This is a devastating blow. I can't think of another endorsement of Hillary continuing her campaign that would give dedicated Democrats who support her more reason to pause.

I am speaking, of course, about the man who knows more than anyone in America about hurting Democrats by refusing to quit an election that you won't win.

The one and only Ralph Nader, in a message posted on his website, urges Hillary to carry on the struggle. Excerpt below the fold.

Most of you have probably heard about Chris Matthews comparing Osama bin Laden's rhetoric to Michael Moore's last week. It's hard not to have, since virtually every liberal blog has condemned him. And rightly so, although perhaps not for the right reason. No, Matthews' comments were wrong simply because they were myopic, reflecting that same lack of understanding of politics that pervades traditional reporting.

After all, we know that the traditional media believes that 'balance' is achieved by weighing equal parts left-wing partisanship with right-wing partisanshp. It's the same media that enables politicians to pose as moderates, by striking a pose and releasing a sound bite for a position that's left (or right) of the status quo for their party.

Well, if the media doesn't notice when politicians play these games, then you certainly can't blame them for not noticing when Osama does it.

Readers are surely familiar with Wikipedia, the encyclopedia which anyone can edit. I am a big fan of Wikipedia because it is largely immune to that force which is dearly hated by us Kossacks living in the Time of Bush: bias. Since anyone can add to it, it is nearly impossible for relevant facts about powerful individuals to be omitted or downplayed as they are in the corporate media. For instance, before HorsesAss got in on the game, nobody knew that Michael Brown was a horse lawyer -- not because the facts weren't out there, just because nobody had put the facts together yet.

Wikipedia does suffer from one major bias: inclusion bias. And that's where you, the DailyKos netroots, can help out. I'm working on a project to shine a light on the cockroach-like cronies who Bush is appointing to minor but consequential offices, in hopes of sending them scattering. To find out how to join in, check below the fold...

ABC News reports today on a fundraising scam by the NRCC. Apparently they sent out 'Physician of the Year' awards to doctors around the country -- awards with a twist:

...to receive the award in person at a special two-day workshop in Washington last month, [Dr. Rudolph] Mueller found out that he would have to make a $1,250 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee. It was a disturbing discovery, he said.

The article goes on to mention that they have found doctors putting these awards on lists of their credentials, potentially misleading patients. This, to me, blurs the line between manipulative fundraising and outright fraud.

I thought it would be useful, entertaining, and maybe illuminating to try to locate some of these doctors who are misrepresenting themselves as having won a genuine merit award, rather than having bought a meaningless certificate with a political donation.

So take a look below the fold for what I've found so far, and please, post any examples you find that I've missed.

As a few other diaries have already pointed out, CNN is letting Tucker Carlson go. According to this AP Television story, they're letting Crossfire go too:

Now that's good news. CNN has decided to grow up and treat politics as a serious issue. Too bad they couldn't have done it before the election... and let's hope it holds until the next one.

Yes, even BusinessWeek magazine has seen the ABB light. This is the same publication (and editor) who enthusiastically endorsed Bush in 2000.

Chill, George. It's Kerry's Turn
He won't squander American lives, condone torture, or let God and underlings do his thinking. By my book, that makes the challenger pretty cool.

...

In the throes of the national debate over Iraq, we've come to know Bush a good deal better than we did when he was the candidate with a crooked smile, a Texas twang, and the guts of a wildcatter. And a lot of what we know argues against Bush being the cool guy who will come out on top in this down-and-dirty contest.

...

Not being a candidate who ignites a passionate following among voters isn't cool. But more than anything else this year, not being named George Bush is.

BusinessWeek, Chill, George. It's Kerry's Turn

I don't see anything on the recent diaries about this, so here's some good news: NBC/Wall Street Journal's monthly national poll is in, and the numbers are good:

1,004 registered voters surveyed, MoE +/- 3.1%
Likely voters (September)

Bush/Cheney 48 (50)
Kerry/Edwards 48 (46)

Registered voters (September)

Bush/Cheney 48 (48)
Kerry/Edwards 46 (45)

There's some other good stuff in the internals. Key stats: 33% said the debates make them more likely to vote for Kerry, only 18% more likely to vote for Bush. Also, the attitude about Iraq has taken a staggering 21-point swing towards optimism. It's hard to see how Bush could be competitive without this advantage... let's hope Kerry keeps the pressure on and doesn't let him dodge responsibility for his mistake.

I don't know whether this is for real or not, since it's only posted on LiveJournal. But if it is, this puts the "butterfly ballot" to shame.

The Sam (emperorsargosa) wrote in 2004_elections,
@ 2004-10-01 11:37:00

Alright, time for some awesome election year bullshit.

Behind the cut is Michigan's absentee ballot (scanned by a friend of mine). Pay close attention to the Presidential section and the arrows...

update: moved big image below the cut

Don't kid yourselves, guys. This went smoothly -- too smoothly. By now it is pretty clear that the spin about this being Bush's strongest debate subject was just that: spin.

We've all noticed that Bush's real focus since Iraq went sour has been to shore up his base. The people who were looking to be convinced tonight were the Andrew Sullivan conservatives like Daniel Dreznerand to some extent the Volokhs, and in a former life, Instawhoever.

By all accounts, in last night's debate, Bush didn't satisfy this (regrettably-small) demographic. His poor performance, though, was still perfectly acceptable to the non-thinkers who make up his base. What they want to hear is God, guns, and gays, with a side of terra. Expect Bush to deliver.

The simple truth is that the media discipline that the Republicans have developed over the last several years would not simply dissolve in the face of a poor debate performance. I'm convinced that Bush phoned it in at the first debate to lower expectations for the one he's really counting on.

Our reporters have studied George W. Bush's income tax return from the year 2000, and have found a shocking discrepancy.

Bush's tax cut package, unveiled during the 2000 campaign, called for an decrease in the top tax bracket from a 39.6% rate to 33%.

But a study of Bush's 2000 1040 form shows that he paid the 39.6% rate, rather than his endorsed 33%.

Bush campaign officials did not return calls on Tuesday to answer these charges of hypocrisy.

It was discovered today by Matt Drudge that politicians must conduct their behavior not according to the law, but according to how they wish the law was written.

Developing...

Come talk about the fallout from Bush's speech, and the new front opened by Kerry, in the unofficial DailyKos chat room!

Join the webchat here.

Or connect with an irc client, at irc.meobets.com:6667 in #dailykos.

Arnold had some convincing words yesterday for those who try to criticize Bush for the economy:

There is another way you can tell you're a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people, and faith in the U.S. economy. To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: "Don't be economic girlie men!"

Faith in our economy, huh? Faith in the resourcefulness of the American people? Faith, perhaps, that things will get better no matter what the people in charge do? Well, you'd have to be a ridiculous effeminate twit to think anything else, right?

We have the worst economic atmosphere, the worst business atmosphere in California. And what we see is because of the businesses are leaving the state and jobs are leaving the state, and we're having the highest workers' compensation costs. We have the highest energy costs here. We have the worst business money management. We have the worst credit rating. We have all of those things that drive businesses away. And we are overregulated, overtaxed and overburdening our businesses.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sep. 24, 2003
[editor's note, by neil]Emphasis mine

Thanks, Arnold, for the object lesson in being dishonest and fatalistic about the economy to try to weaken an incumbent. It sounds like it's something you know a lot about.

I'm a student at the University of California who is due to graduate next month. I was vaguely aware that the Govern(at)or of California was also the President of the UC Regents. I was not really aware, though, that his signature will appear on my diploma.

I frankly feel a little ill and I'm not sure what I should do. Make a statement by sending it back? Accept it since he's the democraticishly-elected leader of my state? Refuse it because he makes a clownish mockery of government?

Arnold's signature graces the meaningless xeroxes of "physical fitness certificates" of millions of grade school students of my generation. And now, his mark will lend my college diploma the same schmaltzy ridiculousness. What the hell...

A friend of mine has developed a new idea in a news blog which I think DailyKos readers, especially those who like the diaries, will find interesting (and can be valuable contributors).

The site, Shortjournal allows anyone to post, and it operates on a simple premise: the stories must be short. 300 characters or less, and only one link. At first this seems like an onerous restriction, but in practice it really enforces good copy and makes for a nice condensed page that is still community-run.

So I invite any and all DKos contributors to come check it out. The people who are posting there already share the mainstream views of this site, so it should be a harmonious combination. Feel free to link to your diary entry, for instance, or an interesting blog entry you read. Hope to see you there.

Let's stick to Dean supporters, here. Not necessarily only those who haven't voted yet, though.

Discussions about the difficulty of choosing are also welcome.

This is absolutely the funniest thing I've seen all day. Oklahoma Congressional candidate Wayland Smalley made a ripple in the blog pond today when HNN observed that he drew a tenuous connection between gay marriage and Osama bin Laden.

But that's not what I'm writing about. His campaign website is a laugh a minute, but the best thing on there is his page on national defense. No summary or parody could be funnier than the real thing, so I urge you to go look for yourself.

His platform on national defense:
 * Oklahoma City and 9/11 happened
 * Strong national defense
 * Preemptive action
 * Smalley registered with Selective Service
 * God bless our troops
Honest, this is the WHOLE THING. There's just nothing there! There's not even hot air!

How did the Republicans get to be the party that's "strong on national defense?" How did the Democrats get to be the party that "has no ideas?" I simply can't comprehend.

Reposting since it's already scrolled off the main page, and because there are new server addresses.

I've started an unofficial DailyKos IRC chat. It's accessible via a traditional IRC client (see below) or via a web interface.

Log on: DailyKos IRC via webchat Alternate server

If you have an IRC client, connect directly to irc.meobets.com 6667 #dailykos or irc.goonies.be 6667 #dailykos.

Recommended IRC clients: For Windows, try mIRC or XiRCON. For Mac, try xChat Aqua or Ircle. For Unix, try Xchat, EPIC or irssi.

For the occasion, I'm revisiting a diary from last week on an unofficial DailyKos chatroom I've started up. Come talk about the Iowa caucuses as they happen!

The chat room is IRC-based, but it's accessible through a convenient and easy-to-use web interface.

So without further ado: DailyKos IRC webchat. Don't forget to change your nickname before you log in!

For those who already have an IRC client, you can connect directly at irc.goonies.be #dailykos.