American Views Abroad

 
Tapped to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Germany is William Robert Timken, Jr. former head of the Timken Company from 1962 - 2003 and according to two news sources he was a member of Diebold's Board of Directors since 1986 and stepped down from that position on June 30, 2005. Diebold Election Systems based in Ohio sells touch-screen voting machines not designed to produce a paper trail. In a Mother Jones Magazine on-line article from March 5, 2004 the importance of Ohio in the November 2004 election and the possibility of it being flawed and/or rigged are discussed. It points out that one of two companies selling such voting machines in Ohio is Diebold and it describes W.R.Timken as a Republican loyalist and a major contributor to GOP candidates. 'Since 1991 the Timken Company and members of the Timken family have contributed more than a million dollars to the Republican Party...' www.veteransforpeace.org/Diebolds_political_030504.htm. FinanzNachrichten also reported Timken retiring from Diebold's Board at http://www.finanznachrichten.de. The article can be found under 'suchen'.

The Hamburger Abendblatt informs its readers today that Timken has no diplomatic experience and does not speak any German. He had, however, contributed $200,000 to Bush's campaign. The articles explains how rewarding big-time political contributors has a long standing tradition in the U.S. dating back to Andrew Jackson in 1829. It concludes with a quote from Georgetown Professor Robert Lieber on how every third U.S. diplomat has no professional experience. www.abendblatt.de/daten/2005/07/21/461631.html.
- posted by Gloria @ 12:24 PM