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Happy Thanksgiving from Missaukee County (Michigan) :)

Written by: Richard Renner on Nov 26, 2008 7:30 PM EST

To all my friends at Democracy for America,

May your Thanksgiving be filled with Love, Faith and Laughter.

Best wishes,

Richard Renner

Missaukee County Commissioner-elect

Membership Chair, Missaukee County Democratic Party

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”

- Albert Einstein

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"...let's not forget all the hard-working, progressive Democrats who are running for local offices..." - Democrats.com

Written by: Richard Renner on Nov 17, 2008 9:41 PM EST

"...let's not forget all the hard-working, progressive Democrats who are running for local offices...Local and state offices have an enormous impact on our lives, and also produce our future national leaders..." - Democrats.com

CHALLENGE: ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT to raise $380! Help the only Democratic County Commissioner in Missaukee County (Michigan).

On Tuesday, November 4th, history was made in Missaukee County. I was fortunate enough to defeat a Republican incumbent for County Commissioner in the second most Republican county in the state of Michigan. However, as with many campaigns, I have debt to pay off, and several final expenses to pay. I need to raise $380 in 3 days. Can I count on you? Making a contribution is easier than ever. Just click on the link below, and make a secure, online contribution using PayPal...

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=rrenner%40core%2ecom&item_name=Friends%20of%20Richard%20Renner&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

OFFICIALLY ENDORSED BY MID-MICHIGAN DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA (MMDfA)!
“Richard REALLY knows his stuff and has specific plans for improving his county.”

As I was quoted in our local daily, the Cadillac News, following my victory...

"The voters...have made a determination that the status quo is no longer acceptable, that we expect more accountability, greater openness, and transparency in county government."

Please, help me pay off my debt by raising $380 in 3 days. Just click on the link below, and make a secure, online contribution using PayPal...

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=rrenner%40core%2ecom&item_name=Friends%20of%20Richard%20Renner&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

Victory '10,

Richard Renner

Missaukee County Commissioner-elect

"...public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people...with full recognition that every human being is entitled to courtesy and consideration."

- Margaret Chase Smith, U.S. Senator from Maine, 1949-1973

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www.workthevotela.org still needs more volunteers!!

Written by: F. Gluck on Nov 2, 2008 8:56 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

This from Sheri Myers:

Folks,

If you don't help out, we will not be able to get it done. After you volunteer, FORWARD THIS TO YOUR LOS ANGELES FRIENDS.

We expect an historic turnout and MANY problems at the polls, and we have got to get it on video and on paper.

Certainly folks are busy with Get Out The Vote. But come on, if you are not committed yet.... STEP UP!!

Put your body and heart and mind and energy on the line.

Video the Vote desperately needs four more people to be dispatchers at the call center.

Here's the person to call:

Chris (510) 386-3695

And we need people with cameras! Here we are in the film capitol of the world with not enough shooters!!!

contact Matt immediately if you can be on call to get it on film: matt@cotam.org OR call: (323) 482-2587

ALSO... WE are trying desperately to cover Los Angeles with poll monitors - do as much or as little as you can.

It's easy and it's important!!!

You can still get training to be a poll monitor: 5:00-6:00 Today, Sunday... Here's the conference call number.

(712) 432-0600 access number is 417584#

Onward,

Sheri for Work the Vote L.A.

www.workthevotela.org

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Election Film: Free For All!

Written by: Dorian Cheah on Jul 18, 2008 12:05 PM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Hello,

I would like to tell you all about the documentary Free For All!, which
takes a close look at election fraud, voter suppression, what really happened play-by-play in Ohio 2004, and provides good ideas for how to prevent a repeat in 2008.

You can download and watch the film for free for a limited time:

http://www.freeforall.tv

I live in Santa Monica, and am considering arranging a screening of this film. If you are interested in attending, please let me know. Thanks,

Dorian

http://whocareswhatdorianthinks.blogspot.com

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Oil Crisis: Oil Industry's method of raising prices and cutting their own taxes

Written by: James Dunn on Jul 8, 2008 11:15 AM EDT

Regarding opening environmentally protected areas for mining and pumping oil:

There is over 200 years of oil in the 48 contiguous States that are capped up by oil companies to monopolize world energy. There is no need to violate our environmentally protected areas, just to allow oil companies to further monopolize their strangle hold over our lives.

They are creating a media frenzy just to increase the price of oil; very successfully I might add. However, there is no immediate threat for an oil shortage !!! The oil companies have ONLY created the perception that there is a shortage !!!!

I personally believe that ALL mineral rights belong to the American People, NOT souless corporations!!!

I applaud Venezuela for nationalizing the oil assets in their country!!!!

We should be doing the same thing here in the United States !!!!

Ethically Eliminate ALL Political Corruption

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/jamesbdunn?p=57

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LA County Needs Poll Workers for June 3rd - Please sign up!

Written by: F. Gluck on May 26, 2008 4:08 AM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

LA County is short 7,000 poll workers for the June 3rd primary election!
Anyone who can possibly be a poll worker should sign up now. You can sign
up on the lavote.net web site:

http://www.lavote.net/VOTER/POLLWORKER/Default.cfm

And, if you go to your polling place and see that the staff has only 2 or 3
poll workers, you can volunteer at that moment to help and be trained on the
job. There is a small stipend paid.

Thank you.

Judy Alter

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Action Alert: Testify March 7th - LA County Registrar continues to disenfranchise voters!!

Written by: F. Gluck on Mar 1, 2008 4:04 AM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

Please read action alert from Sheri Myers & take action!!

workthevote@gmail.com

http://www.workthevotela.org

Please DON'T be impressed that Interim Registrar Dean Logan has condescended to (semi)count our ballots. He stalled for four weeks, while he could have hand counted them all. Now, he is scanning and digitizing the ballots and sorting the images inside a computer and counting them inside another computer!

There is ABSOLUTELY NO TRANSPARENCY to this process. Not even the mandatory 1% manual tally!

(Click Read More for the rest of this post)

LA Elections in Crisis: URGENT - Move NOW to Save YOUR Vote

Written by: F. Gluck on Feb 12, 2008 2:37 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

Folks, if ever there was a time to protect YOUR vote in LA, it's NOW. This is very very serious. Thanks!
Sheri Myers, workthevotela.org (Pass this along, please!)

Despite a record-breaking turnout of 189,000 voters registered as "Decline-to-State" (DTS)…
Dean Logan, L.A.'s Registrar of Voters, is still refusing to physically hand-count these ballots, effectively disenfranchising 94,500 -- at least HALF -- of DTS voters… because they didn't fill in an extra bubble before voting for President.

Who’s responsible for the flawed ballot design? Dean Logan!

LOS ANGELES DESERVES BETTER!! Come on, get outraged, and SPEAK UP!!!

10 MINUTES: 4 ACTIONS TO TAKE:
1)Sign the Courage Campaign petition to demand a real count… http://www.couragecampaign.org/

2) IF YOU HAD A PROBLEM VOTING: Fill out the online incident report, that Work the Vote will analyze: http://www.workthevotela.org/incident-report-form.php

3) Call County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office [(213) 974-3333 and voice your opinion.

Demand that our County Registrar DO HIS JOB!

ALSO Tell Zev it is highly inappropriate for Dean Logan to sign a 6-year contract with SOE SOFTWARE to manage our elections. Here’s one of the many reasons why:

SOE Software Creates Havoc in Palm Beach
4) Cut and Paste: Email or snail mail this letter (below) crafted by the LA California Election Protection Network.
(Did you know the job hunt for a new Registrar was unnecessarily delayed, AND, that the job no longer requires a college degree? That’s to administrate the largest county in the United States!)

*************************************************************************
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky
821 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
500 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear LA County Supervisor

In the wake of Los Angeles County's Super Tuesday's, February 5, 2008, primary election that resulted in at least 94,000 uncounted ballots, mass confusion over polling place consolidations, and vote caging that purged eligible voters from the voter rolls, I support the demands of the Los Angeles County chapter of the California Election Protection Network (CEPN) that you, a public servant, address this urgent matter:

a) Immediately instruct the Interim Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters Dean Logan to, despite his public pronouncements to the contrary, publicly count all 94,000 uncounted double-bubble ballots given to Declined to States and American Independent Party voters. To do otherwise would constitute a violation of the California Constitution. (We can share with you a process for the count.)

b) Ensure and monitor a nationwide search for an LA County Registrar of Voters with an unblemished professional history, free of conflicts of interests and financial ties to the election system vendors, committed to counting every ballot accurately as cast, and a demonstrated willingness to maintain an open dialogue with election integrity advocates

c) Provide us with an explanation of the nearly-six week delay in the County’s posting of the job for Registrar following the December 11, 2007 Supervisors meeting, at which it was stated that the job bulletin was close to being finalized.

d) Work with the LA County Human Resources Department to follow up on requests that ensure the qualifications for LA Co ROV meet or exceed the college graduation requirements for LA County dog catcher

e) Request the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office investigate criminal activity involving vote caging -- whereby voters are scrubbed from the rolls after failing to respond to voter registration confirmations disguised as innocuous junk mail solicitations

f) Establish a county task force to study the voter suppression effects of polling place consolidations, to consider the implementation of protocols, such as focus groups, to guard against confusing ballot designs, and to recommend systems that will ensure quick and timely dissemination of key instructions to poll supervisors at work during an election

I look forward to your immediate response.

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L.A. County (largest county in USA) vote system vulnerable to hackers

Written by: F. Gluck on Nov 25, 2007 12:43 AM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

With the CA SoS decertifying DRE Touchscreens & now finding vulnerability with the InkaVote Plus Precinct Ballot Recorder, and a new study by studycaliforniaballots.org which has found that the old MicroTallySystem central tabulator to be unacceptably inaccurate, it is time to retrieve elections from the corporations and from computer technology and return them to the citizens gy reinstituting old fashioned Hand Counted Paper Ballots at the Precinct Level!

L.A. County vote system vulnerable to hackers
Secretary of state's report also finds potential for fraud with InkaVote Plus system.
By Harrison Sheppard, From our Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 11/23/2007 09:44:54 PM PST
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_7544866

SACRAMENTO - Consultants for Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Friday they found several flaws in Los Angeles County's voting system that could leave it vulnerable to fraud or electronic hacking.

The report found that seals on boxes used to carry the system hardware could be reopened and then resealed without detection, allowing the machinery open to tampering, and that some password-protected systems could be hacked with available cracker programs. There were also cases where encrypted files containing sensitive data could be decrypted.

The study was performed as part of Bowen's "top-to-bottom" review of voting systems throughout the state. Los Angeles County's InkaVote Plus system is the last to be studied, because vendor Election Systems & Software failed to provide information to Bowen's consulting team on time earlier this year.

In August,

Action Alert: Demand Net Neutrality!! 48 hrs. left to comment!!

Written by: F. Gluck on Jun 14, 2007 9:00 AM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Santa Monica

From Common Cause: http://www.commoncause.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=2805365&aid=8802 Please visit link posted above to sign petition!!!! Keep the Internet Open to All: Protect Net Neutrality Major telephone and cable companies have a plan to control the Internet. They want their content and services – and those of companies that pay steep fees – to travel quickly along a “fast lane.” Everything else, from personal blogs to nonprofit and small business websites – would be stuck in a “slow lane.” If the FCC doesn’t act now to protect Net Neutrality, the freedom and innovation of the Internet will be lost forever. Send a message to the FCC before the public comment period on Net Neutrality closes on June 15th, 2007!

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Democracy for America group blog for DFA Santa Monica

Happy Thanksgiving from Missaukee County (Michigan) :)

"...let's not forget all the hard-working, progressive Democrats who are running for local offices..." - Democrats.com

www.workthevotela.org still needs more volunteers!!

Election Film: Free For All!

Oil Crisis: Oil Industry's method of raising prices and cutting their own taxes

LA County Needs Poll Workers for June 3rd - Please sign up!

Action Alert: Testify March 7th - LA County Registrar continues to disenfranchise voters!!

Read more

LA Elections in Crisis: URGENT - Move NOW to Save YOUR Vote

L.A. County (largest county in USA) vote system vulnerable to hackers

Read more

Action Alert: Demand Net Neutrality!! 48 hrs. left to comment!!

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