The Barack Obama Thirty Minute Special

In case you missed it, here is the Barack Obama 30 minute special that was on Wednesday evening. It is well worth the time it takes to view it.

McCain Campaign Running Robocalls in AZ

Okay, now this is interesting. Talking Points Memo is reporting that several of its readers who live in Arizona have received robocalls attacking Obama. The robocalls are being paid by the Republican National Committee. Apparently the RNC is freaking out over recent polls that show Obama within two points of Angry John in his homestate. So this means that in the closing week of the campaign, the RNC is being forced to play defense on McCain's home turf. Gee, how is that selection of Sarah Palin working out for you now, Johnny?

ACORN Releases First Video Ad

Dems Edge GOP in Voter Registration in More Ohio Counties

The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran an article today, October 29, 2008, about the increase in voter registration among Democrats in Ohio's 88 counties. As the graphic below shows, Democrats now out-number Republicans in a lot of Ohio's counties, including Medina County. Now you have to keep in mind that registered votes count for about one-half or less of all voters. This means that while Medina County has more registered Democrats than Republicans, it is still a uphill battle for Democratic candidates, especially in local races. What these numbers mean, though, is that the grade on that hill is a lot less than it used to be.

Dems Better for Stock Market

The New York Times had an article showing how an investor would have done under both Republican and Democratic Presidents if the investor invested $10,000.00. As the picture below shows, there is no comparison. What makes the Democratic record better is that while most Democratic presidents didn't see the stock market go up as much as some of the Republicans, they didn't experience the losses that occurred under Hoover, Nixon, and George W. Bush.

Former GOP Senator Backs Obama

The online publication Politco is reporting that former GOP Senator Larry Pressler voted for Barack Obama and donated $500.00 to his campaign. Pressler was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the U.S. Senate. The reason he gave for backing Obama was the economy. Here is a quote from the article:

"I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better," he said. By contrast, John McCain's "handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous."

You can read the rest of the Politco article here.

PD Story on Early Voting in NE Ohio

The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a atory on early voting in Northeast Ohio. Of the counties that it could get statistics for, Summit County leads in the percentage of its voters who have voted early. The statistics displayed, according to the article, are as of Friday, October 24th. The article can be read here.

Pics from Progressive Democrats of America Party in Medina County

Medina County Democrats David and Chic Kelley hosted a party on Saturday, October 25, 2008, to celebrate the establishing of a chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America in Medina County. Guests included Congressman Dennis Kucinich and his wife, Elizabeth; Tim Carpenter, Executive Director of the PDA; Ohio PDA state coordinators Mary Nichols-Rhodes and Michael Carano; Medina County Chair Pam Miller; Leah Nelson, a field co-ordinator for the Obama campaign; Meagan Moore, volunteer co-ordinator for the Obama campaign in Medina County. There were also representatives from the California Nurses Association, and the National Nurses Organizing Committee. It was a great party and well attended.

Home Made Democratic Yard Sign

A Medina County Democrat who lives near Wadsworth, Ohio in southern Medina County has been putting up a message board near his home with Democratic inspired messages. Here's a picture of one that a friend of his sent us. If you would like to suggest a message, send your suggestion to joycekimbler@medinacountydemocraticactioncommittee.org and we will pass it on.

A Funny Get Out the Vote Video

One of our readers sent us this email message. The idea is to get people who you think might not vote to vote. Our reader used our Treasurer's, Joyce Kimbler, name to show how it works. Don't worry, though, Joyce definitely plans on voting this election. Here's the message:

Joyce ,

Ok, this video is funny. A little outrageous and a little over the top, but really funny. And a little bit scary.

Plus, Joyce , you're in it. Yes, you. Check it out:

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=0JZYe7lzONp.lKCZYFXTDjQwMjczODE-&referred_by=11300921-ws2ZEQx

P.S. Don't worry, this is not a virus or anything. I just sent the message using the "email a friend" tool on their site.

Bush Asks Justice Department to Look at New Ohio Voters

The Washington Post and the Cleveland Plain Dealer are both reporting that President Bush asked Attorney General Mukasey to review concerns raised by the GOP over approximately 200,000 new voter registrations. This action was taken as a result of a letter that Bush received from the House Minority Leader, John Boehner. Boehner first asked Attorney General Mukasey to take action, but didn't receive a response to that request. He then sent his letter to Bush.

This action may explain why a GOP donor dismissed his lawsuit against Brunner that he had filed in the Ohio Supreme Court. That lawsuit was subject to possible dismissal because he wouldn't have standing to bring such an action against Brunner.
One of the arguments that Secretary of State Brunner raised in Federal Court is that a private person or entity doesn't have standing to raise claims under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The U.S. Supreme Court apparently agreed with her since it cited cases in its opinion that deal with that issue and since it voted 9-0 not to hear the case. The same argument wouldn't apply to a lawsuit brought against Brunner by the Federal Government.

The issue between Brunner and the GOP deals with the approximately 200,000 voter registrations where the information in the voter database doesn't match the information in databases maintained by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration. The GOP sees this as evidence of voter fraud. It cites as evidence reports of problems with registrations obtained by ACORN workers. Brunner counters that most discrepancies are caused by typographical errors and other errors made by clerical workers at local Boards of Elections.

Brunner's attorneys point out that the HAVA mandates that no voter can be removed from the voting rolls within 60 days of an election due to computer database mismatches. They could, however, be required to vote provisional ballots. Brunner believes that requiring provisional ballots in such cases carries the potential of such votes not being counted. Additionally, there is the possibility that many Ohioans who registered this year may not vote if they think that their votes won't be counted. One suspects that depressing the turnout is what is behind Bo

Given the track record of Bush's Department of Justice on supposed voter fraud issues, this is not a good thing. One of the many scandals that has rocked the Bush Administration is the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys because they wouldn't bring bogus criminal prosecutions for supposed voter fraud. We don't know whether any of the political appointees who were behind the firing of the U.S. Attorneys are still in office under Mukasey.

On the other hand, we don't know if Mukasey is as much of a political partisan as Gonzales. We don't know if he wants to further sully the reputation of the Department of Justice by ordering the possible disenfranchisment of up to 200,000 voters. We don't know if he wants to be preceived as a partisan hack on his way out the door.

Why We Can't Let Up, Why We Fight

This is a photo of a lawn in Medina County. The traditional yard signs are all for Republican candidates, but the home-made sign proclaiming that Obama is the "anti-Christ" obviously came from the owner's heart. We can't let up because people who believe that Obama is the anti-Christ aren't going to let up. This ignorance is why we fight.

A Vet Gives His Reason for Voting for Obama

Pam Miller, Medina County Democratic Party Chair, sent us the following letter she received from a veteran. He has a son serving in the military and didn't want his name used, which is why there is no signature. It is a very powerful statement:

In the last general election I voted for a decorated wounded warrior. The opposition attacked him and tried to discredit his service.They couldn't discredit his Purple Heart because he still has the scars. In all this manufactured confusion they got two draft dodgers in the White House. They have since enmeshed our military in a seemingly endless war, got over 4000 Americans killed and allowed an unregulated business community [to] make a total mess of our economy. Middle class citizens are losing their homes and some are even relying on charity for food. Returning wounded vets were being mistreated until exposed by newsmen. I'm not voting for the vet this time. I'm voting for the other guy and see what happens.

Anti-Palin Moose Ad from Move-On

Reportedly set to run on television stations in Toledo and Cleveland:

GOP Drops Lawsuit Against Brunner

Yesterday, October 21, 2008, at 7:12 pm the Columbus Dispatch posted a story with the following headline: Voter-registration lawsuit against Brunner is dropped

This is the lede from the article: The Republican fundraising consultant who brought a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in the Ohio Supreme Court over verification of new voter registrations has voluntarily dismissed his case.

The article goes on to state that Robert Bennett, Ohio GOP Chair, asked David Myhal, the plaintiff, to drop the lawsuit. Bennett also said that there was a meeting between the attorneys from the Attorney General's office representing and lawyers for the GOP scheduled for Wednesday. Although Bennett is trying to suggest that this meeting is a settlement meeting, a spokesman for Brunner, Jeff Ortega, denied that it was such a meeting.

So,it would seem that the GOP has given up on its attempt to get the courts to order Brunner to do what it wants, although, with these people, you are never sure its over until its over.

Watch McCain Get Tongue Tied

Irony in the GOP v. Brunner Legal Battle

Yesterday, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner filed two pleadings in the Ohio Supreme Court. The first was a notice of removal in which she notified the Ohio Supreme Court that she was asking the Federal District Court to take jurisdiction over the lawsuit filed by David Myhal. The second was her answer in the Ohio Supreme Court.

In Brunner's answer is the following, which is rich in irony:

"12. Respondent states that the Relator spelled his name differently in the caption of the complaint as compared to the rest of the complaint. One presumes that this is an innocent typographical error. Respondent, however, is unsure if the actual Relator in this case is "David Mahal" as listed in the caption or "David Myhal" as listed in the body of the complaint. Respondent denies for lack of knowledge the allegations in Paragraph 9 of the Complaint." (Italics in the original.)

It is the italicized part of paragraph 12 of Brunner's answer that is ironic. The GOP is trying to argue that the local Boards of Elections should be notified by Brunner of any mismatches in data with the BMV records or Social Security. Presumably the list of such voters would then be public record. The GOP could then get the names of such voters and use that information to engage in typical GOP voter suppression stuff. (That idea, by the way, isn't original with us. We got it from an article that appeared in AlterNet.)

One of the arguments that Brunner has used against the GOP's request is that a lot of errors in voter databases are unintentional and result not from voters giving inaccurate information, but from typographical and other errors made by Boards of Elections workers. So here we have a typographical error in a complaint filed by a very well known and well regarded Columbus law firm in the Ohio Supreme Court. Filed on behalf of a person who is claiming that mismatches between Ohio election data and data from Ohio's BMV or Social Security Administration could be nefarious. We can only imagine the glee it gave Brunner's attorneys to make that discovery.

Colin Powell Lays Out the Case for Obama on MTP

Colin Powell laid out the reasons why he is voting for Obama in a very straight forward manner. Check it out and if you know any voters who are undecided about who they are voting for, them the link to this video.

Cleveland Plain Dealer Endorses Barack Obama for President

The Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President. The PD posted the endorsement to its website on October 18, 2008 at 10:59 pm. It will appear in the Sunday, October 19, 2008 edition.

This is the lede sentence from the editorial: After eight years of George W. Bush, America needs a change in direction and a change in tone.

The editorial points out that Obama's election will demostrate to the world that America has changed course and that it can fulfill its ideals:

Obama has challenged Americans to dream and to hope, to be realistic in the face of great problems and to trust in one another. To minorities and other Americans on the margins, he offers living proof that this nation can fulfill its ideals. To the world, he offers quite literally a different face, one that embodies America's diversity and boundless opportunity.

Besides wanting a change of tone, the PD editorial board was not impressed with John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as VP, as shown by this quote:

Take his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. McCain seemed too caught up in the game-changing possibilities of teaming with a woman reformer to scratch the smiling surface. Had he, McCain might have realized that Palin is utterly unprepared for the job he offered -- let alone the one that might fall to her. His trust in her undermines our trust in him

You can read the rest of the endorsement editorial here.

Cindy McCain's 2007 Income: 4.1 Million

Well, you have to hand it to John McCain, he certainly hit the jackpot when he cheated on his first wife to get Cindy McCain. In 2007, her family business earned her 4.1 million dollars. She paid taxes of 1.1 million. That means she paid taxes at a percentage of less than 25%. No wonder Johnny Mac is working so hard to defeat Barack Obama, he does't want his wife to pay more in taxes.

The fact that Barack Obama's tax plan would raise his family's taxes and the fact that John McCain's tax plan would lower his family's taxes tells you all you need to know about the two men and their concern for others.

The Visible Campaign versus the Invisible Campaign

The late Congressman Donald Pease, who was a very good politician as well as a very good congressman, once said that candidates run two campaigns. One is the visible campaign and the other is the invisible campaign. While the visible campaign is important, the invisible campaign wins elections.

The visible campaign includes yardsigns, bumper stickers, billboards, and other visible media. The invisibile campaign includes things like door to door canvassing, telephone calls to voters, and direct mail. The visible campaign reassures your supporters that you are actively campaigning, the invisible campaign persuades voters to vote for you and not for your opponent.

Lately we have been receiving emails from Democrats concerned that there are not enough yard signs for Obama in Medina County. There is also a comment on this blog to that effect. Ironically, one of these messages came the same day as the largest meeting ever held in Medina County for a get out the vote effort was underway. That meeting was held by the Barack Obama Campaign for Change.

The Obama campaign has four full time staffers in Medina County. Just to give you an idea of how impressive that is, in 2004, Medina County shared one staffer with Wayne County.

The Obama campaign is not focused on yard signs, it is focused on persuading voters to vote for Obama. If you are concerned about this campaign, then sign up to work on the Obama campaign's get out the vote effort.

All this is not to say that in this election, yard signs aren't important. Voting for Barack Obama is a big step for a lot of voters, especially in a county like Medina County, which has about a 2-3% minority community. Showing your neighbors that you support Obama gives them the courage to also support Obama.

Having said that, however, putting up a yard sign is not as important as talking to your neighbors, your family members, your co-workers, and your friends about this election. It is not as important as canvassing a neighborhood, or making phone calls. Remember Congressman Pease's advice and get involved in the invisible campaign.

One Weird Political Pic

This photograph from Reuters taken after the third presidential debate has to be one of the strangest political photographs ever taken. We have been trying to come up with a caption for this picture, but all the ones we have come up with can't be put on a g-rated or even a pg-rated blog, so you will just have to use your own imagination.

Obama Campaign Takes McCain's "I'm not President Bush" and Runs With It

CNN and CBS Post-Debate Polls Show Obama Winning

As this picture of a posting by Kos of Daily Kos shows, the snap polls taken right after the debate show that Obama went three for three tonight.

Republican U.S. District Court Judge Issued Ruling Against Brunner Without Conducting an Evidentiary Hearing

There will be a lot of stuff written, both pro and con, about what the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals did in its en banc ruling affirming U.S. District Court Judge George Smith's temporary order in Ohio Republican Party v. Jennifer Brunner. The most interesting, though, comes in the dissent written by Judge Helene White. Here is her dissent:

HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge, dissenting.

I am not prepared to challenge the motivations of the parties, the district court,or my colleagues. I dissent because I find the record made in the district court wholly inadequate to support the district court’s TRO. In a fraction of the time spent by all in pursuing, opposing and ruling on plaintiffs’ petitions, the district court could,and should, have conducted an evidentiary hearing enabling the parties to develop the factual predicates of their arguments.

The judges of this court have been forced to opt for one or the other version of the facts, or to defer to the district court’s conclusions, without record support. The affidavits and arguments submitted below are inadequate to establish either that defendant failed to comply with Help America Vote Act (HAVA), or that plaintiffs or the public will suffer irreparable harm unless defendant is compelled to develop a program that enables county election officials to avoid having to access voter verification information by checking a voter it seeks to verify in the database. I note that it appears that the county boards of elections are the entities responsible for entering the new voter registration information in the system in the first place. Nor does the record show that ineligible votes will actually be cast and counted for failure of defendant to create the software ordered by the court.

In sum, notwithstanding the exigencies involved, the court should have put plaintiffs to their proofs. I am aware of no case law that supports that a district court has authority, even in cases of emergency, to forego the development of an adequate factual record and grant relief based upon speculation, or that this court is obliged to defer to that speculation. To the extent the court’s decision was based on affidavits, they were insufficient to support the court’s conclusions. I am
unable to agree with the majority on this record that defendant has failed to comply with HAVA,or that plaintiffs or the public will suffer irreparable harm.

Apparently, judging from Judge White's dissent, Judge Smith issued his order without taking any evidence, but relying instead on affidavits and other information. So here we have a Federal Judge issuing an order that could jeopardize the votes of up to 200,000 Ohioans, and he doesn't take the time to conduct a hearing? What the hell is that about?

This is what we think that Republicans are trying to do: They generate news stories about supposed "fraudulent" schemes involving voting by demographic groups that lean Democratic and then use those news stories to justify Federal court action by Republican appointed judges. All without having to conduct evidentiary hearings.

If Barack Obama wins the presidency, which we think he will, the Democrats ought to think about passing a law that requires judges to actually hold evidentiary hearings before issuing rulings that could prevent people from voting. It seems to us that it is the least a judge could do.

Browns Win, Anderson Keeps QB Job, McCain's Man Brady Stays on Sidelines

Last week Brady Quinn, the Browns' second-string quarterback appeared at a McCain rally supporting McCain. Last night, the first game after Quinn's appearance, Derek Anderson had a great game and soldified his grip on the QB position. A coincidence? We think not.

Here is a picture from the PD, and here is the link to the PD's article:

Reader Submission: No Comparison Between Kerry 2004 Ground Game and Obama's 2008 Ground Game

Editor's Note: Mr. David Brown headed up the Kerry effort in Medina County in 2004 and also the Brown/Strickland effort in 2006. He sent this letter to Nate Silver of www.fivethirtyeight.com. Nate was in Ohio recently reporting on what is going on in our state.

October 13, 2008

Nate:

Because you are writing from Ohio now, I thought I would give you one Ohioan's response to Michael Barone's suggestion that Barack Obama's ground operation does not involve peer-to-peer contact.

I am 64 years old and have worked on Ohio political campaigns since 1972. I live in an exurban county just southwest of Cleveland. I was the county coordinator for John Kerry in 2004 and for Sherrod Brown in 2006. Our county is a swing county. Kerry lost it to Bush by a 57-43 margin, with a total of 84,000 votes having been cast. Brown won it by a 55-45 margin, with 65,500 votes having been cast.

Our loss in 2004 was not for lack of effort. In fact, we ran such an intense campaign that Kerry's brother Cameron came to our headquarters to thank us personally the day before the election. Our campaign involved the staples of campaigning: voter registration, a yard sign campaign, phone banking, canvassing, and GOTV. Obviously, it was not enough.

I can assure you that the Barack Obama campaign in this county is vastly superior to the campaign we ran for John Kerry. To begin with, even though Kerry declared Ohio to be “ground zero” in his campaign and even though he invested huge resources in this state, our county had only one paid field organizer, and we had to share this organizer with a neighboring county. By way of contrast, Obama has three full-time paid field organizers in this county alone. They have been here since mid-August.

These field organizers are both well trained and effective. Instead of trying to do canvassing themselves, they have developed neighborhood teams in the three principal cities in the county (we had nothing like this in 2004), and the neighborhood teams are made up of local people who are canvassing in their own communities.

For example, my daughter is the neighborhood team leader in our community, and she has organized and worked with the canvass teams who have been going door-to-door here for the past month and a half. The past two weekends the canvass team has consisted of seven people, including my daughter and me. Every member of the canvass team other than my daughter was over 60 years old and has lived in the community for at least 30 years. We contacted people who the campaign had identified as persuadable voters. Each person we contacted lived within a half mile of my home, which served as the headquarters for the day's canvass. Because of our familiarity with this community, many of the people we contacted were quite receptive to our campaign effort. On several occasions this past Saturday, I spent at least 15 minutes at an individual doorstep talking to the voter or voters who lived at that address. In spending time with them, I was able to persuade a number of people to vote for Obama after they had first declared themselves to be undecided. Other canvassers reported the same experience.

If my personal experience this past Saturday morning is any indicator, Obama is in good shape in this city. Each of the persons to whom I was directed to by the walking list was classified as an independent by the list, and in fact many of these people identified themselves as such. Nevertheless, by the end of the morning I had talked to 15 strong Obama supporters (three of whom had already voted for him), one person who was leaning to Obama, three voters who continued to be undecided, no voters leaning to McCain, and five strong McCain supporters. (A number of other households had no one home.) This was in a precinct which normally votes Republican by a 60-40 margin.

What is also different this time is the good use to which the data entered on the walking list during the canvass is put. It is entered into the database immediately, so there can be follow-up with voters who have concerns about a particular issue or who remain undecided after the initial contact. The field organizers tell me that we have sufficient resources, particularly including volunteers, to reach each persuadable voter three separate times. By way of contrast, during the Kerry campaign we were only able to attempt one contact with each such voter.

In addition to the campaign effort I just described, the campaign has a volunteer-staffed phone bank running seven days a week—part of it running from headquarters and part from volunteers’ homes. The campaign also registered voters and will do a precise GOTV effort which will be based on the constantly-updated voter information in the database.

On a related note, a local paper reported that as of the 10th of October 9,000 people in the county had already voted—either by mail or in person, which means that more than 10% of the ultimate vote has already been cast, and this at a time when Obama is leading in most Ohio polls.

In sum, if Mr. Barone is pinning his hopes for a McCain victory on the failure of the Obama campaign to run a strong field operation centered on a great deal of peer-to-peer contact, he is in for a disappointment if the Obama campaign elsewhere if anything like the campaign here.


David Brown
Medina, Ohio

Bill Clinton Campaigning in Florida for Obama: "I'm Here Because I Love America"

The Big Dog lays out why this election is so important to America:

Pic of McCain at ACORN Sponsored Rally

Back in the day when McCain actually supported his own immigration reform bill, he appeared at a rally in Miami that was sponsored by, among others, ACORN. You know, the organization that his campaign is now trying to blame for the subversion of American Democracy. Here is a pic of the event:

Negative Stuff Not Working for Johnny Mac and the Moose Killer

Numbers from the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll:

NY Times Profiles Nut-Job Who Is Behind Obama Attacks

The rather pleasant looking guy on the left is Andy Martin, and, despite his smile, he is a definite nut-job. He is also the person who started the "Obama is a Muslim" smear that right-wingers love to pass around in email messages. The New York Times profiled him in an article that is dated October 12, 2008. This is from the article:

He is a law school graduate, but his admission to the Illinois bar was blocked in the 1970s after a psychiatric finding of “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”

He is a filer of frivolous lawsuits, in fact, he was profiled by the CBS News show "48 Hours". This is from the article:

The CBS News program “48 Hours” in 1993 devoted an hour long program to what it called his prolific filing of frivolous lawsuits. He has filed so many lawsuits that a judge barred him from doing so in any federal court without preliminary approval.

Mr. Martin came to the attention of the Times when Fox News had him as a guest on a supposed "documentary". The article points out that many of the anti-Obama rumors on the Internet go back to Martin and an article that he wrote back in 2004. Of course, Fox News and its bloviators like Sean Hannity don't tell their viewers about Mr. Martin's background. If you know anyone who has sent you anti-Obama emails, you might want to send a link to the Times article to them.

Politifact.com Goes After McCain on Obama-Ayers Link

Although the bogey-man de jour for the radical right and the McCain campaign seems to have shifted from William Ayers to ACORN, if you are looking for information to debunk the Obama-Ayers links, try this article from Politifact.com.

We especially like this quote from the article:

The campaign appears to have confused two different definitions of the word "radical." Clearly the invitation referred to "a considerable departure from the usual or traditional," rather than "advocating extreme measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs."

So not only are McCain's campaigners making unfounded attacks on Obama, but they aren't too bright.

Seen on Barn Near Applecreek, Ohio

A reader forwarded this photograph he received from a friend of his:

Great Point by Paul Krugman

This is from Paul Krugman's blog, "Conscience of a Liberal."

We’ve seen this before. One thing that has been sort of written out of the mainstream history of politics is the sheer insanity of the attacks on the Clintons —they were drug smugglers, they murdered Vince Foster (and lots of other people), they were in league with foreign powers. And this stuff didn’t just show up in fringe publications — it was discussed in Congress, given props by the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, and so on.

What it came down to was that a significant fraction of the American population, backed by a lot of money and political influence, simply does not consider government by liberals (even very moderate liberals) legitimate. Ronald Reagan was supposed to have settled that once and for all.

I remember on election night in 1992 watching Senator Bob Dole trying to discredit the election of Bill Clinton by announcing that the Senate Republicans would represent the 55% of the American people who hadn't voted for Clinton.

That was the start of the right-wing myth that Perot's presence on the ballot gave the election to Clinton. Never mind the fact that polls taken of Perot voters showed that their votes would have split roughly 50/50 between Clinton and Bush if Perot hadn't been running.

Then, about a month after Clinton took office, I saw a vehicle with an Impeach Clinton bumper sticker. Never mind that there was no evidence that Clinton had done anything in his first 30 days to warrant impeachment. Those two events, Dole's statement and seeing what was obviously a professionally done bumper sticker, started me thinking that the Republicans weren't going to accept defeat.

Over the next several years the GOP did everything in its power, including shutting down the government, to try and get Clinton defeated in 1996. When it didn't work, they really went ballistic which led to his impeachment for basically lying about private, consensual sex.

Of course, the GOP's concern about elections not reflecting the will of the people was shown to be hypocritical when a black-robed coup, otherwise known as the Bush v. Gore decision, put Bubble-Boy in the White House. Its concern about the morality of politicians was shown to be hypocritical when this year they nominated a man who divorced his first wife following a car accident in order to marry a much younger, much prettier, and much, much wealthier woman in order to use her family's money to run for office.

The reason, by the way, that Republicans don't see their own hypocrisy is because their philosophy can be summed up in one phrase: "We're better than you." If you are African-American, Hispanic, Asian, female, gay, liberal, a Democrat, or non-Christian, they think they are better than you.

Of course, the election of Barack Obama, if it happens, is going to drive them right over the edge. I half-expect Rush Limbaugh's big head to literally explode on election-night if Obama wins.

Do We Really Want Another Dick Cheney?

The Washington Post's story about the pressure that Sarah Palin and her husband put on a gubenatorial appointee to fire her former brother-in-law brings back memories of Cheney's involvement with the CIA in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Visit after visit over to Langley insisting on that the CIA analysts check and re-check their information because he was convinced that they were wrong. Secret energy task force meetings behind closed doors dominated by big oil companies. Contracts for Iraq reconstruction given to political donors and allies. Angry and snide references about political opponents. A breath-taking assertion of the supposed power of the vice-presidency.

Yep, Sarah Palin has the potential to be a prettier, if not as intelligent, Dick Cheney. To quote a woman who is also a Democratic operative, "What's the difference between Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin? Lipstick."

GOP vs. ACORN

ACORN is a group that is dedicated to registering young and minority voters. It claims to have registered 250,000 in Ohio alone. The Republicans hate ACORN because, quite frankly, it is effective in registering millions of voters who aren't Republicans. As part of their anti-ACRON smear campaign they are spreading charges that ACORN is submitting fraudulent voter registertion forms in order to commit voter "fraud."

Now, what's interesting about this claim is that in Ohio, as well as other states, the GOP got the state to pass voter idenfication laws. In Ohio, when you vote, you have to produce identification. If a person is registered fraudulently, then they won't be able to produce a proper id and they won't get to vote.

The GOP, of course, doesn't point this out, nor do they point out how rare voter fraud is in Ohio or any other state. Instead, led by McCain and Palin, they just keep throwing crap against the wall of public opinion, hoping that some of it will stick.

Because Democrats are going to be hearing more and more about ACORN as the GOP gets more and more desparate, here is a statement from ACORN in the form of a political memo they recently sent out to their political allies:

To: Interested Parties
From: Bertha Lewis and Steve Kest
Date: October 9, 2008
Re: The Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drive

Election Day is less than a month away, and our efforts to make sure that low-income and minority voters have a voice and vote on November 4th are in full swing. Unfortunately, just as we've seen in previous election cycles, the more success we have in empowering these voters, the more attacks we have to fend off from partisan forces making unfounded accusations to disparage our work and help maintain the status quo of an unbalanced electorate. We want to take this opportunity to separate the facts of our successes from the falsehoods of our attackers.

On Monday, October 6, as voter registration deadlines passed in most states, ACORN completed the largest, most successful nonpartisan voter registration drive in history. In partnership with the nonpartisan organization Project Vote, we helped register over 1.3 million low-income, minority, and young voters in a total of 21 states. Highlights of this success include:

We collected over 151,000 registrations in Florida, 153,000 in Pennsylvania, 215,000 in Michigan, and nearly 250,000 in Ohio.

An estimated 60-70 percent of our applicants are people of color.

At least HALF of all are registrations are from young people between 18-29.

We are proud of this unprecedented success, and grateful to everyone who supported us in this massive effort, from our funders and partners to the literally thousands of hardworking individuals across the country who dedicated themselves to the cause and conducted the difficult work of registering 1.3 million Americans, one voter at a time.

And this work is far from over: now begins our effort mobilize these new voters around local and national issues, getting them to the polls and helping to channel their commitment and conviction into an ongoing movement for change in our communities.

As The Nation pointed out recently, ACORN's success in registering millions of low-income and minority voters has made it "something of a right-wing bogeyman." Though ACORN believes that the right to vote is not, and should never be, a partisan issue, attacks from groups threatened by our historic success continue to come, motivated by partisan politics and often perpetuated by the media without full investigation of the facts. As a result, there have been a few recent stories about investigations of former ACORN workers for turning in incomplete, erroneous, or fraudulent voter registration applications. Predictably, partisan forces have tried to use these isolated incidents to incite fear of the "bogeyman" of "widespread voter fraud." But we want to take this opportunity to set the record straight and tell you a few facts to show how these incidents really exemplify everything that ACORN is doing right:

Fact: ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field, but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

Fact: ACORN flags incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in, but these warnings are often ignored by election officials. Often these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards.

Fact: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card, so there is NO incentive for them to falsify cards. ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the relatively rare cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.

Fact: No charges have ever been brought against ACORN itself. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation, using the evidence obtained through our quality control and verification processes.

Fact: Voter fraud by individuals is extremely rare, and incredibly difficult. There has never been a single proven case of anyone, anywhere, casting an illegal vote as a result of a phony voter registration. Even if someone wanted to influence the election this way, it would not work.

Fact: Most election officials have recognized ACORN's good work and praised our quality control systems. Even in the cities where election officials have complained about ACORN, the applications in question represent less than 1% of the thousands and thousands of registrations ACORN has collected.

Fact: Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered and allowed to vote, so there is also NO incentive to "disrupt the system" with phony cards.

Fact: Similar accusations were made, and attacks launched, against ACORN and other voter registration organizations in 2004 and 2006. These attacks were not only groundless, they have since been exposed as part of the U.S. Attorneygate scandal and revealed to be part of a systematic partisan agenda of voter suppression.

These are the facts, and the truth is that a relatively small group of political operatives are trying to orchestrate hysteria about "voter fraud" and manufacture public outrage that they can use to further suppress the votes of millions of low-income and minority Americans.

These tactics are nothing new, and history has shown that they will come to nothing. We'll continue to weather the storm, as we've done for years, and we'll continue to share the truth about our work and express pride about our accomplishments.

Most importantly, we want to assure you that this good work continues, unabated and undeterred. ACORN will not be intimidated, we will not be provoked, and in this important moment in history we will not allow anyone to distract us from these vital efforts to empower our constituencies and our communities to speak for themselves. If the partisan political machines are afraid of low-income and minority voters, they're going to have to do a lot better than coming after ACORN.

After all, there are now at least 1.3 million more of them, and they will not be silenced. They're taking an interest, and taking a stand, and they'll be taking their concerns to the voting booth in November.

And ACORN will be here, to make sure that the voices of these Americans are heard, on Election Day and for every day to come.

GOP Congressional Representatives Won't Comment of McCain Housing Plan

Huffington Post has a great article up on its website about how the GOP House members that it contacted won't comment on John McCain's plan to buy up bad mortgages. Here is a quote from the article:

On Thursday afternoon, the Huffington Post reached out to roughly two dozen press offices for Republican members of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees, not one of which was ready to talk about the GOP presidential candidate's proposal in even the broadest terms.

Further, Marc Ambinder of the Atlanic Monthly points out that some commentators think that the plan is specifically prohibited by the recently passed bailout bill.

John McCain's Mortgage Buy-Out Plan: Both stupid and illegal.

Check Out This Home Made Political AD

Warning: Language is rough at the end. Do not watch with small children around your computer.

McCain Talks About Ayers as Markets Crash

John McCain and Sarah Palin keep talking about William Ayers and the Dow Jones Industrial Average keeps going down the toilet. Do you think that there is a connection here?

Sherrod Brown on ABC's This Week

United States Senator Sherrod Brown, (D-OH), was one of four office-holders who took part in a discussion about the 2008 Presidential campaign in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, and Florida. There were two Democrats and two Republicans. If you missed the program, you can catch it online here.

Senator Brown will be appearing at the Medina County Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Tuesday, October 21, 2008. You can find out how to buy tickets for this event by going to www.medinadems.org.

McCain Refers to Americans as his "Fellow Prisoners"

This gem comes courtesy of the fine folks at Talking Points Memo.

Check it out:

Accuracy

I just received a mailing from Colleen Swedyk, the Republican Candidate for Medina County Recorder. After reading it, I fell over laughing.

In the mailer it reads:

"Swedyk is Accurate: Collen stresses acuracy in the recording of documents."

I'm not entirely sure what "acuracy" is. I presume that she meant to put "accuracy" and didn't read over the document carefully and diligently. If she's willing to send out such an obvious error to thousands of voters with her name and picture on it ... what kinds of mistakes does she make when she deals with the important documents in the Medina County Recorder's office?

This office deals with all of the land title transactions, mortgages, and living wills. Can you imagine trusting your living will to someone who does something so careless?

Elect Larry Courtney to Medina County Recorder. We need someone who will use care in handling important documents.

Early Voting Hours at Medina County BOE

The Medina County Board of Elections is located at:
4210 North Jefferson Street
Medina, OH 44258
Normal Office Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM 2008

EARLY VOTING EXTENDED HOURS:
Monday, October 6: 8:30 am - 9:00 pm Tuesdays,
October 21 & 28: 8:00 am - 7:30 pm Thursdays,
October 23 & 30: 8:00 am - 7:30 pm Saturdays,
October 25 & November 1: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
Phone: Medina: 330-722-9278
Brunswick/Hinckley: 330-225-7100
Ext. 9278 Wadsworth: 330-336-6657
Ext. 9278 TDD or TTY: 330-725-9123
Fax: 330-722-9299

Dow Heads South for Fifth Day in Row

This is why the McCain campaign has come unglued over the last two weeks. The American economy is heading south, along with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Americans are worried about their families' economic future. The "free-market" philosophy of the GOP, which McCain has been a part of ever since he became a politican, has no answers for what is happening.

That's why, during the presidential debate of October 7TH, McCain came out with this rather amazing idea of buying up all the bad mortgages in America and replacing them with government loans. Now, apparently, the recently passed bailout bill does give the President the authority to do just that, and maybe it is a great idea, but it is not a conservative, free market idea.

One of the interesting developments over the next few days will be to watch how conservatives react to this proposal. Our guess is that they won't like it one bit. It will further demoralize the base of the Republican Party, which was getting behind McCain because of Palin. Now, along comes McCain and suggests something that even the Democratic candidate running for President didn't suggest. Not something designed to appeal to the base.

Happy Pig of the Week Award Goes to AIG Executives

So what did the executives of A.I.G. do after getting a government bailout? They spent over $400,000.00 on a "retreat" to a posh resort. This is from an article by the Associated Press:

Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown.

AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy. The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Not suprisingly the members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were not too happy about this. Here is what Chairman Harry Waxman had to say about it:

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

During the presidential debate at Nashville on Tuesday, October 7, 2008, Senator Barack Obama called for the executives who planned the retreat to be fired.

For their incredible chuptzah, the exeuctives who planned the retreat, and the executives who attended it, are why we give A.I.G. our "Happy Pig of the Week" award.

You can read the entire AP article here.

Des Moines Register Columnist Calls McCain Anger "Unsettling"

You may have read or seen on You Tube or Talking Points Memo the interview that McCain gave the Des Moines Register editorial staff. The Register, like other newspapers, video tapes its interviews with candidates seeking the newspaper's endorsement. A lot of people have commented on how angry and upset McCain appeared. A lot of the comments came from writers on blogs that are Obama supporters or lean toward Obama. An interesting view, however, was given on Sunday by one of members of the Register's editorial staff.

Here is a quote from Rehka Basu's column titled Is McCain too thin-skinned for presidency?:

John McCain is angry.

You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat, the narrowing of his eyes, the controlled tone with which he handles a question he doesn't like, as if struggling to contain something that might spill out. We've seen that body language on TV. But around a Des Moines Register table Tuesday, the anger and tension were palpable. And unsettling.

You can read the entire column here.

Washington Post-ABC News Poll Has Obama Up 6 in Ohio

Read the Post article.

Obama Ad Attacking McCain for McCain's Attack Ads

The Obama campaign runs an ad attacking McCain for going negative:

Possible Senate Pick-Ups in KY, NC, GA, and MS?

Since most of polls show McCain comfortably ahead in most Southern states, people may not be aware that close Senate races are developing in the South. Republican incumbents in North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, and Mississippi find themselves in very competitive races. In fact, according to this article in Politico, one McCain aide thinks that Elizabeth Dole is certain to lose in North Carolina.

Right now there are only four Democratic Senators from the 11 states that made up the Confederacy. There is one Democratic Senator in Louisana, two in Arkansas, and one in Florida. There are three Democratic Senators from the border states of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They are found in West Virginia with two and one in Missouri. That could change after this election cycle.

Democrats are virtually guaranteed that they will pick up the open seat in Virginia. Right now the Democratic candidate is ahead in North Carolina. The GOP Majority Leader is in a much tougher race than anticipated in Kentucky. The appointed GOP Mississippi Senator is only up by about two percentage points. The Democrats are picking up steam in Georgia after the Republican incumbent voted for the Wall Street bailout.

The reason why these races are getting competitive is that southern states are not immune from the economic turmoil affecting America. Once you get below the race for president and into races where national security and race aren't as relevant to white voters, then Democrats are in a good position to make their case to a listening audience. Further, in North Carolina and Georgia, Democratic candidates are benefiting from the increase in the number of African-American voters caused by this spring's primaries between Clinton and Obama.

Keep your eye on those races, they could be very important in the Democrats' campaign to reach 60 votes in the Senate.

Obama Campaign Getting Ready to Use Keating Five Scandal Against McCain

Back during the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, five United States Senators were found to have been influenced by Charles Keating, Keating was from Ohio and up to his eyeballs in the whole savings and loan mess. The Obama campaign is apparently getting ready to make this part of McCain's past part of the 2008 campaign, as the video below shows"



You can learn more about the Keating Five scandal here.

Paull Begala Explains on MTP Why McCain Doesn't Want to Play Guilt Association

Paul Begala was asked on Meet the Press whether the Obama campaign is vulnerable to the guilt by association charges being made by Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin. In this reponse Begala points out how McCain is vulnerable to such attacks himself:

Columbus Dispatch Poll Has Obama Up by 7 In Ohio

The picture above is the headline on an article that appears on the Columbus Dispatch website. The article is about the results of a mail-in poll that was conducted in Ohio among likely voters. The poll shows that Obama is leading 49% to 42%. The last time the Dispatch reported on a poll that it took of likely voters, McCain led by one percentage point. That poll was conducted in mid-August, right before each party's national convention.

The internals of the poll are rather interesting. One is that if you look at the state's regions, the northwest and the northeast are where Obama is leading McCain. Another is that 18% of former Clinton supporters are backing McCain,66% of former Clinton supporters are backing Obama, and 14% of Clinton primary voters are undecided. Overall, Obama was getting the support of 84% of Democrats, McCain was getting 7% of Democrats, and 8% of Democrats were undecided. McCain is getting 90% of Republicans, Obama is getting 5% of Republicans, and 5% of Republicans were undecided. Since, however, Democratic identification ran 10% higher in this poll than Republican identification, Obama can afford to lose a higher percentage of his own party than McCain.

The Dispatch article points out that McCain, by pulling out of Michigan, means that Ohio becomes even more important to his chances. Likewise, if Obama can take Ohio, then the chances of McCain winning enough states to capture the 270 votes needed to win the electoral college are very slim, if not impossible.

Expect to see even more negative campaign ads from the McCain campaign here in Ohio. You know, the ads that a friend of ours refers to as "the Obama is going to come to your home and take your women" ads. In other words, once again we will see typical Republican bs on our TV screens. Given our economic problems here in Ohio, however, our betting is that it won't work.

Meet the Young Right Wing Fanatics in the U.S. House

The picture to the left is a picture of a very conservative Republican Congressman, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.)His philosophy, and the philosophy of most of the GOP freshman representives, is summed up in this article, The Audacity of Nope, which appears on the Washington Post website. If you want to know what motivates these idiots, check out the article.

What's interesting about these people is that they think the Republicans lost the 2006 mid-term elections not because of an unpopular war, deficits, and corruptation, but because they weren't conservative enough. They think the proper response of Republcans to what happened in 2006 is to go further to the right, not move toward the center. They fault George W. Bush for not for being too conservative, but for not being conservative enough.

These right-wing zealots are going to cause Rep. John Bohner all kinds of trouble if Republicans lose more seats in the House. They are going to want him replaced as Minority Leader. They probably all think that they are the next Newt Gingrich and that they, not Bohner, should be the Minority Leader. It will be interesting to watch what happens to Bohner this winter.

September Job Loss Worse So Far in 2008: 159,000 Jobs

We have updated our chart showing the number of jobs lost in 2008, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. As you can see, the job loss in September was particularly bad. In a bad year, September managed to be the worst so far, with 159,000 jobs bleeding out of our economy.

This statistic is, of course, real bad news for the McCain campaign. Americans are waking up to the fact that the trickle-down approach of the Bushies is not working, if it ever did, and they are looking for something different. What is McCain offering? Just more of the same.



You can view the page which contains the data which we used to make the 2008 Job Losses Chart here.

Biden Gets Palin to Come Out for Civil Rights for Gay Couples

Last night during the Vice-Presidential debate, Joe Biden got Sarah Palin to say that he is for full civil rights for gays, although both of them came out against gay marriage. Biden actually did it by using the fact that Palin relies on canned lines against her. Here is a clip of that part of the debate:

Republicans Will Provide Billions to Wall Street But Not Extend Unemployment Benefits

According to the website ProPublica, whose motto is "Journalism in the public interest", Republicans are blocking efforts to extend unemployment benefits to the jobless. This week, it is estimated that 800,000 workers who run out of unemployment benefits. Although bills have been introduced in both houses to extend such benefits by 13 weeks, Republican leaders wouldn't agree to add this to the bail-out bill.

Here is a quote from the article:

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Jim Manley, told ProPublica yesterday that Senate Republicans had "balked" at an attempt to attach an unemployment-benefits extension to the Wall Street rescue.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spokesman, Don Stewart, said any extension bill "would be subject to debate and amendments."

What that last part means is that the bill would be subject to the Senate Rules which allow 40 Senators to threaten to filibuster legislation, thus requiring a cloture vote to cut off debate. In the 1950s and 60s Southern Senators used this trick to deprive African-Americans of their rights. Now, Republicans use this tactic to deprive the unemployed of more aid.

Republicans: Billions for their friends on Wall Street, nothing for the unemployed of Main Street.

Biden Makes Great Point About McCain Being the Same in VP Debate

Obama in Michigan: Job Loss is Un-American