Disturbed, Desperate Republicans filed FEC
complaint against Obama today for visiting his dying grandmother

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 03 November 2008 01:31:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

Heartless bastards. The California Republican Party filed an FEC complaint against Barack Obama today for visiting his dying grandmother -- just hours before his grandmother died. BarbinMD at DailyKos has the details in a post aptly titled, "This Is What Desperation Smells Like." The Republicans are somehow alleging Obama that a presidential candidate using the campaign plane to fly to one of the 50 states is a violation of the law. They're sick. Really, they're sick.

You know, maybe the GOPers don't actually know that Hawaii is a state. They just know about Alaska. Remember all the talk from idiots like Cokie Roberts that Hawaii was "exotic."

Anyway, this is what we get from the GOP. Heartless bastards. Any political attack is acceptable. No wonder this country is such a mess after years of GOP rule. This action says everything you need to know about the Republicans. And, this is another reason why the GOP must be crushed, just crushed, tomorrow.

Soon enough, Obama will be flying on Air Force One. That's pretty sweet revenge, too.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Americablog/~3/441493376/disturbed-desperate-repub
licans-filed.html

Digg this

Barack Obama Answers Your Questions - MTV News

post from uncomfortably numb on 03 November 2008 01:29:00 PM. © uncomfortably numb

MTV News sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Saturday in Nevada, but we weren't alone. We were armed with your questions, and we took them directly to the senator himself. (MTV News extended a similar offer to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, but he declined.)read more digg story

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/uncomfortablyNumb/~3/441499942/barack-obama-answer
s-your-questions-mtv_03.html

Digg this

The New O'Reilly

post from TalkLeft on 03 November 2008 01:26:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Now beyond parody, Keith Olbermann. Good gawd. Does NBC have no shame anymore?

This is an Open Thread.

The thoughts on Olbermann are solely my own.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/441258960/624

Digg this

Herding Cats

post from Union Maine on 03 November 2008 01:26:00 PM. © Union Maine

[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://unionmaine.blogspot.com/2008/11/herding-cats.html

Digg this

Brad Friedman, Champion of Fair Elections and
Challenger of Election Theft: An Election Day Wake Up Call

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 03 November 2008 01:25:56 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

HAVA has been the single, solitary most destructive event in terms of Election Integrity that I can think of. It was a disaster of a bill and has made our system far worse than it was in 2000.
-- Brad Friedman, Election integrity citizen/journalist and blogger at bradblog.vom

* * *

Since BuzzFlash started online in May of 2000, we have seen many tenacious, committed individuals who have been pursuing the goal of ensuring voting integrity in the United States, particularly after the multi-faceted attack on voter's rights the private ownership, ability to manipulate results, and just plain unreliability of electronic voting machines that became apparent in the theft of the presidency from Al Gore.

Unfortunately, the voting issue is rather complicated and made even more confusing by the intentional strategic obfuscation of the Republican Party.

In essence, there are two basic categories of the GOP attack on voting rights: the disenfranchisement of non-Republicans and the manipulation of the actual vote (this is where electronic voting machines come in). Within these two broad categories, there are many techniques that have been employed for achieving these goals.

One of the key chroniclers of efforts to undermine our voting system is Brad of http://www.bradblog.com . Brad has been unrelenting in documenting the details of the dark side of our voting system. Unfortunately, many Democratic leaders have not taken the issue seriously enough, perhaps because they don't understand the depth of the problem, perhaps because they can't believe that the Republicans are as nefarious as they are.

BuzzFlash thought that on election day, it would appropriate to once again focus on the ongoing need to reform our voting system, ensure every eligible voter gets a ballot, and end the privatization of our vote counting systems.

And so here is our interview with Brad Friedman.

* * *

BuzzFlash: You are perhaps the top blog specialist doing first-hand reporting almost solely on what we call the GOP war to keep all eligible voters from voting, which is to say the Republican effort to keep Democratic votes from being cast or counted. Are we correct in saying that this is primarily a Republican strategy?

Brad Friedman: It's entirely a Republican strategy. And a long-term, well-funded and systematic one at that.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

buzzflash |

delicious | digg

digg |

yahoo |

technorati

Technorati Tags: Interviews Election Integrity Fraud Acorn HAVA Votte

Read The Full Article:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/132

Digg this

Gitmo Detainee Convicted at Trial

post from TalkLeft on 03 November 2008 01:21:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Bump and Update: Ali Hamza al Bahlul has been found guilty at his Guantanamo Military Commissions trial.The ACLU says (statement to be available here shortly):

“The conviction of Al Bahlul is yet another example of a military commission system set up to produce convictions, not to deliver real justice. Unfortunately, because the system is fundamentally flawed and lacks any semblance of due process, a cloud of illegitimacy hangs over this verdict. The world deserves better than that from America. The next president should close Guantánamo and future prosecutions should occur in criminal or military courts where the Constitution still means something and where verdicts, no matter what they are, can be trusted.” ...The ACLU calls on the next president to close Guantánamo, ban torture and end extraordinary rendition.

Original Post:

McCain vs. Obama on Gitmo Trials

[More...]

The New York Times has a feature article today about "tough choices" the new President will face on the remaining Guantanamo detainees. It claims:

While both presidential candidates have said they would close the detention center, they have not said in detail how they would handle the remaining detainees.

That's not quite correct. Both candidates have stated their specific position on how to handle the detainees alleged to be terrorists who have committed criminal acts and there is a clear difference between John McCain and Barack Obama.

John McCain would continue trials by military commission. Barack Obama would move the trials to our federal criminal courts or have military trials under the Code of Military Justice. He has been consistent in his opposition to the Military Commissions Act and the unfair trials it created.

After Osama bin Laden's one-time driver Salim Hamdan was convicted by military tribunal, McCain said:

"This process demonstrated that military commissions can effectively bring very dangerous terrorists to justice. The fact that the jury did not find Hamdan guilty of all of the charges brought against him demonstrates that the jury weighed the evidence carefully."

McCain noted that he supported the law creating the military tribunals while Obama has opposed it.

Obama was equally clear:

"It's time to better protect the American people and our values by bringing swift and sure justice to terrorists through our courts and our Uniform Code of Military Justice."

...Obama supports shutting down the Guantanamo prison and says U.S. civilian courts and the traditional military courts-martial system can handle detainee trials....He said he would adhere to the Geneva Conventions, which bans the use of torture of war prisoners.

As TChris wrote here,

Obama rejects McCain's willingness to detain people for years before giving them an unfair hearing, and reminds us that the path to justice is enshrined in our Constitution...If American constitutional values are important to you, the difference between Obama and McCain is clear.

Obama's voting record on the Military Commissions Act and related habeas amendments is here. His 9/28/06 statement in the Senate on the MCA is here. His 9/27 statement in the Senate on habeas corpus is here.

Here is Obama's full statement on the June 12, 2008 Supreme Court decision:

"Today's Supreme Court decision ensures that we can protect our nation and bring terrorists to justice, while also protecting our core values. The Court's decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo - yet another failed policy supported by John McCain. This is an important step toward reestablishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.

Our courts have employed habeas corpus with rigor and fairness for more than two centuries, and we must continue to do so as we defend the freedom that violent extremists seek to destroy. We cannot afford to lose any more valuable time in the fight against terrorism to a dangerously flawed legal approach. I voted against the Military Commissions Act because its sloppiness would inevitably lead to the Court, once again, rejecting the Administration's extreme legal position.

The fact is, this Administration's position is not tough on terrorism, and it undermines the very values that we are fighting to defend. Bringing these detainees to justice is too important for us to rely on a flawed system that has failed to convict anyone of a terrorist act since the 9-11 attacks, and compromised our core values," said Barack Obama.

Contrary to the premise in the Times article, it's not a tough choice and both candidates have declared their intentions. Obama's position is far superior to McCain's.

Related: The AP has this article, Sun Sets on Gitmo Trials. It notes only one more trial is currently set before Jan. 20 when Bush leaves office.

"Whoever wins next week should ask the Bush administration to suspend the military commissions since the winner inherits all the mess that piles up from now until inauguration day," said [retired Air Force Col. Morris]Davis, who quit last year complaining of political interference.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/440683293/57562

Digg this

Dem Landslide: Lead By 12 In Gallup Generic
Congressional Ballot

The landslide tomorrow will be a DEMOCRATIC landslide, not a post partisan unity schtick landslide. Congressional Dems will win bigger than Obama. So says Gallup:

Gallup's final pre-election allocated estimate of the national 2008 vote for Congress -- from Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 2 -- gives the Democrats a 12 percentage-point lead over the Republicans among likely voters, 53% to 41%. . . . In 2006, Gallup found the Democrats with an 11-point lead among registered voters, and a 7-point lead among likely voters, right before the election. The Democrats won 54.1% of all votes cast nationally for Congress, and a 31-seat advantage. On that basis alone, their current 12-point generic ballot lead could result in a higher share of the two-party vote than they had in 2006.

This is what a fair, honest and reasonable observer would call a mandate for Democratic progressive change.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/441236402/0050

Digg this

Kiss My Ass, California

I can?t wait for Nov 4 to deliver me from Prop 8 and the endless discussions of my appropriate level of civil rights as a queer in California.As a short, skirt-wearing, half Puerto Rican woman from the projects in the Bronx, with a doctorate, who looks white and has an Irish first and last name, [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://femsacrossthepond.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/kiss-my-ass-california/

Digg this

Obama's grandmother dies after battle with cancer

Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died following a bout with cancer, Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said Monday.Statement from Barack Obama and Maya Soetoro-Ng on the death of their grandmother, Madelyn Dunham:"It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer. She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/uncomfortablyNumb/~3/441474427/obama-grandmother-d
ies-after-battle_03.html

Digg this

Feeling Freaked Out Good, You Should Be.

So, you have given, you have walked neighborhoods, you have talked and called and called and called and called, and you have voted (if not, you had better have a plan, or the Dog is going come over there and drag you to the polls! ) but you are still[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/442181194/showDiary.do

Digg this