Think again.  I originally thought the Democratic victories nationwide last week would allow us to put the e-voting machine conspiracy theories to rest.  Guess not.  The Election Defense Alliance has analyzed the 2006 Election results vs. the exit polls and come up with a startling conclusion:

... election results showed Democratic House candidates won 52.7 percent of the vote to 45.1 percent for Republican candidates, producing a 7.6 percent margin in the total vote for the U.S. House -- 3.9 percent less than the Edison-Mitofsky poll. This discrepancy, far beyond the poll's +/- 1 percent margin of error, has less than a one in 10,000 likelihood of occurring by chance.

SIN NO MORE, YE POKER PLAYING HEATHENS! The U.S. Congress has outlawed internet gambling and Bush is expected to sign the new law by the end of the week.  Actually, internet gambling was already against the law; this law makes it illegal for financial payment services like credit card and wire transfer companies to process transactions involving gambling sites on the internet.  This law is aimed squarely at enforcement.

Wall Street is not happy.  The kicker is that the law was bought and paid for by American casino interests and is aimed at energizing the GOP religious base in the wake of the Foley scandal.

More below the fold.

I sorta figured something like this was going to crop up.  How convenient for the Swiftboaters who are  turning their sights on Jack Murtha.  A United States Marine accused in the Haditha Massacre is going to sue Murtha for libel.

Washington-based lawyers Mark Zaid and Neal Puckett, who filed the papers today in court, say

The false, misleading and defamatory statements disseminated by Mr. Murtha portray ... Wuterich as a cold-blooded killer, untrained and falling victim to stress, as well as being involved in a cover-up of the tragic events of November 19, 2005

More below the fold... (and a couple of updates too)

Well, the Big Dog made his campaign stop for Joe Lieberman in Connecticut on Monday.  Must have been pretty sweet for Bill Clinton to be greeted by a crowd yelling Four More Years!  Clinton got a bigger round of applause than Lieberman, according to this story in the Hartford Courant.  I suppose that's not too surprising but what really caught my eye was this paragraph

Clinton has said he will support the winner of the primary in the fall campaign, and it would be highly unusual if the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee didn't follow precedent and do the same.

More below the fold ...

Tomorrow will see only the second launch of a space shuttle since the Columbia tragedy 3+ years ago on 1 February 2003.  Actually the odds do not favor a launch because there's a 60% chance of unfavorable weather.  Nevertheless it is an important flight and whenever it does finally get off the ground the launch should be spectacular.

Including liquid and solid propellants, Discovery will weigh 4.5 million pounds at the moment of liftoff from launch complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. In just 10 seconds, it will be 800 feet off the ground going straight up at nearly 130 mph. In two minutes, after burning up half its weight in propellant, the spacecraft will be 32 miles up, traveling at some 3,000 mph - faster than a rifle bullet and accelerating at a blistering pace as fuel is consumed and its weight drops off. In eight-and-a-half minutes, the shuttle and its seven occupants will be in orbit, streaking through space at more than 17,000 mph, fast enough to cover 84 football fields in a single heartbeat.

More on the flip side...