Vote tampering in U.S. elections?

Tests around the country by computer science and computer security experts keep confirming that many electronic voting machines (EVMs) are easy to tamper with. Recently a major study of electronic voting machines from the respected Brennan Center for Justice confirmed the necessity of a paper trail. Voting machines can be altered by replacing memory cards, attaching cables for remote access, or internet or wireless access. Hackers have easily altered data in test situations. Many states have had problems that look suspiciously like vote tampering. Sixty-five percent of all states now require paper trails for all voting machines. Now that a major voting machine company has been purchased by a Venezuelan company hopefully more Americans across the political spectrum will realize that the only way for all of us to be secure in the integrity of our elections is to require a paper trail as a backup.

RFK Jr. has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Diebold, controversial manufacturer of electronic voting machines, alleging fraud when Diebold represented its machines as unhackable. Numerous tests have proved the multiple ways in which Diebold machines can be accessed and votes tampered with, all without detection. The lawsuit alleges that Diebold knowingly misrepresented its equipment. From the beginning of their entry into the electronic voting market, the use of Diebold EVMs have been surrounded by a cloud of allegations of problems linking them to voting fraud. As Kennedy points out, “The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system. Whoever controls the voting machines can control who wins the votes.”

Congress, What Will You Do About the Debt?

One hundred fifty thousand dollars apiece. That’s the debt each child born in America will owe on the $10 trillion dollar debt, mostly to the Chinese. Yes, it’s the President’s policies that have brought this disaster-in-the-making upon America, but you in Congress went along with it. I never read of any efforts you made to urge fiscal responsibility or prudence. No, you voted to enact tax cuts when we had a surplus (though we still had a lot of debt) and continued to do so when the debt skyrocketed. Now it is almost double what it was five years ago when Bush took office. The debt and our dependence on foreign lenders like China threatens our economic stability and our national security. It happened on your watch. What are you going to do about it?

Radnofsky is Outstanding Senatorial Candidate

Texans have an outstanding nominee, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, running for U.S. Senate in Texas. Go to www.radnofsky.com to listen to podcasts or watch videos of speeches and read about her and the issues. She's the daughter and granddaughter of men who served our country in the armed services, and is married to a doctor. She's brilliant, thoughtful, and knowledgeable about the vital issues affecting this country. She's passionate about veterans' issues, the health care system, and education.

On every issue I care about Barbara Ann has an unusual grasp and well-reasoned position. She strongly supports plans to put our nation’s fiscal house in order. Her opponent’s voting record shows she believes we should continue to allow reckless, irresponsible spending on credit. Radnofsky believes that all Americans benefit when our nation’s finances are strong and well-managed. ( See http://www.radnofsky.com/video/economy.wmv)

If Texans get to know Barbara Ann, I think she can and will beat the incumbent. She's that outstanding.

Immoral budget

Budgets are statements of moral values. Tragically, the recently passed budget virtually shouts that Congress is morally bankrupt. Balancing the budget is important, yes. But how it is balanced is the issue.

Congress voted, by a narrow margin, to cut funding of medicaid and reduce benefits. That is in spite of a spike in the numbers of those needing those services after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And it flies in the face of the escalating costs of medical care.

The costs of balancing the budget in light of the deficit and of the Iraq War are disproportionately harming the poor as programs that keep their plight from being totally desperate. As a Christian, I know that Jesus wants us to look out for the "least of these," his brothers. Yet this budget takes a huge step backward, at the expense of those who can least afford cuts.

When adequate care is not provided, often the patient waits until they are desperate. Then they go to the emergency room or some other acute care facility. This shifts the burden of paying for health care from a very large taxpayer pool to a smaller pool (local resients). That effectively means higher local taxes. Such a policy is decpetive, and hurts taxpayers far more than if Congress had enacted a modest raise in taxes.

We need to insist that Congress revisits the budget to make sure it shows the fairness and compassion America has always had for those at the bottom. This new "conservative" approach to governing is far from the conservative ideal which didn't keep us from our traditional caring for one another, extending a hand up where needed and sharing the burden. (Shared burdens are lighter.) The budget is not conservative, not compassionate, not Christian, and certainly does not promote the general welfare.

When the Devil Masquerades as a Christian

The Devil is never so dangerous as when he masquerades as a Christian. It’s a clever disguise. The mask is smoothly respectable, even “nice”. His words sound reasonable, at first blush. He talks about Jesus this and God that. The faithful are fooled into thinking he’s a man of faith himself. He makes the right moves, talks the talk, at times even walks the walk, for long enough to convince those he wants to seduce.

Jesus described him, saying he has been a murderer from the beginning and calling him the Father of lies, lying because “there is no truth in him.”

Satan has been terrifyingly successful. He has swayed millions of American Christians to follow him. Yet they remain oblivious of the real nature of what they have come to believe and the actions he has led them to take. They believe they are still following Christ. The Devil keeps their eyes closed with a mixture of carefully selected scripture and all the techniques of propaganda.

Christ warned against those who would come in sheep’s clothing but who are inwardly ferocious wolves. We can recognize them by their fruit, for good trees can only bear good fruit and bad trees only bear bad fruit. Pervasive lying is a hallmark of the Devil’s work. So are feelings of confusion, fear, deep anger, hatred (although we generally deny what it is to ourselves), and use of the methods and language of war instead of peace.


Perhaps the following version of the Christian classic, The Screwtape Letters, can best illustrate Satan’s machinations in our current political situation. C.S. Lewis wrote letters from the perspective of the demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood advising him on how to tempt Christians away from their faith so they might lose their salvation and end in Satan’s clutches. This new letter posted by a blogger know as “revscat” purports to be from Wormwood celebrating recent successes under the title, “Status Report: Wormwood to Screwtape.”

My Dear Uncle Screwtape,

It is with the greatest pleasure that I write to you today. Our successes of late have been many and profound, and your advice has helped further our cause immensely. As Our Father Below requested, I have compiled a list of our recent successes and victories. It is difficult to express in words how excited I am at our prospects.

1. We have convinced the Christians in the most militarily powerful nation on the planet to support our causes. The greatest success of this venture has been in convincing the leadership that they are in fact doing the Enemy's [Satan’s name for God] work, not ours. Without their energetic support we never would have achieved so much.

2. Support for war among the Christians is at an all time high. It tickles me to no end to write that sentence. Christians, supporting war! It was not too long ago that such an utterance would have been unthinkable. We have quietly convinced them that they are, in truth, warring against the Muslims of the world, and that their very existence is dependant upon such support. Our agents amongst the Muslims have already achieved great successes, and now the lessons we learned with those people are paying off with similar success in our efforts against Christians.

3. Support for torture among Christians is now a reality! My dear Uncle, despite our occasional differences I must say that your advice on how best to achieve this was absolutely indispensable. We have successfully played upon their xenophobia, although we would not have been so subtle in our justifications had it not been for your excellent guidance.

4. The most egregious lies are now supported and even encouraged amongst and by the Christians. We have managed to show them how the lessons learned from marketing and selective editing can twist the truth to their own cause, and they have most willingly taken it up as their own. Since for them the end justifies the means, there is no lie they will not willingly tell themselves or others. They even think themselves clever whenever they successfully lie in such a manner, and take pride in it. They take pride in their lies! Ecstasy, dear uncle!

5. Our extensive communication networks have convinced the Christians that the only morality of any value is hatred (rarely called that, of course; they find the word distasteful) towards both homosexuals and liberals. The abandonment of disinterested love has allowed gains in other areas, specifically the support of war, murder, torture, and other acts which bring us such joy. All other morality has taken a backseat. They still speak with great vigor about worshipping the Enemy, but this of course concerns us little. Their actions are what are important to us.

6. Finally, and perhaps our greatest success: we have brought into being an apocalyptic mythology which has completely distracted them from the realities immediately before them. Our precious fool LaHaye has seen untold success in the market, and has brought many under our fold. His followers have been so blinded by fear, hate, and shallow scholarship of the hated Book that mere contemplation of the notion that our Greatest Agent now occupies the White House is deeply taboo. (You can be sure that we are quick to mock, vilify, and suppress any who even suggest the truth!) In short, dear uncle, Our Father Below is right to be pleased with our progress. We have turned the Enemy's own people against him, and done so while simultaneously fooling them into believing they are doing His work. A more masterful stroke has never before been accomplished, and they are further than ever from the clutches of our Enemy. Fear is a wonderful tool.

Your affectionate nephew, Wormwood

So who is Satan using today? Many men and women in positions of leadership are unwitting pawns in his hands. Many in this administration. Some on both sides of the aisle in Congress. Jerry Falwell. Many others. Once their faith may have been real. In fact, the Devil is good at keeping them from seeing that it is no longer Christ they follow. Their lack of self-examination allows them to confidently project a Christian faith they are far from actually living. The human condition is such that ambition and a lust for power can lead individuals of any political persuasion astray. The adage, “Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely,’ reflects where Satan probes most effectively for vulnerability.

Christ’s disciples are called to pattern themselves after him. He challenged the self-satisfied and self-righteous, ministered time and again to the outcast, the helpless, and the hopeless. He spoke truth to power and the powerless. He enjoyed the company of those who weren’t socially acceptable and spent little time with those of wealth and power. He offered love, acceptance, and forgiveness to those not deserving it, calling them to go and sin no more. Note the lack of condemning words even then. He rejected worldly power, even when his followers tried to crown him. He never lied, never manipulated or coerced, never set himself above others. Instead he emptied himself of all power, prestige, and status, and acted as a servant, washing the feet of his disciples.

Contrast Jesus to Mr. Falwell in a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer last fall when he said , “You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord. “ Those remarks sound like unresurrected nature speaking, not the grace and peace of our risen Lord. Frankly, they are unbiblical and defamatory, conveying a false image of Jesus.

Did you want to believe this administration would do its best by the people? Me too. I resisted believing they were systematically hoodwinking the public for quite a while. But uneasiness niggled in the background and I started investigating for myself in a wide variety of source materials.

The words of Russ Rymer, editor of Mother Jones in "The Machinery of Mendacity," may seem shocking to you if you haven’t been paying attention, and if you’ve placed your trust in our Christian and political leaders.

...“That activity [arguing the economics of the problem], engaging in a thoughtful discussion of politics and priorities, the wisdom of one or another course of action, could be considered honorable regardless of which side one argued from. Rather, the [Administration] mouthpieces are ignobly contesting the very science itself, using any tactic, any slipshod fiction, that might throw doubt into the public mind and so deflect the dictates of hard fact. In other words, given a public policy debate, conservatives have decided to forgo real debate entirely—to adopt instead a radical course: denying reality itself.

...“Climate of Denial” could serve as a title for the political times we live in. On issue after issue, this administration and this Congress continue to pursue policies that cannot stand the test of honest debate, and require a rewriting of basic facts. The dangers to the country are evident in myriad policy debacles: the illegal, expensive, and unnecessary war we were led into under false pretenses; the “reform” of Social Security based on the unfounded assertion that the program is in “crisis” (and pursued by ideologues pretending their goal is not to end it entirely); the economy plundered by fiscal improvidence; the budget busted by grand theft billed as tax relief.

The danger is graver because the negation of truth is so systematic. Dishonest accounting, willful scientific illiteracy, bowdlerized federal fact sheets, payola paid to putative journalists, “news” networks run by right-wing apparatchiks, think tanks devoted to propaganda rather than thought, the purging of intelligence gatherers and experts throughout the bureaucracy whose findings might refute the party line—this is the machinery of mendacity. Its products are not the cherry-tree lies of embarrassed schoolboys covering up their misdemeanors, but the agitprop of a political ascendancy that considers the manipulation of truth an essential tool. There’s no embarrassment in it. The same partisans who clucked loudly during their impeachment of President Clinton about the need for a government so transparent that the most private details of a president’s personal life should be open to inspection have wrapped such a dense cloak of secrecy around the current president that even the roster of his administration’s meetings is withheld from the citizenry, under the expressed claim that the White House can’t do what needs doing if the American people are allowed to know what that is. The point here is not the hypocrisy involved, though that is egregious. The point is the downgrading of truth and honesty from principles with universal meaning to partisan weapons to be sheathed or drawn as necessary. No wonder the Bush administration feels no compunction to honor the truth or seek it; it conceives truth as a tactic, valuable only insofar as it is useful against one’s enemies....The [Conservative] movement born of principle has prevailed by renouncing it, and the former apostles of reality have prospered by purveying a potent mixture of wishful fantasy and outright lie.

I write this to all of my Christian friends, especially those who believe in this administration and many of the conservative, evangelical Christians who have wielded such power and influence in American politics for the past quarter century, in the hope that no matter how skeptical you might be about my argument, you will take the time to examine, reflect, and think for yourself. Pray too to be open to God showing you the truth even if it is painful.

I write out of an urgent sense of the peril our country faces. A house built on lies cannot stand. Only one built on truth can. We face a moral crisis that threatens our constitution and democracy. Our souls may hang in the balance as well. Wake up, wake up!

War sold to America with propaganda campaign

Recognition that the war in Iraq is terribly counter-productive is long overdue. It's been badly mismanaged and was sold to the American people by a deliberate propaganda campaign filled with fabrications It is unwinnable, both because of the mismanagement and because our cause lacks moral authority, while Iraqis are fighting to oust hated foreign occupiers. They may be using despicable methods, but fighting for one's country when it has been invaded has legitimacy to it that our pre-emptive invasion lacks.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a scathing report on the illegality of the numerous instances of this administration paying journalists for favorable reports, passing off video news releases paid for by the government (using our taxes) as if they were legitimate news coverage, and other illegal acts of propagandizing American citizens. There's a law about that!

America needs to end our military presence in Iraq just as soon as humanly possible. Our troops were sent into harm's way based on a lie. Many, tragically, have lost their lives or been maimed while they valiantly served their country. Honor our troops and bring them home now.

How do Americans bridge the political divide?

When my friend MaryGail, a nurse, invited me to contribute a column on healing to our church's monthly newsletter, I was startled that she would ask me since I'm not in the medical field. In ruminating over the request (MaryGail is hard to refuse), it occured to me that some meanings of healing include mending a quarrel or broken relationship, and in that case perhaps I had something to say after all. Healing of relationships among Americans has been an increasing preoccupation of mine for several years. A disturbing trend had burst into my consciousness a number of years earlier: a sharp increase of rancorous, inflammatory, and divisive political speech that first surprised, and then alarmed, me.

Ranting diatribes seem to have become the order of the day on talk radio programming, with inflammatory rhetoric both on the right and the left that’s designed to get the blood boiling and the hearer riled up. It reminds me of the angry shouting by a constantly quarreling couple, whose relationship is at great risk of ending in divorce.

Can you remember (if you are old enough to remember the way it was before the late-eighties) when the norm in controversial public discourse on television and radio was calm, rational, and civil? Our leaders and media personalities disagreed without being disagreeable and heated invective was rarely heard on the airwaves. The “marriage” seemed a healthy and happy one. How, in a few short years, did we come to this? Why, too, didn’t it happen earlier? After all, surely Americans held opinions as firmly a couple of decades ago.

Few noticed a change in regulations of broadcast media in 1987 that removed the requirement for broadcasters to ensure a fair and equal balance of opinions be aired on issues of public importance. Without regulation, the opportunity to hear a broad range of viewpoints on any given issue declined precipitously while that of hearing a one-sided presentation increased abruptly. Perhaps our busy lives and all the choices of entertainment available distracted us from noticing what was happening to us.

So, over time we now have different background knowledge from one another and understand one another’s reasoning less and less. Our decisions then frequently fail to take into account the impact on others of a different perspective. Such decisions can chafe. How stable can laws end up being under those circumstances? Conflict and misunderstanding increase, while tolerance takes a nosedive. By contrast, decisions made after a thorough airing of all points of view often garner more of a consensus, because with understanding compromises usually are worked out.

Today many of us are distinctly uncomfortable talking about political opinions with those unlike ourselves. It feels risky; maybe we’ll spark angry retaliation directed toward us. People from across the political spectrum feel wounded and defensive. Even within a family, estrangement may be felt and the ability to communicate stifled. Are you experiencing any of these difficulties?

At a church conference in Corpus Christi a couple of years ago, one exhibit caught my eye: the Institute for Civility in Government. Could it be that others were working to counter the polarization I find so troubling? I introduced myself to Cassandra Dahnke, the Presbyterian clergywoman manning the booth, and was thrilled to find that indeed there were. Rev. Dahnke founded the Institute for Civility in Government (INSTCIG) as a ministry to promote healing and reconciliation among us in our public, political life.

And how does INSTCIG go about doing that? One way is by organizing and sponsoring debate and dialogue by two local area members of congress from opposing parties on college campuses, with the aim of demonstrating that it is possible to disagree while maintaining civility. Another is by taking groups of politically very diverse people to Washington D.C. to observe Congress, study an issue thoroughly, and come to a consensus. Dahnke says every group they’ve taken has successfully found some areas of common agreement.

In the face of a large and seemingly intractable problem, that ministry is just one small way of trying to begin the healing process. Understanding root causes of the problem is a beginning.

If you are a person of prayer, I would ask for your prayers for all of us in this country we love, for healing and reconciliation between us, and a restoration of civility and openness toward other people and other viewpoints. While it is easier said than done, our own efforts to practice and model openness to civil dialogue with those we disagree with can play a powerful role, I believe, in God using us to nurture the seed of healing he has planted.

Vigil4America was launched in an effort to span the divide and build bridges of understanding.

Come, let us reason together.