Katha Pollitt: HRC: Can't Get No Respect

If people keep making sexist attacks on Hillary Rodham Clinton, I may just have to vote for her. That means you, Elizabeth Edwards! As tabloid readers know, the wife of John Edwards told guests assembled at a luncheon hosted by Ladies' Home Journal that she felt her "choices" had made her "happier" and more "joyful" than HRC. Translation: I've parked my legal career on the shelf to mind the kids, support my husband's political ambitions and tend our wonderful marriage, unlike Hillary, a bitter ambitious career woman with a philandering husband. Well, isn't that special! Isn't she the fulfilled woman of the year! Why are we talking about whether or not a woman senator who, maybe, wants to run for President is less joyful than a (former) senator's wife who, maybe, hopes to be First Lady? Nobody would dream of measuring a male presidential hopeful on the happiness scale. If they had, Abraham Lincoln would never have been elected. It is sad to think that Ms. Edwards would play the happy-homemaker card to help her lightweight husband best a woman with about ten times as much political experience. We all know Edwards did such a great job running for Vice President--the man was everywhere!--and made such a fantastic impression in his debate with Dick Cheney. Still, I might have gone for him in the 2008 primary, because every now and then he pops up out of nowhere and says poverty is bad. Now I dunno. We bitter ambitious career women have to stick together.

Bill Moyers: America 101

Let's be honest about what we mean by "urban education." We are talking about the poorest and most vulnerable children in America - kids for whom "at risk" has come to describe their fate and not simply their circumstances.

Their education should be the centerpiece of a great and diverse America made stronger by equality and shared prosperity. It has instead become the epitome of public neglect, perpetuated by a class divide so permeated by race that it mocks the bedrock principles of the American Promise.

It has been said that the mark of a truly educated person is to be deeply moved by statistics. If so, America's governing class should be knocked off their feet by the fact that more than 70 percent of black children are now attending schools that are overwhelmingly non-white. In 1980 that figure was 63 percent. Latino students are even more isolated. Brown v. Board' s "all deliberate" speed of 1954 has become slow motion in reverse. In Richard Kahlenberg's words, "With the law in retreat, geography takes command."

Bush Names Exxon Chief to Chart America's Energy Future

BushGreenwatch

Thursday 02 November 2006

Even for an administration dedicated to putting industry lobbyists in charge of the very agencies they have devoted their careers to undermining (coal and oil lobbyist J. Stephen Griles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior is one of dozens of examples), President Bush has recently outdone himself. He has named Lee Raymond, the retired chief of ExxonMobil, to head a key study to help America chart a cleaner course for our energy needs. Raymond currently chairs the National Petroleum Council (NPC), one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington.

Paul Krugman: As Bechtel Goes

November 3, 2006

Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission — to rebuild power, water and sewage plants — wasn’t accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq’s population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers’ money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.

As Bechtel goes, so goes the whole reconstruction effort. Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to stay the course complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they’ve already cut and run. The $21 billion allocated for reconstruction over the last three years has been spent, much of it on security rather than its intended purpose, and there’s no more money in the pipeline.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 11/03/06

A senior U.S. general depicts the war in Iraq as "a work of art" in progress and plays down the "violence and friction with Iraqi leaders as 'speed bumps' on the road," as 'the PR behind Bush's favorite slogan' is revealed.

Nick Turse adds up the evidence of an emerging 'prison planet,' to find that "the American gulag is so much more than Guantanamo and so much worse," and Britain is accused of pursuing 'a dangerous policy on torture.'

'A nuclear primer,' part of a "vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war" and put on the web "under pressure" from Congressional Republicans," is taken off line in the face of concerns that it might help Iran or other nations build a bomb. Plus: 'Cry, The Beloved Stupid Country.'

A privacy watchdog warns that "U.S. privacy protections rank among the worst in the democratic world," surpassed only by Britain, which it termed "an endemic surveillance society."

Amid signs that the White House is launching a campaign to 'politicize Saddam verdict ahead of midterm elections,' Glenn Greenwald urges the Democrats to take the offensive on the issue.

Facing South asks whether the hotly contested Senate race in Tennessee is 'the last stand for the GOP Southern Strategy, as the potential impact of the gay and youth vote in that state is considered.

As one artist releases an "art army" action figure, it's found that 'The chief export of Chuck Norris,' in his new role as a political columnist, is creationism.

George W. Bush's link to Evangelical Right caught in November Surprise

After admitting "some guilt" in accusations of purchasing gay sex and using amphetamines, Ted Haggard, megachurch pastor, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and adviser to George W. Bush, resigns

Pastor Ted Haggard got a November Surprise: Only a few days before Colorado voters were to head to the polls to vote on two ballot initiatives involving gay marriage, Mike Jones, a former gay escort claimed that he had a three-year sexual relationship with Haggard, the founder and senior leader of the 14,000 member Colorado Springs, Colorado-based New Life Church, the state's largest megachurch. Haggard also served as president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE - website) whose 30-million members come from more than 45,000 churches across America. Over the past few years, Haggard has been a regular advisor to the Bush administration.

The rich are getting much richer, much faster than everyone else

By Kevin G. Hall

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Over the past quarter-century, and especially in the last 10 years, America's very rich have grown much richer. No one else fared as well.

In 2004, the richest 1 percent of households - 719,910 of them, with an average annual income of $326,720 - had 19.8 percent of the entire nation's pretax income. That's up from 17.8 percent a year earlier, according to a study by University of California-Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez.

US retailers gloomy after weak housing market dents sales

· Talk of rate cut as growth slows to lowest since 2003
· Wal-Mart to lower price of toys before Christmas

Andrew Clark in New York and Angela Balakrishnan
Friday November 3, 2006
The Guardian

Fears are mounting of a dismal Christmas for America's shopping malls after a slew of poor trading updates from leading retailers including Wal-Mart, the clothes chain Gap and the discount store Target.

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, told Wall Street yesterday that its like-for-like sales rose by a modest 0.3% last month and that it expected its November figures to be "approximately flat". It intends to cut the price of toys and electronics to stimulate festive sales.

'Only 50 years left' for sea fish

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

Two versions of Dubya’s Yale grades

by margieburns on Thu 02 Nov 2006 09:51 AM EST | Permanent Link

Grades publicly released for George W. Bush at Yale (1964-1968) apparently differ from grade records for Bush stored in his residential hall on campus. The published grades are better than the grades stored in earlier records.

Yale has an august tradition of housing students in separate residential colleges, not dorms but smaller and more cohesive versions of the college experience. Bush’s residence hall was Davenport, where his daughter Barbara also lived as a Yale student, graduating in 2004.

Scientists say White House muzzled them

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 1, 11:43 PM ET

Two federal agencies are investigating whether the Bush administration tried to block government scientists from speaking freely about global warming and censor their research, a senator said Wednesday.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he was informed that the inspectors general for the Commerce Department and NASA had begun "coordinated, sweeping investigations of the Bush administration's censorship and suppression" of federal research into global warming.

"These investigations are critical because the Republicans in Congress have ignored this serious problem," Lautenberg said.

Leaked 2003 Report On Maryland's Diebold Voting Systems Reveals Serious Security Concerns Were Withheld From Election Board, Governor, Public

Long-Sought Document Finally Surfaces Showing America's Largest Voting Machine Company, MD State Election Director, Hid Major Flaws From State, Country!

Original 200-Page Security Report — Said to be 'The Pentagon Papers of Electronic Voting' — Previously Released Only in 38-Page Highly Redacted Form…Until Now…

Special to The BRAD BLOG by Guest Blogger and Freelance Network News Producer, Rebecca Abrahams

In September, 2003 Linda Lamone, the Administrator of Maryland's State Board of Elections and President of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) hands over a critical study on the security of the Diebold Election Systems machines that count all of Maryland's votes.

Between the time that the State of Maryland commissioned the highly respected Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to evaluate the effectiveness and security of their electronic voting machines and the time that the study is made public, critical pieces of information have been edited, omitted and, in some cases, words added, to fundamentally alter the original meaning of the report's conclusions.

Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office

By JAMES GLANZ

Published: November 3, 2006

Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.

And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

Inside the Shocking HBO Film That Rocks the Voting Process

By Matt Webb Mitovich
TVGuide

Thursday 02 November 2006

HBO's Hacking Democracy (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET) tells the story of Bev Harris, a grandmother and writer who started investigating the subject of electronic voting in 2002 after questioning her county's switch to electronic touch-screen voting machines. Unsatisfied with their explanation, Harris set out to learn about electronic voting systems on her own, and in doing so stumbled upon shocking revelations about the vulnerability of the software and hardware. Harris, who went on to form the watchdog group BlackBoxVoting.org, recently spoke with TVGuide.com about her illuminating, though unsettling, journey.

Robert Scheer: Turning the Corner Into Madness

Posted on Oct 31, 2006

The dire predictions President Bush is making about “cutting and running” from Iraq are almost identical to the horrifically inaccurate ones Presidents Johnson and Nixon made about Vietnam.

Every time I hear President Bush railing against those who would “cut and run” in Iraq instead of pursuing “victory,” as he does almost daily, I think back to similar claims being made for the Vietnam debacle when I reported from Saigon in the mid-’60s. Back then, the U.S. troop presence was lower and casualties fewer than now in Iraq, but the carnage, on all sides, would escalate for the next decade, as we waited miserably for the corner to be turned.

Then, as now, calls for setting a timetable for an orderly withdrawal were rejected as emboldening our enemy to attack America. Instead of a dignified withdrawal, we plunged ever deeper into the quagmire, leaving 59,000 U.S. troops and 3.4 million Indochinese dead as tribute to our stupidity. Finally, there was nothing to do but “cut and run” in the most ignominious fashion. With our U.S. personnel being lifted by helicopter from roofs near our embassy, it seemed like a low point for U.S. influence, and there were dire predictions of communism’s global dominance—just as there is today for the “Islamo-fascist” bogeyman the president has seized upon.

Doughnut hole to get bigger next year, study of Medicare Part D finds

By Michael D. Sorkin

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

11/01/2006

It's called the "doughnut hole,'' and it's the most controversial piece of Part D, Medicare's prescription drug program.

The hole requires seniors trapped inside it to pay for drug insurance and, at the same time, pay the entire cost of the drugs they buy.

Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh slams Bush at McGill address

“There has never been an American army as violent and murderous as the one in Iraq”

Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh slams Bush at McGill address

By Martin Lukacs The McGill Daily

Speaking to launch McGill’s interdisciplinary media studies program last Wednesday, Hersh said he had seen video footage of atrocities in Iraq.

“The bad news,” investigative reporter Seymour Hersh told a Montreal audience last Wednesday, “is that there are 816 days left in the reign of King George II of America.”
The good news? “When we wake up tomorrow morning, there will be one less day.”
Hersh, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine, has been a thorn in the side of the U.S. government for nearly 40 years. Since his 1969 exposé of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, which is widely believed to have helped turn American public opinion against the Vietnam War, he has broken news about the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia, covert C.I.A. attempts to overthrow Chilean president Salvador Allende, and, more recently, the first details about American soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

During his hour-and-a-half lecture – part of the launch of an interdisciplinary media and communications studies program called Media@McGill – Hersh described video footage depicting U.S. atrocities in Iraq, which he had viewed, but not yet published a story about.

He described one video in which American soldiers massacre a group of people playing soccer.

Gene Lyons: Only two-party government offers oversight

Gene Lyons

Posted on Wednesday, November 1, 2006

So vast and comprehensive are the failures of the Bush White House, it’s admittedly hard to look away. Watching the president campaign in Indiana recently evoked the kind of dread fascination that makes people stare at highway accidents. Has Bushism degenerated into a cult ? It’s definitely starting to look like one. “When it came time [to vote ] on whether to allow the Central Intelligence Agency to continue to detain and question terrorists,” Bush claimed, “almost 80 percent of the House Democrats voted against it.” “ Just say no, ” chanted the infatuated crowd on cue. No such vote was ever taken. Has this president no honor ? Not a particle. Nobody’s against capturing and questioning terrorists. Absolutely nobody. Many Americans do oppose torture because it’s barbaric, useless and spawns everlasting hatred. So naturally, Bush thinks it makes him look “tough.”

Manufacturing sputters as housing slump spreads

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa Wed Nov 1, 4:47 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. manufacturing growth edged closer to stagnation in October as a housing-led economic slowdown hurt demand across a wide variety of sectors, according to reports on Wednesday.

Weak construction spending and pending home sales data suggested the housing market's misfortunes were far from over, and its effects were being felt in other areas of the economy.

NYT Editorial: The Great Divider

As President Bush throws himself into the final days of a particularly nasty campaign season, he’s settled into a familiar pattern of ugly behavior. Since he can’t defend the real world created by his policies and his decisions, Mr. Bush is inventing a fantasy world in which to campaign on phony issues against fake enemies.

In Mr. Bush’s world, America is making real progress in Iraq. In the real world, as Michael Gordon reported in yesterday’s Times, the index that generals use to track developments shows an inexorable slide toward chaos. In Mr. Bush’s world, his administration is marching arm in arm with Iraqi officials committed to democracy and to staving off civil war. In the real world, the prime minister of Iraq orders the removal of American checkpoints in Baghdad and abets the sectarian militias that are slicing and dicing their country.

US productivity grinds to a halt

US labour productivity slowed to a standstill in the three months to the end of September, the latest indication that the American economy is slowing.

With analysts expecting productivity to grow 1.1% in the third quarter, the zero growth rate from the Labor Department came as a surprise.

Unit labour costs were up 5.3% from the same period in 2005, the worst annual rise in 24 years.

GOP Ineptitude and Advice for Dems

By Molly Ivins, AlterNet. Posted October 31, 2006.

Victory looks likely; prepare for not gloating.

"There's no doubt in my mind, with your help, Dave Lamberti will be the next United States congressman." -- President George Bush last week, endorsing Jeff Lamberti.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has announced his candidacy for the president of the United States. Until now, he's barely been noticed as a guy who took money from Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade, whose bribes to Randy "Duke" Cunningham led to his resignation from Congress and a plea of guilty to bribery charges. Hunter is widely expected to be the next congressman indicted in this scandal.

As for the chair of the House Armed Services Committee's presidential candidacy, we have been thinking of scarcely little else around here. It's about time we had some good news.

Andy Stern: Changing How America Works

By Andy Stern, AlterNet. Posted November 2, 2006.

Something's wrong when only the rich are getting richer, and average folks are feeling the squeeze. The answer isn't more education, or simply electing better leaders. We need widespread change.

Editor's note: On October 18th, SEIU leader Andy Stern was in the Bay Area on a book tour, and gave a talk at a crowded event at Lukas Restaurant in Oakland. The event was sponsored by Drinking Liberally, a group started by Justiin Krebs that brings together progressives in a number of cities to hear quality speakers and to connect over a beer. The following is a transcript of Stern's talk.

Ercilia Sandoval is one of the people in this country who did exactly what she was supposed to do. She worked hard every day sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, and taking out the garbage in some of Houston's most elegant office buildings. She is willing to work hard to raise her two girls. She tried to save what she could, but on a little more than $5 an hour, it's hard to find enough money to pay the bills.

Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ercilia was already a fighter and a leader among her co-workers, but she was probably going to die. And her problem was that she was having problems with her health over a long period of time, but she couldn't afford to go to the doctor, couldn't afford to get healthcare and is now worried about what this means for her kids, and her work is dedicated to all the mothers in Houston, Texas, who are janitors, who she never wants to have live through the same thing. She happens to be on the Glamour magazine website right now, she's up for nomination as one of the five women of the year for Glamour.

Frank Rich: "What I've Found Everywhere... Is A Tremendous Sense Of Frustration At Having Been Misled And Lied To About The Iraq War."

Radar | via Romenesko | Posted Thursday November 2, 2006 at 09:40 AM

Over at Radar, Charles Kaiser has a meaty interview with Frank Rich about his book, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, and his views on the dissemblings, obfuscations, and behind-the-scenes-machinations of the Bush administration. What he's found while on his book tour may be instructive on the eve of the election. After describing one incident of an audience member in New York questioning him on whether Saddam Hussein was a WMD in his own right, he goes on to take the temperature of the rest of the country:

What I've found everywhere else--whether in Seattle or Kansas City, though Houston is yet to come--is a tremendous sense of frustration at having been misled and lied to about the Iraq war, an appetite for harder-hitting media that can be trusted, and concern about whether the Democrats will be any better at leading the country out of the morass.

Billmon: Contingency Planning

Col. Pat Lang is worried that Shrub's stubborn refusal to consider any alternative to "total victory" in Iraq is preventing the Pentagon from planning for less favorable outcomes -- including some potentially catastrophic ones:

From talking to people involved, I perceive that "planning guidance" from our national leadership to the military focuses altogether on excluding any thought that there is a possible outcome other than a complete victory in Iraq, "victory" being defined as complete achievement of President Bush's goals in that country and in the region.

Arthur Silber: Give Up the Fatal Contradiction -- and Get Out Now

Since some readers may be joining me in mid-discussion, I should immediately clarify what I mean by "Get Out Now." I explained it more fully in this post. As everyone knows, but as many people dishonestly ignore in their effort to score cheap political points, no one who suggests immediate withdrawal from Iraq means that all U.S. troops should leave in days, weeks or even a month or two. But as I proposed (and as I have proposed for several years), we should set a deadline for withdrawal of all U.S. troops within, for example, six months. Anything more than that will inevitably begin to shade into a prolonged continuation of our futile, destructive occupation of a country that never threatened us, and which we had absolutely no right to invade. My earlier post also indicates the means by which we can attempt to make those reparations that are possible, although such reparations will never merit forgiveness for what we have done.

National Battle Over Abortion Focuses on South Dakota Vote

By MONICA DAVEY

Published: November 1, 2006

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — In the downtown headquarters of those opposing a ban on nearly all abortions in this state, there are notes from around the country taped up and down the hallway: “They need to butt out of women’s lives” and “Why did S.D. vote for this?”

On the other side of town, in a warehouse decorated in pink, the supporters of the ban doggedly work a phone bank, in some cases young children playing nearby.

Kevin Drum: Surveillance

SURVEILLANCE....Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, here's part of the latest tirade aimed in her direction from desperate conservatives. This is from Thomas Sowell over at National Review:

As regards the war on terrorism and the terrorists’ war against the west, Nancy Pelosi has opposed having international phone calls to and from terrorists monitored by American intelligence agencies.

This is, flatly, a lie.

What Torture Is and Isn’t: A Hard-Liner’s Argument

Review of John Yoo's War by other means

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

Published: October 31, 2006

In the tumultuous days and weeks after 9/11, a young lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel named John Yoo became a key architect of the Bush administration’s legal response to the terrorist threat and a strong advocate of its expansive view of presidential power. The controversial opinions he worked on would elicit charges that the administration was subverting the Constitution, tipping the balance of power among the three branches of government, trampling the civil rights of detainees and authorizing coercive interrogation.

Pentagon admits extent of Iraq disorder

Mark Tran
Wednesday November 1, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The US military has confirmed Iraq is close to chaos, in a classified briefing prepared just two weeks ago, which gives a stark assessment of the country.

With Iraq the overriding issue for voters in the elections to Congress, the grim portrayal from the US Central Command, which has responsibility for the Middle East, can only provide further ammunition for Democrats in the last few days of campaigning before next Tuesday's vote.

ABC memo reveals Air America advertiser blacklist

An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America, originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show, indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the advertisers insist that "NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming." Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy.

Diebold demands that HBO cancel documentary on voting machines

Film saying they can be manipulated 'inaccurate'

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Diebold Inc. insisted that cable network HBO cancel a documentary that questions the integrity of its voting machines, calling the program inaccurate and unfair.

The program, "Hacking Democracy," is scheduled to debut Thursday, , five days before the 2006 U.S. midterm elections. The film claims that Diebold voting machines aren't tamper-proof and can be manipulated to change voting results.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 10/31/06

President Bush 'Hits Hard at Gay Marriage,' and implores Sugar Land voters to "bring your pencil," as CQ previews an epic collison between 'The Battering Ram and the Bulwark.'

Charlie Cook sees 'No Ebb in the Wave,' but if the Republicans lose, it's argued, "it won't be because Democrats got their [act] together." Plus: A 'Wild Ride' ahead.

Seeing the Forest reviews "regulatory takings" proposals, which could put 'A Hog Farm Next Door To Your House' -- are they 'The Sleeper Issue of the 2006 Election?'

With President Bush's characterization of "the Democrat approach" echoing on CNN, David Gergen tells Larry King that a GOP victory would lead to "some type of escalation in Iraq to get this finished."

Activist Judges! A Salon/CIR investigation finds that 'dozens of federal judges gave contributions to President Bush and top Republicans who helped place them on the bench.'

As 'Antichrist buzz' prompts denials from the campaign of Congressional candidate Michelle Bachman, there's a "bad moon rising" in Colorado.

"Reliable reporting on dead-voter stories" is said to be "frighteningly rare," and 'Halloween Without End' is celebrated.

Bush Moves Toward Martial Law

by repost Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006 at 2:39 AM

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

Character Assassin

by MAX BLUMENTHAL

[posted online on October 30, 2006]

If a political attack ad crosses boundaries of good taste, is emotionally manipulative, excessively ominous, twists facts, exploiting hot-button issues of race, sex and terror, and winds up being condemned by civil rights groups, the chances are that ad has been produced by Republican huckster Scott Howell.

His most recent creation strikes at the character of Tennessee Democratic senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr., an African-American, by suggesting he solicits sex with white Playboy playmates. Along with 3,000 other people, Ford once attended a Super Bowl party held by Playboy magazine. At the end of the ad, a blond actress winks at the camera, makes her right hand into the shape of a phone and says in a sultry come-on, "Harold, Call me." The TV commercial has been condemned by the NAACP and described by former Secretary of Defense and Republican Senator William Cohen as a "very serious appeal to a racist sentiment." Even Ford's Republican opponent called the ad "distasteful" and said "it ought to come down." But he apparently lacks sufficient clout with its sponsor, the Republican National Committee, to get it off the air.

U.S. Soldier Murdered By Iraqi Police -- And Then the Cover-up

An article in today's Washington Post reveals that an American soldier was ambushed and killed this month in Baghdad by our alleged allies in the local police. What it doesn't say is that the official reports on his death by the U.S. military were complete distortions.

By Greg Mitchell

(October 31, 2006) -- USA Today revealed in a front page story on Monday that a study of several hundred American deaths in Iraq turned up at least seven cases where families were given the wrong information about how their loved ones died (most of them, it turned out, were killed by friendly fire). Now, on Tuesday, The Washington Post reveals that a U.S. soldier was ambushed and murdered by our friends in the Iraqi police.

My additional digging now shows that the military willfuly covered up this significant detail in releasing the news of his death to his family and to the press.

In Baghdad, a Force Under the Militias' Sway

Infiltration of Iraqi Police Could Delay Handover of Control for Years, U.S. Trainers Suggest

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006; A01

BAGHDAD -- The signs of the militias are everywhere at the Sholeh police station.

Posters celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls. The police chief sometimes remarks that Shiite militias should wipe out all Sunnis. Visitors to this violent neighborhood in the Iraqi capital whisper that nearly all the police officers have split loyalties.

And then one rainy night this month, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., a 20-year-old budding journalist, his unit said. At the time, Stanton and other members of the unit had been trailing a group of Sholeh police escorting known Mahdi Army members.

Killing the Middle Class; How the Corporatocracy Sets the Rules of the "Game" To Create Peons

by Thom Hartmann

Excerpted from Thom Hartmann's newest book, Screwed; The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do About It

One of the most pernicious claims the corporatocracy makes is that business flourishes best in a perfectly "free" market. And when business flourishes, they say, all of society does better. It's the old trickle-down philosophy that inevitably produces a nation of peons.

Always get suspicious when you see the words free market. Let's go back to the story of Mrs. Flores, whom you met in chapter 2-- the woman who lost her job at Levi Strauss when that venerable American company closed all of its factories here in the USA and moved them overseas.

U.S. Drops Bid Over Royalties From Chevron

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: October 31, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — The Interior Department has dropped claims that the Chevron Corporation systematically underpaid the government for natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, a decision that could allow energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.

The agency had ordered Chevron to pay $6 million in additional royalties but could have sought tens of millions more had it prevailed. The decision also sets a precedent that could make it easier for oil and gas companies to lower the value of what they pump each year from federal property and thus their payments to the government.

Inventor helps grasslands go native

A breakthrough in native grass seed harvesting may dramatically change the native grass seed market and help restore wildlands.

Deadly hypoxic event finally concludes

The longest, largest and most devastating hypoxic event ever observed in marine waters off the Oregon Coast has finally ended, researchers at Oregon State University say. Monitoring efforts will continue, new technology will be utilized, federal funding will be sought for more work in the area, and work is already under way to identify the amounts of biological damage done by this event, the fifth "dead zone" in five years and, literally, one for the record books.

New research house to guide future home development

The University of Nottingham is helping to battle climate change on the home front -- with the construction of a new experimental house on campus that will cut "greenhouse gas" emissions by 60 per cent.

Digby: Bizarroworld

From The Democratic Strategist

In the final three weeks of the campaign, longtime leading Democratic strategists such as Stan Greenberg and James Carville urge the party to maximize the once-in-a-generation opportunity the 2006 election offers Democrats by reaching out for every seat that is even conceivably contestable. Netroots newcomers, however, are not so ambitious, preferring to see the Democrats focus their attention on locking in their potential gains rather than reaching too far and "blowing it."

Digby: We Are The Realists

Maybe I'm out of stem with other liberals but this doesn't ring true to me. From a new Greenberg Quinlan Rosner research strategy memo on National Security:

Don't let anti-Bush reflexes undermine Democrats' heritage of internationalism. Over the longer term, Democrats can only retain national leadership and the public's trust if we promote a strong, idealistic, and outward-looking vision of America's purposes in the world. Anti-Bush passion may be enough to drive big gains in 2006. But Democrats cannot afford to let anti-Bushism morph into anti-internationalism. For example, it is troubling that, according to a poll conducted by the German Marshall Fund, a majority of Democrats -- the party that helped bring down apartheid in South Africa and Pinochet in Chile -- now rejects the idea of promoting democracy abroad.

Digby: The Wrong Lesson

Many bloggers have pointed out that Jim Webb's novels are on the professional reading list of the US Marine Corps, which would indicate that the adults in the military aren't too shocked by the sex scenes.*

But there is something disturbing on that reading list, which is that the top recomendation for staff sergeants and first lieutenants --- the leaders who generally have the most face to face contact with the locals --- is that piece of trash "The Arab Mind." I had thought that it was only considered a bible by the senior brass. I didn't know they were having the troops read it too. No wonder things have gone so badly.

Digby: Stepping On Our Dreams

Many people seem to be convinced that the key to this election is going to be conservative Christians staying home. I don't think so. James Dobson and his ilk are out there telling them to hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two evils and they will do it -- at least for now. And the southern Kristallnacht Republicans will vote for their tribe no matter what.

This, in my view, is the Republican party's big problem --- the suburban, educated voters:

Digby: Using Our Religion

Readers urged me to write about this today and it is worth some discussion:

The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez.

The inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of the software company, the Smartmatic Corporation, and is trying to determine whether the government in Caracas has any control or influence over the firm’s operations, government officials and others familiar with the investigation said.

Digby: Concerned Women For Pornography

Think Progress has Wolf Blitzer's response to Lynn Cheney's ridiculous claim that she was invited on CNN's the Situation Room 10 days before an election to talk about her dipshit children's book:

Blitzer:...In this most recent interview, she, of course, knew we would would be speaking about politics. That was reaffirmed to her staff only hours before the interview. As a former co-host of Crossfire during the 1990s, she knows her way around the media. She was never shy about sparring with Democratic strategist and co-host.

Digby: They Haven't Even Lost Yet

.... and they are already behaving as the rabid opposition we all know and love. This is from a former Bush speechwriter and published in a Virginia newspaper.

Friends, neighbors, and countrymen of the Left: I hate your lying guts

WHEN I WAS speechwriting at the White House, one rule was enforced without exception. The president would not be given drafts that lowered him or The Office by responding to the articulations of hatred that drove so many of his critics.

This rule was especially relevant to remarks that concerned the central topic of our times, Iraq. Having left the White House more than a year ago, I conclude that the immunizing effect of that rule must have expired, because I now find that I am infected with a hatred for the very quarter that inspired the rule--the deranged, lying left.

Digby: Back To Their Natural State

Glenn Greenwald did a thorough deconstruction of Peggy Noonan's noxious latest, but I do want to emphasize the most important point about it. She is signaling (along with a lot of others) that it's time to purge the Bushmen and, as Glenn says, we shouldn't let them do it:

There remains a broad, reflexive, and very Republican kind of loyalty to George Bush. He is a war president with troops in the field. You can see his heart. He led us in a very human way through 9/11, from the early missteps to the later surefootedness. He was literally surefooted on the rubble that day he threw his arm around the retired fireman and said the people who did this will hear from all of us soon.

Digby: Good General

Jane's feeling Clarkie today and for good reason. Wes Clark has made a helluva good commercial for Ned Lamont. Jane sez:

Nice to see someone with guts who isn't intimidated by No Show Joe's petulant threats against the Democratic party.

As some of you may remember, I was a Clarkie in the last round of primaries and I still like the guy. He's spent the last two years working tirelessly for candidates all over the country and he is, as Jane points out, not intimidated by ossified GOP enablers or the Democratic establishment.

Digby: Confederate Prick

You've got to give George Allen credit for gall. He's making his pitch that Webb's a pervert by trying to tie it to Webb's 1978 (admittedly misogynistic) article about women in the military academies. Allen is using a feminist argument to accuse Webb of being a sex fiend. (His novels are “servile, subordinate, inept, incompetent, promiscuous, perverted, or some combination of these.”) It's an interesting tactic coming from a man who is well documented as having a proclivity to literally spit on women:

Digby: Attack Of The Killer Morons

Here is how the kewl kidz look at politics. I was just watching Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and they did a segment on the attack ads we are seeing this cycle. They led off with the Harold Ford Playboy ad and the Michael J. Fox ad in Missouri.

Did you see the Fox ad as an attack ad? Did he disparage Talent's character or imply that he was a bad person? Was he appealing to peoples baser nature by playing to their prejudices? Or, as the nation's premiere advocate for Parkinson's disease, did he just ask people to vote for Claire McCaskill because she supported stem cell research and Talent didn't --- a straighforward, endorsement based upon a single issue. I don't see any attack in it at all.

Digby: He Said/She Said Woodshed

A number of commenters have objected to my characterization of Katie Couric's interview with Michael J. Fox. yesterday. Obviously I need to explain why I think it was wrong.

First of all, this is not actually a "controversy" in any legitimate sense. It was ginned up by Rush and the right wing noise machine to try to discredit a powerful spokesman for this issue, which is a very dangerous one for the Republican party. Now, it may be that the backlash against Rush will prove to have been worse than the fake one he and the press tried to create, but that's a testament to the basic decency of most people and the class act that is Michael J. Fox.

Digby: Fork It Over

I don't do candidate fundraising here because I assume that you all read the big blogs that do it and get involved through their Act Blue pages. But for the rarest among you who only read this blog today, I urge you to go to some of the major blogs like Eschaton, Kos, FDL, MYDD, C&L and others who are all asking for donations today for the final push to election day. If you haven't done it yet, now's the time.

Digby: Queen O The Harpies

They're so desperate they've dragged Lynn Cheney out of her hive to go on CNN and screech "you are not a good man" to Wolf Blitzer, or something to that effect. She'll be swooping in in a few minutes. Tune in, if you have the stomach.

The promo I just saw had Wolf pointing out that innocent people have been captured and imprisoned and "aggressively interrogated" and then set free. Her reply? "How do you know they're innocent?" Wolf rather confusedly said, "well --- they're walking around free..." and she went on to say that one of then alleged innocents had had a bookstore in London that sold radical Islamic texts. So apparently, selling certain books now can get you kidnapped, waterboarded and imprisoned without trial until they're done with you. Good to know.

Digby: The Man Who Sold The World

So Bush met yet again with some friendly rightwing journalists and impressed them mightily with his intensity and manliness. As usual.

According to Greg Mitchell at E&P he told his sycophants that:

Gen. John Abizaid ("one of the really great thinkers") was the one who "came up with" the recent construct about the enemy in Iraq, "If we leave, they will follow us here." Bush then explains that this is what makes the Iraq struggle "really different from other wars we've been in."

More "the oceans don't protect us anymore" and "this is the biggest threat the world has ever known" crapola. I don't know what in the hell he thinks he knows but it bears no relationship to reality. The US was seriously concerned with an invasion during WWII and had reason to be:

In Autumn of 1940, the attack on the US was fixed for the long-term future. This appears in Luftwaffe documents, one of which dated October 29, 1940 mentions the "extraordinary interest of Mein Führer in the occupation of the Atlantic Islands.

Digby: Melting Snowflakes

If Rush Limbaugh and his pals in the media still think that Michael J. Fox is acting, they should check out this video clip from ABC News from last July. The guy is so clearly trying to do something good here. It just kills me that these heartless bastards are attacking him and saying that it's exploitive for him to be an activist for a disease that's killing him.

Actors are vain people. It cannot be easy for him to expose himself in public knowing that when the public sees him in this condition they are uncomfortable and pitying. He is rich enough to live out his days in in comfortable privacy, getting the best of care and giving money for the cause. But he's put together a very serious and productive foundation that has funded 70 million dollars in Parkinson's research and he works constantly on the issue.

Bottle of Blog: The Dumb Dumbing The Dumber

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, "government is not the answer to our problems -- government is the problem."

Yes, government is often "the problem". At least, when Reagan Revolution Republicans run it, anyway.

Your government is not "the problem". Your government is you. Which, frankly, tells you more about the Sainted Ronald Reagan than your "liberal media", which sainted him, ever did.

Billmon: The 51% Solution

Ronald Brownstein, the LA Times political columnist, provides a window into the essential cluelessness of the centrist pundit, as he tries to figure out why the Rovian brain trust is sending Shrub out on partisan search and destroy missions at a time when so many GOP candidates are plaintively asking the voters: "Can't we all just get along?"

Bush is moving in the opposite direction. As he often does when he's under political pressure, he's accentuating the disagreements between the parties and presenting the differences in the starkest possible terms . . . Bush now routinely labels Democrats "the party of cut-and-run." At a recent Republican fundraiser, Bush went much further. "The Democrat Party . . . has evolved from one that was confident in its capacity to help deal with the problems of the world to one that . . . has an approach of doubt and defeat," he declared.

As Brownstein notes, this isn'st exactly the normal rhetoric of a wartime leader trying to unify his people. From this, the pundit glumly concludes:

Even if Bush succeeds, such a result still will measure how much he has retreated from his hopes of building a broad majority coalition.

This is Broderism (i.e. the willful denial of reality) reduced to the point of absurdity.

Wonkette: Shreddin' With Dick

Spotted on 10/19, by an eagle-eyed Wonkette reader: The Mid-Atlantic Shredding Services truck making its way up to the Cheney compound at the Naval Observatory.

Fun fact: Mid-Atlantic Shredding Services has been contracted by the Secret Service for our Executive Branch’s record-not-keeping needs.

Neil Bush's family values

Despite a record of past scams and other controversial business deals, Neil Bush is now benefiting directly from President's Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and his father's international network

Two years ago, when Neil Bush and his mother, the former first lady Barbara Bush, were featured guests at a $1,000-a-table fundraiser for the Western Heights School District in Oklahoma City, proceeds from the event were specifically earmarked for the purchase of products from Neil's company, Ignite! Learning. Late last year, when Neil's mom agreed to make a contribution to a Hurricane Katrina relief foundation for those victims that had relocated to Texas, she stipulated that her donation had to be used by local schools to acquire Ignite products.

Paul Krugman: Bursting Bubble Blues

October 30, 2006

Here are the five stages of housing grief:

1. Housing bubble? What housing bubble? “A national severe price distortion [in housing] seems most unlikely in the United States.” (Alan Greenspan, October 2004)

2. “There’s a little froth in this market,” but “we don’t perceive that there is a national bubble.” (Alan Greenspan, May 2005)

3. Housing is slumping, but “despite what you hear from some of the Eeyores in the analytical community, a recession is not visible on the horizon.” (Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, August 2006)

4. Well, that was a lousy quarter, but “I feel good about the U.S. economy, I really do.” (Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, last Friday)

5. Insert expletive here.

We’ve now reached stage 4. Will we move on to stage 5?

Cursor's Media Patrol - 10/30/06

It's suggested that October might prove the 'tipping point' for supporters of the war in Iraq, where the chaos and the level of violence encountered lead Anthony Shadid to conclude that "civil war was perhaps too easy a term, a little too tidy."

One of the highest ranking U.S. military officers is said to have recommended removing all American troops from Baghdad, and Rep. John Murtha says that "there is no question" the U.S. military is turning against the war, as some officers reportedly "fear the administration may be trying to shift responsibility their way."

A missile attack on a Pakistani madrassa that reportedly killed 80 people, was launched by a U.S. predator drone targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to ABC News.

A Los Angeles Times article detailing how Karl Rove 'taps government resources to boost candidates in need' is called a "truly priceless moment of Rove hagiography" for lauding him as a "virtuoso" even if the Democrats win both houses. Plus: Do the Republicans stand a prayer?

The Washington Post picks up the story, promoted by Matt Drudge and seized upon by Sen. Allen's campaign, about the sexual scenes in Jim Webb's Vietnam novels, but it's asked when the major dailies will 'do stories on Allen's divorce and warrants.'

As a Bush political appointee is accused of rejecting staff scientists' recommendations to protect endangered species, federal spending for all energy R&D is reportedly "less than half what it was a quarter-century ago," and has failed to keep pace with the urgency of the environmental challenge.

Pinochet held on murder and torture charges

Staff and agencies
Monday October 30, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, was detained under house arrest in Santiago today, over charges including, murder, torture and kidnapping in the years following his 1973 coup.

Judge Alejandro Solis said he had ordered the house arrest of the 90-year-old in connection with human rights abuses at Villa Grimaldi, an infamous detention centre run by the Pinochet regime's secret police.

A Democrat to her fingertips

Mark Tran
Monday October 30, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Should the Democrats take back the House of Representatives on November 7, Nancy Pelosi is set to become Speaker of the House - a job usually described as being two heartbeats away from the presidency.

The 66-year-old Democrat, from the Bay area of San Francisco - a bastion of liberalism - would become the first Democrat to hold the job in 12 years and the first woman ever to do so.

We must pay now to avoid climate disaster, says Blair

James Sturcke and agencies
Monday October 30, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Tony Blair today said that the world was facing "nothing more serious, more urgent, or more demanding of leadership" than climate change and that Britons must be prepared to pay now to avoid future disaster.

Speaking at the launch of Sir Nicholas Stern's review on tackling global warming, the prime minister said there was "overwhelming scientific evidence" that climate change was taking place and that the consequences of failing to act would be "disastrous".

Sweatshops, made in the good, old U.S. A.

How an official who tried to help exploited workers ran afoul of powerful Republicans.

By ROBYN E. BLUMNER, Times Perspective Columnist
Published October 29, 2006

If you're one of those independent-minded voters who drifted in recent years to the Republican camp and may be thinking twice about that allegiance come November, there is one more reason to do so: Allen Stayman.

You've probably never heard of Stayman, but indicted former lobbyist and Republican insider Jack Abramoff knew him well. Abramoff and his lobbying team went to great lengths to oust Stayman from his State Department post, even dubbing the expulsion the "Stayman Project." Why? Because years earlier as an official in the Interior Department, Stayman led an effort to help exploited workers toiling in Chinese-owned sweatshops in a U.S. commonwealth.

Dodging Taxes Is a New Stock Options Scheme

By ERIC DASH

Published: October 30, 2006

In the latest twist in the stock options game, some executives may have changed the so-called exercise date — the date options can be converted to stock — to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax, federal investigators say.

That appears to be what happened at Symbol Technologies and Mercury Interactive, and federal securities regulators are now sifting through options data at other companies for evidence of similar tax-avoidance schemes.

Ruining America

Joe Galloway | October 26, 2006

If President George Bush's hasty news conference on Iraq this week was the Republican October Surprise -- unveiling some sudden presidential flexibility after three and a half years of stubbornly staying a losing course -- it didn't work.

With the midterm elections now days away, it smacked more of a change in semantics than a serious change in the direction of a war that seems to be spiraling out of control.

U.S. Is Said to Fail in Tracking Arms for Iraqis

By JAMES GLANZ

Published: October 30, 2006

The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.

The report was undertaken at the request of Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and who recently expressed an assessment far darker than the Bush administration’s on the situation in Iraq.

Greenhouse gas emissions rising

The UN has released new data showing an upward trend in emission of greenhouse gases, and called for urgent action from rich countries.

The data showed a 2.4% total increase in emissions across 41 industrialised countries between 2000 and 2004.

Britain, France and Germany were "relatively close" to achieving Kyoto Protocol targets, the UN said.

The Thirteen Scariest People in America

Old Trout Magazine. Posted October 30, 2006.

From the scariest presidential candidate to the scariest billionaire to the scariest cop, these truly are the worst America has to offer.

The Thirteen Worst People in America:

Scariest Presidential Candidate: Sam Brownback / Senator (R-Kansas)

by Mary Reinholz

Once a moderate in the Bob Dole mold, Sen. Sam Brownback has morphed into a zealous man of God intent on protecting millions of fetuses from what he calls the yearly "holocaust" of abortion. Brownback actually considers fetuses to be full-blown American citizens.

Just another religious nut stalking the corridors of power? Well, yes, but this ambitious pol is the favored 2008 presidential candidate of the radical right. Brownback seems hell-bent on establishing not just faith-based initiatives, but "faith in politics" -- i.e., an authoritarian Christian theocracy.

How to Stop the November Elections from Being Stolen

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted October 30, 2006.

Progressive Democrats are saying "we need to get people to the polls in large numbers, win big, and protect the vote counting to make sure that the congressional elections are not stolen on November 7th."

"We can't let the machinations of possible electoral problems prevent us from getting to the polls in massive numbers; in fact, it is an argument to get even more people to vote, so that the majorities are fool proof." -- Robert Greenwald, Producer, Director Iraq for Sale and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices.

Emotions are running high as the mid-term election approaches, and polls show Democrats are ahead in many key Congressional races. Less than two weeks before the Nov. 7 election, the latest Associated Press-AOL News poll found that likely voters overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans.

Voters are angry with President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, and say Iraq and the economy are their top issues. In the poll, 56 percent of likely voters said they would vote to send a Democrat to the House and 37 percent said they would vote Republican -- a 19-point difference. Only 12 percent of likely voters say they are enthusiastic about the administration. The percentage of those who say they are angry with it has grown to 40 percent from 32 percent in early October."

Webb's Novel On Marine Corps Reading List For 20 Years..."Most Taught Piece Of Literature Regarding The Vietnam War"...

Webb Defends Novels Against Attacks
Allen Has Crossed a 'Line That Should Never Be Crossed,' Candidate Says

By Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 29, 2006; C06

Virginia U.S. Senate candidate James Webb yesterday delivered his strongest criticism of incumbent Sen. George Allen of the fall campaign, vigorously defending himself against Allen's charges that he wrote sex-laced passages in his fiction novels.

He called on voters to reject what he called the "smear tactics" of Allen and his campaign, who released excerpts Thursday from Webb's novels to the Drudge Report Web site and said the writings were lurid and inappropriate for a man seeking to serve in the Senate.

Shopping still costs the Earth

There is still no such thing as a truly green consumer despite the increase in the range of green and ‘ethical’ products available, according to new Leeds-led research into the choices and trade-offs made by shoppers.

The team found we are still tempted by bargains, with price most commonly traded off against a product’s environmental performance. Also, shoppers find it easy to apply ethical values to more everyday purchases like food or clothing but struggle to reconcile the competing issues of brand, energy efficiency and desire to shop locally for more major items such as dishwashers.

Billmon: The Enemies of Truth

The corporate media have finally noticed that a very large, very rabid skunk is busy spraying its caustic stink all over the 2006 election campaign. Some journalists, like the Washington Post's Michael Grunwald, are even acknowledging -- oh-so-gently -- that the varmint has a name:

While negative campaigning is a tradition in American politics, this year's version in many races has an eccentric shade, filled with allegations of moral bankruptcy and sexual perversion . . The result has been a carnival of ugly, especially on the GOP side, where operatives are trying to counter what polls show is a hostile political environment by casting opponents as fatally flawed characters.

It's an improvement, at least, over the spin being put on the story at ABC News, where Mark Halperin is taking his promise to keep conservatives happy this November literally, and blaming the Democrats for ads they haven't run yet.

Steal of a Deal

Houses bought at inflated prices. Millions in loan proceeds allegedly pocketed. All ending in foreclosure. In Colorado, it's one part of a nation-leading problem.

By David Olinger
Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated:10/29/2006 03:56:18 PM MST

On an autumn day two years ago, Colorado issued a warrant to arrest Taiwan Lee, a state prisoner who had vanished on parole.

He hadn't gone far. While police looked for him, he bought three houses at inflated prices in Arapahoe County with the help of lenders who put up the entire $1.9 million.

Reports shed light on ties between Weldon, businesses

By GREG GORDON, McClatchy Newspapers

Pennsylvania congressman Curt Weldon, under investigation for allegedly trading his influence to get lobbying business for one of his daughters, also has helped corporations that have hired another daughter, a friend and some former aides.

The power of Bob Perry's 'Swift-Boating' money

Perry, the Houston-based homebuilder and the primary funder behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is pumping millions into this year's congressional races

In New Mexico, according to Federal Election Commission records, Americans for Honesty on Issues has spent $165,000 in support of the campaign of Republican Rep. Heather Wilson, who is hoping to hold onto her seat against her Democratic challenger, Attorney General Patricia Madrid. In Iowa, the same group has purchased $159,572 in ads against Democrat Bruce Braley, who is running against Republican Mike Whalen. In Kentucky, Americans for Honesty is sponsoring ads targeting Democratic Party candidate Ken Lucas, who is running for a House seat against Republican Rep. Geoff Davis.

Leading 'Wash Post' Reporters Offer Assessments on Iraq

By E&P Staff

Published: October 29, 2006 12:30 AM ET
NEW YORK Three leading Washington Post writers -- one writing from Baghdad, two others from Washington -- offered grim assessments about the current state of the conflict in Iraq in prominent stories in their paper on Sunday.

Anthony Shadid, the Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Middle East correspondent, produced an opinion piece for the front page of the B section.

Coal magnate trying to fire up GOP support

Exec is pouring millions into effort to deter Dems in a labor stronghold

By IAN URBINA
New York Times

CHARLESTON, W.VA. — Don Blankenship is not the governor of West Virginia. But, here in coal country, some say he may as well be, considering the power he wields.

Blankenship, chief executive of the state's largest coal producer, Massey Energy, has promised to spend "whatever it takes" to help win a majority in the state Legislature for the long-beleaguered Republican Party in a state that is a Democratic and labor stronghold.

The real problem is that it is illegal for one country to invade another country, says Linda McQuaig

Much has changed in the way the mainstream media deal with the war in Iraq. Most commentators now acknowledge the war is a disaster and will hurt the Republicans badly in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.

But one thing hasn't changed — the willingness to believe that the motives for war, however misguided, were basically honourable.

Frank Rich: Dying to Save the G.O.P. Congress

IF you happened to be up around dawn on Tuesday, you could witness the death rattle of our adventure in Iraq live on CNN. Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the American commander, were making new promises from the bunker of the Green Zone, inspiring about as much confidence as Jackie Gleason and Art Carney hatching a get-rich-quick scheme to sell a kitchen gadget on “The Honeymooners.”

“Success in Iraq is possible and can be achieved on a realistic timetable,” said Mr. Khalilzad. Iraq can be “in a very good place in 12 months,” said General Casey. Even a child could see how much was wrong with this picture.

Time for Bartlett to go

By Deborah Carter

People are known by the company they keep. Congressional hopeful Andrew Duck is one of a noble company of veterans who served his country in Iraq and now wishes to serve in Washington. In addition, he's endorsed by a wide variety of nonpartisan organizations, such as the Maryland State Teachers Association, the AFL-CIO, and several newspapers.

Incumbent Roscoe Bartlett, on the other hand, prefers the company of folks like Sun Myung Moon, Tom DeLay, and others steeped in the far right's culture of corruption. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- a 14-year record in Congress, he is endorsed by only a small circle of wealthy and fiercely partisan special interest groups.

Daily Kos: Scaife, Vast RightWing Conspiracy patron, funding Lieberman

by John Campanelli

Sun Oct 29, 2006 at 08:48:57 AM PDT

We denizens of that wee New England state, Connecticut, don't want our fellow kossacks to be lulled into believing that our race for Senate is somehow not important because Joenertia claims he'll caucus with the Democrats. For those who lack the backbone to fight for Lamont for fear of insulting Lieberman - as most all Democratic bigwigs are doing - look closely at this FEC fundraising report for donations to Lieberman:

GAO chief warns economic disaster looms

By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
Sat Oct 28, 9:32 PM ET

AUSTIN, Texas - David M. Walker sure talks like he's running for office. "This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids," the comptroller general of the United States warns a packed hall at Austin's historic Driskill Hotel. "We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed."

But Walker doesn't want, or need, your vote this November. He already has a job as head of the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government.

, an investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government.