went down, likely to the tune of 15 years.
But Ciber's Ed Burns quietly waltzed away after testifying for the prosecution. He now runs a Chicago-based company called SLG Innovation, offering more help for the government, paid for by the taxpayer. According to its Web site,www.slginnovation.com/ the firm provides technology services for justice and public safety, and works with state and local health and human service agencies.
CIBER TROUBLES IN PENNSYLVANIA
Ciber secured more contracts paid for by the taxpayer, two of which were with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation (PennDOT), which also handles the Pennsylvania motor voter program.On Sept. 4, 2008, Ciber announced a $19 million contract with PennDOT's Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC), following an initial $8 million deal. [12]
But last month, a corruption investigation hit Ciber and its employee, Dennis Miller, listed as a Ciber vice president, and charged with bid-rigging, theft, and conspiracy. Criminal charges have been filed against eight current and former turnpike officials, employees and contractors. One of the whistleblowers in the case says $82 million in toll-payer funds have gone to or through Ciber. [13]
I have not got the documents on Ed Burns involvement in Pennsylvania, but one of my sources says he was there too. Was Burns involved in the Cook County deal? How about Mississippi? Why is he still out there tapping taxpayers instead of in jail?
For its part, Ciber is reportedly trying to distance itself now from both its own former president of state and local government contracts, Ed Burns, and vice president Dennis Miller.
Ciber's connection with electronic voting still exists, because voting systems Ciber signed off on are still widely used in U.S. elections.
This story should underline that trust in a secret counting process is dangerous, and that testing by any corporation or government employee can never replace public right to see the actual counting of the vote.
AND NOW, FOR A DIFFERENT INTERSECTION OF PUBLIC CORRUPTION CASE AND ELECTIONS: THE NEW YORK CASE
In New York, both Democrats and Republicans have been charged with selling access to the ballot for the New York City mayoral race. Malcolm A. Smith, a New York state senator since 2000 and acting Lt. Governor under former Governor David A. Patterson, paid bribes to at least two Republican leaders in exchange for ballot access (as a Republican, even though he's a Democrat) in the New York Mayor's race.
Like St. Pierre in New Orleans, Smith used a middleman as a money conduit. Whereas St. Pierre set up a deal with Ciber, whereby Ciber would hire him as a subcontractor and pass through payments to him from the City of New Orleans, New York State Senator Smith is alleged to have cooked up an even more off-the-books deal using former New York City Councilman Charles Halloran.
Halloran facilitated meetings with New York City Republican officials for the Democratic Senator Smith, who needed the cooperation of at least three of New York's five Republican party bosses in order to run for mayor as a Republican. Halloran, according to the US Attorney's office, helped negotiate bribes to Republican bosses on behalf of Malcolm Smith. For his work as a go-between he received both bribes and a promise that Smith would appoint Halloran to the position of Deputy Chief of Police for New York City.
This repulsive police-position-deal would intersect with elections in another way: Unlike other counties in New York, which run ballot chain of custody through the county election office, New York City places its police force in the middle of the electoral chain of custody. In 2008, for example, it was the police department that relayed election results to the public, instead of an elections office.
Political corruption spreads like cancer. According to charging documents , the New York bribery scheme spilled over into Rockland County, to a village mayor and deputy mayor for Spring Valley. Assisted by some of the same people involved in the Malcolm Smith election case, they offered to snatch up some village land using eminent domain in order to sell it off to a developer. The mayor had secretly cut herself into a partnership with the developer, and the deputy mayor received a bribe.
Corruption creates a neural system of one politician beholden to another. The public always needs to retain its right to know, to examine documents, and to see what's going on. Otherwise, who's gonna tell?
As Halloran explains, "That's politics, that's politics, it's all about how much. Not about whether or will, it's about how much, and that's our politicians in New York, they're all like that, all like that," (on this occasion, fortunately for us, he said this on tape and in front of an FBI agent.) "Money is what greases the wheels - good, bad, or indifferent." [14]
AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS...
Before we go skipping down the road trusting any politician to know what's best for us regarding our own right to see and authenticate elections...
Before we agree to some pie-in-the-sky idea that secret vote counting processes are safe because some company tested them...
Before we accept the idea that some legislators can pass a law telling us we have to cede over our right to know...
We need to understand that when it comes to elections, trust is childlike. It's wishful thinking. It's immature.
It's not how the world works, and we owe it to our children to remember that.
* * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] NEW ORLEANS CIO: KATRINA SPURS INTERNET ELECTION: SearchCIO.com - 09.26.2005,
By Ellen O’Brien and Charlie Russo
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/1129153/New-Orleans-CIO-Katrina-spurs-Internet-election
[2] Convicted vendor Mark St. Pierre seeks deal for aiding Ray Nagin probe: The Times-Picayune - August 27, 2012, By Gordon Russell
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/08/convicted_vendor_mark_st_pierr.html
[3] Trial's first stones thrown; Ex-City Hall vendor accused of bribery: The Times-Picayune - 10 May 2011, by David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/government_begins_bribery_case.html
[4] Former contractor Ciber gave tickets, parties to Mayor Ray Nagin, but saw no conflict: The Times-Picayune - May 10, 2011, By David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/former_contractor_ciber_gave_t.html
[5] Black Box Voting; Chapter 6, "Who's Beholden to Whom?", by Bev Harris
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-6.pdf
and
Hacking Democracy: HBO Pictures, 2006
[6] U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting: The New York Times - January 4, 2007, By Christopher Drew
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04voting.html
[7] Expired Accreditation Test Labs - Ciber Inc.: US Election Assistance Commission Web site, as of April 4, 2013
http://www.eac.gov/testing_and_certification/accredited_test_laboratories.aspx
[8] City aide cleans up after the storm ; Doing errands nets him $75.28 per hour: Times-Picayune - 18 March 2007, by Gordon Russell
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2007/03/city_vendor_gives_meffert_a_bo.html
[9] Greg Meffert testimony puts Colorado-based Ciber in crosshairs: The Times-Picayune - May 11, 2011, By David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/greg_meffert_testimony_puts_co.html
[10] Public, private lines blur at City Hall; Former tech chief's deals face scrutiny: Times-Picayune - 5 April 2009, by David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/publicprivate_lines_blurred_at.html
[11] Mark St. Pierre defends 'strategic partnership' with contractor Ciber Inc.: The Times-Picayune - May 24, 2011, By David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/mark_st_pierre_defends_strateg.html
[12] CIBER Wins $19 Million SAP Support Contract for Pennsylvania Turnpike: Press Release: Associated Press Newswires - 4 September 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=CBR:US&sid=aiPk4NDCGtTE
[13] Turnpike insiders who decided to blow the whistle were threatened, sometimes fired, says attorney general: Philadelphia Inquirer - March 14, 2013, by Paul Nussbaum
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-15/news/37717290_1_grand-jury-ciber-turnpike-job
[14] Complaint against Malcolm Smith et. al.: US District Attorney Southern District of New York - 3/29/2013,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/133604402/Smith-Malcolm-Et-Al-Complaint
The public must be able to see and authenticate these four essential steps for an election to be public, democratic, and valid: (1) Who can vote (voter list); (2) Who did vote (3) The original count; (4) Chain of custody.
Labels:
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Tuesday, April 2, 2013
My thoughts on this whole North Korea business
Am I the only person who finds it interesting that the only country to ever nuke another country is the one country that's decided to elect itself to police the entire rest of the planet to make sure they don't do the same?
Why do Americans listen to and incorporate into their own "thinking" the demonizing of nations like North Korea and Iran by the American media for wanting to develop nuclear weapons? How can they allow themselves to become indoctrinized to believe these regimes are evil for simply wanting to procure the most lethal weapon on the planet? The United States was first to have them and has had them since. What does that make US?! We have given nukes freely to our ally Israel. What does that make them?
Why is it okay for us to have them, but not other nations?
Does no one else think it's weird that Barack Obama, given a Nobel Peace Prize less than a year after taking office, has killed more innocent people with drone stikes and sent our country into more conflicts than his war criminal predecessor George W. Bush?
Why is this supposedly peaceful president sending armadas toward North Korea? Why is he flying fleets of bombers in practice runs nearby? In a time when the federal government itself is forced to cut spending through broad cuts, how much money is it taking to fuel all those war machines?
Another question I have: If Islamic fundamentalists in middle eastern countries are the greatest threat to our "freedom", and sending UAV drones is the best way of taking care of business where they're concerned, why is Barack Obama readying the entire United States military - not to mention the whole of the country - for old school war?
Furthermore, what has North Korea even done? Bluster. That's it. It's immature playground bully bullshit. They haven't even done anything, yet our president and our media have cranked up the propaganda machine to full throttle.
Reminds me of the winter of 2003 when the Bush Administration was busy selling the world on WMD and yellow cake uranium, and massing troops in Kuwait. It's as if there's some sort of ten-year time loop the war profiteering banksters of the world are operating on.
Question is, how are Americans so hideously blind to all of these paradoxes and coincidences?
Why do Americans listen to and incorporate into their own "thinking" the demonizing of nations like North Korea and Iran by the American media for wanting to develop nuclear weapons? How can they allow themselves to become indoctrinized to believe these regimes are evil for simply wanting to procure the most lethal weapon on the planet? The United States was first to have them and has had them since. What does that make US?! We have given nukes freely to our ally Israel. What does that make them?
Why is it okay for us to have them, but not other nations?
Does no one else think it's weird that Barack Obama, given a Nobel Peace Prize less than a year after taking office, has killed more innocent people with drone stikes and sent our country into more conflicts than his war criminal predecessor George W. Bush?
Why is this supposedly peaceful president sending armadas toward North Korea? Why is he flying fleets of bombers in practice runs nearby? In a time when the federal government itself is forced to cut spending through broad cuts, how much money is it taking to fuel all those war machines?
Another question I have: If Islamic fundamentalists in middle eastern countries are the greatest threat to our "freedom", and sending UAV drones is the best way of taking care of business where they're concerned, why is Barack Obama readying the entire United States military - not to mention the whole of the country - for old school war?
Furthermore, what has North Korea even done? Bluster. That's it. It's immature playground bully bullshit. They haven't even done anything, yet our president and our media have cranked up the propaganda machine to full throttle.
Reminds me of the winter of 2003 when the Bush Administration was busy selling the world on WMD and yellow cake uranium, and massing troops in Kuwait. It's as if there's some sort of ten-year time loop the war profiteering banksters of the world are operating on.
Question is, how are Americans so hideously blind to all of these paradoxes and coincidences?
Labels:
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Bravo New World Podcast now on iTunes
Now, you can listen to the Bravo New World Podcast for free on iTunes. You can also subscribe to the podcast, and new episodes will automatically show up.CLICK HERE to open the podcast in iTunes. You'll find the subscription button just under the main image on the left side of your iTunes window. You might also notice the drop down arrow on the subscription button, which gives you some options for sharing the podcast. It sure wouldn't suck if you felt so inclined!
Please and thank you!
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Episode 3, Edgar Cayce - Today & Tomorrow
An interview with Peter Woodbury from Edgar Cayce's A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment) on how the immense depth and breadth of the Cayce readings can be applied to our planetary civilization's present day and future.
Plus, what is the A.R.E.'s stance on David Wilcock's claim to be the reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?
UPDATE: By pure coincidence (synchronicity), I released this podcast on Edgar Cayce's birthday. There's only a 0.27% chance of that occurring accidentally!
Plus, what is the A.R.E.'s stance on David Wilcock's claim to be the reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?
UPDATE: By pure coincidence (synchronicity), I released this podcast on Edgar Cayce's birthday. There's only a 0.27% chance of that occurring accidentally!
Like what you hear? Come like the Bravo New World Facebook page and keep up on these unfolding times!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Episode 2, Proof Life is "Out There"
I stumbled across some very cool truth and couldn't resist taking the opportunity to share it with you in an impromptu podcast! Below are links to some of the news items referenced in this episode.
Labels:
astrobiology,
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graphene,
life,
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Sunday, February 10, 2013
5 Reasons I LOVE this report from ABC News
For all the razzing we give the mainstream media in America about being little more than a propaganda arm for the elite, once in a while a news story will slip through the cracks that's actually worth viewers' time. The video below is one such report - broadcast nationally by ABC News.
When Anonymous recently announced it hacked the computer network of the U.S. Federal Reserve and released the personal account information of more than 4,000 of America's top bankers, ABC News could have demonized the hackers as terrorists and delivered the Fed's damage-minimizing response as the entire story. But they didn't. They delivered a nuts-and-bolts account of the hacking and gave a little in-depth look at who Anonymous is and why they do what they do.
Here are five reasons why I love this report from ABC News.
1) It doesn't demonize Anonymous
There's no love lost between The Powers That Be and Anonymous. The least a compliant media source could do is shape the public's opinion of the hackers by describing them with less-than-flattering verbiage, or maybe even branding them as a terrorist organization outright! After all, an attack on the Federal Reserve is an attack on the financial structure of America - nay, the world.
But ABC's report doesn't disparage Anonymous at all. In the spirit of ideal journalism, they just deliver the facts.
2) It makes Anonymous seem powerful to the public
By not demonizing Anonymous, and by making their penetration of the Fed's systems seem like quite the feat, ABC actually plants the perception of a powerful Anonymous in the collective consciousness.
Those who understand that our reality is a co-created illusion that responds to our thoughts, beliefs and expectations realize the potential for this report. By planting this seed in the collective consciousness, it prescribes that very reality for the future - and for future events. The more powerful the wider public perceives Anonymous to be, the more probable that is exactly the reality that will manifest for us all.
3) It gives Anonymous a few seconds in the bully pulpit
Not everyone who watches mainstream evening news understands who Anonymous is. Not all will have watched one of the videos released by the group. But this report hands over the bully pulpit to a Guy-Fawkes-masked hacker, if even for just a few seconds. And during that few seconds, we hear an intelligent voice address the "citizens of the world" and remind them of the "erosion of due process" and "the dilution of constitutional rights". And ABC doesn't try to dispute those claims. The public is reminded of a reality not often spoken of during national news broadcasts. More seeds planted.
4) It helps explain Anonymous' message and motivation to a wider public
Not only does Anonymous get the opportunity to directly address the public at large for a few seconds, but "former" Anonymous member Greg Housh delivers the group's message and motivation.
"All these big bankers and all these big rich people who have caused a lot of the problems we've had for the last few years are not getting prosecuted," says Housh.
It's important to note that even though he's described as a former member, he is not portrayed as being against the group or disputing what they say or what they do. Furthermore, he says to expect more big attacks on the government. Again, seeds planted!
5) It reminds millions of Americans that none of the bankers have been punished for the financial crisis
Not only does ABC use Housh to plant the seeds of future powerful attacks by Anonymous against big governmental entities, but his bite reminds all watching that no one is being punished for the financial crisis that has erased so many jobs, devastated so many families and the economy in general.
I must applaud ABC News for this rare example of journalism that actually enhances the public's interest instead of the interests of corporate sponsors or governmental agencies. Perhaps this bright spot is a harbinger of an illuminated future for mainstream media consumers.
Here's the report. Enjoy!
When Anonymous recently announced it hacked the computer network of the U.S. Federal Reserve and released the personal account information of more than 4,000 of America's top bankers, ABC News could have demonized the hackers as terrorists and delivered the Fed's damage-minimizing response as the entire story. But they didn't. They delivered a nuts-and-bolts account of the hacking and gave a little in-depth look at who Anonymous is and why they do what they do.
Here are five reasons why I love this report from ABC News.
1) It doesn't demonize Anonymous
There's no love lost between The Powers That Be and Anonymous. The least a compliant media source could do is shape the public's opinion of the hackers by describing them with less-than-flattering verbiage, or maybe even branding them as a terrorist organization outright! After all, an attack on the Federal Reserve is an attack on the financial structure of America - nay, the world.
But ABC's report doesn't disparage Anonymous at all. In the spirit of ideal journalism, they just deliver the facts.
2) It makes Anonymous seem powerful to the public
By not demonizing Anonymous, and by making their penetration of the Fed's systems seem like quite the feat, ABC actually plants the perception of a powerful Anonymous in the collective consciousness.
Those who understand that our reality is a co-created illusion that responds to our thoughts, beliefs and expectations realize the potential for this report. By planting this seed in the collective consciousness, it prescribes that very reality for the future - and for future events. The more powerful the wider public perceives Anonymous to be, the more probable that is exactly the reality that will manifest for us all.
3) It gives Anonymous a few seconds in the bully pulpit
Not everyone who watches mainstream evening news understands who Anonymous is. Not all will have watched one of the videos released by the group. But this report hands over the bully pulpit to a Guy-Fawkes-masked hacker, if even for just a few seconds. And during that few seconds, we hear an intelligent voice address the "citizens of the world" and remind them of the "erosion of due process" and "the dilution of constitutional rights". And ABC doesn't try to dispute those claims. The public is reminded of a reality not often spoken of during national news broadcasts. More seeds planted.
4) It helps explain Anonymous' message and motivation to a wider public
Not only does Anonymous get the opportunity to directly address the public at large for a few seconds, but "former" Anonymous member Greg Housh delivers the group's message and motivation.
"All these big bankers and all these big rich people who have caused a lot of the problems we've had for the last few years are not getting prosecuted," says Housh.
It's important to note that even though he's described as a former member, he is not portrayed as being against the group or disputing what they say or what they do. Furthermore, he says to expect more big attacks on the government. Again, seeds planted!
5) It reminds millions of Americans that none of the bankers have been punished for the financial crisis
Not only does ABC use Housh to plant the seeds of future powerful attacks by Anonymous against big governmental entities, but his bite reminds all watching that no one is being punished for the financial crisis that has erased so many jobs, devastated so many families and the economy in general.
I must applaud ABC News for this rare example of journalism that actually enhances the public's interest instead of the interests of corporate sponsors or governmental agencies. Perhaps this bright spot is a harbinger of an illuminated future for mainstream media consumers.
Here's the report. Enjoy!
| Reactions: |
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Episode 1 - Amardeep Kaleka
Episode 1 of Bravo New World! An interview with filmmaker Amardeep Kaleka, known in Ufology circles for the upcoming UFO documentary SIRIUS, and perhaps more widely known following the Sikh Temple shooting in which his father was murdered. Get an update on SIRIUS and learn some of his out-of-this-world experiences during filming. Plus, Kaleka's take on what happened the day his father was killed, and a look at his next project Nursery Crimes.
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