Could Hactivists Choose Lady GaGa for next President of the United States?
By louisehartmann
As Hactivists out a cop in New York for brutally macing peaceful protestors on Wall Street, many people are wondering if they could also hack our next election? And now the government wants to know if it's possible. A team of computer science and security experts working within the Department of Energy say they’ve hacked into a Diebold electronic voting machine and were able to change voting results without leaving a trace behind. And they were able to do it using only $26 of equipment and what they claim is just an 8th grade understanding of science. The Vulnerable Assessment Team – as they are called – that performed the hack said, “this is a national security issue.”
And according to investigative reporter Brad Friedman – this is, “one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.” Nearly every other country in the world has ditched electronic voting – arguing that it’s not secure. Yet here in the United States – for some reason we keep it in place. In fact – in next year’s election – about 30% of voters will use these very same Diebold e-voting machines.
So it’s no longer about who gets the most votes in our democracy – but which side can hack the vote. I can see it now - 35 million write-in votes suddenly appear on Diebold machines for Lady GaGa, the next President of the United States!
Comments
#2
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
-Benjamin Franklin
#3
You are so wrong on this!!! I really don't get you on this. These attempts to corrupt the voting system are in-our-face- out there. The republicans aren't trying to hide what they are doing- from re-districting, to making it arduous to vote, to hacking machines. My God- we know they hacked the machines in 2000 and 2004!!!! And you are suggesting that we make 7 phone calls, or man the voting booths! Should we offer free donuts to scared voters as well? This is infuriating! Where is Eric Holder in this? Where is the attempt by our justice system to stop this dismantleing of our basic right to vote? Why do you tell us to always be on the defensive? "Well, so this is how it is, and yeah it's really illegal and unconstitutional, so all you smart, concerned dems- "GO MAN THE BOOTHS- MAKE THE PHONE CALLS- BUY THE DONUTS"! NO NO NO NO!!! You are wrong. ERIC HOLDER needs to be accountable- he needs to DO HIS JOB! Obama needs to know- (as he MAY, finally ,that he cannot deal with this congress, he cannot compromise with them- they want him GONE! PERIOD! NO MORE DISCUSSION) that all his fancy talk is useless if they steal the election again. Please Please- this isn't just "Oh well, here they go again, pick up your shields gang"- NO-This is the time to STOP THEM from VIOLATING OUR CONSTITUTION@!!!! Please stop giving any indication that this is simply how they operate -so we need to go on defense AGAIN- and hope for the best.
And by the way- do you watch (gag) "reliable sourses"? You have the wherewithall to contact Howie and ask why the networks are not covering "fill in your blank here". You, he may listen to, or ask on the program- so you can talk about this. francesca
#4
I think that the Obama adminstration knows that Republicans are hacking machines but feels like they can't do anything about it because we'll be called conspiratorial, even given all the "irregularities". So if they go about bringing up voting issues now and pretend that Republican primaries could be at risk, maybe Repubs might take notice and do something about the voting machines.
I think that liberal hackers SHOULD hack voting machines, especially in very red areas, in order to raise fear in the conservative base so that they'll do something about the voting machines.
#5
I completely agree. Thom's speculative statement "what if Lady Gaga won the New Hampshire Republican primary" is nonsensical. If a name such as Lady Gaga or Scooby Doo actually gathered a significant number of votes then that tally would never see the light of day and will be immediately suppressed from the press and any other publicity. It would take a common name such as "Alvin Greene" to effectively and believably hack the vote. I wonder if the vote tally would be suppressed if Rush Limbaugh won the primary?
In any case lack of attention to vote hacking is deplorable. There are many instances that warrant investigation, just ask Max Cleland.
#6
Looking forward to reading The Thom Hartmann Reader Milton Freidman a sociopath said 'what country does not run on greed.' listening to Stephane Hessel was like listening to my mentor Daisaku Ikeda
#7
Hey Thom - thank you, thank you, for the latest story on the “hacked voting machines” investigation. Please keep hitting hard on this issue. Elections have got to become meaningful.
For those who haven’t seen this: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2011/08/democracy-died-first-wisconsin-%E2%80%93-long-live-oligarchs#comment-92442
#8
Hacking voting machines is one thing but hacking into our bank accounts is something that the banks try to keep quiet. This is something you don't read in the papers...but the FBI is very concerned: Hackers Take $1 Billion a Year as Banks Blame Their Clients...and the bankers have the support of the courts.
I wonder how many people are having problems...like I have..of paying your bills on time..even though you mailed the check as early as 20 days before the due date....using the USPS and then being informed by...say your credit card company that they did not receive payment from last billing cycle and so they must charge you interest and late fees?
In fact, for many years, I have made a point to carefully record the dates I received the bills, the dates I wrote the checks, and the dates I mailed the bills through the USPS...and made my payments well before the due date. I never wanted to get into the rut of having to pay interest or late charges...and I imagine, aside from the yearly dues for the card, they didn't make very much money on me...I was, surprisingly enough, considered a "dead beat" because they didn't make any money on me.
When I first started having problems...I suspected that someone stole the letters out of the rather full mail box in front of the local post office. I got a bad feeling the moment I put the letters in because I could tell how full the box was....it was just preceding a holiday...Christmas, I believe it was. 3 bills turned up not being received by the creditors...so I put a stop payment on those checks and wrote new ones. Since that time, I made it a point to never put mail in the outside mail boxes, even though they were right in front of the post office, and began to mail them inside the post office.
Then I was again notified, by my credit card company, that they had not received payment even though I wrote the check and mailed it a couple of days after receiving the bill in the mail and the due date was about 20 days after I mailed the check. This particular bill was larger than most others but I paid it in full as I always do.
I called up the credit card company and told them I had mailed it 20 days prior to the due date but they still persisted in wanting to charge me interest. I again had to do a stop payment on the check and write a new one including the interest.
Since I pay all my bills in full and never let a revolving charge happen I suspect that the credit card company just held on to the check, or misplaced it, in order to rack up interest charges and late payment charges. It is either that or it was the post office that either lost the letters or postal worker in that local branch has got something going for him or her that is not on the up and up.
I no longer use my local branch post office but I still suspect foul play on the part of the credit card company. I also suspect that the credit card company, along with banks and other financial institutions would love it if the post office was privatized and more people are herded into using the internet to pay their bills and their banking transactions on-line....and so will do whatever they can to blacken the reputation of the post office. There is a push on now to privatize the USPS and I strongly oppose privatization. Can you imagine what the rates will be when they have to pay off the ridiculously compensated executives and especially the CEO? And if the courts now side with banks against the depositors for a breech in banking security then they can lose your letters even easier than the current USPS can and maybe even cash them on the side...and blame you for it.
So if we are all forced, so to speak, to either do business with a profit-greedy private postal service or do our business through a highly suspect and insecure internet we are all caught between a rock and a hard place. Even banking that uses encryption (as I'm sure they all do) for their ON-LINE BANKING is NOT SECURE...not really...because even if there is encryption between your computer and the bank's computers you could easily have trojans and keyboard loggers on your computer that have been buried in the kernal using a rootkit installer which will steal your bank account numbers, your passwords that you typed in when you connected to your account, and any other personal data you have in your computer. Your virus checkers and firewalls will not keep them out. If they can hack into the DOD and CIA they can get into your computer.
And if you think that you will have redress with the bank after your accounts are wiped out just check into the matter of Patco Construction Company that lost their court claim against their bank, Ocean Bank, when they lost something like $350,000 when someone from overseas hacked into their bank account. The courts would not hold the bank responsible for the security of the transactions. Seems the bank, unlike most other banks, changed their policy to allow more and smaller transactions that increased the traffic between the company and the bank which helped the hackers glean the information they needed to gain access to the account.
And if you haven't yet heard of the Komodo Hacker (possibly Iranian) who not only, many months ago, managed to compromise the Komodo Certificates of Authority (CA) that are needed to maintain encryption but has just recently compromised over 200 CAs from other issuers of security certificates including the DigiNotar CAs. And unlike Komodo issuer, the DigiNotar issuer tried to cover up their breach...leaving a lot of time for hackers to compromise their systems.
Some executive in DigiNotar had used a rather weak password and the Komodo Hacker got in and stole the CAs. DigiNotar has gone belly up over this and most companies and other computer users have deleted or put up flags against accepting DigiNotar CAs.
The internet is broken, my friends! Not to be trusted...especially for financial things. But this is the model that the banks and creditors want you to blindly accept. And the courts seem to back the banks, as per the Patco/Ocean fiasco.
I believe, as well as do many others, that the problems with the USPS are manufactured by interests in the private sector.
http://www.savethepostoffice.com/
Patco Construction Co/Ocean Bank:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/bank-ach-theft/
Hackers Take $1 Billion a Year as Banks Blame Their Clients...and they have the support of the courts...here are lots of scare stories you probably never heard of in the press..because the banksters want to keep it under the table so you don't get freaked out and withdraw:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-04/hackers-take-1-billion-a-year-f...
#9
Sorry, Thom.
At least since 2004, Diebold and its sister company have been under scrutiny for collusion and deal-making with various supervisors of elections to maximize the use of touch-screen voting machines. Those machines have been hacked by activists to show their vulnerability years ago.
Rep. Rush Holt introduced legislation in Congress to require verifiable voting systems and post-election random audits. It went no where. Despite various voting scandals, including a FL Congressional race where 18K votes disappeared on touch screen machines, no comprehensive changes have been made in our voting process. And this inaction is with a Dem Congress and Dem President--nothing done whatsoever.
At least in Florida, a local non-partisan group in Sarasota County succeeded through referendum to switch from touch screens to paper ballots in 2006. At the same time the referendum passed overwhelmingly, the touch screens lost over 18K votes in a local Congressional race. That scandal prompted Gov. Charlie Crist to require paper ballots state-wide in 2007.
So talk about the DoE hacking group til the cows come home, and Congress will still do absolutely nothing about it. And the DoE is just wasting time and $$$. This is not news.
#10
You are right on Mr. Hartmann. In the 2008 senatorial election in Minnesota, Al Franken beat Norm Coleman by some 325 votes. It is still argued that there were more votes than voters in some precincts. Regardless of the outcome. Photo I.D. and a good strong paper ballot could have eliminated all this furvor. The paper ballots went through very smoothly in Florida in 2000 Bush v Gore.
#11
Tell Thom that Argonne National Laboratory is pronounced ARE-GAWN. They actually did do nuclear power plant research and offered international instruction in design and operation while my father and family lived there in 1960.
#12
It's not only possible it has already happened, at least in Ohio in 2004. George W. Bush was never legally elected to be President. First the Supreme Court made him President in what may be the most evil and most politically driven decision in the history of the Court. I offer that the ability to manipulate machine votes is the only plausible reason we have been forced into using these machines. Congress ought to act, but then they ought to do a lot of other things too. This is just one example showing how our corrupt Congress has gone insane and actively works against the common good and best interests of our country.
#13
there was plenty of evidence of hacking in the 2004 and 2006 elections. back when I thought obama was a democrat I was sure that mccain would win in 2008 but I think the cons got the guy they wanted.
#14
do you really think puch cards are what is meant by "paper ballots"?
#15
Oh my goodness, that is even scarier than PERRY getting elected!
#16
Minnesota has a paper ballot and the system works fine and speedily. You get a long ballot on stiff paper with the names and issues to be voted upon, make your selections with a provided pen, and push it into the electronic counter (I don't know what to call these things), which registers it and gives a count to date.Results are fast. It makes it relatively easy to check each ballot and the numbers. It's simple and easy to manage and it's reliable. I think any errors that were found by ballots being "lost," or in someone's car, or something.
#17
"Nearly every other country in the world has ditched electronic voting – arguing that it’s not secure. Yet here in the United States – for some reason we keep it in place."
For some reason?
The reason is clear to me. It's a last line of defense, the final backup plan. Even in the scarcely conceivable event that large numbers of regular Americans wake up, inform themselves, and decide to stop voting against their own interests; even in the remote event that we turn out in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the systematic voter-suppression measures being taken all over the country--those Diebold machines will ensure that the right people get "elected."
#18
The Hacktivist Smackdown:
(But first, MN has a paper ballot system and will as long as Mark Ritchie, the best Secretary of State in the nation, is in office.)
Here's what Hacktivists, or anyone who knows how to do this stuff, should publicly declare:
"We, the concerned Hactivists of America, vow to hack electronic voting machines of our choosing during every election, changing the results to one vote for each candidate, and letting you know which ones we hacked, until there are no more in use."
How long do you think it would be before voters in hacked districts would demand they all be destroyed?
#19
@Jeanie,
I think you are right in that first paragraph. It recalls to me Grover Norquist's chilling prophecy, “We will make it so that a Democrat cannot govern as a Democrat.” And don't even get me started on the double standard that lets ACORN-mania get whipped into a national frenzy while no one speaks of the voter suppression and electronic fraud that, inter alia, gave us two terms of George W. Bush.
But--speaking of the double standard--if liberal hackers did hack voting machines, there would be a massive, exhaustive investigation that would not stop until every one of them was found, tried, and convicted. And they would go to prison for a very, very long time.
#20
Voting machines can be hacked- manipulated. .GOP is hard at work trying to stop blacks , Hispanics , poor, old, from voting. How ? They are closing some DMV offices to make it harder to get an ID They are closing earlier and givng fewer days to vote early in many Dem leaning areas. If thats not voter tampering Nothing is . Bush's bro Gov Bush & his Fla con court gave the Preidency to Bush so yes they are capable of anything to break Obama and Get back in power. Lobbyists and Goldman Sachs RULE US congress, our law making, our courts- US economy & Wall St ! We the people have been ENRONED ROYAL !
#21
US has lived from 1980 -2008 global crash TARP scam ..under Reaganomics 1981 deregulaiton- 1986 total amnesty for cheap illegal wages, Bush 1-2 Cheney unpaid for debt- unfunded corp tax cuts & 2 unfunded long failed wars based on lies fear and massive war profits, Reagan Bush GOP's wealth favoring policies that greatly enriched the top, tanked our wages & benefits. Sending good jobs overseas with big Bush tax cuts...a reward for GOP base ?
#22
Minnesota's issues were with ballots that were duplicated and not marked as duplicates. Many were counted twice. Every system has flaws. I.D. voters and mark them off as they show up at the polls. NO same day registration and the counts should match.
#23
Diebold has done their own "hacking" or "fiddling with" election results to give "the naked emperor" two undeserved terms in office--the second time they wanted no mistakes. Big wig of Diebold here in Ohio was caught on camera saying that he would make certain "the shrub" won.
An independent election commission came to Ohio to investigate and found several hundred "irregularities" with elections here--nothing ever became of it and rethuglicans in the state house have recently been successful in gerrymandering the districts to favor themselves.
#24
I thought a rabid conservative owned the private co that has control of the computer code.. I can see the future, because it has already happened (proved beyond any resonable doubt by exit polls), that either the more criminal element of the conservative base, or perhaps people right at the top, will hack these elec voting machines as needed in contested states to steal elections.. It is obvious..
#25
I vote for Paris Hilton, our first generation of American Royalty. As I said, the hoteliers are the closest thing we have. Paris will be right in touch with the needs of the nation and every man in Congress will do whatever she wants.
XXXXX
#26
Thom,
I hope the hacktivists do something as obvious as making Lady GaGa president. All that would do is ensure a re-vote "the old-fashioned way", on paper. The danger lies in subtle changes of the tally in swing districts, where nobody would suspect tampering.
There are technological solutions that would allow safe electronic voting, even on the Internet. Stockholders meetings have been using one for many years. Each eligible voter receives a random two-factor ID/password to a secure website where their vote is cast. They can subsequently log in to verifiy their vote online, if they wish, to be sure it was registered and not altered. There is no conceivable way to hack such a system, except at the facility housing the servers, which can be made as secure as one would like.
-- Dean
#27
Trixie: "Minnesota's issues were with ballots that were duplicated and not marked as duplicates. Many were counted twice" yet neither of these charges held up. So just keep saying it until some Bozos believes it.
The GOP has a sustained attack on Democratic voters -busting unions, locating voting machines for long lines in Democratic precincts, Diebold head saying he'll deliver votes for Bush, easily hackable voting machines, and you're worried about voter's showing ID in a state that had virtualy no voter fraud!? And of the 30 some cases, none had partisan causes -why am I wasting my breath. The Kool Aid is strong and there's no cure.
#28
How about President Willie Nelson? Clean energy and strong environmental policies, sane pot laws, protection for working people and the end of the wars on Inauguration Day. I'm sure Lady Gaga would be considered for a cabinet position.
#29
Chris Hedges for President! I watched his speech on FSTV and he does very well in speaking truth to power. We might have a chance at fighting the evil doers...the real terrorists...the economic terrorists who have been undermining our Democracy and our Economy if Anonymous brings the US to a screeching halt. As Julian Assange of Wikileaks says...the internet is not secure because of the way it has been implemented. Secure servers mean nothing if the certificates can be forged and wreckless people in charge of that security use weak passwords. And as a billion dollars a year get stolen from the banks, even with their touted "secure transactions" we cannot rely on electronic ballot machines. And a question arises....if electronic voting machines can be so compromised...and even the Supreme Court is stacked against us (as we know with Bush)...how was it possible for Obama to have won the last election...unless the ruling elite planned it that way? Obama was the lugubrious Trojan Horse that made it possible to keep the antagonistic chatter down while they slipped in many pro-ruling elite actions...the bail-out...for one...the forced participation ObamaCare for another. Talk about voting against ones best interests....if you vote for either a Republican or Obama you will be doing just that...voting against your best interests. Obama will just give you four more years of even worse policies that will destroy most of the people who were, again, fooled into voting against their best interests. Obama is a Republican!
#30
Is there a website(s) people can acquire this equipment from? Better yet, a list of required components one can purchase for cash at an electronics store? There is ample enough time for this source list to get out, build and then saturate those states using the Diebold? During this time period one can prepare for ‘writing in’ a candidate. Who knows, Lady GaGa could possibly become “Empress of the United GaGa States of North America”.
#31
Rove would hack his own party and then scream bloody murder about it, counting on a win from the outrage. Just zero out all Democratic votes and see hell break loose.
#32
THOM,THOM,THOM...LADY GAGA? PLEEEEEEEASE NO! GOT MEAT.LOLOL.ANYBODY BUT HER OR THAT CANDY COATED KING OF HIP HOP. HARGH,HARGH,HARGH. I AM IN STICHES. seriously though? it is pretty spooky when you think about the lengths the otherwise so called moral majority will go to to under mind the very fabric of all things that once made this nation great. makes me want to puke when i see htem face to face and i know they lie through their teeth and can actually go to bed at night and sleep soundly not lending one thought to the real evil they are. nil and void of conscience is where the new American mind set is headed. so whose side are our soldiers going to protect when it "IS" taken to the streets. You know that day all the liers and the cheaters are called out. pretty strange indeed. as JIm said...people are strange when your a stranger...now days though they are getting uglier.sad!
#33
Lady Gaga is the greatest woman in the world. She is so popular. She is so powerful like a Queen. She should be President of United States. I love you so much. Gaga. I believe Lady Gaga can protect for people in the world. She is our Mother. She is look like our God. I believe you. Lady Gaga. You are so perfect in my heart. I love you.
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So what if every vote turned up for President GaGa and VP Manson, what difference does it make, the electoral college will vote President Rockefeller and VP Morgan anyway.
If hacktivists do something as determined as set a vote, if they're not smart enough to make the results believable, then whatever election they interfere with will be declared null and void (especially if it favors Democrats, or some other socially conscience party)
N