Where There's Smoke...

Salon has a good round-up of the voter suppression activities that are being attributed to the Republicans.

Take a look...

Ken

Undecided

Cool article in the New Yorker about undecided voters.

Race to the Finish

While things are looking good for Obama, its important not to rest easy and think the race is over. It isn't! As I mentioned yesterday, the Republicans are employing every trick in the book to scare people into voting for McCain as well as employing all sorts of dirty tricks to disenfranchise voters.

MoveOn today posted the top 5 reasons why we can't rest easy:

TOP 5 REASONS OBAMA SUPPORTERS SHOULDN'T REST EASY

1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they do in the voting booth. And the polls are narrowing anyway. In the last few days, John McCain has gained ground in most national polls, as his campaign has gone even more negative.

2. Dirty tricks. Republicans are already illegally purging voters from the rolls in some states. They're whipping up hysteria over ACORN to justify more challenges to new voters. Misleading flyers about the voting process have started appearing in black neighborhoods. And of course, many counties still use unsecure voting machines.

3. October surprise. In politics, 15 days is a long time. The next McCain smear could dominate the news for a week. There could be a crisis with Iran, or Bin Laden could release another tape, or worse.

4. Those who forget history... In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote after trailing by seven points in the final days of the race. In 1980, Reagan was eight points down in the polls in late October and came back to win. Races can shift—fast!

5. Landslide. Even with Barack Obama in the White House, passing universal health care and a new clean-energy policy is going to be hard. Insurance, drug and oil companies will fight us every step of the way. We need the kind of landslide that will give Barack a huge mandate.

If you agree that we shouldn't rest easy, please sign up to volunteer at your local Obama office by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/obama/office.html?source=blog&id=14534-3980931-T2sC9sx&t=1

If you can't donate time, then donate money to ensure that Democrats have the resources they need to get out the vote and fight dirty tricks as this race comes to a close.

Ken

Rush Limbaugh Really is an Idiot

Rush Limbaugh really is an idiot. After listening (or not listening) to Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama decided that none of the reasons that Powell included in the endorsement are actually true. Instead, he concluded that the only reason why Powell could have endorsed Obama is because both men are black.

Unbelievable! Then, Rush gets all defensive when people call BS on position!

Limbaugh needs to go back and listen to Powell's careful and detailed statement about why he is supporting Obama. It had nothing to do with the color of his skin.

What Limbaugh really didn't like was Powell's complete dismantling of the sleaze/"low road" politics that Limbaugh engages in on a daily basis and how such tactics have led the once proud Republican party to the sorry state its currently in.

Rush needed something to distract his listeners, so he chose the obvious (sleazy, low road) approach of "It must be because they are both black".

What a moron.

Ken

Obama and the People

Even though Obama is supposedly an elite who palls around with terrorists, apparently he can still connect with a lot of people from "small town" America. Take a look at this shot of the more than 100,000 people who turned up to see him in St. Louis.

75,000 people attended one of his speeches a few days later in Kansas City.

Ken

Maybe the Republicans are not in Trouble

Maybe the Republicans are not in trouble, already there is evidence that they are doing what they do best: steal elections!

But there's hope: with more people voting early, it becomes difficult for people to employ the standard dirty tricks of voter disenfranchisement.

Lets keep our fingers crossed!

Ken

P.S. I thought General Powell did an excellent job of making the case for Obama and repudiating the path the Republicans have gone these past eight to twelve years. I won't forget that Powell played a major role in lying for the Bush Administration to get us into a despicable war/occupation in Iraq, but he scored major points in distancing himself from the sleaze and anti-intellectualism that is now SOP for the Republicans.

The Republicans are in Trouble

Everything you need to know about the state of the Republican party can be found in this article that appeared on fivethirtyeight.com.

Note: It contains offensive language due to the fact that it reports what one man and woman from Western Pennsylvania said when asked who they were going to vote for. As the article points out, with our current economy, racism is a luxury and so even the racists are willing to take a chance on Obama.

What's worse however is the description of what the Republican attack dogs are funding: these "robocalls" designed to provoke racists to flip to McCain... this is all the Republicans have left and its disgusting.

I will close by saying that it was just this type of slimy tactic, a push poll, that Karl Rove used to defeat John McCain in the primaries back in 2000 in South Carolina. The fact that John McCain has authorized the use of those same tactics shows that he finally abandoned any pretense of honor that he might once have had.

Ken

Joe the Plumber

www.electoral-vote.com has a nice succinct summary of what the press has learned about "Joe the Plumber" since Wednesday night's debate:

Meet the Real Joe the Plumber: At the debate Wednesday, John McCain kept bringing up the "fact" that Joe the Plumber would be taxed more under Obama's tax plan. The trouble with making Joe a national hero for conservatives is that the national media descended on Joe. They learned a couple of things, like (1) his name is Sam, not Joe, (2) he does not have a plumbing or contractor's license, items required by city ordinance, (3) the taxable income from his plumbing business would qualify him for a tax cut under the Obama plan, not an increase, and (4) he has an outstanding lien for over $1000 in backtaxes he owes. Maybe he wasn't such a great choice as role model for McCain after all.

Head over to electoral-vote.com and fivethirtyeight.com for excellent coverage of all the national and state polls.

Our Supreme Court: A Bunch of Cowards

The United States Supreme Court declined the appeal of a most-likely innocent man on death row in Georgia. Troy Davis will soon be executed for the shooting death of police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The problem: he likely didn't do it. Seven of the nine witnesses that led to Mr. Davis's conviction have since recanted their testimony with two witnesses claiming that police pressured them to testify against them. In addition, at the trial, prosecutors presented no physical evidence and no murder weapon. Finally, three other witnesses have said that another man has already admitted to the murder.

I don't know about you but this sounds like there is a reasonable doubt about Davis being guilty and, as a result, if the State of Georgia executes this man, we will have a double tragedy: his death and the death of the police office.

Such cases bring nothing but shame to our country and the Supreme Court is filled with a bunch of cowards for declining his appeal without comment or explanation and not taking up the issue of whether its constitutional to execute a person when there is doubt of his guilt.

Ken

P.S. Quick Update: Amnesty International is working to save Mr. Davis's life. Click the link for details. Please use their site to send a message to the Georgia board that can grant clemency and stop this execution from happening.

Guilt By Association

If the Republicans are so eager to smear Obama with the "Guilt by Association" meme, then this same meme should be applied to the McCain/Palin ticket. (The Ayers smear has been fun to watch as it pleases the "base" but turns off all the independent voters that McCain so desperately needs. The smear is easily debunked too.)

Mike Lux has an excellent list of candidates. Take a look!

Ken

I Voted Today, Have You?

Via my mail-in ballot, I cast my vote for Barack Obama today!!

It feels really good to be able to vote for an intelligent man (with an intelligent running mate) to be the President of my country, especially after 8 years of a not-very-intelligent man (with an evil sidekick) trashing that office and our country along with it.

Colorado is a swing state: I've now done what I can to swing it in the right direction.

If you're a U.S. Citizen and are eligible/registered to vote, please join me in putting our country back on track!

Ken