Mormons and Politics

Every ten days there is a teen suicide in Utah, Teen pregnancy is ranked 6Th in the nation in Utah. In Utah substance abuse is low, even when I was a kid the local pot dealer was the Bishops son of our local Mormon church. Why is this relevant or important...because in my opinion it represents a huge conformity and Hipocricy issue, and if the Mormon church sets the tone the faithfull followow along. There is so much pressure to be accepted and follow along in the LDS church, it is unbelievable. I saw this first hand growing up....and I feel so sorry for kids that grow up in communities that have large Mormon Populations, it is not easy...heck it isnt easy being Mormon...no such thing as a part timer....your doing it , or you are not.

Mormons are not the only ones that deal with this..Jews and Scientologists also have this dilemma. I have had a lot of Jewish friends also...and they like the Mormons were comletely different people when they were not around others of the same belief factor. The pressure to conform, the guilt, the authoritarian control(more so for mormons) is monumental.

Mormons as a group especially in the public sphere are very subject to right wing authoritarian control. The recent Mormon involvement in the anti-gay proposition in California is a perfect example and a red flag as to what can happen.

Mormons are taught to have a personal relationship with Jesus...as long as it falls within the guide lines of the church. Multi level marketing programs flourish within the Mormon church. Mormon Individually are generally great, awesome and trustworthy human beings. Collectively they become a mass of mindless followers subject to fear and hate conveniently cloaked in family values. Usually Mormons seem to have good rational and reasoning to back up thier faith....get a little deeper and they are lost. The dont have critical thinking skills in general...everything is thought out for them.

If you want a prime example and poster child for what Mormons believe look no further than fear Monger Glen Beck. He is a very bizzarro TV guy that feels that he is doing gods work....but all he is really doing is serving up the Kool-Aide, YIKES!!

Although the Mormon institution has its faults ...there are many very good things about the church...and I mean that, they get a worse rap than they deserve. They make adjustments when their proverbial arm is twisted, like Polygamy(the us government threatened by force) all of a sudden god told them to stop the practice he told them to initiate through a prophet??!!. Then the issue of racism and blacks holding the priesthood. Black fairly recently were not allowed to hold certain offices...because of the curse...the mark(blackness) Cain killed Able...or something!

As far as politics go I remember my friends fathers who happened to be devout Mormon praising Ronald Reagan....a lot of well to do Mormons worship Reagan, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a push in 2012 for Romney and he will be very Reagan like.

I think Mormons should work on solving problems in their own back yard before they start trying to dictate how everyone else lives. But as they will tell you...THEY are the only true church and unless others follow their way ....upper levels of heavan and celestial rewards are not to be had.

I am supportive of Mormons and others right to have thier belief but it is not tolerable in my opinion for groups to excercise their faith at the expense of others. Im not a big fan of guys marrying guys but....get the churches out of deciding on civil unions...who can and cant have them. If people of faith were so concerned about gays,gay rape,homosexuality and other such perverse things...why didnt they stop the catholics. where is that justice?? what about those souls?? what about it..where were you do gooders?????

Montana election fraud??

I dont know....do you? I cant point to any specifics but there just seems to be a quiet acceptance of results even though we are still counting our votes with the highly controvesial ES&S voting machines. ES&S problems are wide spread...here are a few examples...

Its like highing a cleptomaniac to manage your store....they may not rip you off today...but...you guaranteed to have a problem down the road! The time to fix this problem is before we have one!!

---However, Montana State law still leaves large security holes in needed election protection procedures, including:
1) Requiring that only one election official look at ballots in a recount, in spite of general national understanding that at least two examiners, (one each from opposing parties), should examine each recounted ballot.

2) Montana recount law only allows recounts in elections where the vote difference ...read the rest

---Currently in Minnisota..(this is a big one)..A spokesman in Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office said the M-100 optical scan machines used in the Coleman/Franken race were tested and performed accurately.

But it's possible, Ritchie said in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio Tuesday, that a recount will uncover voter machine failures that could tip the outcome of the election in Franken's favor. read the rest

---...What this means on Election Day is that ES&S, a private company, manages everything about the voting, from voter registration, the printing of ballots, the programming of the voting machines, the counting and tabulation of the votes, and the final reporting of the results for 60 million Americans in 47 states....more here

---Al Franken's Razor-Thin MN Senate Race Counted on Flawed Optical-Scan Systems
PLUS: Details on 'What in the Hell Happened in Alaska' and Georgia and Oregon...
I'm exhausted, so forgive me if I make this quicker than it deserves. And if I haven't yet been able to jump into a myriad of other elections of serious concern around the country still today.

But just a few quick facts...read the rest


---Audits still lacking
All those changes heartened Sara Busey of Missoula, who is the Help America Vote Act representative for the Montana League of Women Voters, but the league's top priority for making elections more secure was rejected by the 2007 Legislature. secure elections rejected????? read the rest

---“If your party is in control in that battleground state, the national campaign will leave it to the local officials,” Gross said. “If your person is not in power they start to get very anxious and paranoid.”

Bauer has won a suit in Michigan and in Montana last month. In Michigan, Republicans promised not to specifically challenge voters whose homes had been foreclosed. In Montana, a judge blocked the Montana’s Republican Party’s effort to declare thousands of voters ineligible. the rest here

Montana, Red State Again...!!

We went to bed with Obama declared the winner of the National vote..but...in Montana it was still too close. When I woke up the first thing I did was flip on the news and to my dismay our State was red!! With 851 of 861 precincts reporting (99%) McCain is winning 219000 to 236000. We had no problem voting for a Democrat Senator...or Governor, or re-electing Rehberg..our lone republican congressman. So what was it, I think it was fear and racism. Lemme tell you why...this past august i was driving to Missoula from Wisconsin and I stopped for gas in eastern Montana and another customer was commenting on Wyoming's state motto "the tolerance state" that was posted on their boarder sign. I said that it was probably from the murder of the gay guy Mathew Shepard...(someone has since told me it is a women's issue) anyhow back to my point---A worker at the Conoco there says "too bad they stopped with just one they need to kill all those Fags".

I got in my truck and continued my trip, I still had a long way to go. I had been excited to get into Montana...kinda like getting home, but ...now that feeling was gone. I had a lot of time to reflect on this comment and I did...was this one comment representative of more than one person in Montana...unfortunately yes. I have heard things like this many times...Hate towards anyone "not like me" is the theme.

It is not surprising that under educated, and under socialized people in rural isolated ares can be manipulated by right wing authoritarian figures. Using fear as the primary tool...

Just maybe when people see that Obama doest convert the USA to a Muslim nation, or lead the blacks to take over, or invite Bin Laden to be on his cabinet......ah forget it...they wont change....they will find a reason to hate ...and we will just have to learn to work together!!

Last thing I would Say is that watching Obama speak last night, was very inspiring....I saw a man who cares about America and all Americans. I believe ...he gets it!....I hope he is effective.....we all can have Hope now!

If the vote tomorrow is strange???

Watch this six minute video....about our failsafe voting system. Diebold and ES&S are basically the same...ES&S counts electronically all Montana votes....????? send to a friend...

ES & S...very interesting...we are screwed!

Vote For Me

just an excerpt from here

Senator Chuck Hagel, former ES&S Chairman, (AIS at the time- just prior to the 1997 buyout), was running the company in 1995 that would count his votes in his amazing surprise victory in 1996—the first Republican Senate winner in Nebraska in 24 years! Local papers called it a “stunning upset.” It was his first race for the Senate; he had been living out of state for 20 years, and was running against Nebraska’s popular former Governor, Ben Nelson. Nelson was leading in the polls by 65% to 18%, yet Hagel came from behind and won at 56%...

MORE....

Today, the McCarthy Group is run by Michael McCarthy, who happens to be Chuck Hagel's treasurer. Hagel's financials still list the McCarthy Group as an asset, with his investment valued at $1-$5 million. Campaign finance reports show that Michael McCarthy also served as treasurer for Hagel until December of 2002.

ES&S also has a connection to the Bush family. Jeb Bush's first choice as running mate in 1998 was Sandra Mortham who was a paid lobbyist for ES&S and received a commission for every county that bought its touch-screen machines. from here

...one more

A day after West Virginia secretary of state Betty Ireland held a press conference to address vote-switching problems with touchscreen voting machines made by Election Systems & Software, she presented an award of merit to an ES&S vice president, who had abruptly and mysteriously left the company in May after 11 years of service, according to the Charleston Gazette.

Gary Greenhalgh, as ES&S's vice president of sales, helped the company win a $17-million contract to supply machines to West Virginia in 2005 and was the company's point person for dealing with election officials until he left ES&S.
read more here

Missoula Elections

I assumed here in Missoula our voting was safe since we had paper ballots....after I recieved an email, I decidec to check on this....turns out our votes are counted by a system that has a very bad reputation and is tied to the worst voted fraud in our nations history.

here is the email I recieved...
Our elections in Montana are not hand-ballot, they are COUNTED by machine, according to our own Vickie Zeier. While I was voting absentee today, She admitted to me after a bit of prodding that the company that gives Montana the scanners to count votes (at least in Missoula County) is the company listed below. I'll be gone until next week, so if someone else wants to research and investigate it's up to you.


Dear Matt:

Election Systems & Software

11208 John Galt Blvd

Omaha, NE 68137

Sincerely, Vickie Zeier

Vickie M. Zeier
Missoula County Clerk & Recorder/Treasurer
vzeier@co.missoula, mt.us
(406) 258-3234


ES & S History....

WHO RUNS DIEBOLD ELECTION SYSTEMS? WHO WROTE THE PROGRAMS?

Bob Urosevich is the CEO of Diebold Election Systems. Urosevich created the original software architecture for Diebold Election Systems, and his original company, called I-Mark Systems, can be found in the source code signatures.

Prior to programming for and taking over Diebold Election Systems, Urosevich programmed for and was CEO of Election Systems & Software (ES&S), which counts 56 percent of the votes in the United States. When Urosevich left ES&S, Chuck Hagel took his position. (Hagel then ran for the U.S. Senate, with ES&S machines counting his own votes, but failed to disclose that he had been both CEO and Chairman of ES&S on his disclosure documents).

Bob Urosevich, together with his brother Todd, founded ES&S. Bob then went to run Diebold, while Todd still is a Vice President at ES&S. Diebold and ES&S, together, count about 80 percent of the votes in the United States.

IN Missoula We USE.............

ES&S Model 650, Model 100 and its problems.....some of them...

... Broward County, Florida. November 2004. ES&S DRE System
Vote tabulation software loses 70,000 votes for Amendment 4.

....Orange County, Florida. November, 2004. ES&S Optical Scan System
Vote tabulating software omits counting 8,400 votes.21

....Guilford County, North Carolina. November, 2004. ES&S DRE System
Vote tabulating software changes two outcomes in Guilford County.

.....Carroll County, North Carolina. November, 2004. ES&S Optical Scan System
Vendor mis-programming caused the miscount.

.....Mahoning County, Ohio. November, 2004. ES&S DRE
Machines broke down in 16 precincts; others needed calibration.
Many problems plagued the ES&S iVotronic touch screen voting machines in 16 of the 312 Mahoning County precincts.

......ES&S iVotronic — Case Study of a Tiny Programming Bug
All software has bugs, but the opportunity to examine a bug in voting software is rare.
Fortunately, we had a chance after a news article was published May 13, 2004 telling about a
"serious bug" found by Orlando Suarez in Miami-Dade's ES&S election equipment nearly a year
earlier. ES&S had known about this serious bug for nearly a year and had not fixed it.71

....Indiana – ES&S iVotronic
Election Systems & Software provided illegal software for last year's election, lied to the
board about a temporary fix and fired a helpful project manager, said Clerk of the Courts
Jill Jackson

.....Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood
The claim: March 8, 2004. "Well, I have a high confidence level. And it's based on the fact that,
since 2002, when we put new equipment in place in the state of Florida, that we have
had no problem whatsoever, according to our 67 supervisors of elections." 169
The facts: Miami-Dade County, 2002: ES&S iVotronics failed to count 8.2% of the votes.170
Broward County, 2002: An ES&S iVotronic error missed counting 22% of the votes.171
Palm Beach County, 2002. Sequoia Edge touch screens froze up when the language
was selected, sometimes switched votes to the opposite candidate.172
Broward County, January 2004: ES&S iVotronics lost 134 votes in a one-race election.
The winning margin was 12 votes.173

....ES&S Paid Commissions to Officials who Endorsed Their Products

....Fortune's Worst Technology of 2003: Paperless Voting
Fortune magazine's winner of the worst technology of 2003 award was "Paperless Voting."
Fortune considers this technology even worse than implanted identification devices, which only
won the runner-up award.

.....the complete document including citations is available here



......That’s not to say that there were no problems. When election workers plugged memory cards from Flathead County electronic voting machines into computers, the computers tabulated all the county’s votes for just one candidate.

County Election Director Monica Eisenzimer says she felt more comfortable using the printouts to count the votes anyway, “especially with all the speculation about the machines.”

The voting machines in use in the Flathead, made by Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software (ES&S), are the only ones approved for use in Montana by the Secretary of State’s office.

Elsewhere, problems with ES&S machines were reported in one Arkansas county, where some precincts reported more votes than voters, and another where no votes were recorded in a mayoral race. In Florida, 18,000 votes were completely lost by ES&S machines. read more here


.......IMPORTANT.....

In October of 2007, We The People Foundation filed the Clean Election lawsuit against all 50 states. To date, Montana has ignored this lawsuit, making it an issue that we the voters must address before our election on November 4th. This press release is being sent to all known newspapers as well as other media outlets in Montana. Everyone reading or hearing this needs to promptly contact his or her local elections office. Of Montana's 56 counties, 44 use hackable optical scanners to count our votes. We must all contact our county elections office and demand to see the report issued by our state election official, better known as the Secretary of State, certifying the integrity of our vote counting machines. If such a report is not available, then the vote counting machines covered by the county report cannot be legally used in the election. (See MCA 13-17-101.2). Each county's report must be a certification of the integrity of the software used in the machines, the pronouncement that the machines were investigated and found to be unhackable, the chips in them deemed not replaceable, no modems (which can be either hard-wired or operated by remote control,) exist in the machines, and basically a strong verification that each machine is absolutely tamper-proof and fully reliable, as well as operating in a fully transparent manner. Please take a moment now and contact your county elections office. If each of us do this and view the reports for ourselves, we can better guarantee a fair and honest election. Remember, it is not he who votes that counts, but he who counts the votes.
Furthermore, we should all be aware of the fact that we have a right to request our votes be hand-counted. Note that when you go to vote, each precinct has a large envelope sitting in front of the election official. Those large envelopes are provided to hold the ballots from voters requesting their ballot be hand-counted. If you are unsure, as I am, that an unhackable machine is accurately counting your vote, then request that your vote be hand-counted instead of sent through the optical scanner.
If we all work together, we can not only further ensure a fair and honest election, but will also address the well-known voter fraud proactively rather than reactively.


Sharbono for secretary of state