(a message from DFNYC member Michael Minn)

Update 2/21/2008: The Pentagon announced (with pictures) that the Navy was apparently successful in dismembering satellite USA 193, significantly reducing the threat of falling debris and unwanted technology transfer. The Chinese were not impressed, but that's another story.

Update 2/14/2008: The Pentagon announced that it will use a Navy Aegis anti-missile interceptor to shoot down this falling satellite just before re-entry. This will provide the opportunity to demonstrate America's anti-missile/satellite weaponry while assuring that the 1,000 pounds of poisonous propellant and any classefied gadgetry are broken into smaller pieces and completely burned up during re-entry.

The Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) is a program that was begun under the Clinton Administration to make critical upgrades to America's network of spy satellites. As detailed in an earlier article, it has been a multi-billion dollar engineering nightmare crippled in large part by short-sighted conservative funding policies and lack of oversight.

On January 26, 2008, the National Security Council announced that a very large US spy satellite had lost power and was beginning an uncontrolled tumble back to earth. Although the NSC is divulging no further details about the classified object, speculation among satellite observers is that the satellite is USA 193, an experimental L-21 satellite launched in December 2006 as part of the Future Imagery Architecture program. As reported by Reuters, the Lockheed Martin satellite was successfully inserted into low earth orbit, but an apparent problem with the software running the on-board computer caused it to reboot numerous times and then finally shut down, leaving the multi-million dollar test bed as just another piece of floating space junk.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer with the Harvard- Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, said the satellite's software problems raised questions about the adequacy of testing and oversight by the contractors and the Air Force. "The question is why was this software failure not caught in ground test before launch," McDowell said, noting that oversight was particularly challenging in classified programs.

The uncontrolled return of the satellite does not present any immediate or serious threat to humans and the remains will likely fall somewhere in the ocean. But the satellite is filled with noxious materials that would be perilous if the remains of the satellite come down near or on top of people. Spy satellites are commonly powered by small nuclear reactors, although the radioactive material will probably either be dissipated during the fiery re-entry or will survive in one piece for collection from the wreckage. However, tanks of hydrazine propellant could survive reentry, potentially exposing people near the wreckage to an extremely toxic, corrosive and unstable liquid that can cause symptoms ranging from eye irritation to brain damage and tumors.

It's a small threat, but, like Katrina, an apt metaphor for how conservative ideology can often be both wasteful and deadly.

Update 2/6/2008: On February 4, State Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O'Connor ordered the NY State Board of Elections to add the Liberty touch-screen voting machine to the list of approved machines. The Liberty machine is all electronic and prints a paper receipt but does not create an auditable paper ballot. While the Democratic BOE commissioners are considering an appeal, this could represent a very serious setback for the integrity of future elections in many parts of the state. Contact with local election commissioners may be in order to pressure them to choose paper ballot machines (like the Sequoia ImageCast) over touch-screen machines. More info to come, but you can read more about the ruling HERE...

Update 1/29/2008: Lest you think we can now comfortably relax with our auditable paper ballots assured, touch-screen voting machine vendor Liberty has applied for a temporary restraining order in Albany Supreme Court, challenging their removal from the list of approved voting machines and asking Justice Kimberly O'Connor to force the state to place them back on the list. Read more at Bo Lipari's Blog. They never give up.

The New York State Board of Elections has chosen three ballot marking systems for this fall to comply with the Help America Vote Act: the Sequoia Imagecast, Premier (Diebold) Automark, and the ES&S Automark. All of them use paper ballots and optical scanners; none of them are the dreaded ATM-like touch-screen (DRE) machines that are unauditable and extremely vulnerable to tampering, hacking and catastrophic system failure.

Individual counties may choose from this list of approved machines. These machines are being chosen on a "temporary" basis to provide at least one ballot marking machine per precinct so disabled voters can vote independently in this Fall's elections. However, it is likely that the same systems will ultimately be selected to completely replace lever machines in 2009.

This action comes in response to a Justice Department lawsuit that has broken a log jam in state action on this matter. The selection of only paper-ballot systems (PBOS) occurred despite a strenuous effort by the Republican commissioners, Neil Kelleher and Helena Moses Donahue, to force adoption of the Liberty Voting touch-screen machine, a machine that would not have allowed disabled voters to "privately and independently verify votes selected" [State Election Law, Section 7-202(1)(e)], and that is so problematic that it has been banned in The Netherlands -- Liberty's home country.

New York City's Board of Elections staff will make their recommendation on which system to choose to the City's election commissioners on February 4. The BOE commissioners will make their final choice on February 6.

While no voting system is perfect and all systems depend on the integrity of elections officials and the vigilance of the public, this is a step in the right direction for New York State's voters. Teresa Hommel (WheresThePaper.org), Bo Lipari, David Kogelman and many other activists have worked tirelessly on this issue for many years and deserve our thanks.

(A message from DFNYC member Michael Minn)

In celebrating the life and work of civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) for what would have been his 79th birthday, the sound bite you will probably hear most frequently will be this stirring (and fairly uncontroversial) clip from the closing moments of his August 28, 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." What you will not hear widely played are moments like these from his less-celebrated April 4, 1967 sermon at New York City's Riverside Church on Vietnam:

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.

While King's opposition to segregation made him reviled in the South, his outspokenness against Vietnam turned the media and many in the rest of the country against him. It was a natural step in the evolution of his work for social justice and it ultimately led to his assassination on April 4, 1968.

It would be worth your while to take an hour out of your day today and remember Dr. King by listening to his 1967 speech and considering how his words might be relevant in this crucial election year. Replace "Vietnam" with "Iraq" and much of the speech could just as easily have been delivered this morning. The second half of the speech has some especially chilling and prophetic moments:

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

Audio and a transcript of 1967's Beyond Vietnam are available free online HERE from AmericanRhetoric.com.

AmericanRhetoric.com also has free audio and a transcript of the 1963 I Have A Dream speech HERE.

A TruthDig article from 2006, Remembering Martin Luther King, has some interesting info and links on Dr. King, most notably on FBI surveillance and intimidation tactics that have resonance in the wireless wiretapping and presidential power debates of today

(A message from DFNYC member Michael Minn)

In states without same-day voter registration (which is most states, including New York), there is always the potential that a voter may go to the polls and find, much to their surprise and dismay, that they are not registered to vote. While registrations can be lost due to administrative error (or corrupt voting officials), there have also been documented instances where newly registered voters have had their registration cards discarded in registration drives run by partisan operatives.

In light of the uncertainties of the voter registration process, MoveOn.org has teamed up with Catalyst to create VotePoke.org, a site that checks your name and address against lists of registered voters that are available from state governments. While these lists are and have been publicly available, up until now they have not been readily accessible for individual voters to check their registration status.

VotePoke.org does have a few issues. You are required to give an e-mail address, and although the FAQ states, "You won't be added to any mailing lists unless you explicitly ask to be," one can never be certain what will happen to that data in the future. However, there does not seem to be any validity check done on the e-mail address and you can use the same e-mail address when checking multiple voters. The matching of names, street name and zip codes also seems to be a bit fuzzy (house number doesn't seem to matter), calling into question whether your registration could be confused with someone else in your same general area.

But with these caveats, VotePoke.org does seem to be a helpful tool to provide a warning if there is potentially a problem with a voter's registration. Armed with that info, the voter can investigate further, or simply re-register.