John Kerry Speaks Out!!

"I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did..."

Rawstory has the full video clip Here

Video The Vote Needs Volunteers to Document Election

Video the Vote 2006

If you've got a camera and got the time, volunteer!

Iraqi Death Squads are a Result of US Policy

Independent UK:
The death squads are the result of US policy. At the beginning of last year, with no end to the Sunni insurgency in sight, the Pentagon was reported to have decided to train Shia and Kurdish fighters to carry out "irregular missions". The policy, exposed in the US media, was called the "Salvador Option" after the American-backed counter-insurgency in Latin America more than 20 years ago, which led to 70,000 deaths and countless instances of human rights abuse.

Military Blocking Soldiers from reading "Left Leaning" Websites, Conservative Sites Allowed

Wonkette:
"We realize that when it comes to freedom of the press, the USA has fallen to Number 53 in the world — tied with our fascist homies in Croatia and the islanders of the Kingdom of Tonga! — but do we have to make is so damned obvious?
Another Marine stationed in Iraq has sent us a screenshot of what happens when you need some hot news on Macaca and Foley:

forbidden, this page (http://www.wonkette.com) is categorized as (Personal Pages) ALL SITES YOU VISIT ARE LOGGED AND FILED.

Nice little threat at the end, too. Asswipes.

Notice the other browser tabs. Two actual “personal pages” that rah-rah for Bush (What’s her name, the wannabe Coulter, and Hugh Hewitt) show up just fine, as our Marine Operative confirms. But “Talking Points Memo,” which is apparently one of the “left leaning” sites one hears so much about these days, is prohibited."

Poll: Middle Class Voters Abandoning GOP

AP:
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. Democrats had a 10-point edge in early October.

"I don't think the Republican Party represents what I stand for. The guys I golf with, we're in the middle class, we're getting hurt," says Joseph Altland, 73, a retired teacher in York, Pa. He is a registered Republican but says he is considering becoming an independent.

Conservative icon Richard Vigeurie says GOP offers voters nothing this election

Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, warned Republicans that scare tactics against Democrats will not succeed in increasing social or economic conservative voters on Election Day.

“The big-spending, high-deficit, morally-deficient Republican Party hasn’t anything to offer conservatives except Halloween scare tactics about the Democrats. But since the GOP majority in Congress has engaged in an unprecedented spending spree, conservatives know that Democrats cannot be any worse and that divided government may lead to less spending,” Viguerie said.

“And conservatives have learned that, while Republicans sometimes provide significant symbolism on social issues, in truth, many of them have a disdain for values voters,” he added.

“Trying to frighten conservatives by yelling ‘Nancy Pelosi’ and ‘Harry Reid’ won’t work this time."

Bush Has Completely Lost Touch with Reality

American Prospect:

"BUSH: ONLY "25 PERCENT" WANT TO LEAVE IRAQ; AMERICANS WHO ARE TURNING ON IRAQ CONFLICT "DON'T BELIEVE IN WAR."

Here is today's new Gallup poll. It asks:

Suppose the Democrats win control of both houses of Congress in this year's elections and try to do each of the following after they take control in January. Please say whether you would approve or disapprove of that action.
Set a time-table for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq: Approve: 63%, Disapprove: 34%


That's the reality of where we are now.

How would Jesus vote?

"Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford Jr. goes after the GOP's faithful base in the state with the most white evangelicals in the nation. Polls show his campaign is resonating in the pews."

To read the full article Click Here

U.S. Generals Call for Democratic Takeover

Salon:
WASHINGTON -- Two retired senior Army generals, who served in Iraq and previously voted Republican, are now openly endorsing a Democratic takeover of Congress. The generals, and an active-duty senior military official, told Salon in separate interviews that they believe a Democratic victory will help reverse course from what they consider to be a disastrous Bush administration policy in Iraq. The two retired generals, Maj. Gen. John Batiste and Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, first openly criticized the handling of the war last spring, when they called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

CBS: Arianna’s “freeSpeech” on Fearmongering

"Whether it's the specter of North Korean nukes or Iraqi insurgents making their way to Main Street USA, fear is a powerful, universal emotion — always there to be exploited. So as Election Day draws near, be on the lookout for those attempting to scare us into voting our fears.

To quote FDR, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." And those who use it for their own political purposes."

To watch the video Click Here

GOP Plays Race Card in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A political TV ad targeting a black candidate for Senate contains what critics, including the NAACP, are calling racist sexual innuendo about a black man and white woman.

This Week on Left Turn with Cecily Friday

Vickie Karp joins me on the program this evening. She is on the board of directors of Black Box Voting and is co-author of the book “Hacked! High Tech Election Theft in America”. We’ll be discussing the irregularities and out right theft found in past elections, in addition to what we may face come November 7th. Tune in for this very important discussion, this Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM CST.

To learn more about the book Click Here

WP: U.S. Rank on Press Freedom Slides Lower

Some poor countries, such as Mauritania and Haiti, improved their record in a global press freedom index this year, while France, the United States and Japan slipped further down the scale of 168 countries rated, the group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday.

Although it ranked 17th on the first list, published in 2002, the United States now stands at 53, having fallen nine places since last year.

Bush Caught Lying About Claiming "We've Never Been Stay The Course"...

To watch the video Click Here

Truthdig: Pat Tillman's Brother Speaks Out

"Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is."

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.

ABC: Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections

"Researchers, Candidates Have Little Confidence in Machines Designed to Make Elections Easier to Call"

ABC News has obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation revealing that the original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines.

The SAIC study also shows myriad other security flaws, including administrative over-ride passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs.

HP: The President Gets His Wish: He's The Dictator

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." President Bush, December 18, 2000

On Tuesday October 17, 2006, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act and now you and I live under the rule of an official dictator who, in his latest press conference, pronounced the word "intransigence" as "in-TRANJ-a-jence." In other words, now that habeas corpus has been suspended and the chief executive can personally greenlight torture, you and I are now ruled by the direct whim -- whim!

This Week on Left Turn with Cecily Friday

Joining me on the program this evening is Ginny Welsch. She is currently running in the 5th Congressional District, as an independent, against incumbent Jim Cooper. In addition, she is executive director of our very own Radio Free Nashville, the first community radio station in middle Tennessee. We’ll be exploring her position on the critical issues being debated in this election. Tune in for the discussion this Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM CST.

To learn more about Ginny Welsch Click Here

BUSH SIGNS THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT: CCR CALLS IT A BLOW TO DEMOCRACY AND THE CONSTITUTION

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) denounced President Bush's signing into law of the Military Commissions Act (MCA) on October 17, 2006. The final version of the bill emerged only four days before the Senate's 11th hour vote. Although President Bush declared that "time was of the essence" when he called for the legislation, he has waited nearly two weeks to sign it into law. Congress has once again been cowed into doing the President's bidding and abdicated their Constitutional powers in the process, say attorneys.

The new law strips the right of non-citizens to seek review of their detention by a court through the filing of a writ of habeas corpus, the venerated legal instrument that for centuries has protected people from arbitrary detention, disappearance and indefinite detention without charge. The Act is also meant to erase the hundreds of habeas corpus petitions that CCR and others have brought on behalf of many of the 450 men being held at Guantánamo Bay, a move already once denied by the Supreme Court.

RIP Habeas Corpus

EXCLUSIVE: FIRST BUSH-APPOINTED CHAIR OF U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMM. SAYS 'NO STANDARDS' FOR E-VOTING DEVICES, SYSTEM 'RIPE FOR STEALING ELECTIONS'

The BRAD BLOG has obtained an EXCLUSIVE partial transcript from a recent, unaired interview by a major broadcast network with former U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) chair Rev. DeForest Soaries.

Soaries was appointed by George W. Bush as the first chair of the commission created by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in the wake of the 2000 Presidential Election Debacle. In the interview, available here for the first time, Soaries excoriates both Congress and the White House, referring to their dedication to reforming American election issues as "a charade" and "a travesty," and says the system now in place is "ripe for stealing elections and for fraud."

Having resigned from the commission in April of 2005, Soaries goes on to explain that he believes he was "deceived" by both the White House and Congress, and that neither were ever "really serious about election reform."

The explosive comments are the latest evidence highlighting serious deficiencies in the federal body, created by HAVA for oversight of elections systems, including new electronic voting devices, and standards for the use and security of those systems.

NYT: Expecting U.S. Help, Sent to Guantánamo

Abdul Rahim Al Ginco thought he was saved when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrew the Taliban regime.

Mr. Ginco, a college student living in the United Arab Emirates, had gone to Afghanistan in 2000 after running away from his strict Muslim father. He was soon imprisoned by the Taliban, and tortured by operatives of Al Qaeda until, he said, he falsely confessed to being a spy for Israel and the United States.

But rather than help Mr. Ginco return home, American soldiers detained him again. Nearly five years later, he remains in the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — in part, it appears, on the strength of a propaganda videotape made by his torturers.

“This was a 22-year-old kid who was brutally tortured,” one of Mr. Ginco’s American lawyers, Stephen R. Sady, said. “And instead of being liberated, he has endured four and a half years of additional confinement.”

Book says Bush just using Christians

MSNBC:
More than five years after President Bush created the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, the former second-in-command of that office is going public with an insider’s tell-all account that portrays an office used almost exclusively to win political points with both evangelical Christians and traditionally Democratic minorities.
....
He says some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as “the nuts.”

“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’” Kuo writes.

This Week on Left Turn with Cecily Friday

Rick Jacobs joins me on the program this evening. He is co-founder and chair of Brave New Films. In addition he currently serves as senior advisor for Democracy for America and is a regular contributor to Huffingtonpost.com. In the past he chaired the presidential campaign for Howard Dean in California. We’ll be discussing the latest in politics as well as war profiteering, as featured in the film, for which he was an executive producer, titled Iraq for Sale. Tune in for the discussion, Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM CST.

Dave Lindorff: Iran Attack Looks More Likely as Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater

BREAKING NEWS: Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its accompanying strike force of cruiser, destroyer and attack submarine slipped their moorings and headed off for the Persian Gulf region on Oct. 2, as I had predicted in a piece in The Nation magazine a few weeks back.

The Eisenhower strike force, according to my sources, is scheduled to arrive in the vicinity of Iran around October 21, at the same time as a second flotilla of minesweepers and other ships.

C&L: Olbermann: “Why does habeas corpus hate America”

Olbermann: "So as you can see, even without habeas corpus, at least one tenth of the Bill of Rights, I guess that's the Bill of "Right" now… remains virtually intact.

And we can rest easy knowing we will never, ever have to quarter soldiers in our homes… as long as the Third Amendment still stands strong.

The President can take care of that with a Signing Statement."

To watch the video Click Here

C&L: CNN’s Malveaux on North Korea with Bush

C&L:
Q Mr. President, if I could follow up, you say diplomacy takes time –
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it does.

Q — but it was four years ago that you labeled North Korea a member of the "axis of evil." And since then it’s increased its nuclear arsenal, it’s abandoned six-party talks and now these missile launches –

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question. It’s increased it’s — that’s an interesting statement: "North Korea has increased its nuclear arsenal." Can you verify that?

Q Well, intelligence sources say — if you can — if you’d like to dispute that, that’s fine.

THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m not going to dispute, I’m just curious.

To watch the full video clip Click Here

Olbermann’s Special Comment: It is not the Democrats whose inaction in the face of the enemy you fear

C&L:
"Olbermann: And lastly tonight, a Special Comment, about — lying. While the leadership in Congress has self-destructed over the revelations of an unmatched, and unrelieved, march through a cesspool… While the leadership inside the White House has self-destructed over the revelations of a book with a glowing red cover…

The President of the United States — unbowed, undeterred, and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: The Democrats."

To watch the video Click Here

"O'Reilly Factor" Labels Mark Foley As Democrat

Eat the Press:
It's just a misplaced letter, but what a misplaced letter: Swapping a "D" for an "R" last night, Fox News and "The O'Reilly Factor" labeled disgraced pedophile Congressman Mark Foley, longtime Republican, as a Democrat.

Religious Right strangely silent about Foley

Alternet: "The situational morals of the most pious among us"
If there's one thing you have to concede to America's Religious Right, it's that these folks have an amazing media and public relations network and can issue press releases, get on television and radio and, when they really want to, mobilize their lemming-like flock faster than Jack Abramoff can bribe a Republican Congressman.

And yet here we sit, four days after it was revealed that Republican Congressman Mark Foley was using the Internet to go after teenaged boys, and all you can hear from our own little version of the Taliban is dead quiet and crickets chirping.

Wayne Madsen: Attorney Generals Ashcroft and Gonzales Covered up White House Page Scandal

"October 3, 2006 -- WMR has learned from informed sources in the Justice Department that the salacious e-mails from Rep. Mark Foley were leaked to ABC News by career Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents who are incensed that Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales covered up the House page scandal for political reasons. The back story of Pagegate is that there was a criminal conspiracy by the top political leadership of the Justice Department to cover up the predatory activities of Foley and other GOP members of Congress since at least 2003 and, likely, as early as 2001.

Other informed sources in the nation's capital report that Pagegate will soon implicate a number of GOP staffers in both the House and the Senate who intimidated and pressured male pages into inappropriate sexual relationships. One source confided that the staff members' contact with pages was "more egregious" than Foley's behavior."

To read more posts from Wayne Madsen Click Here

John Cole on Foley: Making it Simple

We really don’t know if Foley actually had sex with any underage teens.

But it doesn’t matter.

But what we do know, and what the American public now knows, is that the party that has spent the past few years demagoguing safety and security and law and order is now known as the party that has screwed up the Iraq war, that has codified torture, that has been filled to the rim with criminals and crooks fleecing the treasury (and who knows what else), and is now known as the party that at its most basic can’t be trusted, because they are the party that has middle age perverts trying to bugger your kids. And even better, the Republican House Leadership didn’t give enough of a shit to do anything about it because it might get messy or it might get in the way of their desires for power and actively hid the information from the oppostion party and the public (or, as we might say, PEOPLE WHO MIGHT HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING).

Video: Foley on Bill O'Reilly

To watch the clip Click Here

Foley pushes legislation for protection for children against sexual predators, while at the same time he predated upon teenage pages working for and around him. Another republican on a long list of republicans that have committed crimes against minors.

Rumsfeld Ordered Aides to Shred 2005 Memo Calling for New Detainee Policies

Center for American Progress:
"In June 2005," the New York Times reported Sunday, "two senior national security officials in the Bush administration came together to propose a sweeping new approach to the growing problems the United States was facing with the detention, interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects." The officials urged in a nine-page memo that the administration "seek Congressional approval for its detention policies." "They called for a return to the minimum standards of treatment in the Geneva Conventions and for eventually closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The time had come, they said, for suspects in the 9/11 plot to be taken out of their secret prison cells and tried before military tribunals." The memo so enraged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that "his aides gathered up copies of the document and had at least some of them shredded." Rumsfeld disagreed with the memo's substance, but Rumsfeld was most "angered that his new deputy, Mr. [Gordon] England, had worked on the memorandum with officials outside the Pentagon without his authorization." Hard-liners such as Rumsfeld and Cheney ultimately won the "sharp internal debate" with the State Department over detainee policy, as Congress gave President Bush "the power to jail pretty much anyone he wants for as long as he wants without charging them, to unilaterally reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, to authorize what normal people consider torture," and to deny habeas corpus rights to detainees."

Sayonara to Checks and Balances?

Alternet:
"You -- citizen or non-citizen, resident of Topeka or Timbuktu -- can become an "unlawful enemy combatant."

"Checks and balances" has a nice ring. But it's a currency that doesn't go a long way in Washington today.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, of MCA, passed by the House and Senate is a wholesale assault on the idea of a limited government under law.

It will be taken by the Bush Administration as a blank check to torture, to detain indefinitely without just cause, and to trample the values that win America respect in the world. From tomorrow, counter-terrorism is the "land of do as you please" for the President and the wise men of the Defense Department -- those savants who brought you Iraq, the gift that keeps on giving