After loading up my proverbial pen with scathing venom (I get it in bulk!) to rant about our ongoing national ignorance, I realized that some photos screech louder words. In case you cannot make out the details clearly, let me explain. This is a Diebold van undoubtedly gearing up for the November election. Diebold is a company that makes questionable voting systems and they are well known for their shady ethics. ("We won't rest!" is their motto.)
For example, days after the 2004 Presidential election, Diebold agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the State of California alleging that they had sold shoddy voting equipment. In December 2005, Diebold's CEO Wally O'Dell resigned following reports that the company was facing securities fraud litigation surrounding charges of insider trading.
Then, just recently in May, a registered lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems contributed the individual maximum of $10,000 to the election campaign of Republican Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell - whose office approved Diebold's selection as a vendor and negotiated the price of its machines for county election boards. Getting a firm grasp of the slime factor here?
In fact, there are many folks who believe that Diebold can be blamed for W's second term, including my pal, Tamburlaine, who consistently refers to the First Monkey as "Diebold George." If you give yourself about 30 seconds to think about this, you will quickly understand why there are bands out there called Rage Against the Machine.
A Denver pal sent this to me, taken right in here in my new home state - though, really, it could be anywhere. Please note the "Bush/Cheney '04" sticker brazenly demonstrating what happens when you mix rigged voting systems with open bias.
Must be another sticker below we can't see: "Don't Think and Drive."
3 comments:
Ahhh... I understand why that picture was sent out now. I should have guessed. This is one of many reasons that Denver is reported to be close to 50% absentee ballot at this point.
In fact, my housemates just got their ballots. Where the hell is mine???
I hope I checked the "All Elections" box this year. Oy.
I don't want to have to use those damn machines and I LOVE technology.
Yeah, I sent away for my absentee ballot too - just for this reason. Perhaps it got lost in the mail - much like my new Colorado license that I have now had to pay for TWICE. GRRRRR.
Props from Clizby? Woo hoo! Thanks, dear.
In all fairness, Diebold also manufactures and maintains ATMs, so it's possible that that particular van had nothing to do with voting machines.
But it's still fishy as hell. I'll bet there ain't one goddamned Diebold van in the whole country -- whether it services voting machines, ATMs, or popcorn makers -- that has a Kerry/Edwards sticker on it. Just a hunch.
Thanks for the nod. More importantly, thanks for putting this photo out there. Perhaps some day Diebold will be barred from political elections altogether.
One can dream, can't he?
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