Letters to the Editor

...Big money still controls the two major parties, and Nader is the only candidate saying anything about it and other issues progressives believe in...

...I suggest your writers and researchers do a more thorough job in the future...

...The correct spelling is Antonino D'Ambrosio...

...I am very disappointed that your magazine would betray the progressive candidate, and I hope and pray that those who read your article will stop and think about how rightwing we are going to let the Democrats get before we have had enough...

...The main reason I no longer get much of my news from NPR is that it is so lost in its own white, suburban, middle class dream world it has lost the capacity to report credibly on much of the important news of the day...

...Yet he advocates the use of paperless voting computers that break down, lose votes, overheat, and don't start up correctly...

...The primary source of the nonsense and falsehoods was Jim Dickson's old laundry list of reasons why we Americans should not be allowed to verify our votes...

...Thus, Nader's message-and his whole reason for being-has officially become buried beneath all the unwarranted scorn that the liberal media has heaped upon him...

...This is the only way Nader will have his suggestions and his seeking the Presidency accepted...

...Ellen Theisen Port Ludlow, Washington I am appalled at the naivete of James Dickson, vice president for governmental affairs at the American Association of People with Disabilities, writer Marc Eisen, and Progressive Editor Matthew Rothschild...

...It reminded me that in 1979 I called and personally urged my friend Erwin Knoll to publish Howard Morland's "The H-Bomb Secret" against the court order even if it meant Knoll would go to jail...

...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness, and may appear either in the magazine or on its web page...

...Bob Samuelson Minneapolis, Minnesota "The Ballots Are Still Full of Holes" was a mixture of facts, nonsense, and falsehoods...

...Please cancel the remaining nine months of my subscription and remit what you owe me to the Ralph Nader campaign fund...

...Daniel Flynn Monroe, Wisconsin There is no question that, as a candidate for the Presidency, Ralph Nader will be greatly helping the Republican Party and vastly harming the Democratic candidate...

...Richard L. Franklin Appleton, Wisconsin Conniff on Kerry Ruth Conniff makes a big deal out of the fact that John Kerry is not an electrifying speaker and that he has accepted money from corporations ("Triumph of the Bland," April issue...

...Voter-verified paper records for touch screen machines can be adapted for handicapped use (e.g., with voice dictation or touch systems...

...Matt Stark Minneapolis, Minnesota Correction: In last month's issue, we misspelled the name of the author of "The Playwright vs...

...A voter-verified paper trail is the only way to reliably audit election results...

...Philip Rowen West Palm Beach, Florida It is unfortunate that one of George W. Bush's most outrageous political scandals may end up being his unification of the entire population of this country behind the two-party system...

...We apologize for the error...

...Bill Hay Soquel, California NPR's Sad State The fact that Tavis Smiley (Interview, by Leah Samuel, March issue) is a black "first" at NPR and PBS is a sorry commentary on NPR and PBS...

...The respectful and cooperative thing for Nader to do is join the Democratic Party and offer them his suggestions and programs...

...I am familiar with Jim Dickson's complaints and find it odd that he argues so strenuously against paper when he can have his touch screen machine and paper, too...

...Dickson doesn't want to let us verify our votes because "printers jam, they run out of paper, they malfunction...

...Hopefully some-if not all-would be adopted...

...He and The Progressive needed to defy that injunction and speak truth to power...

...Anybody but Bush" has become the rallying cry for the Democrats, and the death knell for the Independents...

...Mary Porter Berlin, Massachusetts I was disappointed by Eisen's piece on electronic voting machines...

...The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...

...Katharine W. Rylaarsdam Baltimore, Maryland Speak Out Against Nukes Your review of the three books on nuclear weapons was excellent ("Nuclear Alert," by Matthew Rothschild, March issue...

...We should not disenfranchise all voters, handicapped or not, in a rush to install unverifiable touch screen computers merely to give the handicapped a secret ballot or to replace punched paper ballots...

...I can expect the usual vacuous talking heads on the airwaves to let a shill get away with saying, "Oh, that is not true," or, "That problem is being fixed," but not The Progressive...

...It's all ivory tower theory," Dickson says of computer experts' criticism of voting computers...

...So, to that end, why don't the Democrats just opt out of this election...

...We can afford to spend extra time and money handling paper in order to maintain confidence in our voting system and accuracy in our election results...

...Then Nader can try to be a Democratic Party candidate for the Presidency in 2008...

...Letters may be e-mailed to: editorial@progressive.org Please include your city and state...

...There is less than one chance in a billion that the people who are preparing to steal this fall's election with computer voting machines give a rat's ass for people with disabilities...

...Emory Burton Dallas, Texas A Story Full of Holes After reading Marc Eisen's piece in the March issue, "The Ballots Are Still Full of Holes," I must weigh in on the side of a voter-verified paper trail for all direct-recorded electronic voting machines...

...For the grand old Progressive magazine to allow statements about new versions of Diebold software taking care of the problems without reporting which versions they are speaking of only allows the lies to fester...

...But the guy is an experienced, dedicated Senator, and he gets high marks from Americans for Democratic Action...

...Wouldn't it be nice, though, to witness a debate between Nader and Bush...

...If Noam Chomsky and Jim Hightower are supporting Kerry over Bush, liberals should vote for him with enthusiasm...

...Jim Dickson's arguments against allowing us to make sure our votes are recorded correctly are all over the board and contradictory He doesn't want elections to be too complicated for election administrators, yet he supports the use of machines that complicate the jobs of the poll workers so much that thousands of voters in California's Orange County were assigned the wrong electronic ballots in the recent election on Super Tuesday...

...After all, they are only drawing votes away from Nader...

...But there are newspaper reports of computerized elections in which votes were lost, ballots were blank, machines broke down, or results were tabulated incorrectly...

...On the other hand, there are better than 999,999,999 chances in a billion that those "elected" by the machines will repeal the Americans with Disabilities Act without waiting for their carefully chosen judges to finish disemboweling what's left of it...

...You have violated an implied contract between me and your magazine, which obviously is using a misleading name...

...We cannot trust our democracy to paperless voting computers...

...You're either with us, or you're against us," Bush declared to the world, and now the left has effectively directed that same obnoxious declaration at Nader and at anyone who would have the nerve to vote for him...

...the Prime Minister...

...Matt Robertson Milwaukee, Wisconsin I felt what only could be described as existential nausea when I discovered that The Progressive magazine had dedicated its April Comment section to an attack on America's greatest progressive...