Today Ed Markey introduced a new House bill to stop ISPs from filtering or prioritizing Internet traffic, and he needs our help to make this bill a law.

ISPs are increasingly coming under pressure from copyright holders to filter internet traffic (read: the information you and I send on the internet to each other).  At a recent conference, NBC, Microsoft, AT&T and others all talked about filtering content in the near future.  Already, some ISPs are engaging in what is called "traffic shaping" to prioritize some traffic over others.

MSNBC's First Read has a powerful new piece about racism in the South Carolina primary.  In the piece, they point out that:

Obama is getting just an astoundingly low 10% of the white vote in the Mason-Dixon poll -- despite winning in lilly-white Iowa and his broad message.

I've never liked Bill Clinton very much.  After the 1994 election, he lost any will to fight for major progressive reforms.  Instead, despite a huge lead over Bob Dole in 1996, he repeatedly gave in to the Republicans.  He was not a progressive President.

So there are definitely a lot of great reasons to criticize Bill Clinton.  But until recently, most of us were cheering him on.  Even a Clinton critic like myself was cheering him on a year ago when he fought back against Chris Wallace's hit job on his anti-terrorism record on Fox News.

But lately things have changed around here.  Bill Clinton is the punching bag of the moment, and the ever-expanding number of anti-Clinton dairies here reminds me more of the Free Republic than Daily Kos.  Clinton isn't being criticized for accomplishing little as President.  He's not being criticized for compromising with the Republicans.  He's not being criticized for triangulation.

So today Markos decided to call the Tennessee senate race, declaring that the race is "all but lost".  Markos, you should be ashamed of yourself.  Our candidate is within five points, he is fighting for his political life, and his race might decide whether we win the Senate.  And you're discouraging us from helping him?

You have no excuse to do that, especially when you're still pimping the Connecticut race because "our guy is on the rise."  Last I checked, the gap between Lamont and Lieberman is ten points, twice as large as the gap between Corker and Ford.  It's a lot easier to close a five-point gap than a ten-point gap, and heck as much as I hate Lieberman, Bob Corker is far, far worse.  And you know it.

Both Paul Wellstone and Harold Ford voted for the Defense of Marriage Act.  You know, the law that does the exact same thing as the constitutional amendment that Ford supports now?

When I worked for Paul, back in 1999, I asked him about his vote.  At first, he joked that he was more conservative than I thought he was.  But then he got more serious, and tried to convince me that he voted for DOMA because he had been married for a very long time and was a traditionalist when it came to marriage.  That's what he told the public at that time too.

I didn't believe him.  I knew he was in the middle of a reelection fight, and probably just made the vote he needed to make to get reelected.  Later he acknowledged that his vote was a mistake in his book, Conscience of a Liberal.

I admired Paul back then, in 1999, despite his vote for DOMA.  And I still admire him today.  He had a profound impact on my life.

As Markos noted in his front pager today, the momentum is shifting away from Harold Ford in Tennessee.  He's now behind by two points, instead of up by two.  If he loses, our hope of winning the Senate is pretty much gone.

Why has Ford slipped?  Partially because of a carefully orchestrated campaign to suggest to Tennessee voters that Ford, a black man, is sexually interested in white women.  The same tactic used by Jim Crow-era white elites in Tennessee for decades.

Don't believe me?  VIEW THE AD FOR YOURSELF.

Are you as outraged as I am?  Well you haven't heard the worst of it.

I know a lot of us don't like Harold Ford.  He does sound a lot like a Republican most of the time.  But right now our chances to take control of the Senate depend on Ford beating Corker in Tennessee.

For months, the Republican National Committee has mounted a subtlely racist campaign against Ford.  A lot of us are aware of the campaign, although it's gotten little attention from the MSM.

But now that Ford is neck and neck with Corker with just two weeks to go, the RNC has decided to take it up a notch.  The racism, that is. A new TV ad features two blond white women who suggest that Harold Ford is interested in them. We need to make sure they pay the price for this disgusting campaign.

Please, if nothing else, read until the end of this diary.  Because when the Republican Party uses racism to try to keep control of the Senate, we need to make sure they take full responsibility for it.

Last night, on Hardball, Chris Matthews tried to turn Felix Macaca's racism and embarrassment over his heritage against Jim Webb.

Hotline On Call has the scoop:

VA SEN candidate Jim Webb (D) was on "Hardball" and MSNBC's Matthews asked him: "Do you have paid bloggers and are they pushing this story about Allen's Jewish grandparent?"

Video is available at Hardball's webpage.

Webb's response after the fold.

There are a lot of good reasons not to go full-out against a Roberts nomination.  The hope that he's a "liberal" isn't one of them.

That's why I was shocked to read Kos's latest post this morning.  He thinks Roberts will be a "Souter-type on the Supreme Court"?  What was he smoking?

Others showed Roberts even more love.  Apparently some think that Roberts' confirmation would be a "tremendous victory for the left" while others are convinced he is a "liberal."

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A lot of folks on this board have wondered why Kerry has suddenly fell silent, and are itching for the Dems to stand up to Bush.  Kerry just stepped up to the plate and is making a challenge to Bush and behalf of the 48%.

He's sending out a message to supporters this afternoon.  Here are two released excerpts:

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When I first saw this news story, I thought it had to be a joke.  It's not.  It turns out to be a sad but true look at how the right-wing thinks about sexuality.  The saddest quote:

Yeah, right. :(  I think that woman needs an education, not her kids.  Read the full story below:

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The cat's out of the bag.  As TyroneSlothrup just reported in his lastest diary, Bill Frist and the Repugs in the Senate have decided to get rid of the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster on judicial nominees.

Since the election, we haven't had the right issue to fight the Repugs on.  THIS IS IT.  It's time to go nuclear.  Why?  Judicial nominations matter.  Chief Justice Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court by Nixon in 1972.  That's 32 years ago!  For 32 years, that bastard has been trying to restrict our liberties.  He voted against Roe v. Wade.  He voted to invalidate the Violence Against Women Act.  He twice voted to permit states to criminalize sodomy.  He voted for Bush in Bush v. Gore.  He voted to restrict the Americans with Disabilities Act.  He voted to severely restrict affirmative action.

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... and neither are you.  We're members of the DemocratIC Party.  But that's not what the Republicans call us.  If you listen closely to a Republican speak--anyone from George W. Bush to Tom DeLay to the RNC--they call us the Democrat Party.  Why?

The same reason why the "estate tax" has become the "death tax," or why the war on terrorISM is called "the war on terror."  Republicans ran some focus groups, figured out that "Democrat Party" sounds harsher than "Democratic Party," and renamed us.  The SCLM hasn't caved in on this one yet, but I'm just waiting for the day when Faux News starts reporting from the "Democrat National Convention."

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I just read a really interesting (and disturbing) post on The Leiter Reports, recounting one volunteer's experience in Ohio working on the Voter Protection Program.  It reminded me a lot of the stories I heard from friends who went to Iowa for "The Perfect Storm," and helped me understand how we could lose Ohio and Florida even though we spent more money and had more people than the Republicans.

We need to do a better job next time.  Any ideas of how we could do it?  My take is that the jumble of 527s was our problem.  We weren't as organized and centralized as the Republicans, unfortunately.

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The cat's out of the bag.  Rumors have been flying for the past few days that Kerry is planning to run again in 2008, and now Cam Kerry has come out and publicly acknowledged that it is "conceivable" that Kerry will run in 2008.  I've actually heard, from a close friend of mine who worked on the Kerry campaign, that Kerry told him that he is "strongly keeping that option open."  Kerry mentioned to my friend that Ronald Reagan ran three times for the Presidency before he won, and sounded like he was leaning towards another run.

To my surprise, now that the speculation is public, apparently most people want Kerry to run again.  Kos said that he hopes that Kerry won't run in 2008, but most of the comments went the other way.

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Let's hope there's some litigation or absentee ballots or something. :(

I've looked at the numbers myself and they look bad.

At this point our best bet is a 269-269 result, as Kos said.  And that's counting on winning the last electoral vote in Maine.

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Yesterday, Tom Daschle filed a lawsuit in federal court against John Thune, the South Dakota Republican Party, and several unknown Republican operatives who were intimidating Native Americans in order to keep them from voting.

It turns out (no surprise!) that the allegations were absolutely true.  U.S. District Judge Lawrence L. Piersol issued a temporary restraining order against the Republicans, concluding that "there was intimidation particularly targeted at Native American voters in Charles Mix County by persons who were acting on behalf of John Thune."  Here's a link to the ruling:

http://www.sdd.uscourts.gov/casedocs/case1/doc_dir/6.pdf

The bottom line is that the Republicans have already started intimidating minority voters to keep them from the polls, and there should be no moral "equivalence" in the media about what Republicans and Democrats are doing on election day.  We're signing up new voters and trying to help people vote, while Republicans are trying to keep people from voting.  If the election looks tight, we need to get this message out and I think South Dakota is part of the story.

I know that everyone here saw the same debate that I did, and came to the same conclusion:  JOHN KERRY WON DECISIVELY.  Kerry was better than ever, while Bush was loud and repetitive.  KERRY WON.

We're not the only ones who see how well Kerry did.  The panelists on Fox News, of all places, said that Kerry won.  Mort Kondrake said it was a decisive win for Kerry.  Bill Kristol said Kerry won.  Fred Barnes said it was at best a draw for Bush.

The first post-debate poll said that Kerry won by a 44-41 margin.  Keith Olbermann scored the debate and said Kerry won.  Kerry DID WIN.

But the Republicans are doing what they've been doing for the past four years--lying and hoping that no one calls them on it.  On georgewbush.com the headline is "DECISIVE VICTORY" In the debate.  On TV the GOP is saying "decisive victory" over and over, and they're spreading lies about how Kerry looked "haughty" and that Bush's winking to the audience showed that he won.

Right now, they're on the verge of convincing the media--and some of the folks on this site--that Bush actually won.  We know that's not true, and we NEED TO FIGHT BACK.  Here's what we can do:

1. Email the Kerry campaign and post comments on their blog, telling them to get up a headline on their website that says that they decisively won.  Tell them to proclaim, as they did in the first debate, that Kerry won.  They should be trumpeting those Fox News panel quotes and the poll results, and they're not doing it--their debate page is full of fact-checking that buries the news that Kerry won.

2. Email and call the media and tell them that Kerry won this debate.  The MEDIA control the post-debate spin and we can't let the G.O.P. convince them to call this one for Bush to "let him back in the race."

3. On this blog, let's talk victory.  Don't get your head down, don't talk defeat.  Let's be upbeat about our candidate and his performance.  Because if you're like me, you saw a winner tonight.  A lot of Americans saw a winner tonight.

And John Kerry will be a winner on November 2.  KEEP THE FAITH!

UPDATE: The CNN/USA Today poll just said that Kerry won the debate by a 47-45 margin. BOTH POLLS SHOWED THAT KERRY WON! Make sure that the Kerry campaign and the media report the TRUTH!