Gary gives presentation on the County Charter for the UC Dem Women.
If you have questions abut the charter this will help clear them up.
Take a look
GOOD NEWS!
New Voting Machines For Ulster County READ MORE
Gary Bischoff, Chair of the Charter Transition Team announces an
Informational Meeting for the Ulster County Legislature
in preparation for the transition to a Charter form of government.
PRESS RELEASE
Gary discusses the Kings Highway Infrastructure...here
SHOW ME THE MONEY !!
Gary outlines the jail hearings ...here
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Radio Free Kingston
More info
Ulster Dems accomplishments
See what Ulster County Dems have done for you here
Ulster chairman makes committee appointment
Daily Freeman (Jan 10 07) |
HOT TOPIC
Reflections on the role of the press in the Iraq Invasion
During the last two weeks I have been thinking about and reflecting on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq invasion. During the buildup to the war, we were told:
- Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
- We would be greeted as liberators
- The war would be short with minimal casualties
- The war would pay for itself
- Iraq was training and harboring al Qaeda terrorists
We now know that there were no WMD, the war and subsequent occupation have resulted in significant casualties, the cost in terms of human lives, devastating injuries, suffering and dollars have far exceeded predictions. At the time of the invasion, there was no significant al Qaeda presence in Iraq. The false claims by the administration were repeated and amplified by a compliant media. The press did very little to challenge the administration, and basically served as a propaganda arm of the government in order to sell the war to the public and to congress. Remember, that a case had to be made to invade another nation that had not attacked or threatened us.
What have we learned in five years? What changes have been made to our media? First, there has been further strengthening of the corporate media stranglehold by continued consolidation. Second, for the most part, the same news programs, anchors, writers, commentators and talk show hosts are still where they were five years ago. What amazes me is that the commentators who beat the war drums the loudest still have a strong loyal following. Radio talk show hosts including big names like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and others were totally wrong, and by all rights should have lost any shred of creditability. Not only were they wrong for questioning opposing viewpoints as unpatriotic while cheerleading for the administration, but they also did a great disservice to this country by playing such an active role in selling and promoting the Iraq invasion.
Can this happen again? Hopefully not. The Public Relations campaign orchestrated by the White House, right wing think tanks and the pliant corporate media fooled most Americans five years ago. It is up to us as educated citizens to be aware of the power of the corporate media and be skeptical about any future media hype promoting national policy that just doesn’t seem right.
One shining exception to the pliant corporate media was our local newspapers, particularly weeklies and small radio stations. These outlets are typically owned by private individuals or small corporations, and were not under pressure to echo White House propaganda. The weeklies printed a variety of opinions at a time when it was considered unpatriotic to speak out against the impending Iraq invasion. A dwindling number of local radio stations still have talk and news programs where local people can voice their opinions. We can take positive steps, as interested citizens by supporting locally owned “small” media outlets, and continuing to oppose further consolidation of media.
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Apalling!
This is why we need a local voting machine law in Ulster County.
Blind Justice
Court Orders DREs Can Be Sold in NY
It seemed inconceivable that the New York State Supreme Court would overrule the decision of the Board of Elections and allow LibertyVote's DRE to be purchased by New York counties. But on Monday, 2/4/8, that is exactly what happened, astonishing legal experts and frustrating advocates who thought we'd finally prevailed over the DRE threat. The flawed ruling now sets yet another legal precedent that the right of voting machine vendors to turn a profit supersedes that of voters to demand that the equipment we spend our tax dollars on be up to the job...
Read the full article at Bo's blog here
Read the court decison here
Public Hearing on February 6 regarding a proposed local law on voting machines.
The public hearing resolution here.
The proposed local law here.
Hearing focus is voting machine law
Daily Freeman (Jan 5)
"I have strong feelings about what type of voting machine Ulster County should have. There is no question in my mind that we should have Paper Ballot - Optical Scan (PB/OS) as opposed to Direct Recording Electronic (DRE). "
There have been many problems with DREs, and in fact several states including Maryland, Colorado, California and Ohio are scrapping DREs. There have been problems starting the machines on election day, machines dying during an election (just like when your PC dies due to a Windows problem), voter confusion, mysterious lost votes and outright hacking. Computer professionals who know and understand computer software and voting technology are against DREs. With DREs there is no paper trail built in. In other words, if there is a failure at any point during an election, the votes can not be retrieved. No recount is possible in a close election. DRE manufacturers have tried to correct this by adding a printer that prints out a paper record of each voter's selections. The added printer caused more problems. The printers have been another source of failure and the printer port added another security exposure because a hacker could get into the inner workings of the machine via the printer port. It takes longer for a voter to vote on a DRE than a paper ballot, causing either election day lines or more expense for additional machines.
PB/OS has many advantages, with the most important being that there is a verifiable paper trail with a ballot that is actually marked by the voter. It is a less complex system and a proven technology. It is less costly not only for the initial purchase, but for storage, maintenance and less reliance on expensive professionals employed by the vendor. When an election district grows, all that is necessary is to add more privacy stations where voters can fill in their paper ballots. One optical scanner machine can service many stations since it only takes a few seconds to put the paper into the machine, where it is read and the paper ballot falls into a locked box.
There was a decision late in January by the New York State Board of Elections regarding voting machines that should be used in every polling place in New York for handicapped accessible voting. New York State has rejected DREs and approved only the Automark and the Sequoia ImageCast scanner/marker for use in 2008 polling places. This decision by the State Board of Elections virtually guarantees that New York State will vote on paper ballots and ballot scanners when it finally replaces lever machines in 2009. However, Liberty, a manufacturer of DREs, has announced that they are resorting to legal action to try to change the State BOE decision. There will be other pressures and we need to remain vigilant since there is so much money involved in the implementation of voting machines across New York.
The law we are proposing for Ulster County is simple in that it requires any voting technology to provide a paper ballot that is marked by the actual voter. Ulster County would be the first county in New York to have a more stringent law regarding voting machine technology than the state or federal government. The hearing will be held at the Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair Street, Kingston at 6 p.m. on February 6. Members of the public are invited and encouraged to speak at this hearing.
Gary Bischoff
Ulster County Legislators in Friend of Court appeal
on Voting Machines...Legislators, Susan Zimet, D-New Paltz and Gary
Bischoff, D-Saugerties joined in the submission. In Dutchess County,
Legislator Joel Tyner submitted a brief.
See the Press Release here
Read Andi Novick's explanation of the suit to be filed in the
US vs NYS BOE and NYS here
Declaration of Voting Principles
a well written piece on voting by Mary Ann Gould here
For Gary's side by side analysis of Voting Machines click
here
IN THE NEWS
Ulster panel overhauling ethics rules
Ulster County legislative committee will meet next week to
discuss proposed major revisions in an ethics law governing county
officials.
The meeting of the Legislature's Efficiency, Reform and Intergovernmental
Affairs Committee is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 26 on the sixth floor
of the Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair St. Committee members
say they hope to endorse a draft law prior to a full session of
the Legislature, which could schedule a public hearing on the proposal
for December.
Committee Chairman Gary Bischoff said some wording in the proposal
still needs to be clarified before the hearing is scheduled.
Daily
Freeman (Nov 20)
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