(crossposted at TCDem's Hole in the Wall)

soooo I take it what I just read over at MNPublius is going to hit the TPM front pages eventually, and after that hmmmm. I bet the NEXT press confrence is going to be even better from the Coleman Campaign. so we are all aware of the nasty calls about Barack Obama that people have been getting but where do they come from? Aaron Landry take it away:

The calls are nasty and the legality of the calls are being questioned. Who's behind these? FLS Connect. The same FLS that stands for Tony Feather, Jeff Larson and Tom Synhorst. Jeff Larson, being the same Jeff Larson that's Norm Coleman's buddy and landlord. The same friend that gives him the exorbitantly cheap rent, the same friend that paid his utilities, the same friend that has an FLS Connect office in the same basement as Coleman's bedroom, the same friend that lobbied to bring the RNC to Saint Paul, the same friend's wife that worked in Coleman's office and the same friend that Coleman spent over a million on to help run his campaigns.

oy, Norm is going to have a really realy long week next week don't ya think?

as a black man in this country, sigh is all I got to this

I am sick of Joe the Plumber and whether or not he paid his taxes, or is registered to vote.

but all this did discover one thing, the voting rolls had his name missspelt by 1 letter.

and as this post points out these are the types of voters RIGHT NOW being challenged!

Ben Smith:

Purging Joe the plumber?

Would Joe be thrown off the rolls if he registered in Ohio today?

The Toledo Blade reported today that "Joe the Plumber's" name appears on Ohio voter registration rolls with a slight misspelling -- as Worzelbacher, not Wurzelbacher.

And that sort of data-entry error might be enough -- were Joe a new registrant -- to have him disqualified from voting in Ohio, Florida, or Wisconsin this year, depending on the outcome of ongoing litigation.

Purging voters or blocking their registration because of data errors is disenfranchisement by typo," said Michael Waldman, the executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal legal group involved in litigation in those states. "Joe is a perfect example. If he were anew voter, he would be being challenged right now as not eligible to vote."

"Joe the Plumber is not committing voter fraud by having his name spelled differently on two different lists," he said.

For instance, Florida officials in 2006 removed the name of Jose Lopez-Sandin, after officials typed his name in as "Joseph Lopez-Sandin." They also removed the name of Anne Nguyen after election officials typed her name as "Ann Nguyen."

"Because he's the famous 'Joe the Plumber' it seems like an obvious typo, but this is the sort of error that will keep people from voting," Waldman said.

when you see the GOP cry voter fraud, you think of Joe.

(crossposted from TCDem's Hole in the Wall)

This is great. I have been thinking all along when people say don't get to excited yada yada yada. People don't get it this is a legitimate crisis, and people don't care about stupid things like character attacks during a real crisis, so this post over at Politico was a great read.

so what is it?

we Ben Smith:

just got an astounding email from a Republican consultant I know well. He's a guy who's always thought Obama had a "glass jaw," and was always among those agitating for hitting Obama harder.

Recently, he conducted a focus group in an upper-Midwestern state, showing them the kind of ad he thought would work: A no-hold-bars attack , cut for an independent group, which hasn't aired.

and the two of the best moments that put a smile on my face

54 year-old white male, voted Kerry '04, Bush '00, Dole '96, hunter, Nascar fan...hard for Obama said: "I'm gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He's gonna be a bad president. But I won't ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was President."

The Country understands how we got here and whose fault it is. Bush is still in the white house begging for $700 billion to stave off a great depression, hitting Obama a tax and spend reads real hollow right now.

The next was a woman, late 50s, Democrat but strongly pro-life. Loved B. and H. Clinton, loved Bush in 2000. "Well, I don't know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I'm sick of paying for health insurance at work and that's why I'm supporting Barack."

The issues man, thats what it comes back to, the GOP is only showing how out of touch they are every time they waste time trying for character attacks.

people do understand that the times are too important for the same old ways to dictate what happens this time. Distractions are not going to work.

you know say what you want about him but when kos says that this is our chance to break the backs of the GOP, he is right. We have the chance to completely send these guys out into the wilderness here guys. We have the chance to take control of the government with a real mandate for change.

Jonathan just pointed out the power we the base have given the party with our donations, guys this is it, this is the final push and we have to leave everything we got on the road here. We have to aim at as many seats as possible, we have to break their backs, and we have to bring real change.

so if you can, dig deep as you can, as kos says lets leave absolutely everything we can, every last inch of our will into making sure we win as much as we can.

dig deep and donate to anyone of these deserving candidates who need our help!, even if its $1 or $5 at the state level our dollars go even farther! we have seen what we have done with Obama, lets do what we can across the country! and if you can't donate, volunteer even if all you can do is convince 1 family member to switch to Obama, guys EVERY little bit helps here.

(cross posted from TCDem's Hole in the Wall)

U student to plead not guilty to terrorism charges A University student arrested preemptively before the Republican National Convention will be one of the first people prosecuted under a terrorism clause in the Minnesota Patriot Act since it was passed in 2002. Cultural studies junior Max Specktor is charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

One of my biggest problems of the last 8 years, is this idea that we can't speak up against our government. What is the United States cept for a group of people who decided to challenge the way their rulers did things?

Civil disobedience, while illegal, can be traced back to the foundation of the United States and is very different from terrorism, Specktor said. "[Civil disobedience is] consciously making a decision to disobey for a higher purpose," he said. "It's a time-honored tradition that we celebrate in our history books, the people in the civil rights era who sat in at the lunch counters and wouldn't get out of their seats."

Indeed, Mr. Specktor well said. but reading this reminded me of an post by Paul Rosenberg wrote over at open left on the discourse of terrorism in this country.

First, is that while the term "terrorism" is a contested one, a key component that majority of experts agree on is that it is violence directed against civilian non-combatants.

Well that what it use to be. Its not even about whether or not they should be prosecuted. But after 9/11 to use the word terrorism here? by that standard, our founding fathers were also terrorists, ghandi would have been a terrorist, the civil rights movement, was a movement of terrorism. That is what happens in this country when we are too lose with our words, and now we are calling people who decide to protest their government terrorists. People should never have to fear their government.