who's in charge?

2 stories with a common theme. who's in charge?

my speciality at the well-known eastern
business school was management of
nonprofits but my concentration was
management control. how do you know
what you are doing? what is the information
you need at various levels to continue
to know what you are doing? i find
this stuff really interesting.
so when the medical device re-use article
appeared in the WaPo this was my chance to
use that kind of analysis. it also works for the
voting machine scandal.

say a re-use device hurts a patient. doctors
only have to report deaths. hospital fears
lawsuit, covers it up. re-manufacturer is
in it for the money. government oversight
consists of asking companies to register
and to regulate themselves and promise
to be really really honest. hmm.

for voting machine scandal, a multiplicity
of targets. the 3 republican manufacturers
Diebold, ES&S, and Triad MADE these machines
to be able to be manipulated. some can be
changed *remotely*. local election officials
dont understand computers and bring in temporary
workers from the companies to "help" them.
secretaries of state are sometimes crooked
[cough *ohio* cough] or sometimes unaware or
indeed in deeply astonished denial that
the machines could be so vulnerable that the
ENTIRE ELECTION could be fraudulently affected.
there is supposed oversight by ITA, "independent"
and i use the word loosely, testing agencies.
that should work right? except for the little
known fact that ITAs are created by: (ya) the machine
manufacturers and report in secret back to their
creators. public interest.....public interest......hmm.

heres the really dirty secret: incumbent
democrats like these machines too. elections
were warped in florida in 2000, stolen in ohio
in 2004--the state that gave it to bush remember,
CLEARLY FRAUD in ohio in 2005 see columbus
dispatch poll scandal. congressional elections
in 2006 and the presidential primaries and election
in 2008 will be stolen if nothing is done. [/rant]

and a cheery good morning to you too.