Polling and Political Wrap-Up, 9/30/09

post from Daily Kos on 30 September 2009 11:46:05 PM. © Daily Kos

On this, the final day of September, some campaign news to consider as Alan Grayson continues whacking the GOP:

VA-Gov: Rasmussen Splits The Difference on the Governors Race
After SurveyUSA and PPP did their level best to completely baffle voters yesterday as to the state of the Virginia Governor's race (either a close race, or a blowout!), Rasmussen solves matters by...practically landing at the midpoint. Rasmussen gives Republican Bob McDonnell a nine-point edge (51-42) over Democrat Creigh Deeds. Yesterday's polls had the race at either 5 or 14 points.

NJ-Gov: Christie Starts To Fade As This Race Starts to Tighten
Democratic incumbent Governor Jon Corzine may not ever approach the 50% mark in his re-election bid for Governor. But, if this new poll from Quinnipiac is to be believed, he might not need to. Even though Corzine's numbers remain flat, Republican Chris Christie is seeing his numbers drop, and as a result, Christie's long-held lead is starting to dissipate. The current margin, according to the Q Poll, is just four points (43-39-12). What's more, there are far more undecided Democrats at this point than undecided Republicans.

PA-Gov: GOP's Corbett Rides High Name Rec To Early 2010 Lead
Some very early numbers on the Pennsylvania gubernatorial election also arrive today, courtesy of Quinnipiac. Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett is the only candidate at or over 50% in name recognition, and that seems to have propelled him to a sizeable early lead. Corbett leads Democratic state Auditor Jack Wagner by fifteen points (44-29) and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato by nineteen points (47-28). The Democratic field is a mishmash of little known candidates, with Onorato leading the primary field with just 14% of the vote.

VT-Gov: Leading GOP Candidate To Show His Cards Tomorrow
The man who is arguably the best bet for the Republicans to hang onto their governorship in Vermont will announce his attentions on Thursday. Brian Dubie, who has served as GOP Governor Jim Douglas' lieutenant throughout the decade, seems likely to make a go of it. There are a raft of well-known Democrats eyeing the race, including Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, and 2002 gubernatorial nominee Doug Racine.

PA-04: Altmire Could Be Drawing A Second GOP Candidate
A day after Republican lawyer and former DHS official Keith Rothfus made his intentions to challenge Democrat Jason Altmire known, it now looks like he may have company in the GOP field. Mike Turzai, a state legislator who was being romanced by Republicans to make the bid against Altmire, is far from ruling it out. He has not definitively ruled it in, either, preferring to wait until his legislative session ends to make definitive decisions. Altmire represents a swing district, but won in that district with a reasonably comfortable 56% of the vote in 2008.

NH-02: Charlie Bass Contemplating Political Comeback
With the man who ended his Congressional career off and running for the Senate, longtime GOP Congressman Charlie Bass may well be prepping for a political second act. Charlie Bass, who represented the district between 1995-2007, is filing with the FEC. He will immediately become the betting favorite in the GOP field. On the Democratic side, the field is still very much shaking itself out, although attorney Ann McLane Kuster is in the early fundraising lead.

RACE FOR CONGRESS: Important Date In the Money Chase
The Wrap-Up closes tonight with a gentle reminder--today is the deadline for campaigns to amass their FEC fundraising reports for the third quarter of the year. Like it or not, these reports are a critical barometer of the status of campaigns that donors, campaigns, and political parties alike use to gauge the strength of a campaign. Therefore, if there is a candidate that catches your eye, and you have the means, tonight would be an excellent time to drop some coin in their direction.

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-Wrap-Up,-9-30-09

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Wednesday Night Open Thread

post from TalkLeft on 30 September 2009 11:42:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Does anyone have more to say? If so, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

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UK to pursue bribery charges against largest
defense contractor

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 30 September 2009 11:41:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

This is a gutsy move. One can only imagine how dirty defense contractors are though their counterparts in other industries certainly are not slouches either. Meanwhile in the US, Washington is tripping over themselves to shut down ACORN but somehow defense contractors can deliver bad food and water and even electrocute soldiers due to shoddy work and the contracts continue. The Independent:

The Serious Fraud Office is to pursue bribery charges against BAE Systems, Europe's largest defence contractor, in relation to defence contracts in several countries overseas, the BBC reported today.

BAE and the SFO have been in talks to reach an agreement over the allegation for several months, but those talks broke down yesterday and the fraud office is now pursuing the track of drawing up bribery charges against the vast company.

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Asian Session: Yen Expected to Drop Lower on
Comments From Japanese Finance Ministry

post from Jutia Group on 30 September 2009 11:24:41 PM. © Jutia Group

G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USDEUR-0.07 JPY-0.47 CHF-0.61 GBP-0.66 The economic environment in Japan has been less than attractive for investors considering the extremely low yields and heavily export driven growth. A recent wave of central bank commentary regarding…

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Wednesday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 30 September 2009 11:12:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

The right-wing nutso drumbeat is getting louder every day, people, as K.O. (Welcome back!) tells us tonight with Chris Hayes, who I think is a little too flip with this stuff (I had a feeling Keith was out to help with his dad, and he confirmed it tonight)...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

...and here's about two and a half minutes of fun (and congrats to DA' PHILS! Video later).

video details and more

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Late Night: Conservative Bloggers Cower Before
Marxo-Fascist Dictator, Are Probably Sissies

post from Firedoglake on 30 September 2009 11:05:12 PM. © Firedoglake

If conservative blog-dwellers really and truly believe their stuff about Obama being all Evil & Fascist & Commie, why *wouldn't* they support a military coup to depose him? Because they're sissies.[...]

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RNC Celebrates Republican Hispanic Heritage Month

post from Daily Kos on 30 September 2009 11:00:05 PM. © Daily Kos

It seems that Michael Steele and the Republican National Committee have a new video out:

Hi, I'm Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Today I'm proud to join my fellow Americans in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Stop right there! This script needs a rewrite:

Hi, I'm Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Today I'm proud to join my fellow Republicans in celebrating Republican Hispanic Heritage Month.

... because after watching "A Tradition of Firsts, Hispanic Accomplishments in America," you may wonder what happened to a recent, rather significant first -- that being the first Hispanic Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, Sonia Sotomayor. Apparently she didn't make the cut. Nor did any other non-Republicans. No wonder Hispanics are leaving the Republican Party in droves.

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ican-Hispanic-Heritage-Month

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C&L's Late Nite Music Club with Ultimate Fakebook

post from Crooks and Liars on 30 September 2009 11:00:00 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: When I'm With You I'm OKArtist: Ultimate Fakebook
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I first heard Ultimate Fakebook in 1998 when my teenage band opened for them at New York's Coney Island High and they unleashed a ferocious set of fun, high-energy pop to the fifteen of us who happened to be in the room.

Soon after, the band from the Little Apple (Manhattan, KS) was picked up in the late-nineties indie-rock gold rush by Epic Records and then subsequently put through the early-2000's indie-band-on-major-label wringer of low prioritization and delayed album releases. Not one to be kept down, UFB released Open Up and Say Awesome on the small but influential Louisville label Initial Records in 2002, before calling it quits in '03.

This band will probably go down in history as an also-ran in Weezer-world, but their midwestern charm, clever and endearing lyrics, and the lack of transparent deliberateness that has poisoned Rivers Cuomo's outfit for the past 10 years should earn them a much bigger plaque in the power-pop pantheon. A man can dream...

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Despite evidence to contrary, Fox News machine
claims Jennings "cover[ed] up statutory rape"

post from Media Matters for America - Latest Items on 30 September 2009 10:46:22 PM. © Media Matters for America - Latest Items

Despite evidence to the contrary, Fox News -- led by Sean Hannity -- and other right-wing media have claimed that Department of Education official Kevin Jennings "cover[ed] up statutory rape" and violated Massachusetts law by not reporting to authorities a 1988 conversation in which a high school student told Jennings about his relationship with an older man. In fact, Jennings' attorney wrote in a 2004 letter that the student was 16 years old, which is -- and was at the time -- the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.

Fox, right-wing media claim Jennings covered up "statutory rape"

Sean Hannity: "As The Washington Times said, 'At the very least, statutory rape occurred,' and he didn't report it." On the September 30 edition of Fox News' Hannity, host Sean Hannity said: "We have the safe schools czar, a guy by the name of Kevin Jennings, OK? And he writes this book, and he gives information to a 15-year-old -- ABC News and Jake Tapper write about this tonight -- a 15-year-old sophomore, and his advice to him when he's having a gay relationship is, you know, 'Did you use a condom?' He knew it was an older adult. Now, as The Washington Times said, 'At the very least, statutory rape occurred,' and he didn't report it. Now he's saying that he made a mistake, only because it's been reported on. My question is, where's the vetting process? Why was he even put in this position?" Hannity went on to call for Jennings to be "fired."

The Fox Nation: Jennings "Cover[ed] Up Statutory Rape." The Fox News website TheFoxNation.com posted the following headline on September 30:

Gateway Pundit: "Jennings hid pedophilia from authorities." In a September 30 post titled "Obama's 'Safe Schools Czar' Expresses Regret for Not Reporting Statutory Rape," the right-wing blog Gateway Pundit claimed: "Barack Obama's 'safe school's czar' Kevin Jennings hid pedophilia from authorities. Jennings violated a state law that required him to report the abuse."

Malkin: Jennings failed to report "homosexual child predator." Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin wrote a September 30 blog post titled "Safe Schools czar now 'regrets' failure to report child predator" in which she referred to Jennings' purported "failure as a young gay teacher to protect a 15-year old student from a homosexual child predator."

Jennings' attorney stated in letter that student was 16, which is, and was, MA age of consent

Jennings' attorney: Conversation was "with a sixteen-year-old student"; "no factual basis" that Jennings was "aware of any sexual victimization of any student." In an August 3, 2004, letter, Constance M. Boland of the law firm Nixon Peabody -- which represented the organization that Jennings ran -- wrote that the "conversation" Jennings had was with "a sixteen-year-old student" and that there "is no factual basis whatsoever for" the "claim that Mr. Jennings engaged in unethical practices, or that he was aware of any sexual victimization of any student, or that he declined to report any sexual victimization at any time." [Boland letter, 8/3/04]

Massachusetts age of consent is -- and was at the time -- 16. According to a footnote in the 1982 Massachusetts case Commonwealth v. Calvin D. Miller, chapter 265, section 23 of the General Laws of Massachusetts, as amended in 1974, at the time provided:

Whoever unlawfully has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse, and abuses a child under sixteen years of age shall, for the first offense, be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years, or, except as otherwise provided, for any term in a jail or house of correction, and for the second or subsequent offense by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years, but not less than five years.

According to the legislative history available in the Lexis database, the provision was not amended after 1982 until 1998. It was amended again in 2008, and now provides:

Whoever unlawfully has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse, and abuses a child under 16 years of age, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years or, except as otherwise provided, for any term in a jail or house of correction. A prosecution commenced under this section shall neither be continued without a finding nor placed on file.

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Charisma

Some random thoughts. The New York Post says that Sarah Palin is not selling well on the lecture circuit. Maybe it’s her six-figure fee. But I’m not counting her out. Anyone who thinks she can’t fill a hall and rock a crowd is underestimating her and the Post will be proved wrong.

Her book is already a best seller. I’m more skeptical of that. Bookstores are stocking up, but when you check out the NYT best seller list, look for that little thingy that indicates bulk orders. One way to get to the top is to buy truckloads of your own book.

Ever hear of Aimee Semple McPherson? She was a player too–sexy, religious and patriotic. She founded the first megachurch and got very rich before she ran off the rails. It’s a hazard of being a mavericky rogue.