Thought Puh-leeze

After last Sunday's grandstanding by having two Democrats on the air - John Tester and Jim Webb -
Tim Russert and the Meet the Press crew returned to their pro-Republican form by having just a token Democrat (Ike Skelton) as part of a 4-person panel on the Iraq war; the other three panelists were two retired generals and the presumptive presidential candidate, far-right Duncan Hunter. The main guest was California Guvernator, Arnold.

Nice try, Tim, but we have you pegged at 1-5 for the week.

Over at Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace got drilled by Rep. Barney Frank, who told the host that while he was appreciative that three Democrats were invited to appear (Charles Rangel, John Dingell were the other two), Wallace's questons had nothing to do with the Democrats' agenda and more to do with stirring controversy over issues such as Nancy Pelosi's promoting of John Murtha for the majority leadership position and her choice of Alcie Hastings to chair the House Intelligence Committee.

Frank's comment was right on the mark, as Wallace once again exhibited his telling smirk (the same one Clinton pointed out), which comes out every time he's caught with the truth.

Still, we applaud Fox News for at least having 3 Democrats out of their 4 guests.

Sunday News Shows Scorecard

How well are the Sunday News Talk shows presenting the progressive/Democratic point-of-view?

We look at the guests each show has and award them a point for every guest that is either an elected Democrat or shares the values of the progressive left and a zero for every one that does not. Generally, Democratic party guests get a 1; Republicans and all others, a zero.

Week 3 - November 26

Show	Guests	Score	WeeKTotal	Cum. Total*	Cum. %**
Meet the Press (NBC)	Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ike Skelton, Duncan Hunter, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Gen. Wayne Downing	1	1-5	3-9	33
Fox News Sunday (FOX)	John Dingell, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, Trent Lott	3	3-4	5-8	62.5
This Week (ABC)	King Abdullah, Dick Durbin, Sam Brownback	1	1-3	4-8	50
Face the Nation (CBS)	Bob Corker (R-TN), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH)	2	2-3	4-7	57
Total for week, all shows	all guests	7	7-15	16-32	50.00

*Total of progressive/Democrat guests to total # of guests.
**Total percentage of shows beginning with Sunday, November 12.
Chart updated weekly each Sunday.

With the 2006 elections quickly sliding into distant memory, evidence of monumental election fraud is just beginning to surface.

Naturally, with the Democrats taking control of both houses of Congress on November 7, claims of vote fraud are largely being ignored (as in 2000, 2002 and 2004) by the mainstream press.

But the issue of electronic voting and the high probability of hacking and misappropriation of possibly millions of votes is still very much alive and the math behind the theory seems to have expanded exponentially and is becoming increasingly viable.

Shortly after the 2004 election, Dr. Steve Freeman of Pennsylvania University authored a study, [pdf] The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy [pdf] that suggested the results of that election were skewed towards George W. Bush beyond reasonable expectations.

While the report received little fanfare from the mainstream media besides the erudite Keith Olbermann at MSNBC's Countdown, Dr. Freeman continued his research, eventually publishing a book with Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times Was the 2004 election stolen?

Most recently Freeman, as the Directory of Election Integrity conducted an extensive exit poll survey in three Pennsylvania counties - Delaware, Montgomery and Chester - which comprised most of the congressional districts in two key races: Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District, which pitted incumbent Jim Gerlach (R) against challenger Lois Murphy (D), and the 7th District, where incumbent Curt Weldon (R) faced a tough race against retired Navy vice admiral, Joe Sestak (D).

The Phase 1 and 2 results are now available online and while Sestak won in the 7th District, Murphy failed to unseat Gerlach in the 6th. The Election Integrity report shows that fraud was not only possible, but probable.

Our initial calculations indicate a disparity of eight percentage points as compared to these unofficial numbers, meaning that our raw polling data indicated that Murphy won the race by nearly 7%.

The report also states that as of last Friday (Nov. 17) Delaware County (wherein most of District 6 is located) was still unwilling to release precinct figures. Delaware County Board of Elections Director Laureen Hagan refused to release the precinct figures stating she was, "working with the numbers."

Freeman and his staff intends to get the actual precinct numbers. Stay tuned.

Elsewhere, a couple of reports that may be of interest are those of the Election Defense Alliance, which claims that there was a major miscount of votes in the 2006 elections, on the scale of 4% or roughly 3 million votes nationwide and this post, THE MATH: Democratic Tsunami and GOP House Election Fraud at Progressive Independent by poster truthisall with links to the Truth Is All web site. The post is a rambling discussion and a large amount of raw number crunching on potential election fraud in the 2006 vote. As a guide, the poster states:

The following analysis estimates the effects of vote switching in the 61 House GOP seats that were in play. It also determines which seats were the most likely candidates for fraud.

For math/stats geeks, it's got to produce euphoria. For the rest of us, the numbers are somewhere between indeciperable and mind-blowing.

More on these developing stories as time and events warrant. Stay tuned... the Democrats don't actully take over the reins of power until January 3rd. There's a lot of time for positioning on the issues until then.

How well are the Sunday News Talk shows presenting the progressive/Democratic point-of-view?

We look at the guests each show has and award them a point for every guest that is either an elected Democrat or shares the values of the progressive left and a zero for every one that does not. Generally, Democratic party guests get a 1; Republicans, a zero.

Week 2 - November 19

Show	Guests	Score	WeeKTotal	Cum. Total*	Cum. %**
Meet the Press (NBC)	Jim Webb, John Tester	2	2-2	2-4	50
Fox News Sunday (FOX)	John Kerry, Newt Gingrich	1	1-2	2-4	50
This Week (ABC)	John McCain, Steny Hoyer	1	1-2	3-5	60
Face the Nation (CBS)	Charles Rangel, Lindsey Graham	1	1-2	2-4	50
Total for week, all shows	all guests	5	5-8	9-17	52.94

*Total of progressive/Democrat guests to total # of guests.
**Total percentage of shows beginning with Sunday, November 12.
Chart updated weekly every Sunday.

Last Sunday, I emailed NBC's Sunday morning political talk show, Meet the Press - posted here - and submitted the same to the emotionally-charged political free-for-all at BellaCiao.org.

The message clearly expressed my disappointment - bordering on astonishment - that even after the severe thumpin' given to the Republicans by the Dems in the midterm elections, Meet the Press had on as guests, Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, two of the more vocal (and a decidedly minority view) proponents for the Iraq War, and my outrage that NBC continued its policy of shading toward the right, even after such a resounding victory by the progressive left.

In approximately the same time space, Media Matters for America was on the same page, complaining that NBC had once again shown bias toward the right with their choice of guests. Media Matters pointed out that the show's host, Tim Russert, mentioned that invitations were extended to both Democratic leaders, Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid, but the show - inadvertently or otherwise - failed to connect with such Democratic luminaries as Rahm Emanuel, Chuck Schumer, Steny Hoyer, John Murtha or others. I noted the same in a follow-up post, here.

Well, along comes the kicker in the form of a response email from Meet the Press delivered to my inbox Friday evening. I believe the message is self-explanatory, and present it in its (unedited) entirety:

Dear Mr. Gagliano,

Thank you for your email to "Meet the Press."

We have a proud history of including many different political voices and viewpoints on our program. The Sunday before the election we included Democratic Campaign Committee Chairs Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer and a few weeks prior we devoted the entire newmaker portion of our program to Democratic Senator Barack Obama.

This past Sunday, as Tim Russert explained on the program yesterday, we extended invitations to both of the new Democratic leaders, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid. Unfortunately, they both declined.

You can read Tim's comments on the transcript page of our website (), and for your convenience we included the relevant paragraph below:

MR. RUSSERT: And our viewers should know we extended invitations to the new Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid. Both declined our invitation, but we hope they'll be here on a future Sunday.

This Sunday, we will be interviewing two new Democratic Senators-elect, Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia. We hope you enjoy watching.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts about "Meet the Press."

Sincerely,
Meet the Press

Whether or not ThoughtPuh-leeze or Media Matters for America had any input into the decision to have two newly-elected Democratic Senators appear this week is likely never to be known, though it is debatable. The mere fact that the Meet the Press staff had the hindsight to at least email me with this information is a good step in the right direction.

Whether the progressive left will be given a fair shake from here on out on the Sunday talk show circuit is questionable.

According to a February, 2006 Media Matters' study, "If It's Sunday, It's Conservative" which examined the Sunday morning shows on ABC, NBC and CBS from 1997 - 2005, the agenda of the right is more often presented that that of the left - and the bias was even more pronounced during the Bush administration years.

We can only hope that the mainstream begins to get the message that the Progressive Left is now the more-favored political flavor for the majority of Americans. In the meantime, we press ahead and will be keeping score:

Sunday News Shows Scorecard
How in or out of touch are the Sunday morning shows following the message of the midterm elections?

We look at the guests each show has and award them a point for every guest that is either an elected Democrat or shares the values of the progressive left and a zero for every one that does not. Generally, Democratic Party guests get a 1, Republicans a zero.

Week 1 - November 12




*Cumulative percentage of shows beginning with Sunday, November 12.

I'll continue to update this little chart weekly.

Just 9 days have passed since the Democrats swept into power in our nation's capitol and the president, George W. Bush, and his henchmen have already shown contempt for the will of the people. News from the British newspaper, the Guardian, reported yesterday that the president plans on sending as many as 20,000 more troops to Iraq at the same time the American public is clamoring for troop withdrawals, and soon.

The news has not reached the shores of our republic, apparently, as our crooked, deceitful, inept and wholly provincial network television media does not feel compelled to report the story, just as they will not report the charges of war crimes filed in Germany against soon-to-be-replaced Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, current Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and former FBI Director George Tenet, among others. Credit to Time magazine for running the story at least, but they themselves give the suit little hope. (I'm sure we'll hear more about this at a later date... if we're living in Europe, supposedly.)

Somebody needs to inform the administration that Al Gore invented the internet and it's still working.

In response to the non-story, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed to oppose sending more troops into the untenable Middle East quagmire. Once again, the report comes from the UK's Guardian.

Now that we have our president making policy from out of the county and we're getting most of the important news (and spending money) from foreigners, maybe we should just put our hands over our heads and give up. "OK, we won the election and we surrender!"

One of the troubling aspects of the president's wish to commit more of our fighting-age youth to a losing effort is that many experts (Joe Lieberman, John McCain and General Abizaid excepted) don't believe we even have 20,000 spare troops. Not a problem, since it's not a story, so far.

The continuing nefarious efforts of the television networks is ostensibly the foremost injustice of the past six years of Bush regime rule. In order, the main culprits in the faux news game are FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, the latter recently showing a propensity for breaking from the crowd, and that a credit to anchor Katie Couric, or in the most cynical, her producers.

In the television world, ratings matter. In affairs of the nation and the press, however, the truth matters. It would be refreshing to see some of it on American airwaves.

Today was a particularly enjoyable news day.

Not only was there little violence in Iraq reported, some senators were able to grill the commander in charge of the Iraq war, General Abizaid (with enlightening results), but the day was highlighted by the welcome disappearance of both the voice and visage of one George W. Bush.

Mr. Bush is purportedly en route to Vietnam and thus ensconced within the veritable comforts of Air Force 1, is relatively incommunicado. It's such a welcome relief!

If you are anyhow erudite, sensitive or intelligent (or maybe even all three), you will understand my euphoria over the absence of the lunatic-in-chief. Not to be forgotten, the VP is also out of sight and out of mind as well.

But the sublime majesty of a day without a president - particularly this one - cannot be appreciated without another one, and soon. I suggest that the press decline to cover him during his visit to Southeast Asia, and that the Chilean government extend an invitation to Mr. Bush, ostensibly to cut some brush or chew some fat, maybe slap some leather, tan a hide, run a gamut, pimp a ride or engage in some other harmless, busy activity. The president, after all, needs his entertainment.

It would only increase our joy and the standard of living in the USA. Children would dance in the streets and birds would coo and cuckoo in the suddenly etherealized US air. Life for many would seem worth living if we could impose a muzzle on the president's mouth and a paparazzi ban on his photo-ops.

Am I saying that the president should shut up and leave? Hardly. I am only suggesting that while he is already away, he should remain thus, perhaps hop-scotching the globe in search of his soul, like the Beatles in the late 60's. The president would do well to inhale and listen to some extract of Vishnu. Peace.

According to this article from Media Matters for America Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press explained that he did extend invitations to appear on the show to both Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

"And our viewers should know we extended invitations to the new Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-NV]. Both declined our invitation, but we hope they'll be here on a future Sunday."

Apparently, while Russert was covering his ass, I was shouting too loudly at John McCain, who asserted his belief that the US should send more troops into Iraq, or Lieberman, who was his usual noncommittal self throughout his 15 minutes of fame on the show.

Media Matters for America takes the case further, noting that other prominent Democrats such as Rahm Emmanuel, Chuck Schumer, John Murtha, Steny Hoyer, Dick Durbin, or any of the newly-elected Democratic Senators, like Jim Webb (VA), Claire McCaskill (MO), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), John Tester (MT), Bob Casey, Jr. (PA) or Sherrod Brown (OH).

Russert and the producers of Meet the Press made the choice to air their show with out-of-touch McCain and the self-inflated Lieberman, two tried-and-untrue faces well known to American viewers. Leave it to the networks to take the easy way out and stick with the company line, "we must win in Iraq, no matter what the cost."

Ugh! I'm sick of Republicans and their policies, but I'm almost thoroughly disgusted with laziness, ineptitude and the lack of understanding that everything changed on November 7.

Your comments are welcome...

Dear Mr. Russert and Producers of Meet the Press:

With John McCain and Joe Lieberman as your guests on this Sunday's Meet the Press, you have proven just how completely out of touch you are with the American public. And, this is on the heels of a monumental repudiation of the Republican party and a nationwide victory by Democrats.

Why wasn't Nancy Pelosi on your show? Harry Reid? Russ Feingold? John Conyers? The voters of America have spoken loud and clear. The leadership of President Bush and the Republicans in both the House and Senate has been rejected. The Democrats now hold power in the Capitol, but you refuse to accept the fact.

As an independent journalist and free American citizen, I find your choice of guests wholly reprehensible and completely irresponsible. John McCain, his policies and his positions, are, for the most part, irrelevant. He has "stayed the course" with the War in Iraq, has allowed the congress to shirk their oversight duties for the past six years, yet you find him worthy of your air time. Are you completely insane or just plain stupid?

McCain's views have been shown to be on the wrong side of public opinion over and over and over again. While most people want troops removed from Iraq, McCain wants to send more. While the American public wants John Bolton removed from the UN, McCain thinks he should be confirmed.

As for Joe Lieberman, all I can say is this is a feeble attempt by you and your producers to portray him as a power broker and a leader in the Senate because of his "unique" independent (helped by the Republicans) win in Connecticut. This is unbelievable hubris and totally misguided. Nobody in the vast spaces of America cares about Joe Lieberman except supporters of the Israeli lobby. It's time the news media awaken to the fact that most Americans do not support the policies of Israel and do not want to be bound to their every action. Wake up!

As for Lieberman's power, your theory is rubbish. He'll be forced into line with the Democrats or will be roundly repudiated, just like the Republicans.

I would hope that you would change your policies regarding guests on your show and present opinions more in line with the views of the American public in the future, though, if you choose not to, I cannot complain, as this only creates more opportunity for me and other independent journalists.

When Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Alberto Gonzalez and other top administration officials are about to be charged with war crimes in Germany, you fail to even acknowledge the story. And you dare call yourself a journalist. You are nothing more than a paid toady for the party that has just lost power. Stay that way if you wish, but the American public has moved on. Apparently, you have not.

I trust you and your producers pay attention to viewership because while I will not tune you out, I will continue to loudly criticize every guest you have on your show that does not represent the will and wishes of the American public. You're starting out after this election at 0 for 2. Good luck in the future. I am posting this letter on my website and other public opinion sites, and sending a copy to Media Matters for America.

Apparently, even though the Democrats won the vote on November 7, you've shown that they must continue to be vigilant because you and other members of the mainstream media have not yet gotten the message. If you wish to be fully discredited in the eyes of the American public, continue on your present course. However, if you would like to restore some of the credibility you've already lost, I suggest you review your policies and politics concerning your on-air guests.

Good day,

Rick Gagliano, publisher
Downtown Magazine
http://www.dtmagazine.com

The Democratic victory scored on November 7 just keeps getting better and better.

What could have been better than having as the president's first order of business on 'the day after' the immediate jettisoning of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld?

How about Rush Limbaugh throwing in the towel?

Believe it. On his November 8 show, Limbaugh threw over the entire Republican party in one fell swoop. (see transcript)

Rush is "feeling liberated" after the demise of the permanent majority (uh, make that 6 years) on the day after the American people took their country back from the gnashing teeth of fascism.

Here's the key phrase from 'El Rushbo':

I'm liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don't deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don't deserve it.

What an absolute weasel. Rush goes on trying to explain his remarkable epiphany with a shaky kind of justification that he was doing what he thought was best. Rush rationalizes that he supported the Republican agenda, backed Tom DeLay, defended Scooter Libby, promoted the war in Iraq, sold out to corporatism and pimped all the rest of the neo-conservative blather by gratuitously serving it up daily to his eager, drooling horde of Pavlovian listeners because he thought it was the right thing to do.

Rush obviously harbors a great deal of contempt for his listeners as he apparently thinks they're stupid enough to believe that he was doing the right thing at the same time the Republican ship of state was sinking. (Well, he's right, they're stupid enough, like lemmings.) Beyond that, he's betraying a nasty spate of disdain for Mr. Bush and the neocon gaggle of sick human-animal hybrids while trying to clear his name before being hauled off to the Hague.

Mr. Limbaugh is an out-and-out liar and once again shows a penchant for bad judgment. Nobody put a gun to his head (maybe somebody did) to "carry water" for anybody or any principle or any legislation. Saying that he promoted concepts which he himself did not trust or believe in and spewing them over the public airwaves labels him as nothing more and nothing less than a well-funded propagandist. He was given his talking points and marching orders and like the good soldier in the war on truth, he let fly with a daily diatribe filled with hate for the left and praise for the pseudo-right.

Now he commits the ultimate betrayal as the party falls from power.

Rush may be just the first of the disloyalists. These people who have abused the people, the laws and the constitution of our nation are jumping ship like the scared rats they are. They fear the light of justice, of truth. The fascist right has been defeated and the casualties are mounting.

Rick ,

Thanks for that hilarious set of salutations...not sure I could even determine which was my favorite appellation...speedy might be one of the finalists though. Anyway, not to quibble but...Kindasleezy deserves to be forever linked to her most egregious public moment...might it be suggested "Ms. Mushroom Cloud"...or better yet, "Ms. Mushroom Fog", for as they well knew at the time there were no weapons, and therefore no threat of a cloud. Just fog...deceptive, cloaking the truth. Go " move heavan and earth to prevent..." that sweetie!

Just thought I'd post this for the die-hard Republicans out there, including, but decidedly not limited to, drug addled gas-bag Rush Limbaugh, Slanthead Sean Hannity, Drunk with Power Tom DeLay (enjoy your stay in the pen, buddy), Shooter (Dick Cheney), closet queen Ken Melhman, the Big Guy- Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto and everyone at Fox News, Rick Santorum (buh-bye), she-male Ann Coulter, Tony (Crony McSnowjob) Snow, Don (back off) Rumsfeld, Condi (get a life) Rice, Torture Czar Roberto (Speedy) Gonzalez, Libby Dole (shut the hell up), Turd Blossom Karl Rove (nice job there, genius), and a warm and fuzzy special "howdy" to the Liar-in-Chief, George W. Bush.

Thanks for six years of nothing but CRAP, you losers. See you in the Hague, hopefully.

With Claire McCaskill winning the Senate seat in Missouri and Democrats leading in the Senate races in Montana and Virginia, the Democratic party has pulled off one of the most stunning and important election victories in America's history.

If the slim margins hold in Montana and Virginia, the Democrats will have picked up at least 26 seats in the House and also wrested control away from the Republicans in the Senate, 51-49. The pickups in the House guarantee a Democratic majority for the first time in 12 years and (in January, 2007) will proffer upon party leader Nancy Pelosi the title of Speaker of the House.

A number of Democrats are not conceding losses at this time, notably Eric Massa and Dan Maffei in two close House races in upstate New York, and Victoria Wulsin in Ohio, who is within less than 1% of unseating Republican name-caller Jean Schmidt. The Wulsin camp is considering legal options, a recount and waiting for all the votes to be counted.

Wulsin spokesman Ady Barkan said provisional and absentee ballots could tip the balance and that the campaign would consider asking for a recount.

With the gains in both houses, Democrats now have the authority to order investigations - with subpoena powers - on everything from the war in Iraq to president Bush's illegal wiretapping operations.

The changes may not be evident at first blush, but the national nightmare that began in 2000 with the illegal appointment by the Supreme Court of George Bush as president, is nearly over.

The president will be the lamest of lame ducks, with only his veto power to help him avoid complete and total repudiation of all of his misguided policies. Democrats have pledged not to forge ahead with impeachment hearings, though John Conyers (D-Mich), who will become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will surely reopen investigations into voting irregularities and reform and the White House's wiretapping efforts.

The shoe is firmly on the other foot today, and the Democrats should waste little time fixing the wrongs of the past six years. The list is lengthy.

Virginia Senate
99% of precincts reporting
D Webb 1,141,052 50%
R Allen (Incumbent) 1,138,676 49%

It doesn't get much closer than this. Most of the country won't know until AM, if then.

Also, Tester is leading in Montana and Ford won't concede in Tennessee. With RI, OH, and PA already in the bag, the Dems are looking good here for at least a pickup of 5 seats, which would be a 50-50 tie.

This isn't over. Not by a long shot.

Tom Reynolds, Jim Walsh and Randy Kuhl all won re-election to their respective house seats, though by slim majorities. The Democrats have to be disappointed that they did not take at least one of these seats, especially in the 29th District, the Kuhl/Massa race.

At least Tom Reynolds will be in the minority, and that's a plus as we plummet headling into two years of gridlock... that is, so long as the new Congressional Democrats have some spine.

From the polling I've seen so far on statewide initiatives, the big winners of the night were those which sought to raise the minimum wage, which passed handily in every state. In the meantime, same sex marriage or initiatives calling for measures to identify marriage as between a man and a woman have been favoring the conservative position.

What this means for Democrats is that they may have to rethink their platform for '08. Gay marriage is looking more and more like a losing issue and it may end up being discarded or shoved to the side. In the larger scheme, losing the White House over gay marriage would probably be akin to a Republican wet dream.

There are more pressing issues in America and the Democratic party needs to focus on issues more relevant to the average family. Otherwise, the Republicans will re-establish their majority in the House and keep the Senate and presidency. Our nation cannot afford more years in the morass of Republican spin and hypocrisy.

By gaining the majority in the House, the Democrats have only slowed the progress of the Republican political machine and it's obvious that there's much more work to be done. A good start would be to work for better voting legislation. There are still too many questions surrounding suppression practices and electronic voting procedures to ensure a safe democracy.

CNN projects Democrats will pick up 15 House seats, giving them control of the House. ABC just announced same.We'll see how long the other networks take to get on board with this and how much larger the advantage becomes.

NY 29 Massa/Kuhl race may take days to resolve due to absentee ballots. Downstate Dems doing well, however, with Hall, Gillibrand and Arcuri looking like winners for a net gain of 2 seats.

Arizona Senate
12% of precincts reporting
D Pederson 97,460 50%
R Kyl (Incumbent) 91,464 47%

This has been a hunch bet for two weeks. Good news coming from the Southwest.

Hillary Clinton returned to the Senate and Eliot Spitzer is the Empire State's new governor. Andrew Coumo wins Attorney General. Results in key House races are close, but trending towards Republicans in the countryside counties, Democrats winning handily in urban districts. No surprises except that people in the sticks are still dumb enough to swallow any kind of manure the Republicans can shovel.

Quite disappointing if the Dems don't pick up at least one of the three in NY 25, 26 and 29. Currently, Repubs are leading all.

Junior Allen looks like he may hold his seat, and that probably keeps the GOP in command of the Senate. A big win for the puppet. Pass the rot-gut!

Whitehouse unseats Rhode Island incumbent...unfortunately the losing incumbent represents the flickering quadrant of the GOP that the country desparately needs. Apologies to the Senator, but we just can't afford the bill for such nurturing right now. Spank the puppet!

Virginia Senate
79% of precincts reporting
R Allen (Incumbent) 884,747 50%
D Webb 859,061 49%

Thus far, this is the only good news for the Republicans. Hard to figure, but maybe Northern Va. reports late? Maybe people in VA are just that stupid?

Lieberman takes Connecticut Senate race...real and frivolous questions ensue....might he change affiliations? Joe of joe-mentum has spoken of the excess of partisanship. Perhaps he can begin the healing by helping the administration to discover it's long hidden bi-partisan and non-partisan sides. More wine!

CNN calls for Klobuchar...

Kentucky 03
96% of precincts reporting
D Yarmuth 117,212 51% votes by countynot available
R Northup (Incumbent) 110,738 48%

Yarmouth has it, as there are less than 5000 votes remaining to be counted. Score 2nd House seat for the PEOPLE, er, Democrats.

NBC just made the easy call on Casey in the PA Senate. Buh-bye Ricky Santorum. A big one for the people. Dems are ahead in key House races, but Ed Rendell, the Guv has done a splendid job of turning out the vote. Swannie should have stuck to broadcasting (way easier).

CNN projecting Menendez returning to Senate. That was a must win for Dems. I'm watching that Yarmuth-Northup race in IN, and the trend is holding, barely. Only 12% of votes remianing to be counted. Very close.

Allen has retaken the lead in VA, however. The makaka puppet has Diebold at work. That one's gonna be close.

The entire midwest closes in less than 10 minutes. It's about to get really hairy. Watch Arizona Senate race. Rumor has Kyl going down in flames.

Trying to maintain an even hand here, but I really want my habeas corpus back and I don't want to move to Uruguay right away.

Nelson beating KKKatherine Harris in Florida as expected. Bill Nelson returns to Senate for the Dems.

CBS Projecting SHERROD BROWN defeats DEWINE! That's 1 pickup in the Senate for the Dems.

Hill leading Sodrel 50-44% 42% of precincts reporting.

Virginia Senate
42% of precincts reporting
DWebb 464,273 50%
Republican Allen 461,135 49%

Nelson takes Florida Senate race....how can that be? Ms. Harris said that the Lord wanted her to be a Senator! Maybe ancient Rome has an opening...toga! toga!

R-incumbent Chocola trailing in Indiana...

Chocola down for the Count. Donnelly soundly beating the incumbent, 59-41% Indiana 02.

Kentucky 03 81% of precincts reporting
D Yarmuth 94,401 50%
Republican Northup (Incumbent) 90,691 49%

PBS reporting that incumbent Hostettler is being crushed by (D) Ellsworth by a 2-1 margin in Indiana 08 and the trend is clear with 16% of votes recorded.

Strickland has defeated Blackwell in Ohio governor's race. Yippie! Blackwell is such a tool. Good riddance.

Very early returns in Indiana...(15 % of precincts) incumbent Hostetler trailing

68% of precincts reporting
D Yarmuth 79,234 50%
Republican Northup (Incumbent) 77,182 49%

Kentucky 03 55% of precincts reporting
R Northup (Incumbent) 63,724 50%
D Yarmuth 63,398 49%

More shades of 2004.

Shades of 2004...

Courtesy Democratic Underground

National Review's The Corner shows Great Exit Polls for Senate Dems
From the National Review's The Corner. Dems on the left, Repubs in the right

Va 52 37
Ri 53 46
Pa 57 42
Oh 57 43
Nj 52 45
Mt 53 46
Mo 50 48
Md 53 46

http://corner.nationalreview.com
Huffington Post Has Senate Exit Polls!
SENATE EXIT POLLS AS OF 5:30 EST: Democrats Leading: Virginia (52-47), Rhode Island (53-46), Pennsylvania (57-42), Ohio (57-43), New Jersey (52-45), Montana (53-46), Missouri (50-48), Maryland (53-46)…GOP Leading: Tennessee (51-48), Arizona (50-46)…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Polls in 6 states just closed...Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia.

Kentucky 03, 15% of precincts reporting
D Yarmuth 17,833 51%
R Northup (Incumbent) 16,606 48%

Bob Sheiffer reports that according to their exit polls, 62% of those polled feel that national issues are more important than local issues. Sheiffer called it "remarkable" and suggested a "long night for the Republicans."

Since we're situated in the thriving metropolis of Rochester, NY, we have good info on three close races in the House. In the 25th, Walsh (R) faces Maffei (D); in the 29th, 1st term incumbent Randy Kuhl (R) is in a pitched battle with challenger Eric Massa (D); while in the 26th, powerful Republican Tom Reynolds has waged a serious campaign against Jack Davis (D) and has pulled near even after falling well behind when the Foley scandal broke. Reynolds has been aided by a brutal blizzard that devastated much of his district. The president wasted no time in offering the entire area federal disaster relief funds, which Reynolds, naturally trumpeted.

Only the Republicans can turn disaster to political advantage. Whether it will be enough to overcome the mass negativity from the left to the right remains an open question. This one has national attention.

If the Republicans hold in upstate New York (polls close at 9:00 EST) the House race could be close.

Britney Spears has filed for divorce from husband Kevin Federline according to the San Jose Mercury News. That makes K-Fed the first LOSER of the night.

Well, we knew that all along, though, didn't we?

Brad Freidman at Bradblog.com says "reports now flooding in" concerning malfunctioning electronic voting machines.

Brad has the best internet coverage on electronic voting machines, software and other skullduggery. A sampling of headlines on his site.

Diebold Voting Machines Failing to Start Up in Utah, Voters Being Turned Away…

Pennsylvania Tops List of Complaints So Far Coming in to Election Incident Hotline as of Noon ET

Myriad Problems Reported to Local News Outlet in Chicago…

Missouri Election Integrity Org Says More Reports of Touch-Screen Vote Flipping…


That is likely only the beginning. Earlier in the day, Joe Trippi mentioned that incumbents who have been polling at less than 50% lose 9 out of 10 times. If that holds, no Republican Senator is safe.

We'll see.

There have been reports of Republican dirty tricks all day, from Laura Ingram hinting that listeners should jam the Democratic party main line.

CNN has early polling data suggesting that these midterms are turning on national issues, with 42% claiming corruption as a main issue, 37% citing Iraq.

Dennis McDonald, Montana Democratic chair is just now saying to Ed Schultz that Conrad Burns is dead in Montana and that John Tester is going to carry that state by at least 9 points. That's BIG!

Here we go...

I did a search for "high turnout" on Google news and got 6,040 results. The first page showed headlines from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Massachusetts, Rhode Island... in all turnout looks to be very good and that should translate into positive developments for Democrats.

Of course, my search for "long lines" returned 24,000 results. Not good.

In any case, Google news is a great source.

I'm into my second Chiraz and Ginger Ale wine cooler and it's fueling my optimism. Back in about an hour.

The online arm of Congressional Quarterly, CQ Politics, is reporting today that determining winners and losers may take days to resolve.

With control of both chambers of Congress possibly hinging on narrow majorities, and with late polls showing tightening margins in many of the closest races, just determining which party will lead the House and the Senate next year may prove difficult.

Concerns about new voting systems and polling place rules also could complicate this yearÂ’s tabulations.

The article cites absentee votes and provisional ballots as the main culprits in delaying the determination of close races.

So, what am I doing here, blogging away today in hopes of a Democratic sweep? And I'm early too. I just hope we don't go through what we had to endure in the 2000 presidential election. Remember that fiasco?

Please, spare us the wait. Either give us a majority in the House tonight or just declare all the elections stolen and let's have at it. I've been personally fed up to my eyeballs with the Republican-dominated federal government since 2003. The 2004 vote was a joke. Kerry won. In fact, Gore won in 2000. We need to pull together and get rid of Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Rice. Kick that Gestapoo in the DoJ too. It all starts today.

Excuse me for being impatient, but my future - and yours - depends on today's results.

Since the exit polls are being sequestered (read: hidden, secreted, so that there will be no disturbing questions when the actual numbers are released) until tonight, the best I can offer at the moment is a short primer for election night.

There are two big numbers to remember: 15 and 6.

15 is the number of seats the Democrats need to gain to take control of the House of Representatives. According to most polls and pundits, that number should be a cakewalk. Most experts are putting the overall pickup for the Dems at somewhere between 20 and 35, though a real landslide could result in 40 or more seats gained.

6 is the number of Senate races the Dems must win in order to take control of the Senate. The polls indicate that the Democrats will easily take Pennsylvania and Ohio. After that, there are the two seats the Democrats must hold, in New Jersey [Menendez (D) vs. Keane (R)] and Maryland [Cardin (D) vs. Steele (R)]. That leaves 6 seats in contested states, two of which look good: Rhode Island and Montana. Virginia is also close to going into the Democratic camp, but the Republicans are pulling out all the stops. The two closest are in Tennessee and Missouri. One, Arizona, may be closer than some expect, though a win by the Dems would be indicative of an outright tsunami.

If the Dems can hold NJ and MD, win OH, PA, RI, MT, and VA, that leaves three possibilities, TN, MO and AZ, the best of which would be Missouri. There's the math for a complete Democratic sweep. Stay tuned. Back in about an hour with more.

Just a note that we'll be Live Blogging all afternoon and into the night tomorrow, beginning around 2:00 pm EST with early returns, what to watch for, hot races and blowouts, and hopefully some virtual victory champagne when the votes for the Democratic landslide help us begin to take back our nation.

For Democrats, Independents and Republicans with brains (all three of you): Vote early! Vote often!

For Republicans: Vote on Wednesday when the lines will be much shorter.

Eleven seven impending, and may the nation be lucky. A "Be prepared" list seems in order. How about the theme of "Brr, take the chill out of voting" B-be...R-ready to R-rumble...brr! so anyway...

1) Vote early, if there are impediments you'll have more time to address them.

2) Bring:
a-a cell phone..
b-the number of the local election board,
c-the number of your local party's headquarters
d-pencils and a notepad
e-redundant identification
f-your registration confirmation notice
g-the voter hotline number....1-866-OUR-VOTE...1-866-687-8683 or the NYU School of Law Brennan Center Voter Complaint Form at http://www.brennancenter.org

3) If anyone challenges you, challenge them. Demand identification, inquire as to by whom they are employed, the name address and other vitals of the person's direct superior. Be polite but direct.

4) Report any incidents, discrepancies, anomalies, or harassassment of any kind to all of the election board, the local party headquarters, and voter hotline immediately.

5) Be proud! Stand up for yourself, your family and loved ones, and for yourself.

"One if by land, and two if by sea..."

OK, I've heard Bush, Cheney, Rove and (closeted) Ken Mehlman all predict that the Republicans would hold both the House and Senate in the midterm elections, the latest, by Mehlman, on Friday's PBS The News Hour.

I realize that these guys are normally somewhat detached from reality, but the polls and the pundits are telling a radically different story. So, put on the tin foil hat and pretend you're Karl Rove, brilliant turd-blossom (Bush's nickname for him, not mine) Nazi-descended political mastermind and answer me this:

If you were Karl Rove, which elections would you fix by hacking into the electronic voting machines and switching votes to ensure a Republican victory?

My Opinion (doing my best Rove imitation):

My first objective would be to guarantee a victory in the Senate, so I would hack into the machines in the largest voting districts and those with the historically best Republican bases. Pumping those should be easiest and the least detectable - though with the myriad of voting and recount legislation we've managed to slip through in the last few years, I'm hardly concerned about being found out - and most believable, in Virginia, Missouri, Montana and New Jersey. Some people think we're going to win Tennessee anyway, so I wouldn't bother with that. Montana will be a shock to some people, and those people will be mostly Democrats, but the state is so small that it will easily be passed over amid the other chaos we'll be creating.

In the House, I'd be pulling all the strings and levers for Tom Reynolds, since he's such a high profile party member and in big trouble. I don't think he can win without inside help. There are a handful of other House races, especially in Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana and Georgia that I'd play around with the numbers, but whatever goes on in Pennsylvania and Connecticut and mostly the blue states, those will go whatever way they go.

We also have same-sex marriage initiatives in 8 states - Idaho, South Dakota, South Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin - so we may be able to change the constitution of the votes in some races and use our tried-and-true "conservative Christian turn out" explanation. It's worked before...

My overall strategy would be to save the Senate, because while the House may go over to the Dems, we need the Senate to save our own souls. It's where the real power lies and we can't give it up.

I love elections, but I can't stand the politics. Really.

Where will the evil genius strike this time? The shorter list may be where will he not. FL 2000, GA 2002, OH 2004... and in 2006 there are already clear prints in Connecticut and Tennessee. Can Maryland, Missouri, and Montana be far off the screen? Virginia? New Jersey? And what of all the scenes of hot house races? New York, California, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Connecticut maybe again? The ferret sneak peeks from a thousand holes, the points of darkness. If the opposition had a near-history of being ready for the rumble, the the list might not appear so lugubriously long. Thence, methinks, the smugness of persons staring at such bleak numbers and sour moods.

A disparity between our contemporary democratic republic and that of the times of Franklin, Madison and Mason, et al, seems to be the current fourth estate disfunction. While the internet holds great promise admittedly, can the fractious cacophony ever really become a focused force? Meanwhile the Times/Post/Airwaves/etc. collective are just too invested to bear full witness. Now there is an agreement to withhold exit polling data....again!!! Could there be a more resonant harbinger of the people and the nation's imminent undoing?

Slap me Rick, tell me something I don't know, remind me of something forgotten or overlooked....puh-leeze! Tuesday is greatly anticipated, yet ennervation gnaws at all my excitment. I have never wanted to be more wrong, but my fear is personal, ubiquitous and unshakeable.

This morning's local paper trumpets a front page kicker claiming Voters say amid scandal, acrimony, 'It's hard to know what's true, false.' Score a big one for the puppet, and his evil genius manipulator.

Earlier this week, radio host Big Ed Schultz entertained a self-described conservative Republican caller, whom, after professing to like the show, asked if there was any way the GOP might pull the impending election "out of the fire" and not have to hear whining about "vote fraud?" My response to that caller, my plea, as someone who longs for a modest and moderate Republican party, is, to the degree you have extended yourself and your party to address concerns about voter disqualification and transparent vote tabulation, is the degree to which I honor your complaint about whining.

Right wing nut jobs can't even understand bad jokes. What's worse, they try to make hay by misinterpreting the intent of the bad joke. And even scarier, it works!

The mud is flying over John Kerry's gaffe the other night in Pasadena and the right wing media and bloggers are dumb enough to fall for it.

Kerry, speaking in Pasadena to a student group on Monday night, said

You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

The laughter from the assembled students who obviously got the reference to president Bush has been cut from most clips on the networks, the faux news shows and all of right wing radio.

John McCain and President Bush called on Kerry to apologize to the troops, but, like Kerry, I'd like these two chickenhawks to apologize to the American people and the troops for the massive failure they whipped up in Iraq.

Kerry issued a written response and then spoke out boldly:

I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy. If anyone owes our troops in the fields an apology, it is the president and his failed team and a Republican majority in the Congress that has been willing to stamp -- rubber stamp policies that have done injury to our troops and to their families.

The New York Times has the text of Kerry's response.

And I'd be welcome to any of the right wing bloggers to explain any of the following: what we're doing in Iraq; who the enemy is; what "victory" would look like, or; how we can be seen as winning.

So, as usual, there's the kind of mindless screed one encounters on blogs like Riehl (rhymes with "heil") World View:

This has nothing to do with President Bush. It has everything to do with John Kerry and the party that nominated him for President just two short years ago. It is why good people like Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman are abandoning that party, or being tossed out.

Question to Reihl: Name one Democrat who's been 'tossed out' of the party.

And of course, the insipid rhetoric from the parroting Flopping Aces blog:

Rove, you magnificant [sic] bastard! Getting Kerry to display how he really feels about the troops is genius….genius I tell you!

But the post of the day goes to blogger Jon Swift, who penned 'John Kerry Goes Nucular', in which he opines,

Can you imagine having a President who mangles the English language the way Kerry does?

His tongue-in-cheek approach is refreshing, especially as we are at the height of the mud-slinging season.

Kerry doesn't need to apologize to the troops, though he obviously needs to apologize to the Democrats he's harmed by his poor delivery of a bad joke.

Why can't Democrats do comedy? Think Al Gore, or Kerry, or John Murtha. Not funny guys. I suppose they're too focused on the real problems facing our nation and how to avoid being swiftboated by the Republican spin machine to be humorous.

Maybe the real threat of America turning into an unelected, unconstitutional right-wing theocratic quasi-military dictatorship has affected their funny bone.

How about an Al Franken / Stephanie Miller ticket in 2008? At least their delivery would be crisp.

In the end, Rove and the right-wing nut-jobs won this round. Kerry has now withdrawn from the political scene - at least for the next 7 days.

The fact that George Bush called out Kerry on this reinforces the idea that the Republicans are desperate and they'll distort anything that suits their totalitarian-minded purposes.

With less than a week before the mid-terms, it's time to start planning for the worst. If the Republicans lose control of Congress like every poll in America says they should, they won't give up easily and there will be challenges and charges of fraud from the right. If they retain control, it will be due to manipulation, disenfranchisement and outright theft of the voting process. Either way, it looks like November 7 will be just the beginning of the fight.