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CDR: Florida Democrats shot themselves in both feet
by George＠Orwellian.Org 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

It woulda been over. Coulda shoulda woulda. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/17/politics/17DUVA.html # # November 17, 2000 # # Democrats Rue Ballot Foul-Up in a 2nd County # # By RAYMOND BONNER with JOSH BARBANEL # # ACKSONVILLE, Fla., Nov. 16 - Democrats in Duval County prepared # meticulously for Election Day. They registered thousands of voters # and ferried enough people to the polls in predominantly # African-American precincts to give a solid boost to Vice President # Al Gore in a county expected to swing reliably into Gov. George # W. Bush's column. # # But the results of Duval County's vote left Democrats here shaking # their heads. More than 26,000 ballots were invalidated, the vast # majority because they contained votes for more than one # presidential candidate. Nearly 9,000 of the votes were thrown # out in the predominantly African-American communities around # Jacksonville, where Mr. Gore scored 10-to-1 ratios of victory, # according to an analysis of the vote by The New York Times. # # The percentage of invalidated votes here was far higher than # that recorded in Palm Beach County, which has become the focus # of national attention and where Democrats have argued that so # many people were disenfranchised it may be necessary to let them # vote again. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have demanded a # hand recount or new election in Duval County. # # Local election officials attributed the outcome to a ballot that # had the name of presidential candidates on two pages, which they # said many voters found confusing. Many voters, they said, voted # once on each page. The election officials said they would not # use such a ballot in the future. # # Rodney G. Gregory, a lawyer for the Democrats in Duval County, # said the party shared the blame for the confusion. Mr. Gregory # said Democratic Party workers instructed voters, many persuaded # to go to the polls for the first time, to cast ballots in every # race and "be sure to punch a hole on every page." # # "The get-out-the vote folks messed it up," Mr. Gregory said # ruefully. # # If Mr. Gregory's assessment is correct, and thousands of Gore # supporters were inadvertently misled into invalidating their # ballots, this county alone would have been enough to give Mr. # Gore the electoral votes of Florida, and thus the White House. [snip]

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CDR: White Supremacist raided
by George＠Orwellian.Org 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

- Feds raid David Dukes house, cart off files - Feds Raid Home of Ex-Klansman By Cain Burdeau ASSOCIATED PRESS MANDEVILLE, La. Federal agents raided the home of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke on Thursday, carting off boxes of documents and a rifle during a search that lasted more than seven hours. FBI agent Sheila Thorne refused to disclose the nature of the investigation. But Roy Armstrong, who identified himself as Duke's bodyguard and a caretaker at the house, said agents told him they were looking into whether Duke was illegally using money raised for his new white-rights organization for his personal use. "It's a fishing expedition," Armstrong said. Duke's associates said that the 50-year-old former KKK leader and one-time state legislator was in Russia, promoting a new book, and that they had not been able to reach him. His new organization is the National Organization For European American Rights, or NOFEAR. He launched it in January, declaring that whites in the United States face "massive discrimination" at the hands of minorities. Agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and the Postal Inspection Service took part in the search of Duke's home in a suburb outside New Orleans. Agents carried out about a dozen boxes. Armstrong showed reporters a copy of the search warrant, which sought a variety of financial and personal records, including gambling and travel records and direct mailings. As for the rifle, Armstrong said agents told him they believed it was stolen. Armstrong said that he had never seen the gun before and that he did not know whether it belonged to Duke. Duke appeared before a federal grand jury in New Orleans in 1999 as news broke that Gov. Mike Foster had paid him more than $150,000 for a list of his supporters, supposedly for use during the 1995 governor's race. Duke had considered entering that race but ultimately stayed out of it. The grand jury reportedly was seeking information on whether Duke paid taxes on the money. It was not known if the raid on Duke's home had anything to do with that matter. Foster "hasn't spoken to the FBI," said the governor's spokeswoman, Marsanne Golsby. "He doesn't know anything about it." Foster, a Republican, paid a $20,000 fine to the state Board of Ethics in connection with the list of supporters. Duke spent years on the political fringe, first as a Klan leader with neo-Nazi sympathies, then as founder of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, which decried integration. He got elected to the state House in 1989 as a Republican and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1990, pulling 44 percent of the vote against Democratic Sen. J. Bennett Johnston. In the 1991 governor's race, he shocked the political establishment by making it into a runoff with former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who was trying for a comeback. Edwards won in a landslide. Duke made a run for the presidency in Southern primaries in 1992 but was soundly defeated. He finished third in the 1999 race to replace Rep. Bob Livingston in Congress.

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CDR: Fucking cops (Put down those fries)
by George＠Orwellian.Org 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

Girl Arrested for Eating Fries in Subway Police Cite 'Zero Tolerance' No-Food Rule Nov. 16, 2000 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The mother of a 12-year-old girl who was handcuffed, booked and fingerprinted for eating french fries in a subway station says police went too far. "I can't believe there isn't a better way to teach kids a lesson," said Tracey Hedgepeth, whose daughter Ansche was arrested. "The police treated her like a criminal." But Metro Transit Police Chief Barry J. McDevitt is unapologetic about Ansche's arrest last month and others like it. "We really do believe in zero tolerance," he said. Undercover operation Commuter complaints about unlawful eating on Metro cars and in stations led McDevitt to mount an undercover crackdown on violators. A dozen plainclothes officers cited or arrested 35 people, 13 of them juveniles. Only one adult was arrested. The seventh-grade girl said the station in northwest Washington where she was nabbed is "just a place where a lot of kids go. There's a hot dog stand and Cafe Med, where I bought my fries." She said she took the elevator to the station with a friend. As the pair passed the station kiosk, a man stepped in front of Ansche. 'Put down your fries' "He said: 'Put down your fries. Put down your book bag,'" Ansche said. "They searched my book bag and searched me. They asked me if I have any drugs or alcohol." Ansche said she has never been asked those questions or searched like that before. "I was embarrassed. I told my friend to call my mom, but I didn't tell anybody else," she said. She said she never talked to the officer, although Metro police insist that she was asked whether she knew eating was against the law and that she said she did. They said anyone who doesn't know about the law usually is given a warning first. Signs warning that it is illegal to eat or drink on the cars and in the stations are posted in the Metro system. Custody for juveniles She was taken to the detention center, where she was checked in, fingerprinted and held for her parents to pick her up. If Ansche had been an adult, she simply would have received citations for fines up to $300. But juveniles who commit criminal offenses in the District of Columbia must be taken into custody, McDevitt said. It is department policy to handcuff anyone who is arrested, no matter the age, he said. Ansche must perform community service and undergo counseling at the Boys and Girls Club, one of the sentences Metro has chosen for underage snacking lawbreakers. Bad trash problem McDevitt said the Tenleytown stop where the arrest occurred has had a particularly bad trash problem. "We had not only customers complaining," he said. "Train conductors were also complaining about how trashed their trains were, and they were asking for more enforcement." Hedgepeth said she agrees with sticking to the rules, but wonders why police couldn't issue warnings. "How do they expect kids to grow up trusting police?" she said. "My daughter will now grow up knowing she's been in handcuffs. All over a french fry."

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CDR: Florida reject stats, chad vs. optical
by George＠Orwellian.Org 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

Dubya has announced he will nominate Harris as ambassador to Chad. ---- [snipped] http://foxnews.com/election_night/111600/uncounted.sml # # TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Not every vote counts. # # George W. Bush and Al Gore are just 300 votes apart in Florida's # presidential election, but more than 180,000 Floridians who went # to the polls on Nov. 7 could have just stayed home. Their ballots # were tossed out because they chose more than one presidential # candidate, didn't choose one at all or their vote didn't register. # # That's nearly 3 percent of the 6,138,567 ballots that Florida # citizens turned in. Experts say the national average usually # runs at less than 2 percent, depending on the type of voting # method used. # # The problem in Florida largely can be traced to paper punchcard # ballots, which have helped derail the presidential election and # added "chad" to the national lexicon. # # Some counties had startlingly large numbers of ballots that # weren't counted. All three of these used punchcards: # # - In Miami-Dade County, 28,601 ballots were not counted in the # presidential race, out of about 654,044 cast. # # - In Palm Beach County, home of the controversial "butterfly # ballot," 29,702 votes weren't counted out of 462,888 total. # # - In Jacksonville and surrounding Duval County, 26,909 votes # went uncounted out of 291,545 cast. # # Election lawyer Kenneth Gross, who worked for Bob Dole's 1996 # presidential campaign, said the problem is that holes on the # cards aren't always clean. # # "If there's any paper hanging, the machine tends to push it back # into the hole and then records it as a no vote," Gross said. # # Leon County, where the state capital, Tallahassee, is located, # was another story altogether. There were only 181 votes that # weren't counted, just 0.2 percent of the total. # # That's largely because Leon and 14 other Florida counties use # an optical scan system in which voters fill in a bubble with # a pen instead of punching a hole in a card.

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CDR: Aces high
by Bill Stewart 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

>This was forwarded to me today but thought it might amuse y'all because >of the similar thread. . . > >> This story regarding the tight race in New Mexico -- which >> sounds like it's 130 years out of date -- is from MS/NBC: >> >> In a strange twist, under New Mexico law, a tied result could force >> Bush and Gore to draw straws or play a hand of poker to settle the race. >> State law requires that a dead-even race, "the determination as >> to which of the candidates shall be declared to have been nominated or >> elected shall be decided by lot." >> >> In practice, the usual method for this rare event has been to play one >> hand of five-card poker, but the parties can decide on another method. >> "Whether they want to draw straws, play a hand of five-card stud, >> or draw a high card, that is totally up to the participants," >> state elections director Denise Lamb said. >> >> The last time this happened was in December 1999, when Republican >> Jim Blanq and Democrat Lena Milligan tied at 798 votes each in a >> local race for magistrate judge. They played one hand of poker in a >> courthouse with dozens of people watching, and Blanq won. >> from http://www.msnbc.com/news/487297.asp Also, somebody on another list was ranting about the interpretation of the results being "To-MAY-Toe vs. To-MAH-Toe", and the obvious response was "No, Tomatina!" http://www.latomatina.com/html/i.htm A good tomato throwing fight _would_ be a pretty appropriate way to resolve this election. You can vote early and often... Attack of the killer tomatoes! Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart(a)pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

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CDR: colorful chars correcting remailer issue
by anonymous＠openpgp.net 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

At 10:35 AM 11/15/00 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: >Johnson seems quite a colorful character. Aside from crypto, he also >has interests in sewage treatment, image enhancement, intellectual >property protection, display technology, economic forcasting, >and genetic engineering. Several of these involve something he >calls fractal modulation. Mania + engineering = (you know who) depending on intensity...

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CDR: colorful chars
by anonymous＠openpgp.net 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

At 10:35 AM 11/15/00 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: >Johnson seems quite a colorful character. Aside from crypto, he also >has interests in sewage treatment, image enhancement, intellectual >property protection, display technology, economic forcasting, >and genetic engineering. Several of these involve something he >calls fractal modulation. Mania + engineering = <you know who> depending on intensity...

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CDR: Welcome to Prius_Technical_Stuff
by Prius_Technical_Stuff Moderator 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

Hello, Welcome to the Prius_Technical_Stuff group at eGroups, a free, easy-to-use email group service. Please take a moment to review this message. To start sending messages to members of this group, simply send email to Prius_Technical_Stuff(a)egroups.com If you do not wish to belong to Prius_Technical_Stuff, you may unsubscribe by sending an email to Prius_Technical_Stuff-unsubscribe(a)egroups.com You may also visit the eGroups web site to modify your subscriptions: http://www.egroups.com/mygroups Regards, Moderator, Prius_Technical_Stuff

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CDR: While we're talking about the microeconomics of transaction privacy...
by R. A. Hettinga 17 Nov '00

17 Nov '00

http://www.frbatlanta.org/publica/work_papers/wp00/wp0022.pdf Complements of the Atlanta Fed. Lions and Tigers and Coasian microecon, oh, my... No mention of the "B" word, but, then, they're not supposed to, yet, right? :-) Cheers, RAH -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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CDR: Public Key Infrastructure: An Artifact...
by R. A. Hettinga 16 Nov '00

16 Nov '00

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/II/PKIMisFit.html Public Key Infrastructure: An Artifact Ill-Fitted to the Needs of the Information Society Abstract It has been conventional wisdom that, for e-commerce to fulfill its potential, each party to a transaction must be confident in the identity of the others. Digital signature technology, based on public key cryptography, has been claimed as the means whereby this can be achieved. Digital signatures do little, however, unless a substantial infrastructure is in place to provide a basis for believing that the signature means something of significance to the relying party. Conventional, hierarchical PKI, built around the ISO standard X.509, has been, and will continue to be, a substantial failure. This paper examines that form of PKI architecture, and concludes that it is a very poor fit to the real needs of cyberspace participants. The reasons are its inherently hierarchical and authoritarian nature, the unreasonable presumptions it makes about the security of private keys, a range of other technical defects, confusions about what it is that a certificate actually authenticates, and its inherent privacy-invasiveness. Alternatives are identified. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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