JOSH KRAUSHAAR at Politico is describing the the legally mandated recount in the semate race as "soooooooo ugly" and an example of "smashmouth" politics.  As tellies are finalized Al Franken continues to close the gp and now trils by bout 200 votes total.  Kraushaar seems to agree with the Coleman camp that this could only be due to ballot tampering.

"A background document distributed by national Republicans portrays Ritchie as a far-left, Democratic version of Katherine Harris, the former Republican secretary of state whose actions helped decide the 2000 presidential election. The document accuses Ritchie, who was elected in 2006 with the assistance of a progressive-led group designed to elected Democratic election administrators, of having connections to the controversial voter registration group ACORN and the Communist Party of America."

It seems just months ago that it was sufficient condemnation to brand an  opponent of  Republican as a liberal.  Now that's too soft.  Now one must understand that the vote cheater is a communist.  An ACORN communist.

I'm sure Colemn will find an Al Queda connection before he is done and evidence of Cannibalism
 


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15490.html

As soon as the coffee is ready every morning, I head straight for the keyboard. Now that we have won, I intend to go first to one of the many poetry pages that are out on the web and pick a poem to read before diving into the news and commentary.  Thought some other folks might give it a try --it will help our politics in the difficult days ahead.  Here's what I found this morning.

I had never read it before. 

Autumn Grasses
by Margaret Gibson   In fields of bush clover and hay-scent grass the autumn moon takes refuge The cricket's song is gold Zeshin's loneliness taught him this Who is coming? What will come to pass, and pass? Neither bruise nor sweetness nor cool air not-knowing knows the way And the moon? Who among us does not wander, and flare and bow to the ground? Who does not savor, and stand open if only in secret taking heart in the ripening of the moon?

I am referring to William Kristol.  He has a kind of permanent smirk which reinforces an impression that he often gives. He is one of those people like , say Cokie Roberts for example, whoa lwys seems to know something you don't know.  He is slightly irritated yet amused that he needs to explain whatever subject is at hand.

My question is, "Has he ever been right about anything?"

Truly, I would like to know.

Take this with huge amounts of salt but local news in Chicago saying first exit polss in Indiana are showing an Obama lead

Thanks to a post from Brian Oregon I caught the last 20 mins. of the Minnesota senate debate.

I love Al Franken and I have sent  in the twenties of dollars to his campaign even though I'm from Illinois. Al got me through some of the darkest days of the Bush-Rove-Cheney nightmare with his Air America radio show. I listened almost everyday to some of the most articulate, clearest thinking political thinkers in the country and gradually became reassured that I was not crazy to be opposed to and horrified by what was going on in Bush's America. I think he will be a great senator and I hope he has had the "where with all" to convince enough Minnesotans of that.

But the Minnesoata race is very close and Al just did not come off very well. Coleman has BEEN to Iraq where he TALKED with the soldiers. Coleman was clear and folksy and wrong. Franken has also been to Iraq many times and has also talked with the troops --he didn't bring it up. Al was hesitant, slurry and correct. If a listener didn't already know that Al really knew his stuff, I don't think the debate would have won the listener over.

But on top of that Coleman had the redneck woofers out in force. I didn't hear the introduction to the debate but I assume the usual request to "refrain from..." was given to the crowd. Coleman's supporters blatantly ignored any such nicety. If Coleman paused to clear his throat the yahoos burst into applause. At the end of the debate, being without torches and pitchforks, the Republicans went into their typical synchronized barking:

coal MUN
(clap clap)
coal MUN
(clap clap)
coal MUN
(clap clap)

It was as if Norm was preparing to kick a field goal.

And so I call upon the ghost of Gene McCarthy to rise up. I suppose he is presently up in heaven browsing the poetry section. I need to disturb him, tap him on the shoulder and show him the McCarthy presidential campaign pin that I wear on every election day. I will whisper in his ear. "Gene, get in the game. Al's a good guy. He needs your help."

Coleman's kick, of course, is low, wobbly and too far to the right.

Franken and McCarthy jump high, bump bellies.  Jump again slap five. Democrat majority. Game over. Put it on the board.

Posted by Kevin Cassidy
October 11, 2008 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink

Just in case Obama needs to go to the well in tonight's debate I'd like to ask the readers here to supply him with some helpful one-liners.  Since the zinger is not his usual style, he could use your help.

I'll start it with this one.

"Senator, they're my friends, too"

I just saw the latest slimeball video that McCain has hurled at Obama, "The One II"  I am sad and infuriated.  McCain's campaign site pretends that the video is fun.

  Is there anyone who truly thinks that this stuff is funny?  The McCain campaign is indulging a most profound cynicism and the viscousness of the campaign continues the damage done by Karl Rove to our electoral system 

Am I to believe that McCain suffered for years as a POW rather than dishonor his country, but now is spending millions in order to take a dump on the democratic process?  Why would a man of his supposed integrity get anywhere near this?

I begin again by saying Obama has my vote.
As a Chicagoan I was an early adaptor to the Obama presidential campaign and I cannot think of a nationally known politician who I would rather see as the next president.  Still, I am not the first to note that Obama’s promise of Change and Hope for a more perfect Union has been largely generic.
His two major decisions last week left me disappointed.  The “cave” on telecom immunity is the more serious of the two but his apparent reversal on his promise to use public financing for his campaign is also problematical.
There are sound arguments for the abandonment of public campaign financing but Obama has not made them clearly enough.  He has allowed the Repuli-pundits to paint him as an opportunistic and shady politician, and in the absence of candor and clarity those of us who support him can only mumble our compromised acceptance.  “Well, nobody’s perfect. Politics ain’t cornhole.”*
Some argue that it is critical that the Democrats win and that need justifies whatever maneuvers the campaign employs.  Push comes to shove, I agree.  But I also believe, perhaps naively, that [we] were and are winning.  I believe (sports metaphor. sorry) Obama will win by throwing hard and fast right down the middle.  Barack’s strength is in playing it straight and he’s going to get into trouble with curveballs and knucklers.
The telecom immunity clause in the FISA bill is far more troubling.  The issue here transcends electoral politics and goes to the heart of the Constitution’s providence for sovereign individuality.  I have been baffled all week as to why, as the tide of hope and change is rising, Obama decided to ignore one of the core components of the protection of rights in a free democracy and give de facto permission to conduct illegal spying.

Dems Who Flipped On FISA Immunity See More Telecom Cash
            By Chris Frates
Jun 24, 2008

(The Politico) House Democrats who flipped their votes to support retroactive immunity for telecom companies in last week’s FISA bill took thousands of dollars more from phone companies than Democrats who consistently voted against legislation with an immunity provision, according to an analysis by MAPLight.org.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/24/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4206495.shtml

The scales fall from my Obamacized eyes.  It’s the money, stupid.
The core of Obama’s campaign, the real fuel, the reason he will win is his uncanny gift to move people to believe that there is good among us and change is possible. He has asked us to become the change that we wish to see.
Barak, back at ya.  CHANGE.
We need to provide the campaign with the actual forms of change that we want to see.  The campaign seems content to float an amorphous, warm ball of hope out above the crowd without distributing a single brass tack with which we might build the better America we want.
So here’s a start.  Corporations cannot buy legislation.  Check how your representative votes on FISA and if he or she is among the 94 Democrats who received money from the telecoms and then reversed their position on immunity, get busy in your district and throw their asses out.  Throw them out along with the Republicans they are sleeping with.  That would be CHANGE
*Here in Illinois it has long been said, “Politics ain’t beanbag”.  A variation of “beanbag” has now become very popular in these parts at picnics and parties. The game consists of tossing beanbags into a small round hole cut into a plywood rectangle.  This variation is called “Cornhole”.  The etymology of the name is rarely discussed.

I received an e-mail from my old penpal, Harry Reid, today asking me to contribute some money to the DSCC. Any contribution I made would be matched and doubled by a group of Senators in support of gaining seats. I busted out the Amex card and clicked the $20 button, meaning the Senators were going to pony up $60 of their own hard-earned slush. Always happy to buy some influence.

But given my discomfort with Obama's compromise on FISA immunity and anxious to protest, I chose not to enter my real name into the field provided. Rather I wrote in "NO FISA IMMUNITY" as both my first and last names
All the rest of my info was accurate -- email, address, credit card etc.

Within minutes I received a reply that began like this:

"Dear No Fisa Immunity:

Thank you for contributing to the DSCC. This email serves as confirmation of your action. Your contribution information is below, and you can print this email as a receipt of your transaction."

It was signed with thanks from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The entire committee thanked me,
Mr. No Fisa Immunity.

I offer this little method of protest within a context of support to those who may be feeling similarly. If you wish to contribute, perhaps you would adopt this nomme de plume? Being the only person to have done this makes me an eccentric. However, if two or three more of you do it then , friends, its a movement.

As I posted in a reply earlier today, Obama has my vote. For the first time in my life (...careful now...) my vote for the Democratic candidate is not simply a default position. Like many of Barack's supporters I truly, madly, deeply yearn for real change in the country and in our electoral system toward a democracy that serves the many rather than the few. I have believed, still believe, that Obama is our best hope.

I also believe that he will win the election and have a presidency that is supported by a Democratic majority in Congress. I forsee vital progress toward the more perfect Union Barack has inspired us to hope for.

I assume that the majority of Americans oppose the notion that that the government has the right to spy on its citizens and that telecommunication providers have a right to facilitate that spying. Such spying is in fact against the law in the absence of a warrent.

Since I believe that Obama is an agent for justice I am baffled by his willingness to compromise on an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. I cannot help but see Barack's gesture of brushing dust from the shoulder of his famously well-fitted suit.

It is my HOPE that Obama will serve as a defender of freedom and the spying issue is very clear. If he will not draw the line here, then where?

Arguments for impeachment from Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War”

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

With his term coming to end, it is not now sufficient that George W. Bush will simply cease to be president.  It is common knowledge that he has lied, violated the constitution and broken the laws he was sworn to uphold.  He should be impeached and it is incumbent upon all of us to urge our congressional representatives to support Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich in his call for Impeachment Hearings.
As a result of George Bush’s crimes, up to 1,200,000 people are dead. Virtually none of these people ever lifted a finger against the people of the United States and none at all did prior to our invasion of their country. Death in these numbers is not collateral damage. It is holocaust.
Secondarily, as much as $3,000,000,000,000.00 has been taken away from our children and grandchildren.  While it is a monetary figure it is not about the loss of dollars as such.  It is about the loss of schools and hospitals, mortgages and business loans, education grants and retirement benefits.  The cost of the war will diminish the quality of life for generations to follow.
The Bush legacy is not simply one of strategic blunder as John McCain would have it.  It is a legacy of the intentional commission of profound injustice.  That Bush will exit the White House and that, by association, John McCain and a wide array of Republican candidates will receive an historic drubbing in November will not restore the balance.
I run the risk of appearing pie-eyed by arguing for impeachment by quoting Bob Dylan but the lyrics here are succinctly apropos.  Bush’s crimes were committed to increase the wealth and power of those men who are indeed the masters of war.  By impeachment the discredited neocon project can be buried.  It will remain for generations to come to continue to throw dirt on the grave.