Us presidential election 2004

[Tovarish 0]

And shouldn't Canada be on the list too? Isn't that how they got into the US for 09/11 in the first place?

That was myth and speculation that was later debunked.

Quote[/b] ]None of the terrorists from the Sept. 11 carnage came to the United States through Canada to my knowledge. Each of them that I know of, and we’ve done considerable work to trace their activities, came to the United States directly... The stubborn facts are that these individuals did not come to the United States through Canada.†— Attorney General John Ashcroft, December 3, 2001

[Apollo 0]

Check out this link

http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/terrornet/12.htm

Its a list of countries that al-quieda has operated in,  guess which countries absent...

Well ,atleast the country's they know they have operated from.

But what about Indonesia???

Bali bombing anyone? 20 seperatist movements of wich some have good ties to Al-Quaida there ,Abu Sayaf being well known.

[maximilien 0]

Spain is not represented : 11 de Marzo ---> Not AQ ?

[Jacko 0]

You need too look at the date

Quote[/b] ]Posted November 10, 2001

The Bali bombing and train bombing in spain where later

[SpongeBob 0]

Ahmed Ressam plotted the LA millennium bombings from Canada.

[theavonlady 2]

Quote[/b] ]City alert in threat to Bush

BY MICHELE McPHEE and LEO STANDORA

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Lawrence Ward

The Secret Service clamped down on midtown last night to protect President Bush from a possible assassin armed with a hunting rifle.

Lawrence Ward, 59, left his upstate New York home Wednesday with a .30-30 lever-action hunting rifle in the trunk of his car, telling a neighbor, "I'm not coming back."

Inside his house in Bainbridge was a picture of Bush with the words "Dead Man" spray-painted near it, law enforcement authorities said.

Bush was in town for a fund-raiser at the Sheraton New York before speaking today at the UN General Assembly.

The Secret Service deemed Ward, a software engineer, such a "credible threat" that a three-square-block chunk of midtown was cordoned off.

Secret Service agents and city cops patrolled the area looking for anything suspicious.

Ward's ex-wife, Judith Ward, 59, who lives in Connecticut, told the Secret Service she thinks her former husband "is very dangerous and capable of killing someone and/or committing suicide."

She said Ward "is obsessed with weapons, [Oklahoma City bomber] Timothy McVeigh and the book 'The Dead Zone' - a novel about the stalking and attempted assassination of a presidential candidate," according to a Secret Service document.

The document, reviewed by the Daily News, said Ward sent his ex-wife a CD that mentions killing both Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry.

He also was said to be "obsessed" with his 19-year-old daughter, Priscilla Jane.

Judith Ward told The News she divorced her husband four years ago after 18 years of marriage because "he was a wife-beater and other things I don't want to talk about."

Authorities said Ward has a criminal past dating to 1991, including an indecent sexual proposal charge.

The neighbor in Bainbridge, a community about 40miles northeast of Binghamton, told authorities that Ward "frequently spoke of 'fighting the system' and other anti-government topics."

The neighbor said Ward gave him his house keys and told him to help himself. He then drove off in a blue 1997 Toyota sedan with the New York license plate BRF-6546.

Two days later, the neighbor went into the house, found the photo of Bush and called police.

Originally published on September 21, 2004

[Bernadotte 0]

I'd like to ask anyone outside the US to see if you can access the site for the Federal Voting Assistance Program run by the US Defence Dept to help Americans overseas register for the upcoming elections.

Quote[/b] ]In a decision that could affect Americans abroad who are not yet registered to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, the Pentagon has begun restricting international access to the official Web site intended to help overseas absentee voters cast ballots.  -- IHT

We already know that 4 of the 25 affected nations/ISPs are:

- Yahoo Broadband in Japan

- Wanadoo in France

- BT Yahoo Broadband in Britain

- Telefónica in Spain

Quote[/b] ]Why would the Pentagon do this? Officials at the Voting Assistance Program have told some Americans living abroad that the blocked ISPs were havens for "hack" attacks against the voting site; the Pentagon had no choice but to block them in order to keep the voting site secure from attack. But that explanation is extremely fishy, say critics who see something more nefarious at work. The Defense Department maintains all manner of sensitive Web sites -- for instance, MyPay, which allows military personnel to manage their compensation online -- and it's had no problem protecting those from hackers while keeping them open for legitimate uses.

"This is a completely partisan thing," one Defense Department voting official stationed in Europe told Salon.

[ran 0]

my ISPis wanadoo and I can apparently still access it.

[denoir 0]

No problems reaching it here (Sweden/Tele2)

[theavonlady 2]

I'd like to ask anyone outside the US to see if you can access the site for the Federal Voting Assistance Program run by the US Defence Dept to help Americans overseas register for the upcoming elections.

That was easy.

[Bernadotte 0]

my ISPis wanadoo and I can apparently still access it.

Access is one thing, but can you still hack into it?  

Quote[/b] ]In an e-mail addressed to a person in France who had tried to access the Web site, the Federal Voting Assistance Program's Web manager, Susan Leader, wrote: “We are sorry you cannot access www.fvap.gov. Unfortunately, Wanadoo France has had its access blocked to U.S. government Web sites due to Wanadoo users constantly attempting to hack these sites. We do not expect the block to be lifted."

Perhaps the block has been lifted.  

[theavonlady 2]

my ISPis wanadoo and I can apparently still access it.

Access is one thing, but can you still hack into it?  

Quote[/b] ]In an e-mail addressed to a person in France who had tried to access the Web site, the Federal Voting Assistance Program's Web manager, Susan Leader, wrote: “We are sorry you cannot access www.fvap.gov. Unfortunately, Wanadoo France has had its access blocked to U.S. government Web sites due to Wanadoo users constantly attempting to hack these sites. We do not expect the block to be lifted."

Perhaps the block has been lifted.  

It most probably was the US government's mistake when their sysadmin overheard a staffer saying "who would Wanadoo such a thing".

[Bernadotte 0]

If I could find the little pic I'd put it in my sig again.

...You were saying?

[m21man 0]

Of course, Bernie. You could also check this page to see a just-updated view of the projected final map .

[Bernadotte 0]

Of course, Bernie. You could also check this page to see a just-updated view of the projected final map .

Not yet.

Quote[/b] ]The data are very noisy, so this map should not be taken too seriously until October.

[kerosene 0]

I see Bush winning, too many people still buy into that man of the people crap and Kerrys campaigning has been pretty weak overall, altohugh he really on had the option of voting certain ways when it was the right time politically, or opposing the war early on and getting called unpatriotic,etc.

Im guessing the turnout will be higher this election, so it really depends on how many people go out and vote against Bush, rather than just bitching about him.

[Bernadotte 0]

Kerry's campaign is being run like a 400m race rather than a sprint.  So far, all he's had to do is keep even and save his best for the final lap, which begins about now.

Most immediately, I believe you'll see Kerry make much greater use of Edwards and they should easily shame Bush/Cheney in the upcoming debates.  I also believe that Clinton will reappear in the final week to seal the deal.

And yes, there will be a much higher voter turnout this time, especially in Florida.

[Apollo 0]

Well yes Bush his campaign is way stronger than Kerry's ,for a reason afcourse: Kerry has to all standards normal campaigning funds ,Bush however collected an astromical amount of ellection funds to throw around ,atleast 10 times more than Kerry has.No wonder the campaigning started so soon and so intensly from the start ,Kerry has to spread his funds wisely, Bush can throw smut as much as he wants with his pile's of cash from the very beginning.The result is that while more politicly educated people arn't fooled by that ,Bush owns the monopoly on the media and the non politicly interrested masses.

Why all that money? Because bush has lots of support among the super rich class of the US afcourse ,given his flexible policy's towards them.

The problem is also that Bush is such a hardcore poppulist in the way he debate's ,while his domestic policy's are really more oriented towards the rich class.Bush doesn't argument ,whenever he gets a tough question ,of rather any political question he rather goes bashing kerry rather than give any oppinion or idea on policy's.

But in the US such debate technique's can be verry effeciant

The US got large non politicly interrested masses that rather vote on a popular person that an person with interresting policy's ,ex. of this being the way he won against Al Gore or how Swarszenegger bacame governor in California.Then again it's like that in many country's ,even in some European country's.

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]I believe you'll see Kerry make much greater use of Edwards and they should easily shame Bush/Cheney in the upcoming debates.

I don't know about that, AFAIK Bush was declared the official winner of the 2000 debates...

Maybe we'll see Kerry sighing and rolling his eyes like Gore was doing .

Quote[/b] ]Kerry has to all standards normal campaigning funds

Are you just saying this without looking ? Kerry has raised about 180 million, where as Bush has raised 230 million. Add in mainly-Kerry-supporting 527 groups and Kerry has basically the same amount of resources.

Quote[/b] ]Kerry has to spread his funds wisely, Bush can throw smut as much as he wants with his pile's of cash from the very beginning.

No, they can both throw the same amount of smut (But Republicans are cheaper! Witness MoveOn spending $20,000,000 on "Bush Is Hitler" ads, and SBVfT spending $200,000 on their ads).

Quote[/b] ]Swarszenegger bacame governor in California.

And this also had to do with him being a powerful political hybrid who had something for everyone (Conservative economic policies, but is anti-gun   and pro-abortion).

[walker 0]

Hi all

Quote[/b] ]Pentagon blocks site for voters outside U.S

PARIS In a decision that could affect Americans abroad who are not yet registered to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, the Pentagon has begun restricting international access to the official Web site intended to help overseas absentee voters cast ballots.

.

According to overseas-voter advocates who have been monitoring the situation, Internet service providers in at least 25 countries - including Yahoo Broadband in Japan, Wanadoo in France, BT Yahoo Broadband in Britain and Telefónica in Spain - have been denied access to the site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, apparently to protect it from hackers.

.

In an e-mail addressed to a person in France who had tried to access the Web site, the Federal Voting Assistance Program's Web manager, Susan Leader, wrote: “We are sorry you cannot access www.fvap.gov. Unfortunately, Wanadoo France has had its access blocked to U.S. government Web sites due to Wanadoo users constantly attempting to hack these sites. We do not expect the block to be lifted..." Read the full article

http://www.iht.com/articles/539597.html

This is the same problem that happened with the .mil adresses. It is a simple matter to alter your proxy settings to jump round this.

There is proxy server altering software available for IE; do a search via Altavista  also look up anonymous proxy servers (google sometimes baulks at this). There are lists of US proxy servers.

If your having problems with this and IE use Firefox or such and alter your proxy settings through it.

The same process is used by Chinese and Saudi people getting round their countries censorship.

As a method of protecting a network it is singularly stupid any serious cracker would be round it in an instant. The d*ck head who thought it up needs to be sacked for incompetance.

The correct ways to protect data are firewalls, encryption, SSL and a proper passwording policy with monthly weekly auto changes for anything sensative. That prevents people using stupid passwords and any lengthy intrusions.

Backups for anything esential with multiple fallover servers each running different server software. You knock one down the alarm goes off DNS adress is changed to the fallover the second server goes up it requires a diferent method to beat it. The system is cascading. Data is all ghosted and on removable drives. Max time to replace site data 1 minute from corrupt data being found. It might live on on a proxy for a while but any one who hit referesh on their browser would clean that.

If staff are on site 5 minutes Max outage on the primary server literaly server off, pull drive and replace it. If offsite up to 8 hours worst case although for a government server of any importance it should be in a 24 7 52 manned server location.

The shocking thing for me is that any US Government server admin would be so uneducated in security matters. This stuff is from the first year of of my degree for gods sake. Server admin 101 people.

The only possible people it would advantage is Al Qaida and any one who wanted to disrupt US voting or who were afraid of which way absentee voters exposed to a free press would vote. With the censorship now aparent in US media I think we know where this came from. I greatly fear the US is on the same path that Germany went down in the thirties.

Kind Regards Walker

[Bernadotte 0]

The only possible people it would advantage is Al Qaida and any one who wanted to disrupt US voting or who were afraid of which way absentee voters exposed to a free press would vote. With the censorship now aparent in US media I think we know where this came from. I greatly fear the US is on the same path that Germany went down in the thirties.

Please see quote from Salon in my post on previous page.  DoD folks are already convinced that the motives are purely partisan.  Furthermore, the site only provides info and blank registration forms.  It cannot be used by hackers/crackers for corrupting the election process anymore than it is already being corrupted by admin blocking access.

"Duh... Maybe we should block access to our site so that hackers won't be able to... um... block access to our site."

Sorry George. Nobody's buying it.  

[Bernadotte 0]

Quote[/b] ]I believe you'll see Kerry make much greater use of Edwards and they should easily shame Bush/Cheney in the upcoming debates.

I don't know about that, AFAIK Bush was declared the official winner of the 2000 debates...

Maybe we'll see Kerry sighing and rolling his eyes like Gore was doing .

I'll never forget how Gore expressed his irritation with Bush in mid-debate by crossing the stage and sticking his chest in Bush's face.  It wasn't clever.  It wasn't funny.  It was just weird. What a loser.

[Apollo 0]

Quote[/b] ]Are you just saying this without looking ? Kerry has raised about 180 million, where as Bush has raised 230 million. Add in mainly-Kerry-supporting 527 groups and Kerry has basically the same amount of resources.

Seems so my figures were old and incorrect ,sorry about that.

[denoir 0]

I'll never forget how Gore expressed his irritation with Bush in mid-debate by crossing the stage and sticking his chest in Bush's face.  It wasn't clever.  It wasn't funny.  It was just weird.  What a loser.

Given the choice between Gore and Kerry, I'd vote for Gore.

Anyway,

A strident minority: anti-Bush US troops in Iraq [CSMonitor]

Quote[/b] ]

Though military personnel lean conservative, some vocally support Kerry - or at least a strategy for swift withdrawal.

By Ann Scott Tyson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – Inside dusty, barricaded camps around Iraq, groups of American troops in between missions are gathering around screens to view an unlikely choice from the US box office: "Fahrenheit 9-11," Michael Moore's controversial documentary attacking the commander-in-chief.

"Everyone's watching it," says a Marine corporal at an outpost in Ramadi that is mortared by insurgents daily. "It's shaping a lot of people's image of Bush."

The film's prevalence is one sign of a discernible countercurrent among US troops in Iraq - those who blame President Bush for entangling them in what they see as a misguided war. Conventional wisdom holds that the troops are staunchly pro-Bush, and many are. But bitterness over long, dangerous deployments is producing, at a minimum, pockets of support for Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, in part because he's seen as likely to withdraw American forces from Iraq more quickly.

"[For] 9 out of 10 of the people I talk to, it wouldn't matter who ran against Bush - they'd vote for them," said a US soldier in the southern city of Najaf, seeking out a reporter to make his views known. "People are so fed up with Iraq, and fed up with Bush."

With only three weeks until an Oct. 11 deadline set for hundreds of thousands of US troops abroad to mail in absentee ballots, this segment of the military vote is important - symbolically, as a reflection on Bush as a wartime commander, and politically, as absentee ballots could end up tipping the balance in closely contested states.

It is difficult to gauge the extent of disaffection with Bush, which emerged in interviews in June and July with ground forces in central, northern, and southern Iraq. No scientific polls exist on the political leanings of currently deployed troops, military experts and officials say.

To be sure, broader surveys of US military personnel and their spouses in recent years indicate they are more likely to be conservative and Republican than the US civilian population - but not overwhelmingly so.

A Military Times survey last December of 933 subscribers, about 30 percent of whom had deployed for the Iraq war, found that 56 percent considered themselves Republican - about the same percentage who approved of Bush's handling of Iraq. Half of those responding were officers, who as a group tend to be more conservative than their enlisted counterparts.

Among officers, who represent roughly 15 percent of today's 1.4 million active duty military personnel, there are about eight Republicans for every Democrat, according to a 1999 survey by Duke University political scientist Peter Feaver. Enlisted personnel, however - a disproportionate number of whom are minorities, a population that tends to lean Democratic - are more evenly split. Professor Feaver estimates that about one third of enlisted troops are Republicans, one third Democrats, and the rest independents, with the latter group growing.

Pockets of ambivalence

"The military continues to be a Bush stronghold, but it's not a stranglehold," Feaver says. Three factors make the military vote more in play for Democrats this year than in 2000, he says: the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's tense relationship with the Army, and Bush's limited ability as an incumbent to make sweeping promises akin to Senator Kerry's pledge to add 40,000 new troops and relieve an overstretched force.

"The military as a whole supports the Iraq war," Mr. Feaver says, noting a historical tendency of troops to back the commander in chief in wartime. "But you can go across the military and find pockets where they are more ambivalent," he says, especially among the National Guard and Reserve. "The war has not gone as swimmingly as they thought, and that has caused disaffection.

Whether representing pockets of opposition to Bush or something bigger, soldiers and marines on Iraq's front lines can be impassioned in their criticism. One Marine officer in Ramadi who had lost several men said he was thinking about throwing his medals over the White House wall.

"Nobody I know wants Bush," says an enlisted soldier in Najaf, adding, "This whole war was based on lies." Like several others interviewed, his animosity centered on a belief that the war lacked a clear purpose even as it took a tremendous toll on US troops, many of whom are in Iraq involuntarily under "stop loss" orders that keep them in the service for months beyond their scheduled exit in order to keep units together during deployments.

"There's no clear definition of why we came here," says Army Spc. Nathan Swink, of Quincy, Ill. "First they said they have WMD and nuclear weapons, then it was to get Saddam Hussein out of office, and then to rebuild Iraq. I want to fight for my nation and for my family, to protect the United States against enemies foreign and domestic, not to protect Iraqi civilians or deal with Sadr's militia," he said.

Specialist Swink, who comes from a family of both Democrats and Republicans, plans to vote for Kerry. "Kerry protested the war in Vietnam. He is the one to end this stuff, to lead to our exit of Iraq," he said.

'We shouldn't be here'

Other US troops expressed feelings of guilt over killing Iraqis in a war they believe is unjust.

"We shouldn't be here," said one Marine infantryman bluntly. "There was no reason for invading this country in the first place. We just came here and [angered people] and killed a lot of innocent people," said the marine, who has seen regular combat in Ramadi. "I don't enjoy killing women and children, it's not my thing."

As with his comrades, the marine accepted some of the most controversial claims of "Fahrenheit 9/11," which critics have called biased. "Bush didn't want to attack [Osama] Bin Laden because he was doing business with Bin Laden's family," he said.

Another marine, Sgt. Christopher Wallace of Pataskala, Ohio, agreed that the film was making an impression on troops. "Marines nowadays want to know stuff. They want to be informed, because we'll be voting out here soon," he said. " 'Fahrenheit 9/11' opened our eyes to things we hadn't seen before." But, he added after a pause, "We still have full faith and confidence in our commander-in-chief. And if John Kerry is elected, he will be our commander in chief."

Getting out the military vote

No matter whom they choose for president, US troops in even the most remote bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere overseas are more likely than in 2000 to have an opportunity to vote - and have their votes counted - thanks to a major push by the Pentagon to speed and postmark their ballots. The Pentagon is now expediting ballots for all 1.4 million active-duty military personnel and their 1.3 million voting-age dependents, as well as 3.7 million US civilians living abroad.

"We wrote out a plan of attack on how we are going to address these issues this election year," says Maj. Lonnie Hammack, the lead postal officer for US Central Command, an area covering the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa, where more than 225,000 troops and Defense Department personnel serve.

The military has added manpower, flights, and postmark-validating equipment, and given priority to moving ballots - by Humvee or helicopter if necessary - even to far-flung outposts such as those on the Syrian and Pakistani border and Djibouti.

Meanwhile, voting-assistance officers in every military unit are remind- ing troops to vote, as are posters, e-mails, and newspaper and television announcements. Voting booths are also set up at deployment centers in the United States.

"We've had almost 100 percent contact," says Col. Darrell Jones, director of manpower and personnel for Central Command, and 200,000 federal postcard ballot applications have been shipped.

"We encourage our people to vote, not for a certain candidate, but to exercise that right," he said, noting that was especially important as the US military is "out there promoting fledgling democracy in these regions." Many of the younger troops may be voting for the first time, he added.

[Bernadotte 0]

Given the choice between Gore and Kerry, I'd vote for Gore.

Really?  Why?

Gore couldn't even defeat Bush in his home state.