McCain guarantees "squeaker" victory

[dudalb]

On that first link he provides, scroll down to the story about WV, click on that link, and then scroll down for the story. The link for the paper that printed the story is at the top of the story, so if you want to you can go directly to the paper's website and read the story there.

Here, let me do it for you: Voters Allege Ballot Trouble

That proves there are glitches in the system,it does not prove there is some kind of conspiracy going on.

 

[dudalb]

I suppose it would be too much to ask that you either show some sort of evidence that people will be showing up at the polls with fake IDs that proclaim them to be Mickey Mouse or whatever the fake names on the registrations were or to stop dragging the acorn chestnut out to wave around like, well like a nut actually?

Agreed. But I also think it is not too much to ask that those saying there is some massive conspiracy to steal the election for the GOP furnish some real evidence, not just reports of some glitches in the voting system.

 

[thaiboxerken]

I didn't say there was, but that it could happen.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/[/QU
OTE]
I perused that site for a while and didn't see anything that substantiates claims of vote flipping. The closest I saw was someone's account of having trouble with the touch screen, but it finally seemed to work.

Is there any real evidence (like a cell phone photo) for vote flipping?

On the other hand, are these things set up such that there is any way to verify if vote flipping happens?

While it's not the same issue, if the trouble described is widespread, it could have a horrible effect on the election, though. If voter turnout is as high as expected, spending this kind of time for one person to vote simply won't work.

 

[thaiboxerken]

It seems to me that it would be very hard to catch these machines flipping votes without a camera in the booth.

 

[MaGZ]

It all comes down to the number of voting machines they can rig. Time is running out, and, with early voting, more people have figured out that they need to insist on paper ballots when they have the option. Machines have been observed flipping votes in WVa. That wasn't supposed to happen before the 4th.

Please explain how McCain or any other Republican can rig voting machines.

 

[Ausmerican]

Please explain how McCain or any other Republican can rig voting machines.

IIRC it goes like this Diebold makes the machines. Diebold is owned by a big time Republican donor.
Now, your turn:

Please explain, given what we know about genetics these days how racism is in any way supportable by a functioning human brain.

 

[Tricky]

Please explain how McCain or any other Republican can rig voting machines.

Here's some info for you.

Avi Rubin, Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University and Technical Director of the Information Security Institute has analyzed the source code used in these voting machines and reports "this voting system is far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts."[10] Following the publication of this paper, the State of Maryland hired Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to perform another analysis of the Diebold voting machines. SAIC concluded “[t]he system, as implemented in policy, procedure, and technology, is at high risk of compromise.”

The company RABA did a security analysis of the Diebold AccuVote in January 2004 confirming many of the problems found by Avi Rubin and finding some new vulnerabilities.

In June 2005, the Tallahassee Democrat reported that when given access to Diebold vote-counting computers, Bev Harris—a critic of Diebold's voting machines—was able to make 65,000 votes disappear simply by changing the memory card that stores voting results for one that had been altered. Although the machines are supposed to record changes to data stored in the system, they showed no record of tampering after the memory cards were swapped.

Of course, these claims are highly contested, but it at least gives you some idea that it is not in the realm of science fiction.

 

[MaGZ]

IIRC it goes like this Diebold makes the machines. Diebold is owned by a big time Republican donor.
Now, your turn:

Please explain, given what we know about genetics these days how racism is in any way supportable by a functioning human brain.

Well, I guess there must be a racist gene.

 

[Darth Rotor]

But the real story here is not that McCain declared he would win, but that he admitted it would be a "squeaker". That is as much as admitting he is a big underdog, something that everybody knows, but that few Republicans will say on the record.

Newflash: any GOP candidate running after Bush was going to be the underdog. The 2006 elections were a foreshadowing of that.

Elections are all about manipulating the perception of reality.

Of course. Sales job, and then you the voter has to drive that lemon home.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Here's some info for you.
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Of course, these claims are highly contested, but it at least gives you some idea that it is not in the realm of science fiction.

So, what are you saying here, that Democrats aren't smart enough to flip these machines? Only Republicans are? This from Democrats who bitch about how stupid Republicans are?

Trying to follow the conversation, as well as the subtext, and it's not making sense.

DR

 

[thaiboxerken]

So, what are you saying here, that Democrats aren't smart enough to flip these machines?

I'd have to say that they are just too honest to flip the machines.

 

[Ausmerican]

Well, I guess there must be a racist gene.

That is more than likely. Maybe more than one. Do you happen to know this Gene fellows last name?

 

[Tricky]

Please explain, given what we know about genetics these days how racism is in any way supportable by a functioning human brain.

This is VERY off topic, but Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene described how natural selection directs genes to make copies of themselves, and failing that, to ensure copies that are more like themselves will survive. I think that all sorts of tribalism, which naturally includes racism, is hard-coded into us. The trick is to get those big brains of ours to realize that we need to protect human genes, not just "my family/town/region/race" genes. I think we're making progress in that direction, but I think it would be rational to assert that xenophobia is nearly universal. That, unfortunatly, includes racism.

 

[Amapola]

That proves there are glitches in the system,it does not prove there is some kind of conspiracy going on.

I never *SAID* there was any conspiracy going on. You wanted a better source, I tried to show you that it was available. That's all.

I don't have an issue with any of this. You asked a question, I answered it. A "thanks" would be fine.

 

[nemo]

Is there any doubt that the loser (probably McCain) will contest the results? Just my two cents.

 

[MaGZ]

This is VERY off topic, but Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene described how natural selection directs genes to make copies of themselves, and failing that, to ensure copies that are more like themselves will survive. I think that all sorts of tribalism, which naturally includes racism, is hard-coded into us. The trick is to get those big brains of ours to realize that we need to protect human genes, not just "my family/town/region/race" genes. I think we're making progress in that direction, but I think it would be rational to assert that xenophobia is nearly universal. That, unfortunatly, includes racism.

In other words the racist gene insures self preservation.

Time for a new thread, "The Racist Gene"

 

[Tricky]

In other words the racist gene insures self preservation.

Time for a new thread, "The Racist Gene"

No, not necessarily. Genes aren't smart. They don't see the "big picture". In the "big picture", larger gene pools insure the survival of a species, sometimes at the cost of having certain genes diminish. Many survival strategies have been tried. Some work better than others. It appears that racism, while perhaps hard-coded from a different set of environmental conditions, is likely to prove to be a long term loser, in the world where inter-tribe communication is so important. It is like the appendix, a relic of a time gone by. But it is still there, and it will still affect our behavior for good or for bad.

And this is my last comment on this here. If you wish to start a thread on it elsewhere, I may participate.

 

[Tricky]

Is there any doubt that the loser (probably McCain) will contest the results? Just my two cents.

Yeah, I doubt it. I think the victory will be so overwhelming that McCain will probably make a concession speech and be done with it. I could be wrong.

 

[Ausmerican]

Is there any doubt that the loser (probably McCain) will contest the results? Just my two cents.

Depends on how wide a margin the loss is by. If it is too big there would really be no point.