Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
If you’ve never heard of King Lincoln v. Blackwell, don’t be too surprised. Project Censored calls the outsourcing of the 2004 Presidential elections in Ohio “one of the most censored stories in the world.” Originally filed on August 31, 2006 in Ohio, King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell is an ongoing civil case to decide if the the Ohio Secretary of State at the time, Kenneth Blackwell, violated the Civil Rights Act (42 USC §§ 1983 and 1984) and the 1st, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution by conspiring to “deprive and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote and have, in fact, deprived and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote by, in a selective and discriminatory manner, unfairly allocate election resources (such as voting machines), institute a system of provisional ballots, purge voter registrations, and broke the bi-partisan chain of custody ballots”. The vote at the heart of the issue is the 2004 Presidential election where, in defiance of exit poll data, there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.
New filings include a revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell died shortly after giving his deposition in a small plane crash that is described as “suspicious”*. In life, Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and their personal minister of propaganda, Karl Rove. Connell ran a private IT firm called GovTech that created the controversial electronic voting system that Ohio used during the election. GovTech’s system transferred Ohio’s vote count late on election night to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by a company called SmarTech. That is when the alleged vote shift happened that led to Bush’s unexpected victory.
The filing also contains a copy of the contract signed between Kenneth Blackwell and GovTech Solutions as well as a graphic architectural map of the Secretary of State’s election night server layout system. In a possible indication that the system was designed with fraud in mind, the contracts and maps had never been made public until this filing. The lead attorney on the case, Cliff Arnebeck, consulted with IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore about the network setup. Specifically, Arnebeck asked Spoonamore whether or not SmarTech had the ability to alter the results of the election. “Yes. They would have had data input capacities. The system might have been set up to log which source generated the data but probably did not,” Spoonamore responded, further explaining that SmarTech would have had “full access and could change things when and if they want.”
Spoonamore went on to conclude that “SmarTech was a man in the middle. In my opinion they were not designed as a mirror, they were designed specifically to be a man in the middle.” For those of you not computer savvy, a mirror site is like a back back-up. It works when the main computer system fails. In contrast, a “man in the middle” is a deliberate computer hacking setup (and a violation of U.S. wiretapping statutes) in which a third party sits in between computer transmissions where they can illegally alter or steal the data. In an even more revealing statement by Spoonamore during the course of the e-mails with Arnebeck, he claims that he confronted then-Secretary of State Blackwell at a secretary of state IT conference in Boston. Blackwell’s response? “Blackwell freaked and refused to speak to me when I confronted him about it long before I met you,” Spoonamore wrote to Arnebeck. In a previously submitted affidavit, Spoonamore testified, “The SmarTech system was set up precisely as a King Pin computer used in criminal acts against banking or credit card processes and had the needed level of access to both county tabulators and Secretary of State computers to allow whoever was running SmarTech computers to decide the output of the county tabulators under its control,” and that “…the architecture further confirms how this election was stolen.
Contrary to any contention that SmarTech’s servers operated simply as mirrors and that a system failure was behind the transfer of data to the Republican partisan firm, the late Michael Connell swore under oath that, “To the best of my knowledge, it was not a fail-over case scenario – or it was not a failover situation.” This is also confirmed by Bob Magnan, the state IT specialist for then Secretary of State Blackwell during the 2004 election. Magnan further claims that the control of the system was in the hands of private contractors at the time. Magnan was unexpectedly sent home at 9 p.m. on election night.
For those of you already suspect of electronic voting and the election of 2004, these new revelations are a smoking gun and a road map to how the election in Ohio was rigged in favor of George W. Bush. King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell may be a civil case, but this newly introduced evidence merits a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.
What do you think?
Source: TruthOut.org
* Commenter Otteray Scribe did the heavy lifting on locating more information about the crash, which as it turns out, is not very suspicious at all. His detailed and thorough post of the NTSB report is here. Thanks for the assist, Otteray Scribe!
~Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
OS,
That makes sense. They were electric heated props.
If I am not mistaken the old Beech – 18 and DC-3’s
used alcohol on the props and windows.
I remember as a kid hearing the ice smashing on the side of
a DC-3. It sounded like the plane was coming apart. LOL
OOPS, forgot the link. Here is is.
http://www.flightlearnings.com/anti-ice-and-deice-systems-part-two/836/
Bud, those were electrically heated, not pneumatic. I am not even sure you could install pneumatics on a prop.
There is a photo in the linked article. I had a pair of ammeters on the panel to show current when the heat was turned on.
OS,
I have honestly never heard of a boot on a prop..
Sorry. Boots on the wing yes, boots on the tail.
but, not a prop. Every time you expand it, your
airspeed is going to drop by 10 or so knots I would
guess depending on what kind of aircraft it is.
Bud, those were heated boots on the props. I am convinced they degraded the performance of the propellers, but would rather have them than not.
*************************************************
Lottakatz: Spatial disorientation means that the pilot may not be able to tell which way is up. It is sort of like vertigo, but without the dizziness. You may be flying straight and level, but be convinced you are turning, diving or climbing. Then when you try to correct for what you THINK you are experiencing, you get the aircraft all out of shape.
When a pilot who is not current on instruments or is not instrument qualified gets into instrument conditions, the pilot has about 180 seconds to live once spatial disorientation sets in. This instructional video illustrates the kinds of spatial disorientation to which I was referring. This is a chilling video, and all too factual.
Lottakatz,
Re: “I didn’t really know that he had written a book; maybe he was planing another?” (in reference to Colby)
Maybe. I wish we knew… I do know that some in our government are participating in some pretty wicked stuff… and there are plenty of secrets that people won’t tell… because they’re well paid to keep them… and they see what happens to people who dare to tell the truth.
Re: “It’s a fascinating article by Mr. Grant. That tow rope (and sand) is certainly suspicious, no?”
I agree. On both counts. I found the following to be interesting:
“In fact, Sally Shelton had absolutely no problem identifying Colby. But the medical examiner’s office demanded dental records as a matter of required procedure. She phoned CIA four times and asked for his dental records. They ignored her calls. When the CIA director phoned to offer his condolences, he asked if there was anything he could do for her.
“Yes, get your guys to answer my calls,” she said. She was still steamed about this when I talked to her. Both the CIA and FBI ignored Colby’s death and let a county sheriff’s office run the investigation.”
“The pilot’s inappropriate control inputs as a result of spatial disorientation,..”
—–What does that mean in terms of the physical interaction between pilot and plane? are there switches to be toggled or what. I’m interested in the mechanics of the errors. Can icing cause a situation where the correct moves were being made but incorrect readings were being received on the pilots control panel or vice versa?
Os,
The best de-icing equipment is located between the pilot’s ears.
LOL…. Ain’t it the truth…
That’s interesting. Are you talking hot props or alcohol?
I won’t come within a country mile and a half of ice my friend..
Hate it like thunderstorms.
OS,
What is meant when you say “ran out of trim”?
Bud, yes it is too bad. I had de-icing boots on the propellers of my twin, but that was all, aside from a heated pitot tube. As you know, very few general aviation planes have de-icing equipment. The best de-icing equipment is located between the pilot’s ears. In case of known icing: STAY PUT UNTIL THE WX IMPROVES!!
OS,
Excellent vids.
It’s a shame he didn’t have ice protection.
The issue of his “experience level” level aside, the bottom line is that we’ll probably never know the answer, IMHO. Clearly, the “icing conditions” can’t be ignored and, as has been repeated in this thread, are the “probable cause.” Having said this, the NTSB report clearly states:
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
“The pilot’s inappropriate control inputs as a result of spatial disorientation, which led to an aerodynamic stall and loss of control. Contributing to the accident were the pilot’s decision to conduct flight into known icing conditions, ice accumulation that reduced the airplane’s aerodynamic performance, and the pilot’s failure to initially intercept and establish the airplane on the proper approach course. (end of excerpt)”
So the NTSB”s conclusion is that the icing conditions contributed to the accident…. Who in the hell really knows what happened, but it’s essential to, at least, consider “the totality of the circumstances.”
A couple of years ago, I saw a story about prior issues with his plane.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Killed_GOP_pilot_suspected_plane_had_1222.html
GOP consultant killed in plane crash was warned of sabotage: report
John Byrne, David Edwards and Stephen Webster
Published: Monday December 22, 2008
Excerpt:
Without getting into specific details, 19 Action News reporter Blake Renault reported Sunday evening that 45-year-old Republican operative and experienced pilot had been warned not to fly his plane in the days before the crash.
“Connell…was apparently told by a close friend not to fly his plane because his plane might be sabotaged,” Renault said. “And twice in the last two months Connell, who is an experienced pilot, cancelled two flights because of suspicious problems with his plane.” (end excerpt)
To echo Dredd again, “Conspiracy theories, they are not just for nuts any more.”
Gene H., Another excellent posting.
Bud, yes on both counts. One would think he had at least a wing leveler, but if he lost his pitot and static ports, the autopilot would be useful only as a door stop. Also, as the second video illustrated, ice loading could overpower even an operational autopilot. Note in the second video, the pilot ran out of trim and was having to muscle the controls.
OS,
Two interesting points.
1. The NTSB narrative does not indicate whether he had an operational autopilot. It is always useful flying single pilot IFR.
2. I think you’ll agree that almost all accidents occur after a series of mistakes and very rarely occur because of one single situation.
Here is a demonstration of some new training equipment that can simulate icing. There are a couple of very short commercial ads inserted in the middle, but just go past them to continue the demonstration. The view out the “windshield” is what the approach might look like in clear weather, but the computer is configured to simulate icing. This is approximately what Mr. Collins was facing on that approach to the airport, but he was in the soup and there was no visibility outside the cockpit. He was relying on instruments. One other thing ice does. It can cover the pitot tube and static openings, which means that he could have lost his airspeed indicator and other vacuum operated instruments at just the wrong time.
Just an afterthought. On Democracy Now, he was described as “an experienced pilot.” IMHO, 510 hours total flight time does not qualify you as an “experienced pilot,” especially not for the purposes of flying into instrument conditions with reported known icing.
If he were truly an experienced pilot, in the common usage the term implies, he would have gotten the full pilot briefing before departing, rather than an abbreviated briefing. His airplane had no de-icing equipment at all, yet he took off into conditions where icing had been reported by other pilots. When he got to his destination, he failed to intercept the glide slope properly and was a mile and a half off-course on a precision approach. IMHO, no “experienced pilot” would have made those major errors of judgement and skill.
A lot of people think that ice brings an airplane down because of weight. It does not. Ice can build up amazingly fast on the leading edges of the wings and tail. That thin layer of ice changes the shape of the flying surfaces so the air does not flow smoothly and generate lift. An airplane that normally stalls at 55 or 60 miles per hour may suddenly have a stall speed in excess of a hundred miles per hour. It may take full power just to maintain level flight. When the airplane can no longer maintain flight, the wing will stall; that is, quit flying.
Single pilot IFR is demanding even under optimum conditions. It can give a whole new meaning to the term, “multi-tasking.” When the normal heavy workload of IFR is combined with trying to get the plane back on the glide slope, combined with icing, he experienced spatial disorientation. As the report says, the control inputs were incorrect for continued level flight. That is what appears to have happened to Collins.
As for the investigation, the crash was just a happy accident as far as those who allegedly stole the election were concerned. I am sure there were a number of dirty tricks operatives who breathed a sigh of relief when Collins died.
I had said this nearly 4 years ago….See what has happened in KY and rigged elections for the GOP….
Statistical Evidence that the 2004 Election was Stolen
http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/2004-election-fraud-analysis-confirmation-of-a-kerry-landslide/
Election Fraud Analysis: Confirmation of a Kerry Landslide
Richard Charnin (TruthIsAll)
http://richardcharnin.com/FurtherConfirmationOfaKerryLandslide
Introduction: To Believe Bush Won…
1. When Decided
2. Bush Approval Ratings
3. The Final 5 Million Recorded Votes
4. The Final Exit Poll: Forced to Match the Vote
5. Within Precinct Discrepancy
6. New Voters
7. Party ID
8. Gender
9. Implausible Gore Voter Defection
10. Voter Turnout
11. Urban Legend
12. Location Size
13. Sensitivity Analysis
14. Did Kerry Win 360 EV?
15. Election Simulation Analysis
16. Exit Poll Response Optimization
17. Florida
18. Ohio
19. New York
Appendix
A. Election Model: Nov.1 Projection
B. Interactive Monte Carlo Simulation: Pre-election and Exit Polls
C. 1988-2004 Election Calculator: The True Vote
D. The 2000-2004 County Vote Database
E. Statistics and Probability: Mathematics of Polling
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