TODAY'S TOPICS: GOP Coup 08', McCain's Beat Down, Health Care/FINALLY!, Vote Purging, Klan Rallies, Acorn Attacked

OBAMA DESTROYS MCCAIN

Hey everybody…I’ve been inundated with No on 10 work the past few days and haven’t even been able to read an article!! Suffice to say, Obama took a pillowcase full of billiard balls to grumpy gramps on Tuesday, as I had been predicting for months he would (as in “Wait until the debates”). I just don’t have time yet again, but the stories of the day are obviously these:

1. Obama is wiping the floor with McCain…the race is over if the votes are counted even close to correctly. His life is also now in danger.

2. McCain/Palin are holding Klan like rallies intended to incite their racist and dangerously ignorant base in ways no one can predict. But I know hate when I see and hear it…

3. McCain’s domestic POLICY PROPOSALS are FINALLY getting some coverage!!! Yes, his health care, Medicare and Social Security plans are finally making their way to the voter…and these are what make him that much more dangerous!! We’re talking about policies that would adversely effect the lives of millions of peoples…and COST the lives of thousands more.

4. And THE MOST IMPORTANT of all, is the massive illegal voter registration purges the GOP has been undertaking…and that FINALLY were covered by the corporate media. So far, they have only caught on to the tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states that have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law. And that those blocked voters "are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law."

Wait until they realize that number is in the MILLIONS.

If there’s one thing I hope I’ve done over the years is prepare you all for this…I predicted this exact phenomenon months ago…glad to see the NY Times is only that far behind this blog.

All I’m going to do tonight is post video clips and then Brad’s coverage of the extraordinary election fraud revelations popping up all over the country. What we are witnessing is nothing less than the uncovering of the third coup in 8 years perpetrated by the GOP…but this one is on a scale never before seen. And let’s be frank, it would take a crime of such historic proportions for them to win that they’ve gotten a little sloppy…now it all comes down to activists on the ground, Obama’s campaign recognizing the threat, the media’s ability to investigate and report - on even a high school level – this unprecedented assault on democracy, and yes, probably the courts once all hell breaks loose on election day.

Again, I have reported on all this in depth, and you can find it in recent blogs if interested.
Thankfully, Brad is on this everyday.

First to the videos…

VIDEO SECION

Obama simply embarrassing McCain (the one answer I couldn’t stand Obama gave was to whether Russia was an “evil empire”…I’ll tell you what he should have said when I have time):

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/obama-smokes-mccain-foregin-policy-remi

Oh snap...Obama calls out McCain for not having the courage to make all his campaigns attacks to his face:

http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/obama-mccains-smears-he-wasn%E2%80%99t-willi

This is why Biden is a plus on the ticket…and why I wanted him on it…he WILL TAKE the gloves off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7qOK7f5hwA

Dangerously insane John McCain calls crowd “fellow prisoners”…I feel like I’m watching a countdown to “meltdown” with this guy:

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/john-mccain-acalls-americans-my-fellow-

Andrea Mitchell asks the hard question to the McCain camp: So are you saying he might be a terrorist???

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/andrea-mitchell-tucker-bounds-are-you-t

More excellent analysis of McCain’s criminal health care plan…an issue I’ve been pining away to hear debated…it’s one of his GAPING WEAKNESSES. And god knows Obama destroyed him in the debate on the issue.

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/countdown-dangers-mccains-free-market

The Palin lynch mob…this “my friends” is today’s Republican Base. This is why they must be stopped…and educated somehow…

http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/palin-mccain-mob

THE 2008 GOP COUP OPERATION (can they do it a third time?)

Beware of the misdirection "voter fraud" red herring...as I've been talking about for two years...we knew they would trump this out to divert attention from the real crime:

GOP's ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Scam Rolls Out in MO...Right on Schedule...

Remember yesterday when we told you about the transcript of the Fox & Friends show yesterday morning, discussing the bogus raid of an ACORN office in Las Vegas, and then implying "more" ACORN "voter fraud" occurring in Missouri? The RNC actually issued that transcript verbatim as an official RNC press release.

Remember when we told you that, given the hints within the RNC/FNC report that swing state MO was likely next on the RNC/FNC/FBI hit-list?

Well, late last night, AP delivered right on schedule, open their story with "Officials in Missouri...are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states."

Of course, as with the pageant staged in Las Vegas, the Missouri action is also a scam. Read a little closer into the AP article, and you'll see the tell-tale signs of this October "Surprise" joke rather clearly...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6488

NYTIMES: THOUSANDS OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS ILLEGALLY REMOVED FROM VOTER ROLLS

We've been reporting on the GOP's October "Surprise" over the last few days (challenges to Democratic voter registrations in a number of states, and, perhaps more notably, their bogus PR campaign to charge that ACORN, a community organization who heroically registers millions of low-income voters who nobody else bothers to, is committing "voter fraud". See here, here and here, for example.)

But the November Surprise, as we've been trying to warn for many months (if not years), will undoubtedly be the thousands who show up to the polls to vote on November 4th, only to find out that they have somehow "fallen off" the voter rolls.

Late last month, CBS News reported on voter purges occurring in at least 19 states across the country, many of them swing states, naturally.

Today, the New York Times has published a scathing report, based on a detailed investigation revealing that "Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law".

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6490

OH's SoS Brunner Looks Beyond Todays E-Voting Nightmares

Previously Unpublished Q&A Exchanges on Ohio's Diebold Lawsuit, E-Voting

Nightmares, and the Possibility of Hand-Counting Ballots in the Future...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6483

MY EXCLUSIVE BRUNNER Q&A AT COMPUTERWORLD:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9116465

AUDIO: Brad Takes on GOP 'Voter Fraud' Villain Von Spakovsky on 'Tavis Smiley Show'

Head-to-Head, Calling Out the GOP's Unapologetic Democracy-Hater, Vote-Suppressor, Liar

PLUS: Brad Then Takes on John Fund, Another GOP 'Voter Fraud' Scammer, on the Radio, the Following Day...

On last weekend's Tavis Smiley Show, on public radio, former FEC chair, DoJ operative, democracy-hater, and GOP "voter fraud" huckster, Hans Von Spakovsky finally faced someone, on-air, able to stand up to his BS...

FULL STORY, AUDIO: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6478

False Flier Warns of Election Day Arrests in PA African-American Neighborhoods

McCain Supporters Begin Ugliest of Dirty Tricks - Seen in '04 in OH and WI - Early This Year...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6465

GOP Withdraws 6,000 Bogus Voter Challenges in Montana

Faced With a Lawsuit by State Dems, the Republicans Wave White Flag of Surrender...

Last Friday, we told you about 6,000 bogus challenges to voters in Democratic-leaning counties in Montana, based on nothing more than the fact that they had moved within the last 18 months. The chaos caused -- including at least one Army Reservist on his way to Iraq, who'd be disenfranchised -- has led to a lawsuit by the Dems (happy to see them step up for a change!)

In the bargain, it looks like the Republicans have now decided to cut and run!

Yesterday, we're happy to announce, faced with a party actually willing to push back by taking them to court, the Montana GOP "waved the white flag of surrender" and backed off their phony challenges, announcing they will be withdrawing them...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6482

HEALTH CARE - Withering On The Vine

Earlier this week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) admitted he would cut $1.3 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid over the next ten years to finance his health care plan. McCain's proposed cuts echo former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's 1995 effort to cut $270 billion, or 14 percent, from projected Medicare spending over seven years and force millions of elderly recipients into managed health care programs or HMOs. As Gingrich admitted, "We don't want to get rid of it [traditional Medicare] in round one because we don't think it's politically smart." "But we believe that it's going to wither on the vine because we think [seniors] are going to leave it voluntarily," he added. Despite McCain's career-long support for limiting Medicare benefits and eligibility, the campaign, is denying that its financing mechanism would undermine benefits. Appearing on CNN, McCain senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin implied that "McCain would save money in the federal health programs" by focusing on preventive care and weeding out $1.3 trillion worth of inefficiency and fraud. Nonetheless, a Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) analysis of the senator's proposed cuts finds that McCain but also undermine Medicare and Medicaid benefits and eligibility and would force those with private insurance plans to pay more for health coverage out of pocket.

CUTS IN MEDICARE: To achieve his goal of cutting Medicare by 13 percent over 10 years, McCain will have to limit growth in enrollment and medical price inflation to 4.5 percent annually. To maintain the current operations of the existing Medicare program, however, a growth rate of at least 7.1 percent is needed over the next 10 years to cover the 2.7 percent average annual growth in enrollment and a projected rate of medical price inflation of 4.4 percent. Absent another change in his plan, McCain would have to reduce Medicare eligibility, reduce benefits, and/or increase cost-sharing. Either approach would jeopardize the benefits of existing beneficiaries and severely limit the program from accepting new enrollees.

CUTS IN MEDICAID: Assuming McCain's proposed cuts are proportionally divided between the two programs, McCain would also slash Medicaid spending by 13 percent over 10 years. McCain's cuts would limit Medicaid growth to 5.5 percent annually -- a six percent growth rate barely keeps up with medical inflation and enrollment growth -- and would likely yield a parallel cut in state funding. As a result, McCain's plan would result in a total reduction in Medicaid spending of $738 billion over 10 years, more than the cost of providing benefits for all Medicaid beneficiaries for two years. These cuts will likely cascade into the State Children's Health Insurance Program the federal program that covers millions of children who otherwise would not have access to health insurance.

COSTS SHIFT TO PRIVATE INSURANCE: If the government's support of public programs fall, those with private insurance will end up paying more as health care providers shift costs to private payers. Low payment rates in the public market will lead health care providers to pursue higher payments from the private market. As CAPAF Senior Fellow Peter Harbage points out, this cost shift represents a "hidden tax" on Americans with private insurance. Private payers will pay higher premiums and deductibles in order to make-up for McCain's radical cuts to public programs and would also finance more expensive emergency room care for individuals who are no longer covered by Medicaid. A 2005 study by Professor Ken Thorpe of Emory University concluded that cost-shifting nationally accounts for 8.5 percent of premiums. Unfortunately, McCain's proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will only increase the "hidden tax" on millions of Americans.

TODAY'S TOPICS: Olbermann Special Comment!, Health Care, Greenwald, Matrix Myths, the Debate, McCain/Gollum

MCCAIN/PALIN TICKET GOES POSTAL

Well, I can’t say I didn’t know this was coming…but wow, this is by far the dirtiest and most despicable racist fearmongering I have ever seen in a campaign. Obama “pals around with terrorists”. Really?! McCain is fanning the flames of hatred and bigotry, and you can hear the anger and violent rage in their crowds towards Obama. What a sad statement…someone that has run probably the most positive campaign I have seen in my lifetime is essentially being called a terrorist, or possible terrorist, by these two human disgraces.

Let’s just hope none of their cro-magnon supporters takes things into their own hands – for the good of the country of course – and tries to shoot Obama down.

I am so disgusted by these attacks, and the media’s dutiful reporting of them, just as the Republicans knew they would, I can’t even tell you. The good news is that while the whisper (and now shout) campaign about Obama’s muslim and terrorist ties WILL NOT sway enough voters this time, it has swayed many blue pill taking Americans. People that canvas for Obama say they REGULARLY here people say that the reason they won’t vote for him is because he doesn’t love America, wear a flag lapel, is Muslim, and so on.

Yes, a sad statement about both our country and those who seek to lead it. But it won’t be enough (unless they can somehow steal as many as 10 percent of the vote…which is what I thought Obama would always win by in a fair election). Not this year…not at this time. Most people have seen this game before, and as they watch their pensions disappear, their homes foreclosed, and their health care evaporate…William Airs, lapel pins, and Rev. Wright suddenly don’t become so important anymore.

Watch for what McCain tries to pull out of his dark soul tonight…he will be slightly restrained by the town hall forum…so going off subject and attacking Obama may backfire.

QUOTES

John McCain and Sarah Palin have been complaining that there's too much "gotcha journalism" going around. If only. When they say "gotcha journalism," what they're really trying to do, of course, is to demonize journalism itself -- to de-legitimize asking tough questions, and following up with more tough questions when the answers are mealy-mouth evasions, and holding politicians accountable when they inadvertently emit a truth. We certainly could have used more gotcha journalism during the decade leading up to the worst economic debacle since the Great Depression.”

-- Marty Kaplan huffington post

"This was the largest single act of class warfare in the modern history of this country," Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who led the fight in the House against the bailout, told me by phone from Cleveland. "It is a direct attack on the American people's ability to be able to stabilize their homes and their neighborhoods. This single vote will define the careers of everyone. We are back to taxation without representation, to markets that are openly rigged."

"We buried the New Deal. Instead of Democrats going back to classic New Deal economics where we prime the pump of the economy and start money circulating among the population through saving homes, creating jobs and building a new infrastructure, our leaders chose to accelerate the wealth of the nation upwards. They did so in a way that was destructive of free-market principles. They ripped away all the familiar moorings. We are in an uncharted sea where the traditional roles of the political parties are being switched. The Democrats have unfortunately become so enamored and beholden to Wall Street that we are not functioning to defend the economic interest of the broad base of the American people. It was up to the Republicans to protect not just a so-called free market but the American taxpayer and attempt to block this. This is an outrage. This was democracy's Black Friday."

-- more truth from Dennis Kucinich

VIDEO SECTION

Yes!!! Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on the Palin smears…oh man this is good!

http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/special-comment-hockey-moms-glass-ho

And finally Brokaw, a mainstream crap reporter, actually covers McCain’s skeletons!! Olbermann’s special comment certainly has put reporters on notice that their double standard in the way they cover Obama versus Palin and McCain will not be tolerated. Can you imagine if Obama was caught on camera with a Kenyan witch doctor? Or if his wife was an American hating secessionist? It would be non stop…

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/mccain-tied-us-council-world-freedom-na

Daily Show: McCain and Gollum…like peas and carrots:

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/daily-show-mccain-gollum

This is about as good an expose of McCain’s criminal health care plan as you’ll see…from Obama no less. I’m SO GLAD he’s chosen to target health care, particularly McCain’s proposal. There are few more important, and drastic differences between these two men than their health care plans (the real solution is single payer…and there’s a bill in congress right now to do that…perhaps we can get it to Obama’s desk and he’ll sign that one??). The good news is that McCain would NEVER get his plan passed in Congress…it would literally destroy lives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SScQZ2PYmZU

As I have been saying, as time goes by, the piss poor debate performances by McCain and Palin only become more and more apparent. Moderator Gwen Ifil tells it straight: “she blew me off”:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/101700/ifill%3A_palin_%27blew_me_off%27_during_the_debate/

Rachelle Maddow exposes McCain’s plan to massively cut Medicare. Excellent!

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/rachel-maddow-show-mccain-wants-cut-m

ARTICLE SECTION

The great Glenn Greenwald takes apart various right wing Matrix myths…and their attempt to con the people yet again...but it's not going to work this time...

A few clips:

There are few things that make political coverage more unbearable -- and more distorting -- than The David Brooks Syndrome: the extremely patronizing and ill-informed pretense, shared by media and right-wing elites alike, that they can study the Little Common Person like a zoo animal, and then translate and give voice to their simple-minded, good-hearted, salt-of-the-earth perspectives. Rarely has this mentality been so transparent as in the wake of the Biden-Palin debate, as pundits and right-wing polemicists like Brooks, Peggy Noonan and Rich "Starbursts" Lowry rushed forward to proclaim giddily that Regular Americans would love Sarah Palin and this love could even help McCain win, despite -- or, really, because of -- her vapid, content-free telegenic presence.

SNIP

That the Right believes in the fundamental stupidity of the American voter while simultaneously pretending to revere and speak for them them is reflected in their belief that they can successfully blame the financial crisis and the country's woes generally on Democrats, who -- while hardly covering themselves with glory -- haven't had any meaningful power in this country for as long as one can remember. Ponder how stupid you must think Americans are to believe that you can blame the financial crisis on the 2004 statements of House Democrats about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when that was a time when the GOP controlled all branches of the Government and nothing could have been more inconsequential than what Barney Frank or Maxine Waters, languishing in the minority in Tom DeLay's tyrannical House, said or did about anything.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/04-0

TODAY'S TOPICS: Religulous, Bailout Bill, Zinn, Kucinich, SNL Parody!, Sirota, Vote Fraud

MAHER BEATS ZUCKER…CLASSIC

Over the weekend, both Bill Maher's film "Religulous" and David Zucker's right-wing "An American Carol" opened up at the box office. Although "An American Carol" was playing on three times as many screens as "Religulous," three times as many people went to see Maher's film, and box office receipts were roughly the same.

MORE ON THE PALIN EFFECT

I see a similar thing happening with the Palin-Biden debate as did with the McCain-Obama one: as time goes by the actual victor becomes clearer and clearer as facts are checked, the debate is watched again, and voters have a little time to absorb what they saw.

Palin has revealed her real self in the Gibson and Couric interviews, and clearly knows nothing and offers only rubbery expressions and glib repetition, for all the world like a rasping myna bird, of a stream of memorized slogans that sound as though they were disinterred from a time capsule originally buried in William F. Buckley Jr.'s back yard several decades ago. It was not a debate, and pretending that it was and judging "performance" is to fall into the trap set by the campaign spinmeisters and talking point pimps.

-- Juan Cole

Many politicians have mastered the art of dodging questions. What struck me about this debate was that Sarah Palin has mastered the art of something else: making you forget the question.

--Alternet

Watching Biden and Palin on the same stage was like watching a tennis champion walk onto Centre Court at Wimbledon only to find himself facing an over-eager amateur from the local high school. Or as Pat Mitchell told me, "Biden was taking part in a vice presidential debate; Palin was taking part in a junior high debate."

Palin's grasp fluctuated between wafer thin and skin deep. The moment that most drove me to want to send her a book on Greek gods and heroes was her head-scratching response to the question about her Achilles heel. She apparently didn't know what that meant since she spent her allotted time listing all of her attributes as opposed to her most glaring weakness… Throughout the entire 90-minute debate, Palin came across as an over-wound windup doll, sporting a pasted-on-smile expression that never varied, except when she winked. Which she did repeatedly -- and pathetically. It was the folksiest appearance since Hee-Haw went off the air.

-- Arianna Huffington

VIDEO SECTION

Classic Bill Maher on Palin and the End of Times:

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/real-times-new-rules-beware-those-loo

SNL NAILS the VP debate…this is actually more than just funny…it’s a very effective expose of Palin’s ACTUAL performance versus the one the Matrix has generally termed a success:

http://shattermatch.com/

Now watch a few more clips from the real thing: Biden shows softer side…a nice, moving moment…followed by another mindless Palin recitation of a stale talking point that is unrelated to the topic at hand. I may have to rename the Dumb and Dumber ticket to the Disgraceful and More Disgraceful ticket.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/101424/joe_biden%3A_experience_with_a_big_heart_is_a_winning_combo/

Another excellent Biden moment: “Cheney’s the most dangerous VP in American history…” Biden’s slap down of Palin’s interpretation of the role and powers of the VP was also memorable…with just one mistake, the VP is discussed in Article 2, not Article 1…not that Palin would know the difference, she can’t even name a newspaper she reads let alone Articles of the Constitution:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/03/vp-debate-biden-vice-president-cheney-has-been-the-most-dangerous-vice-president-weve-had-probably-in-american-history/

The more I watch clips of the debate for a second time the better I realize Biden did…here he shoots down a number of outrageously inaccurate smears about Obama by Palin:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/03/vp-debate-biden-shoots-down-palins-smears/


A new Obama ad using Palin footage from debate to slam their health care plan (which Biden also expertly dismantled…and then got in the line of the night…”I call that the ultimate Bridge to Nowhere”):

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/03/new-obama-ad-uses-vp-debate-footage-to-show-dangers-of-mccain-health-care-plan/

Oh snap! Barney Frank slaps down idiot blowhard extraordinaire, Bill O’Reilly:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/03/new-obama-ad-uses-vp-debate-footage-to-show-dangers-of-mccain-health-care-plan/

ARTICLE SECTION: Kucinich, Zinn, Sirota on Bailout

Kucinich details all that's STILL wrong with the bailout bill that is now, sadly, law:

The central flaw of this bill is that there are NO stronger protections for homeowners and NO changes in the language to ensure that the secretary has the authority to compel mortgage servicers to modify the terms of mortgages. And there are NO stronger regulatory changes to fix the circumstances that allowed this to happen.

We should have created a mechanism for our government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and use our power to work out a new deal for the homeowners. We could have done this. We should have done this. But we didn't.

SNIP

This bill represents an utter failure of the Democratic process. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability of government to defend the public interest in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/03-11

This is from before the bill passed the house, but Howard Zinn's reflections on what this bailout debate means, for our nation, and perhaps will from an historical perspective, is more than worth checking out.

A few clips:

There is a much better solution to the current financial crisis. But it requires discarding what has been conventional "wisdom" for too long: that government intervention in the economy ("big government") must be avoided like the plague, because the "free market" will guide the economy towards growth and justice. Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and indeed that intervention has been welcomed by the captains of finance and industry. They had no quarrel with "big government" when it served their needs.

SNIP

The alternative is simple and powerful. Take that huge sum of money and give it directly to the people who need it. Let the government declare a moratorium on foreclosures and give aid to homeowners to help them pay off their mortgages. Create a federal jobs programme to guarantee work to people who want and need jobs and for whom "the free market" has not come through.

We have a historic and successful precedent. Roosevelt's New Deal put millions of people to work, rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, and, defying the cries of "socialism", established social security. That can be carried further, with "health security" - free health care - for all.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/02-2

And lastly - then I'll move on from the bailout bill for awhile - check out progressive writer and political strategist David Sirota's take on the bailout mess, and what it tells us about our current political paradigm:

Whether it was a Barclays Capital executive telling reporters "there is no choice" or Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., insisting that "this needs to be done and it needs to be done right away," responsibly democratic prescriptions were pulverized by capitalism's deranged mantra of inevitability and urgency. To even mention, as economist Dean Baker did, that the taxpayer giveaway could exacerbate the crisis was to risk flogging by columnists like Tom Friedman. The sycophantic flat-earther vilified bailout opponents (i.e., most Americans) as mentally incapacitated deadbeats who "can't balance their own checkbooks."

SNIP

We now face market forces uninhibited by democratic governance-Chinese dictators and Saudi princes can move trillions of dollars without so much as a press release. This bailout, marketed as a speed enhancer, is an aggressive attempt to discard democracy's checks and balances and pantomime that kind of autocracy.

While our political culture still required a public sales job (thus, the fear-mongering), the bill's czarism aims to permanently euthanize democracy in the name of improving our capitalism's global agility. In that sense, this week's spousal killing wasn't random. It was the beginning of a systematic assault on our Constitution and a radical departure from Franklin Roosevelt's original covenant-a dangerous "new deal" we must say "no deal" to (Wall Street?)

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/03-7

MEDIA PREPARING FOR BOGUS VOTE FRAUD “EXPLANATIONS”

This was a frightening, and dangerously misleading article by AP that EXACTLY demonstrates the fears I articulated about election fraud a few days ago, including the so called "Bradley Effect" hypothesis to be trotted out, exit poll trashing, and the media and punditocracy’s list of phony explanations of why recent election results haven’t matched what was indicated in both regular polling and exit polling (they say it’s the polling that’s wrong…when in actuality, esp. in 04’ it’s the vote count that is…).

Notice how many unsubstantiated claims are made in this article, and especially notice how NOTHING is said about vote count manipulation…vote purging and caging, or any of the ways the GOP alters election results. They don't even mention that there is a danger of fraud, let alone that IT’S HAPPENED ALREADY (and their New Hampshire comments are not supported by fact either...reports have said exits had Obama narrowly beating Hillary there, and a partial recount that was done DID SHOW that Clinton's numbers were inflated by e-voting machines...though its unclear if it was enough to swing the state to her...as only a third of the votes were recounted).

Exit polls offer some concerns for networks (ap)

Barack Obama's tendency through the Democratic primaries to perform better in exit polls than he actually does at the ballot box has some media organizations nervous heading into Election Night.

Television networks want to avoid having their performance become an issue for the third straight presidential election. Their political experts hope that experience gained during the primaries will help things run smoothly Nov. 4.

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and The Associated Press pool resources to conduct exit polls in select precincts, hoping to glean information about why people vote the way they do and to help predict a winner or loser. A combination of actual vote counts and exit polls is generally used to "call" a state for one candidate or another.

SNIP

It was the exit polls' overstatement of John Kerry's support in 2004 (WRONG...NOT FACTS TO BACK THIS UP) that caused problems for the networks, particularly when the first wave of results were leaked on the Web. That led to a "quarantine room" reform that will be in place this year; the people with access to poll results are locked away until at least 5 p.m. EST, giving them time to check for any problems and keeping the early numbers from conveying false information and possibly affecting turnout.

The problems were more serious in 2000, when networks prematurely "called" Florida, and thus the election, for George Bush. It led to a congressional investigation into their practices. For the Obama-McCain contest, there's concern about whether some voters will say they voted for Obama but, for racial reasons, actually didn't.

SNIP

In general, Republicans tend to be less enthusiastic than Democrats about taking exit polls (?????). An unknown this season will be whether resentment toward the media fomented by John McCain's campaign will make his supporters even less willing to "help" them by taking a survey.

END

HURRICANE IKE CAUSES HALF A MILLION GALLONS OF OIL SPILLS: A new AP analysis shows that Hurricane Ike "destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines," resulting in "[a]t least a half millions gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas." The Coast Guard has responded to more than 3,000 pollution reports. "At times, a new spill or release was reported to the Coast Guard every five minutes to 10 minutes." Ike's enormously destructive wreckage adds further proof that conservatives' claims regarding the safety of offshore oil drilling are totally false. As they pushed for expanded drilling this summer, conservatives repeatedly insisted that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "didn't spill a drop" of oil. Even Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman claimed that during Katrina and Rita, "there was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment." This is a lie: Those hurricanes caused 124 offshore oil spills releasing over 700,000 gallons of oil. The clear evidence of Ike's environmental damage comes just days after House progressives allowed the ban on offshore oil drilling to expire, potentially clearing the way for hundreds of new rigs to be built -- and for destructive new oil spills to be created.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA STAND TO RECEIVE $1.44 BILLION FROM McCAIN'S TAX CUTS: Prior to and following the vice-presidential debates, several prominent conservatives on Fox News purported that the "mainstream media" has a preference for an Obama presidency. Fox pundits Bill Kristol, Kirsten Powers, and Bernard Goldberg all agreed on the "obvious fact" of the "transparent agenda" of liberal media bias. These claims fly in the face of reality. The multinational corporations that run the mainstream media -- GE (NBC), Time Warner (CNN), Walt Disney (ABC), News Corporation (FOX), and Viacom (CBS) -- stand to benefit hugely under a Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) presidency, however. The centerpiece of McCain's economic plan -- actually, the whole plan -- is large tax cuts for corporations. It would deliver $1.44 billion in tax cuts to the five largest media companies, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. These giveaways are just one result of McCain's doubling of the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, which would create the largest deficits in 25 years and drive the United States into the deepest debt since World War II. McCain and Palin have promised that the recent $700 billion bailout would not threaten these tax cuts.

GOP Challenges 6,000 Montana Voters...Because They Moved Last Year

Seven Counties Where Challenges Are Occurring All 'Democratic Strongholds'...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6462