The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford University's Cyberlaw Clinic have filed suit in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order against Diebold, maker of electronic voting machinery. The issue is free speech. The suit seeks a cease and desist order against the company to stop it from sending threatening letters to websites and groups that publish company documents obtained by a hacker.

Voting activists who have received the cease-and-desist orders, including students from at least 20 universities, claim the documents raise serious security concerns about Diebold Inc., which has more than 50,000 touchscreen voting terminals nationwide.

....A hacker broke into Diebold's servers in March using an employee's ID, and copied thousands of company announcements and internal e-mails. [company spokesman] Jacobsen said the documents might have been altered afterward. The hacker e-mailed the data to voting activists, some of whom published stories on their Web logs. A freelance journalist at Wired News also received data and wrote about it in an online story.

T. Christopher Kelly writes on TalkLeft as TChris.

He is a member of Kelly & Habermehl, S.C., a law firm based in Madison, Wisconsin. His practice concentrates on the defense of individuals and organizations accused of crime in federal and state courts, with a special emphasis on appellate and post-conviction representation.

In 2005, he was the lead attorney in United States v. Booker, a Supreme Court case that struck down mandatory federal sentencing guidelines as violating the Sixth Amendment.

Received from defense attorney and Vietnam Vet Terry Kindlon, on the new William Buckley column on the Chinook Helicopter:

History repeats! Sh*t happens! Found an interesting piece today by William F. Buckley, Jr., on the subject of why we shouldn't get too worked up about one little helicopter full of dead soldiers. The analysis has a certain appeal for us cynics who see all those pesky "Iraq is Vietnam" parallels, because, here, for the first time since right after the 1968 Tet Offensive, a conservative columnist is patiently instructing us--again--that if you'll just compare the number of soldiers killed in a given period of time (like, five minutes for example) to the number of Americans killed in car accidents in a year, you will not feel particularly upset about the dead soldiers (especially if none of them happens to be you, your kid, your father, mother, sister, brother or anybody else you actually used to play golf with at the country club). I can distinctly remember a fat guy in a hard hat making that car wreck argument back in 1969. It didn't work for me, but then I actually knew a bunch of the dead soldiers, so I guess I didn't really have the proper perspective.

In any event, now that Mr. Buckley has resurrected this argument, I'm wondering if I can use it as a defense in my next murder case? Sample opening statement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please put the charges against my client 'into perspective.'" There were 43,000 'Mericans killed in car wrecks last year, not to mention 16 people killed in one helicopter wreck, and my client is merely accused of killing one little family of four..."

Think it'll work?

A new Marist poll shows that more than 4 in 10 voters will vote againgst Bush:

The survey by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion found that 44 percent of the voters questioned said they planned to definitely vote against the Republican president while 38 percent said they would support his re-election.

...The latest poll also found a drop in Bush's approval rating, which has been reflected in other recent nationwide polls. The Marist poll had the president's approval rating at 53 percent, down from 70 percent in its April poll.

[comments now closed]

Philly mayor John Street easily won re-election today:

It was the electronic bug found hidden in the ceiling of the mayor's office on Oct. 7 that overshadowed the campaign's final month and brought national attention to the race for mayor in the nation's fifth-largest city.

The continuing federal probe bolstered Street in surprising ways, as many voters in a 4-1 Democratic city listened to the Democratic Party's assertion that the federal probe was a GOP dirty trick.

Street's supporters contended it was evidence of a possibly racially inspired GOP plot to oust a Democratic mayor. Katz saw it as a logical result of a culture of corruption that he contended existed in City Hall.

Bump and Update: Here's the transcript of the debate. Some early news of the debate shows much criticism of Howard Dean for his confederate flag remark.

Sharpton called the Confederate flag "America's swastika," accused Dean of misquoting King and said of Dean's flag comment, "I think it is insensitive and you ought to apologize for it. You are not a bigot but you appear to be too arrogant to say 'I'm wrong.'"

When Dean again tried to defend himself, Sharpton dismissed him, saying he sounded more like "Stonewall Jackson than Jesse Jackson" and accusing Dean of stereotyping southern whites by suggesting they all display the Confederate flag on their pickups.

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Original Post 11/4 3pm

Eight of the nine Democratic presidential nomination contenders will debate tonight on CNN at 7 pm ET--sponsored by Rock The Vote.

Who's missing? Dick Gephardt, who would rather campaign in Iowa.

What's different about this debate? Young voters will ask the questions.

Just goes to show Dick Gephardt really is your father's oldsmobile.

This appeared on Donald Luskin's and Atrios's weblogs today:

A JOINT STATEMENT FROM DONALD LUSKIN AND ATRIOS We both regret a series of misunderstandings that have resulted in something that neither of us intended. We have discussed our differences, and both of us are confident that such misunderstandings will not occur again in the future. As a result, Mr. Luskin is retracting his demand letter of October 29, 2003. We congratulate each other on having quickly achieved an amicable resolution. We are both glad to have put this behind us.

A credit to both of them for resolving the matter without a lawsuit.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will be sworn in as Governor on Nov. 17. He's named Bonnie Reiss — a Democrat and outspoken environmentalist — as his senior advisor.

Al Sharpton will serve as host of Saturday Night Live on Dec. 6.

A police officer testified today in day five of the Scott Peterson preliminary hearing and acknowledged there was no sign of struggle inside the Peterson home. Nor was there any smell of bleach.

All in all, there is evidence of one hair that was in a pair of pliers on the Peterson boat that mitochondrial DNA testing says might be Laci's. So what? Hair is easily transferred and there are dozens if not more explanations for how a hair of Laci's could have gotten on the pliers or in the boat.

Amber Frey, Scott's girlfriend of one month (they met Nov. 20 and Laci disappeared Dec. 24) is scheduled to testify later in the week. We doubt she will add much to the case--other than details of conversations after the fact showing Scott was a cheating husband.

As low as the threshold for probable cause is, we don't see it so far.

The Supreme Court heard argument today in a Fourth Amendment case involving a faulty warrant by an ATF officer who faces a civil suit for damages. The 9th Circuit ruled the agent does not have immunity. The Justices seemed highly critical of the agent.

The warrant was issued for a ranch in Montana. The affidavit stated weapons would be found there. But the warrant itself, which is what the agents take with them when they go to execute the warrant, failed to mention weapons. It just mentioned the house as a place to be searched with no mention of what was to be searched inside the house.

The Fourth Amendment requires that items to be seized be specified with particularity. This warrant didn't fit the bill.

Why not just apply the constitutional provisions?" Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked Groh's lawyer. "Why couldn't the agent be responsible for checking the warrant?"

Lawyer Richard Cordray told the justices that while the warrant itself omitted mention of weapons, all the specifics were listed on the affidavit used to win court approval of the search. Justice David Souter was unimpressed. The affidavit, he noted dryly, was back at the courthouse while agents were knocking on the door.

Then it was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's turn. "Here's a house, and there's no bound at all" on what police can look for or what they can seize, she said. "It looks like just what the Fourth Amendment was supposed to address."

Only Scalia tried to help the ATF agent.

A former New Jersey prison guard pleaded guilty Monday to selling cigarettes to inmates at a cost of $50 a pack. He had the families of the inmates wire him the money via Western Union. His punishment will be probation and an agreement not to hold public office. His name is Wesley Thomas, 40, of Somerset, N.J. Just in case you ever see his name on a ballot.

The Pentagon is oiling up the draft machine. We join Maxspeak in calling upon Country Joe and the Fish to phone their office--it's time for a comeback.

For those of you too young to remember Country Joe or the "Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag",here's Country Joe himself on the song from his latest website.

Update: Here's the notice from the Selective Service Website.