Political Cartoons for your Pleasure

Can McCain pull New York in 2008

In a sign that Mr. McCain was now willing to battle Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, in the city and state that gave rise to Mr. Giuliani’s political fortunes, Mr. McCain released a list of his New York supporters, among them Kissinger, the former secretary of state, and Peter Peterson, A co-founder of the Blackstone Group and a former secretary of commerce.

Also on the list was Michael Finnegan who was counsel to former Gov. George Pataki of New York. Mr. Pataki has not endorsed a candidate for president, and it is not clear that he will. Edward F. Cox, a son-in-law of President Richard Nixon and a senior partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, Mr. Giuliani’s former law firm, is the chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign in New York.

Mr. D’Amato had earlier endorsed Fred Thompson, but he switched to Mr. McCain, who is leading nationally in polls and gaining in New York, shortly before Mr. Thompson withdrew from the presidential race on Tuesday.

Mr. D’Amato stood in the St. Regis Library Room with former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, another McCain supporter, and praised Mr. McCain before the start of the fund-raiser. “He will be, in my opinion, the strongest Republican candidate,” Mr. D’Amato said. “And for those of you who say, ‘Well, I disagree with him on one issue or another,’ if you want to win in November, John McCain, he’s the man.”

Mr. McCain said he was heartened by his frequent mentions on Monday night by the Democratic presidential candidates at a debate in South Carolina. “It’s pretty clear that they view me as their most formidable opponent,” he said, “and I agree with them.”

Mr. D’Amato has not had a close relationship with Mr. McCain. When Mr. D’Amato was in the Senate, people close to him said he was not fond of Mr. McCain’s signature causes, reining in campaign spending and pork barrel projects, two areas in which Mr. D’Amato excelled. But Mr. D’Amato has long had a difficult relationship with Mr. Giuliani, who angered him in 1994 when Mr. Giuliani endorsed Mario Cuomo a Democrat, for governor. Mr. D’Amato supported Mr. Pataki that year.

Any impact from Mr. McCain’s announcement that Mr. D’Amato was supporting him was somewhat undercut because the news had been reported Tuesday morning in The New York Post. On his campaign bus in Florida earlier Tuesday, Mr. McCain cast a suspicious eye on his benefactor, who has never been known to scurry out of the limelight.

“Thanks, Al,” Mr. McCain told reporters sardonically on the way to Fort Walton Beach from Pensacola. “That’s Al the Pal.”

Charles Black, Mr. McCain’s senior adviser, chimed in, “Can’t imagine who leaked that.” .

Mr. McCain said he was raising money on Mr. Giuliani’s home base for a simple reason. “It’s the Willie Sutton syndrome,” Mr. McCain said at a news conference in Pensacola, referring to the bank robber of the 1930s. “They asked him why he robbed banks, and he said it’s because that’s where the money is.”

Giuliani Off to Florida in 2008

“For us, it’s Florida,” said Mr. Giuliani in an impromptu press conference made difficult to hear because of the whine of various electric drills. “We’ll think about New York, California, Missouri”–he listed a few more states where his poll numbers are listing to starboard–”we’ll think about everything on the morning of Jan. 30.”

“We fully expect it to be awfully competitive,” he said. “So it’s playing out the way we thought it would play out. Now, the important thing is that it’s supposed to play out with us winning Florida.”

As to Florida, where a poll this morning shows him trailing McCain and Romney? Mr. Giuliani long ago declared this state his fortress, declining to compete in earlier primaries.

And, as this campaign has featured the Candidate Giuliani who no longer rips at his opponents’ jugulars for sport, he declined to attack any of his rivals, even those who now have taken the lead in the Florida polls. He gave another of those vaguely disconcerting benign grins. “I am having a great time,” he said. “I hope the other candidates are too.”

Not only have recent polls show him in a tight race with John McCain and Mitt Romney in Florida, but now a poll shows him trailing Mr. McCain in his home state of New York.

Obama Ahead in South Carolina in 2008 Elections

Huckabee scales back in Florida

Meanwhile, as both parties look to the Florida primary, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is scaling back his campaigning there due to a cash shortage, the New York Times reports Wednesday.

Huckabee told reporters he doesn't plan to advertise in the Sunshine State, the Times reported. Top Huckabee consultant Ed Rollins and other staff members have also agreed to work without pay, and his campaign stopped arranging transportation for the traveling media, the Times reported.

Huckabee's pullback may give his rivals a boost. Polls show Sen. John McCain, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney locked in a tight race for the nomination in Florida.

On Wednesday, Giuliani appealed to Floridians, who deal regularly with hurricanes, by backing a national catastrophe fund and saying he'd lower insurance rates.

In a nod to his stint as mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Giuliani said in a video on his web site that "only one Republican candidate has proven experience dealing with disaster. Only one will fight for a national catastrophe fund."

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is enjoying a comfortable lead in the newest polls over rival Hillary Clinton as the South Carolina primary draws closer.

Palmetto State Democrats hold their primary on Saturday. In an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics, Obama is pulling in 42.8% of voters while New York senator Clinton is getting 30.6%. Former North Carolina senator John Edwards is trailing with 14.2%.

South Carolina will be one of the last dominoes to fall before Florida's Jan. 29 primary and the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday," when the candidates compete for delegates from 21 states. The Feb. 5 contest could be a make-or-break day for White House hopefuls since it includes big states like California and New York.

In South Carolina, half of all likely Democratic voters are African-American, which may work to Obama's advantage. In exit polls conducted at the Nevada caucuses on Jan. 19, 83% of that state's black voters went with Obama, who is African-American.

The Debate of Democrats in the Election in 2008

Barack Obama has challenged rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's candour and trustworthiness while trying to distance himself from a contributor facing criminal charges, as the Democratic presidential campaign took on an increasingly mean twist.

Republican candidates, meanwhile, seized on America's financial worries to tout their own economic credentials as a wide-open presidential nomination contest moves forward.

The Democrats also have been pushing their own economic plans, but they were overshadowed by more bickering between the front runners as Obama said Clinton has indulged in doubletalk on bankruptcy laws, trade and other issues.

Obama and Clinton clashed bitterly over questions of truthfulness and consistency in a televised debate on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Obama was forced to distance himself from a contributor who faces fraud and extortion charges after Clinton seized upon it.

Obama said he had no indication of any problems when he accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

Politicians "don't always say what they mean, or mean what they say," the Illinois senator told about 900 people at Winthrop University in South Carolina, where the next Democratic contest is taking place. "That is what this debate in this party is all about."

"My relationship is he was somebody who I knew and had been a supporter for many years, he was somebody who had supported a wide range of candidates all throughout Illinois," the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview with CBS television's Early Show.

Some $US86,000 ($A99,000) has been sent by the Obama campaign to various charities after the money was linked in some way to Rezko.

Former President Bill Clinton sought to lower expectations for his wife in the South Carolina primary while raising them for Obama.

He told a crowd of about 100 people in Charleston he was proud of the Democratic Party for having a woman and a black candidate and he understands why Obama is drawing support among blacks, who are expected to makeup at least half the primary turnout.

"As far as I can tell, neither Senator Obama nor Hillary have lost votes because of their race or gender. They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender - that's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here," Clinton said.

"But that's understandable because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time."

Former North Carolina senator John Edwards, who acknowledged that he got his "butt kicked" last week in Nevada, has staked his fading hopes on South Carolina, the state where he was born and whose primary he won in 2004.

He won the endorsement of one of the state's largest unions, the Communications Workers of America, as he gave details of an economic plan his campaign said would offer the state's struggling economy $US1.5 billion ($A1.73 billion) in relief.

On the Republican side, candidates campaigned on the weak US economy ahead of the January 29 contest in Florida, which looms as the final single-state test before both campaigns go national with more than 20 primaries and caucuses on February 5.

Millionaire Mitt Romney touted his business experience in a new ad released in that state.

"I know how America works because I spent my life in the real economy," says the man who made millions as a venture capitalist. "My plan will make America strong."

The Republican race remains fragmented, as three candidates - Romney, Arizona Senator John McCain and preacher turned politician Mike Huckabee - have split the spoils in contests that netted three different winners in six states.

In Orlando, Florida, McCain said he believes the US economy can recover despite anxiety of a prospective recession.

"Our economy is experiencing significant challenges," the Arizona senator said. "I believe the fundamentals of our economy are still strong. And, nothing is inevitable, and I am convinced that we can make a comeback."

McCain spent the morning at an Orlando company that makes spas and hot tubs, meeting with local business leaders and holding an economic round-table with them.

The former Vietnam prisoner of war was endorsed by retired Army General Norman Schwarzkopf.

"Senator John McCain has served our country with honour in war and in peace," Schwarzkopf, who commanded US forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, said in a statement released by the campaign. "He has demonstrated the type of courageous leadership our country sorely needs at this time."

The Republican field narrowed on Tuesday as ex-TV star and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson quit after a series of poor finishes.

More on Security of Electronic Voting Machices in 08

Also taken from the Princeton review of the Diebold voting machines the following information was provided regarding the flaws and security vulnerabilities with the Diebold Machines. I must say that this review was done in 2006 and I am currently looking to see what updates have been made to the machines. For the whole .PDF you can go to the .PDF directly by Clicking Here.

Main Findings The main findings of our study are:
1. Malicious software running on a single voting machine can steal votes with little if any risk of detection. The malicious software can modify all of the records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss. We have constructed demonstration software that carries out this vote-stealing attack.
2. Anyone who has physical access to a voting machine, or to a memory card that will later be inserted into a machine, can install said malicious software using a simple method that takes as little as one minute. In practice, poll workers and others often have unsupervised access to the machines.
3. AccuVote-TS machines are susceptible to voting-machine viruses—computer viruses that can spread malicious software automatically and invisibly from machine to machine during normal pre- and postelection activity. We have constructed a demonstration virus that spreads in this way, installing our demonstration vote-stealing program on every machine it infects.
4. While some of these problems can be eliminated by improving Diebold’s software, others cannot be remedied without replacing the machines’ hardware. Changes to election procedures would also be required to ensure security.

Injecting Attack Code
To carry out these attacks, the attacker must somehow install his malicious software on one or more voting machines. If he can get physical access to a machine for as little as one minute, he can install the software manually. The attacker can also install a voting machine virus that spreads to other machines, allowing him to commit widespread fraud even if he only has physical access to one machine or memory card.

Boot Process
When the machine is booted, the bootloader copies itself to RAM and initializes the hardware. Then it looks for a memory card in the first PC Card slot, and if one is present, it searches for files on the card with special names. If it finds a file called fboot.nb0, it assumes that this file contains a replacement bootloader, and it copies the contents of this file to the bootloader area of the on-board flash memory, overwriting the current bootloader. If it finds a file called nk.bin, it assumes that this file contains a replacement operating system image in Windows CE Binary Image Data Format [22], and it copies it to the OS area of the on-board flash, overwriting the current OS image. Finally, if it finds a file called EraseFFX.bsq, it erases the entire file system area of the flash. The bootloader does not verify the authenticity of any of these files in any way, nor does it notify the user or ask the user to confirm any of the changes that it makes. As Hursti [14] suggests, these mechanisms can be used to install malicious code.

Stealing Votes
Figure 4: Our demonstration vote-stealing control panel Several of the demonstration attacks that we have implemented involve installing code onto AccuVote-TS machines that changes votes so that, for a given race, a favored candidate receives a specified percentage of the votes cast on each affected machine. Since any attacks that significantly alter the total number of votes cast can be detected by election officials, our demonstration software steals votes at random from other candidates in the same race and giving them to the favored candidate. The software switches enough votes to ensure that the favored candidate receives at least the desired percentage of the votes cast on each compromised voting machine. Election results (i.e., the record of votes cast) are stored in files that can be modified by any program running on the voting machine. For the currently running election, the primary copy of the election results is stored on the memory card at \Storage Card\CurrentElection\election.brs and a backup copy is stored in the machine’s on-board flash memory at \FFX\AccuVote-TS\BallotStation\CurrentElection\election.brs. Our software works by directly modifying both of these files.

I dont know about you but just knowing this little bit scares me and I can tell you that if you look at the .PDF there is even more when it comes to Security Issues and even storage issues. Think about all of this information before you go in to VOTE this year and remember that you can always request to vote on a piece of Paper instead. Make sure your Vote Counts this year, Make Sure your Voice is Heard. Learn what you are using and don't believe everything your told when it comes to these machines. Sure it is HIGHLY unlikely that anything would happen but when it comes to my freedom and my democracy I can guarantee that knowing as much about this as possible is what or Founding Fathers would want us to do.

McCain Takes S. Carolina

With the ghost of 2000 behind him, McCain told the Associated Press, "It just took us a while. That's all. Eight years is not a long time."

Arizona Sen. John McCain won the South Carolina GOP primary on Saturday, edging out former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in a tight race in a state that effectively ended his presidential bid eight years ago. With nearly all precincts reporting, McCain had a lead of about three percentage points over Huckabee.

Since 1980, the winner of this primary has also been the party's nominee. McCain also collected a victory in the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, but lost the contest in Michigan on Jan. 15 to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who also won Saturday's caucuses in Nevada.

But in South Carolina, widely respected for its kingmaker role in recent GOP nomination fights, Romney finished a distant third — not far ahead of former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, whose campaign seemed to be on the ropes. Thompson had said he needed a strong showing in South Carolina to revitalize his prospects.

Huckabee told supporters that he wished that he had won and then complimented his rival McCain.

"I want to thank him for running a civil, good campaign. That's one of the things that I'm proud of," Huckabee said.

The race was closely watched not only because of South Carolina's predictive role in the past, but because polls had shown several candidates in a close contest here this month, with many voters remaining undecided.

South Carolina Republicans went to the polls in drab, cold weather, with snow in the state's upper regions, where many of the state's more conservative, evangelical Christian voters live.

Voters in the capital city of Columbia told NPR they were most concerned about national security, immigration and the economy. Unemployment in the state has reached 6.6 percent, the third-highest rate in the country.

Early exit polls conducted by the Associated Press and TV Networks showed that moderate voters and older voters supported McCain, while those attending church most often (more than once a week) more often voted for Huckabee. Military veterans made up one fourth of the Republican voters, and McCain had a 10-point lead over his rival with this group.

Former Baptist minister Huckabee had the advantage of campaigning in a state where at least 40 percent of the voters consider themselves evangelicals. More than half of those voting Saturday identified themselves in this camp.

Some of the vote count was delayed on primary day as voters in Myrtle Beach reported malfunctioning electronic voting machines, and some were forced to use paper ballots.

In the days leading up to the primary, there were reports of campaign smear tactics, including fake Christmas cards and phony telephone surveys intended to slander candidates. One leaflet that circulated even tried to cast aspersions on McCain's five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. The calls and leafleting were paid for by independent groups, which may not coordinate with the candidate under federal election law.

The tactics harkened back to McCain's defeat here in 2000, when rumors circulated that McCain's wife was a drug addict and that his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was a mixed race child he had fathered out of wedlock. McCain lost the South Carolina primary that year to George W. Bush.