Private, corporate, 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting hits Brazil!

[Peace Patriot]

It's all over for the Left in Brazil, believe me. Any reforms of Brazil's current president, Lula da Silva--a former steelworker and union leader--will be undone and no one like him will ever be able to become president of Brazil again. Can you imagine an FDR getting elected in the U.S. today? It's not possible, and the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines are why. They are the final lockout against reform.

One additional note: The corporation that just bought out Diebold--ES&S--is worse than Diebold as to lying, secretiveness and far rightwing connections that would make your hair stand on end.


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News Breaks
12:58 EDT DBD
theflyonthewall.com: Diebold awarded $100M contract from Superior Electoral Court of Brazil

Diebold said in an SEC filing that on December 18, 2009, after a public bid process, the Superior Electoral Court of Brazil awarded a contract for the purchase of up to 250K electronic voting machines to Procomp Amazonia Industria Eletronica S.A., a subsidiary of Diebold. The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil has announced an initial order of approximately 160K terminals from Procomp, along with other ancillary equipment and replacement parts, for delivery primarily in the second and third quarters of 2010. Projected revenue associated with the initial order is approximately $100M at today’s exchange rate. The agreement allows the court to purchase up to an additional 90K terminals from Procomp through 2010. :theflyonthewall.com

http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/DBDid1178390

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[Peace Patriot]

1. Added notes:

ES&S now has a 70% monopoly on US voting machines. See http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7592

I posted this news on Brazil in the DU Election Reform Forum here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

I obtained this news about Brazil in the Election Reform Forum here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

[Judi Lynn]

2. Looks like the fascists who terrorized Brazil in the 1960's have found a way to get control.

Brazilians who disliked the fascists in the '60's were tortured, were murdered. The Catholic Church at the time collected testimonies of the surviving victims, published in their volumn, "Nunca Mais", ("Never Again").

Never expected to hear what you've just learned, Peace Patriot. It doesn't look good, does it?

Brazil: Never Again (Brasil: Nunca Mais) is a book edited by Paulo Evaristo Arns, in which episodes of torture under the military dictatorship in Brazil between 1964 and 1979 are documented. With the assistance of the Presbyterian minister Jaime Wright, he photocopied the military government's records on torture, which were used as his source.

In total, the book documents 17,000 victims and the details of 1,800 torture episodes. The book was kept secret for five years under the dictatorship, and only published with the return to democracy. The book was a bestseller and provoked a widescale movement for change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunca_Mais_(Brazil)

http://e.static.blip.tv.nyud.net:8090/VideotecaVirtualBNM-Video040319-700.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

3. I think this is very, very, very, very, VERY bad news for Brazil and South America! nt

[Braulio]

6. Looks like democracy works by fits and starts

Come on Judi, you know the left in Brazil is going to lose the next elections because Lula handpicked Dilma Yousef to be the left's candidate, and she's colourless, has low ratings, even though she's a very capable individual. This is one reason why democracy has to be taken with a pinch of salt, sometimes the best candidate doesn't get elected (see Bush, Chavez, Karzai, etc).

[Peace Patriot]

4. Wilms has a comment (#1) in my post of this in the Election Forum, and says that

Diebold was already in Brazil. I'm looking into it. If they (now part of ES&S's monopoly) were already so pervasive in Brazil, why are they selling Brazil 250,000 new voting machines?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x514727

[EFerrari]

8. Why do they sell anyone anything? Because they can.

But thank you for bringing this to attention and I will be watching for updates from you and Wilms. :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

5. This is a real surprise. Jeez. His first link makes it sound as if the system they had in place

in is very close to what we've had, poisoning our own "democracy", for far too long.

Here's a Brazillian timeline, which says the President who was in office when this machine was put into operation was Fernando Henrique Cardoso. You may find this interesting:

Page last updated at 11:41 GMT, Friday, 20 November 2009

Timeline: Brazil
A chronology of key events:

~snip~
1994 - Fernando Henrique Cardoso elected president after helping to bring inflation under control. Makes controversial moves on land issue, seizing land for distribution among poor, and allowing indigenous land claims to be challenged.

1995 - President Cardoso acknowledges the existence of slavery in Brazil and pledges to tackle the problem.

1996 - Police kill 19 Amazon peasants in town of Eldorado dos Carajas.

1997

- Constitution changed to allow president to run for re-election.

1998 - Cardoso re-elected. IMF provides rescue package after economy hit by collapse of Asian stock markets.

2000 - Celebrations to mark Brazil's 500th anniversary marred by protests by indigenous Indians, who say that racial genocide, forced labour and disease have dramatically cut their population from an estimated 5 million before the Portuguese arrived in 1500 to the current 350,000.

2001 - Government says it is prepared to amend a development programme which critics say will have a catastrophic impact on the Amazon. Government expects to spend $40 billion over seven years on roads, railways, hydroelectric projects and housing in the Amazon basin.

2001

May - President Cardoso abolishes two development agencies for the Amazon and the north-east. The authorities say the agencies set up bogus projects to steal development funds estimated at more than $1 billion.

2002 March - Members of the Landless Workers Movement, demanding land reform, occupy President Cardoso's family ranch.

2002 June - Fans jubilant as Brazil triumphs in World Cup - the football-mad country's fifth such victory.

2002 July - Currency hits all-time low and financial markets panic over the prospect of left-winger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva winning October's presidential elections.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1231075.stm

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Isn't it odd our corporate media didn't start howling when Brazil legislated a change in Brazil's constitution to allow Cardosa a 2nd run for the Presidency? Looks as if they're so very selective over which Latin American Presidents, also remember Colombia's Alvaro Uribe, whose people BRIBED Colombian senators to legislate HIS constitutional change so he could run again) are power-hungry dictators for daring to run again in countries which have had one term limits.

Bless their hearts. Our corporate "news" sources and the imbeciles who swallow their spin all believe it's all up to the US to approve or condemn every leader of every country, and if we don't, it's time to go kill their people, imprison and hang, or at least exile their president, and put a puppet in place of the democraticly elected president. f

Thanks for getting the back story on this. We would have never known about the Diebold machines in Brazil already if we had depended on our own corporate spinners for information.

[ChangoLoa]

7. Like Smartmatic? nt.