Barack Obama outperforms Gore and Kerry among
Protestants and evangelicals

post from MyDD on 05 November 2008 09:59:21 PM. © MyDD

I am currently working on a senior honors thesis about the religious right. I've seen several headlines today that say while Obama won the Catholic vote, Democrats didn't really make inroads among the evangelical community - but I disagree. I've[...]

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OR-Sen: Jeff Merkley The Projected Winner

post from MyDD on 05 November 2008 09:39:53 PM. © MyDD

Sarah Lane in the diaries brings the good news. The Oregonian has called the Senate race for Jeff Merkley: Democrat Jeff Merkley has ousted Republican Gordon Smith from his U.S. Senate seat, The Oregonian projects. Merkley, a five-term state lawmaker[...]

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Ralph Nader: Will Obama Be An Uncle Tom For The
Giant Corporations.

post from Firedoglake on 05 November 2008 09:30:06 PM. © Firedoglake

Ralph Nader called in to a Fox News Radio station in Houston and dropped this little gem: "To put it very simply, he is our first African American president; or he will be. And we wish him well. But his choice, basically, is whether he's going to be[...]

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ID-01: Idaho Turns a Little Bit Blue

post from Daily Kos on 05 November 2008 09:30:05 PM. © Daily Kos

Congratulations to Walt Minnick, flipping a seat that has been in Republican hands for the past 14 years in a state that has been as unfriendly to Democrats as any in the past two decades. He's been declared the winner, but, true to form, that isn't enough for Bill Sali:

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali did not concede the race for the 1st Congressional District at the Idaho GOP news conference Wednesday afternoon.

"We're going to wait until things turn out."

Sali said they are still going back through to make sure all of the balloting was done correctly and won't concede until all of the votes are counted.

"Whatever happens, we know that the result will be from the people of Idaho."

I don't know why he's under the impression that the results provided by Idaho's Secretary of State would be from some people other than the people of Idaho, but there you go. It's Bill Sali.

He also wanted to thank all of the people who called to encourage him to "come back and try again," but he says "I don't know that I'm ready for that yet." The entire Idaho Republican party is going to work on convincing him that his retirement from public life is the best thing possible for him and his party. They're also going to be working on finding a decent and sane Republican to take on Minnick in 2010. But, for now, Idaho is half blue. And that's a fine thing to see.

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Fox’s Carl Cameron: Palin
‘didn’t understand that Africa was a continent.’

post from Think Progress on 05 November 2008 09:30:00 PM. © Think Progress

Today, Fox News’ campaign reporter Carl Cameron unloaded some startling undisclosed reports of Sarah Palin’s incompetence that he had been given off-the-record on the condition they not be released until the conclusion of the campaign:

CAMERON: There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency.
We are told by folks that she didn’t know what countries were in NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement. That’d be Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. We’re told that she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series — a country just in itself. A whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability.

Cameron also disclosed that Palin “didn’t accept preparation” for the Katie Couric interview. Watch it:

video details and more

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More Calls for Obama Criminal Justice Reforms

post from TalkLeft on 05 November 2008 09:25:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Earlier I made some suggestions for President Elect Barack Obama's transition team. One was John Wesley Hall, President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), who before getting his own blog, blogged at TalkLeft as Last Night in Little Rock.

John has just released this NACDL Message From the President on Obama's election. Here are some quotes:

[T]here is much work to be done by the new president and the next Congress. The prison camps at Guantanamo Navy Base have become a symbol of shame around the world. President-Elect Obama should close them within hours of taking the oath of office. Those believed responsible for crimes against Americans should be charged and prosecuted in the federal criminal justice system or in traditional military courts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

[More...]

The time has come to address the racism that infects the U.S. criminal justice system. Congress should eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, a reform supported by President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden. To further root out racial and ethnic bias within the federal criminal justice system, Congress should pass the Justice Integrity Act, introduced this year by Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, which would mandate the creation of pilot programs in 10 federal districts to evaluate racial and ethnic fairness in the U.S. Attorneys Offices.

These two measures are just the beginning. We will not have a truly color-blind system of justice until our policymakers address the over-incarceration of minorities, racially disproportionate application of the death penalty, racial and ethnic profiling, and the chronic underfunding of indigent defense.

The criminalization of undocumented workers should cease. Mass arrest is not immigration reform; it is an admission that our immigration policies have failed.

This has been the longest presidential election season I have ever seen. We were excited with the election of 1968, but that excitement was lost for Americans until this year. I’m relieved that it is finally over, because now it is time to buckle down and get to work.

With Liberty and Justice for All….
John Wesley Hall

Once again, I recommend John for the Obama transition team. From my earlier post:

A law professor won't do. A prosecutor won't do. Obama should name someone who fights every day in the trenches of our federal courtrooms for equal justice and fairness for the accused.

Obama's appointees, from the Attorney General to federal prosecutors and judges, will be responsible for decisions that deprive tens of thousands of people of liberty during his first presidential term. They deserve a strong advocate, a Champion of Liberty, on his transition team.

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Lieberman: What You Guys Won I Didn't Mean All
Those Things! Really!!

post from Crooks and Liars on 05 November 2008 09:15:37 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Isn't this so cute? (via email)

Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today issued the following statement on the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States:
"I sincerely congratulate President-elect Obama for his historic and impressive victory. America remains a nation of extraordinary opportunity and the American people are a people of extraordinary fairness. Now that the election is over, it is time to put partisan considerations aside and come together as a nation to solve the difficult challenges we face and make our blessed land stronger and safer. I pledge to work with President-elect Obama and his incoming Administration in their efforts to reinvigorate our economy and keep our nation secure and free."

While I'm trying to get into the spirit of Obama's hope for a post-partisan presidency, can I be allowed this one small, deeply partisan moment and demand the Senate leadership kick this sorry ass out of the Democratic caucus once and for all?

Lieberman is supposed to meet with Harry Reid later this week. Once upon a time, Reid was insisting that Lieberman was "with us on everything but the war." Of course, that was before he said he feared "America will not survive" if Democrats won 60 seats and before he said Obama "has not always put America first" and said he was "not ready to lead."

Lieberman may once have been "an important vote for our caucus," as Reid said in defending Holy Joe this summer. But he's irrelevant now, and deserves the fate he has earned.

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http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/lieberman-what-you-guys-won-i-didnt-m

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Manning Marable Talks About the Future

I first encountered the work of the radical intellectual Manning Marable in the mid-1970s when he was sending out his self-syndicated newspaper column (for free) to alternative newspaper editors and publishers. Those columns were always deep,[...]

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Trying to Bury Her

Part of me thinks I shouldn't be watching Fox News reporter and sometimes fabulist Carl Cameron dishing the McCain campaign's dirt on Sarah Palin. But well, when Mothra goes up against Godzilla, how can you not watch? Here's Cameron telling Fox's Shep[...]

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Jeff Merkley Wins! One More in the Senate

Jeff MerkleyPer the Oregonian, Merkley has won a squeaker, 691,501 to 691,119. Yes, sometimes your vote does matter. This is the end of Gordon Smith, whose entire campaign basically consisted of insisting "no, no, I'm not really a Republican. Honest!"[...]

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http://firedoglake.com/2008/11/05/jeff-merkley-wins-one-more-in-the-senate/

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