Sen. Stevens won't resign CALL 202-224-3004, his office

Call Stevens' office (now) and ask him to resign (today).

The jury found Stevens guilty of "knowingly and willfully" scheming to conceal on Senate disclosure forms more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from an Alaska-based oil industry contractor.

McCain's Dysfunctional Campaign - Palin ALREADY running 4 Prez 2012

This is amazing. Sarah Palin is SO, SO ambitious: running for lt. governor and then for governor after a short stint as mayor of Wasilla. Now on the national political scene, Palin didn't know - and still doesn't know - the constitutional role of the Vice president and didn't know the vaguest outlines of the Bush doctrine. The latest grumbles and rumors from the McCain campaign are that Palin, while running for VP, has simultaneously set her greedy eyes (with "power eyeware") on the 2012 election.

This just underscores McCain's poor judgement in the people he has surrounded himself with during the campaign and his hasty/sloppy vetting process - and the lunacy of Sarah Palin. McCain now has to deal with Palin, the rogue elephant and a maverick... (the monster he helped create???)... or perhaps the bull in the McCain china the shop.

Palin just can't play second fiddle - SHE IS THE STAR....

see also

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/McCain_Aide_Palin_A_Diva_Caring_Only_About_Her_Future

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/PALIN_HAS_FUTURE_New_York_Post

Think Progress » Rep. Gingrey Blames Soldiers For Walter Reed Squalor: ‘If You Leave Food Around You’ll Get Mice’

Think Progress » Rep. Gingrey Blames Soldiers For Walter Reed Squalor: ‘If You Leave Food Around You’ll Get Mice’

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Will America's Democracy survive the Bush/Republican ballot-box Power Play

With the last presidential debate and candidate John McCain making, in my view, a hyperbolic and irresponsible statement about ACORN "destroying the fabric of our democracy", the McCain campaign has jumped desperately into the gutter with its only remaining campaign strategy: scare the voters into staying at home on election day. In fact, McCain had been the keynote speaker at an ACORN rally in 2006. McCain = erratic, pretty sad.

Barack Obama is right in calling this election historic but not only is it historic because the country faces an economic crisis and a recession, and two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This election is an historic test of the voting process in the United States. The previous two presidential elections were tainted and many would say illegitimate. In the election of 2000, George Bush lost the popular vote. It was only the electoral college, the state of Florida and a friendly Supreme Court which saved Bush from defeat.

In fact, Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris (and, wouldn't you know, she was Bush's campaign chair for Florida) had, before the election in 2000, begun a massive purge of Florida's voter registry, a purge that was aimed at African Americans, the poor and certain Democratic leaning counties in Florida. The purge was done recklessly, hastily and probably illegally. Then also there appeared a new and strange kind of ballot - the butterfly ballot, surely designed to be confusing and to cause errors by the voters. There were the problems with chads, machines jamming up, long lines and polling places moved and/or inaccessible. It took the Supreme Court to determine the winner of the election of 2000 and the Supreme Court elected Bush in a 5 to 4 vote.

The 2004 election for president was similarly tainted, the only big difference being the site of the theft and shenanigans, i.e. the state of Ohio. Similar to the 2000 election in Florida, the Ohio Secretary of State (overseer of elections) just happened to be a strong supporter of George Bush and, as chance would have it, the chair of the Bush campaign in Ohio (no conflict of interest there!!!). Once again the race for president, between Bush and Kerry, was extremely close, the deciding electoral votes coming down to the state of Ohio. Polls and exit polls had shown Kerry leading in both Florida and Ohio. But in Ohio (as in Florida previously) there were long lines at the polls, missing voting machines, malfunctioning voting machines and electronic voting machines that could be easily tampered with (by someone in the know). Most election officials had little idea how the new electronic machines operated and had to contact private (mostly Republican owned and operated) companies to fix any problem that might arise. The above is just a thumbnail sketch of the problems in Ohio and across the country in the 2004 election.

Here we are in 2008 and the McCain campaign is trying to suppress the vote and intimidate the voters by threatening ACORN. This is the new Republican campaign strategy, which has gone national and high-tech/digital: systematically suppress the vote; make it hard to vote; make it scary and confusing. This tactic is a very close cousin to the disenfranchisement of African American voters in the Jim Crow South. It took the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 to end this disenfranchisement.

Once again, the McCain campaign, the RNC and the Bush administration are going after their favorite target of late - ACORN. We will have to see if the Republican bullying and immoral tactics work and whether democracy can survive in the United STates.

Questions for Peggy Noonan: Is the Republican Revolution dead?

While Noonan makes some interesting observations in her recent criticism of the Republican party - far more interesting observations than say Limbaugh, Hannity or O'Reilly (who dominate Republican rightwing "thought" and "discourse"), I think she is still confused about the brand of Republican conservatism that has been sold to the country over the past 25 years. The main point, I think, is that the "Republican Revolution" has failed. Lowering taxes on the rich has not stimulated the economy or "unleashed" the power of the free market or increased government revenues - the dogma of supply-side economics and low taxation policy. Nor has increasing the wealth of the rich resulted in the "trickling down" of wealth to us regular folks. The far-right conservatism on social issues has hurt the country and dumbed it down - far-right conservatives denigrate science, learning, investigation, innovation, experimentation, curiosity as being "elitist" and "liberal". Now our schools, our students, our technology and our industries are falling behind the rest of the world's.

Quote from Noonan:
She (Palin) is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.
@@@@

First, let me deal with Joe the Plumber. He is neither thoughtful, persuasive or even honest. He is another rightwing dittohead parroting the dogma of low taxation. Joe is even unfamiliar with Obama's taxation policy. Joe also sounds like a racist, in addition to his lying (about his income) and his failure to pay his taxes.

Second, and more importantly:

What pain is Noonan referring to? And what is the source of this Republican pain? The pain that I see has been self-inflicted: All the Republican candidates running in the presidential primary turned out to be corrupt (Giuliani) or inept (Huckabee, Romney) and the Republicans ended up with John McCain as their nominee - John McCain who the rightwing base of the party never liked. John McCain, in his first important decision of his campaign, picked Sarah Palin for Vice President with little vetting or thought. A terrible mistake in judgement on McCain's part - in fact, unforgivable. Not only is Palin inexperienced and unqualified, but she is corrupt, scheming, vindictive and someone who will not, even with more experience, have the intellect to manage the government of one of the most powerful nations on earth.

Nonetheless, the rightwing loves Palin - that is what is so frightening about the Republican party.

Ending the Iraq war: Update on Anti-war Candidates

FORWARD

While the economy has taken center stage in the final weeks of the 2008 campaign, Iraq remains a critical issue as well -- the war costs billions of dollars each month, and costs American and Iraqi lives, limbs, and health as well.

The "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq" -- http://www.responsibleplan.com -- was developed by congressional candidates Darcy Burner, Donna Edwards, and others as a campaign platform and legislative agenda. The plan seeks both to end the war in Iraq, and prevent failures like it in the future; it calls for

* Ending U.S. military action in Iraq
* Using U.S. diplomatic power
* Addressing humanitarian concerns
* Restoring our Constitution
* Restoring our military
* Restoring independence to the media
* Creating a new, U.S.-centered energy policy

...with specific legislative proposals for each goal. Consider contributing to the "Responsible Plan" candidates campaigns here:

http://www.actblue.com/page/responsibleplan

Here's a quick rundown on how some of these candidates are doing.

* Donna Edwards (MD-04): an incumbent by now, and a prohibitive favorite in November -- no Republican has received more than 25% of the vote in this district since 1994.
* Eric Massa (NY-29): Up 51-44, (10/7/08, SurveyUSA)
* Tom Perriello (VA-05): Down 42-55 (10/7/08, SurveyUSA); has gained 12 points in 2 months
* Chellie Pingree (ME-01): Up 44-33 (10/2/08, PolitickerME); 22% undecided!
* Jared Polis (CO-02): “heavy favorite” (9/10/08, PolitickerCO)
* George Fearing (WA-04): no recent poll information
* Larry Byrnes (FL-14): out earlier this summer.
* Stephen Harrison (NY-13): no recent poll information; one can not give money to this campaign via ActBlue
* Sam Bennett (PA-15): can’t find recent poll information
* Darcy Burner (WA-08): Up 49-44 (10/14/08, DCCC); had been down 44-54 (9/9/08, SUSA).

Obviously, all of them deserve our help and many are in close races. To help with a non-tax-deductible donation, go to the Responsible Plan ActBlue web site:

http://www.actblue.com/page/responsibleplan

...and give to any or all of them.