Apparently Karl Rove has not read "The Emerging Democratic Majority" by Ruy Teixeira and John Judis. The GOP's devious vote-suppression tactics are certain to further alienate minority citizens, whose numbers are rapidly increasing relative to the populus at large. The GOP is likely to both lose this election AND insure that they will lose that critical voting bloc forever. Dumb asses.

Viusalize Winning -

http://www.needlenose.com/win04/vote.htm

This is really cool- Make sure to have your sound turned up.... !

Sinclair Broadcasting has fired Jon Lieberman, its Washington Bureau Chief. He had spoken out against the company's decision to run "Stolen Honor", a rightwing hit piece on John Kerry's military service. A link to the story is provided below.

Bravo, Jon Lieberman! I expect the job offers are already flooding in....

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apelection_story.asp?category=1131&slug=Kerry%20Film%20Reporter

Sinclair Broadcasting (SBGI) has ordered all 62 of their TV stations to air a slime piece on John Kerry entitled "Stolen Honor." There is a powerhouse citizen's movement afoot to confront Sinclair by driving the company's stock down, and persuading their advertisers to pull out. There will also be legal challenges to Sinclair's FCC licenses. Sinclair stock took a nosedive today and ended at $6.49, down .55 cents a share, on a huge volume of 1,147,658 shares (that's triple their average daily volume.) The stock lost 7.81% of its value today.

Here are a couple of links to Sinclair-related sites:

http://www.sinclairwatch.org/

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group#Advertiser_Responses

Wonder how the Republicans are enjoying the wonders of their beloved free market in action?

Q: Cheney, Bush, Ashcroft and Rumsfeld are in a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean. The boat springs a leak. Who gets saved?



A: We do.

I'd really like to see some polling data on a demographic that isn't getting enough attention; Republicans who plan to vote for Kerry, or are so disgusted with Bush that they will just stay home on Nov. 2. Perhaps Zogby and the other polling firms could design a survey that samples this segment of the electorate. My instinct tells me that this might be the Mother of All Internal Polling Numbers.

I think it's time for the Democrats to start spending a lot of their energy on insuring that the votes are actually going to be counted properly. At this stage of the game, that may be a more effective expenditure of financial and human resources than continuing to market the Kerry/Edwards ticket. The Democrats have a stronger and more appealing ticket, a better GOTV operation, most of the significant newspaper endorsements, a fiercely committed constituency, and they won all four debates. My calculation is that in large measure the game has already been won; we just need to make sure the score is reported accurately.

Hardly a day passes without another news story about Republican electoral skullduggery. It's pretty clear that the GOP will try to steal the coming election by whatever means it takes, and I'm particularly worried about those states where the Republicans control the electoral machinery. I wonder if one of the tactics in FL, OH, and elsewhere might involve a refusal by GOP Secretaries of State to certify election tallies in a timely fashion? Looking back to Florida 2000, we remember that Kathleen Harris made sure to certify the vote quickly, before the ongoing recount could prove Al Gore to be the winner. But suppose Kerry does well in the critical swing states; I'm betting Rove will intervene by directing GOP officials to suspend the certification process while lawsuits alleging Democratic fraud are filed and fought in the courts. He will try to create legal chaos, trusting that the Supreme Court will again come to the rescue of the GOP.

Recently I saw the film "The Corporation" at Time and Space Ltd., our "cultural warehouse" and performance venue here in Hudson, NY. It's two and-a-half hours long, but seemed shorter. It's an examination of how corporations have come to dominate our economy, our culture, and to a large extent, our consciousness. There are some real standout characters in the film, in particular Ray Anderson, a former CEO of a huge American carpet-producing firm. He read Paul Hawken's "Ecology of Commerce" in 1994 and had a personal epiphany that has lead him to become an effective spokesman for sustainable manufacturing processes. There are several appearances by a wonderful Indian woman who has organized farmers and helped them resist the imposition of corporate agricultural techniques. There is a very moving segment that shows Bolivian citizens fighting (and winning) to prevent American-based Bechtel, Inc. from commandeering their local water supplies. Michael Moore is present in the film, and makes a wonderful closing statement. Highly recommended....

Special thanks to TSL entrepeneurs Linda Mussman and Claudia Bruce, who have provided the community here with thought-provoking film, art, music, and theatre for many years.

The Presidential slugfest is getting so much media attention that the congressional races are running below the radar, and I'm wondering if we might be in for some pleasant surprises. Both the House and Senate are within reach for the Democrats, particularly if Kerry does well and draws an unusually high turnout to the polls. From all the news reports I've seen the D's are kicking ass in the get-out-the-vote department, and this might translate into capturing one or both houses of Congress. The Senate in particular is critical this cycle; we have a group of elderly Supreme Court justices, and we cannot afford to give Bush the opportunity to stock the federal judiciary with Neanderthals. The consequences could last well into the new century. Democrat Joe Hoeffel in Pennsylvania is gaining on Snarlin' Arlen Specter, Brad Carson is looking strong against GOP cave-dweller Tom Coburn in Oklahoma, and Barack Obama is a slam dunk in Illinois. I think there is a chance that Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe will change their stripes ala Jim Jeffords, and Chaffee of Rhode Island has publicly stated that he is not voting for Bush. If the Democrats can pull even with the R's in the Senate, we might see the formation of a coalition that could offset the extremist tendencies of ShrubCo Inc. should the worst come to pass and Bush is re-installed in the White House.

Watched Round 2 of the Presidential debates tonite with a group of ideological soulmates. I was expecting Der Shrubber to have a crash + burn moment, some sort of meltdown that would represent the turning point in the campaign. That didn't happen-Bush did well enough to provide some hope to his wingnut base, and Kerry squandered some nice opportunities to slam the door. On balance, Kerry won because he is better-informed and more articulate, but I wish he was able to package his thoughts in a more succinct and effective way. Semanticist George Lakoff has been working with the Kerry campaign to improve their framing of the issues, but they still have a long way to go to acheive the sort of message clarity that Bush and the Republicans know how to communicate.

Michael Tomasky over at the American Prospect thinks that women voters will probably respond badly to some of the Bush antics this evening. He was yelling throughout most of the debate, while Kerry remained cool and statesmanlike. The questions asked by the citizens of Missouri were impressive- both fair and tough. I wonder how a group of citizens who are so thoughtful and perceptive can manage to remain "undecided" at this stage of the campaign?