How does the campaign of George Allen deal with Mike Stark, a journalists who is not afraid to confront corrupt and bigoted politicians? By trying to beat the crap out of him, that's how.

Mike Stark was standing near George Allen as he exited a venue after giving a campaign speech. He asked a question, reportedly "why did you spit on your first wife". The question was in reference to Allen's first marriage. The divorce records are sealed, and Allen has fought hard to keep them sealed, along with all of his records associated with the BAR. Allen's staffers grabbed Stark and slammed him against a glass wall. As the video shows, Stark made no effort to fight back, probably because it was futile with 4 or 5 guys all over him.


Think Progress » Sen. Allen On Assault Of Constituent: ‘Things Like That Happen’

Here's an interesting video clip of Ann Coulter on Fox News (big surprise), chatting with Neil Cavutto. In the past, she has been able to string together some sort of argument to win people to her side. This is not the case here, as you will see. When she's asked to give reasons why she hates a Democratic candidate, she pauses for a long time and finally says "he's an idiot". Nice point Ann, way to stick to the issues. She backed up that claim with "well he is". Another intelligent remark. Just watch the video, hopefully it will prevent you from wasting money on one of her crappy books.

Raw Story is reporting that after a week of early and test voting, the electronic machines being used in Florida are showing some serious glitches. It should surprise no one that these glitches always seem to favor Republicans in a state run by some of the most corrupt GOP members in the nation.

Voters on some machines tried voting for the Democratic candidate, but on the final review screen their vote was for the Republican. If they were paying close attention, they could go back from that screen to change their vote and then review it again. Why is it that only those voting for Democrats have to be careful to make sure their votes are counted, while Republican candidates get free votes from all those that don't? There are plenty of elderly voters in Florida, and they tend to vote Republican. Can you imagine their uproar if their votes were going to Democrats because of these "new fangled" machines?

Dick Cheney has been playing word games with the war in Iraq, and George Will has clearly had enough of it.

In his latest column, Will criticizes Cheney for saying things like "I thought that the elections that we went through in '05 would have had a bigger impact on the level of violence than they have ... I thought we were over the hump in terms of violence. I think that was premature." Mr. Cheney is actually misrepresenting his own words. In fact, before those Iraq elections he said "the insurgency is in its last throes."

"Over the hump" and "in its last throes" are not the same. Not even close. The former says the tide is turning, things are starting to go our way. The latter says we're almost done, it's just a matter of sniping the stragglers. Despite his attempt to rewrite history, Mr. Cheney is wrong on both accounts. We are neither putting the insurgency in its last throes nor are we over the hump in fighting these attacks. We have had more casualties in October than in any month over the past year.

I wonder how Mr. Cheney will restate his position a year from now to back away from his current over the hump stance. It might be something like "back then, I thought we were making marginal improvements, but that thinking may have been premature."
Will: Cheney Still Doesn't Get It on Iraq - Newsweek George F. Will - MSNBC.com

Barack Obama has publicly stated that he is considering a run for president in 2 years, and just like that the whole outlook has changed. Obama would be a strong challenger to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic ticket, and he's probably the only Democrat with a strong chance of beating John McCain.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, Obama is more well-liked by people who are aware of him, which is a growing group with each passing day. Clinton is seen as a true politician, who will say and do whatever it takes to get elected. Obama speaks his mind, even when it goes against the stance of his party.

Obama brings with him some non-political issues that could also work in his favor. He is not afraid to talk about his spirituality, which was a weakness for Democrats in past elections. He also speaks freely about his youthful indiscretions, which amounts to minor drug use and not much else. People like to know he is human, and that he can tell the truth about himself. George W. Bush was successful in hiding much of his past, which includes DWIs, cocaine abuse, and even pressuring a partner to have an abortion, but he also had a lot more to hide. Obama's past could hardly be described as checkered, but he is willing to talk about everything that's there, good and bad.

Unlike John McCain, Obama has never waivered in his stance on issues like the war on terror or torture. McCain has often swayed away from the White House, only to come back to their side after facing heavy party pressure. That brings character issues into play, something that one wouldn't expect from a Vietnam vet who spent several years as a POW.

Over the past few years, Obama has been opposed to many issues that have come before the Senate and President Bush, even when many other Democrats caved in to avoid pressure from the Republicans in control. Now that we've seen many of those policies fail, Obama appears smarter than anyone else in Washinton.
In the past 10 days, Obama has turned American politics upside down. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine

A follow up to the story I've been following this week:
The Democrats have released a commercial attacking Bush for his flip-flopping "stay the course" policy. It starts with Bush and people in his administration using the term repeatedly during the first couple years of the war, and then a clip from this past week with Bush claiming "it's never been a stay the course policy."

If Bush were a little more like Stalin, he could just erase history and always claim he was right.

White House spokesman Tony Snow has taken the "stay the course" lie to a new level. As I reported earlier, the Bush administration is not for a "stay the course" policy in Iraq, and they never have been, despite the fact that the phrase has been a cornerstone of Bush's stump speeches for the war.

When asked about the term today, Tony Snow claimed that "we went back and looked today and could only find eight times where he ever used the phrase stay the course."

He probably shouldn't have said that, because in these modern times every presidential speech is videotaped by someone. A few internet sleuths went back and checked a bunch of different videos, and found over 30 instances where the president used the term "stay the course" while talking about Iraq, always supporting the policy. Oh well, none of these slip-ups will matter in a few weeks when Bush officially becomes a lame duck president.
Think Progress » Snow Falsely Claims Bush Said ‘Stay The Course’ Only 8 Times (Actually, It’s At Least 30)

The Bush administration has decided to drop the "stay the course" phrase when talking about Iraq. At one point this weekend, President Bush even tried to claim that "stay the course" was never their policy, despite the fact that he's used the phrase hundreds of times in speeches about the failing war in Iraq.

The President remains committed to setting up Iraq to govern itself, even though it appears unlikely that could ever happen with the mix of warring ethnic groups in the country. Things are very bad now, and they'll just get worse over time as rivals fight it out for territory and political power. Any government established by the United States is likely to be toppled quickly after our troops leave the country.
Bloomberg.com: U.S.

In yet another odd use of the English language, President Bush said that he uses "the google", especially the maps program. Although he could not remember the name of the program (it's Google Maps), he said that he uses that a lot because he likes to look at satellite pictures of his ranch. I'm just glad he has something to do to pass the time.
Think Progress » Bush says he uses “the Google.”

Considering The Daily Show was started as a parody of the nightly news, they sure do an amazing job with their investigative reporting. Fox News, on the other hand, claims to be real news but is continually caught lying to its viewers in an attempt to spread their political agenda.

Several surveys have shown that Fox News viewers are FAR less informed about current events than viewers of The Daily Show. An astounding number of Fox News viewers even believe that we have found WMDs in Iraq.

I've included a video from The Daily Show where Donald Rumsfeld is caught in a lie by a 27-year veteran of the CIA, not some hippy liberal, as Rumsfeld and Fox News would like us to think all of their critics are. Make sure to watch the video through to the end or you might miss the comment Mr. Rumsfeld makes about a "wonderful" piece of the plane that struck the Pentagon that he keeps in his office.

There was an interesting story this week that much of the mainstream press is not reporting. Intelligence Chairman Ray LaHood (Republican - Illinois) made a charge that a staffer for a Democrat on the Intelligence Committee was leaking classified information. He immediately suspended that staff member's access to classified information.

On Fox News today, LaHood admitted that the whole thing was just political payback. He says the staffer leaked the report on Duke Cunningham, a prominent Republican involved in a myriad of scandals that have left the current state of the party in ruins, which was not classified information.

“I’ll tell you why I did it. The reason I did it was because Jane Harman released the Duke Cunningham — who sat on our Intelligence committee — report.”

Those are the exact words of LaHood. Here are some more:

“There are some of us on the other side who can equally play politics, and I’m not afraid to do it.”

So LaHood admits that he was angry that the staffer released information that he was allowed to leak, so he accused the Democrats of leaking classified information, and had that staff member's job compromised.

You're right Mr. LaHood, you can play politics. You are the worst kind of political scumbag. WHY THE HECK SHOULD ANYONE VOTE FOR YOU?
Think Progress » LaHood Admits He Was ‘Playing Politics’ When He Asked For Intel Staffer To Be Suspended

Kevin Tillman, brother of former pro football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman, is speaking out on behalf of his brother, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. Both brothers joined the Army following the September 11th attacks.

There isn't much more I can say about this scathing attack of our current leadership. Kevin Tillman has been through a lot in the past 5 years, and this letter expresses his emotions in words. He is particularly critical of the dubious link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Although he never overtly states that the war in Iraq forced us to thin our troops in Afghanistan and put his brother at greater risk, it DID.

Anyone who is for the Iraq war should read this letter. This man has sacrificed a lot for his country, and he's been in some very dark places. If anyone knows who the scum in this country are, he does.
Truthdig - Reports - After Pat’s Birthday

The election draws near, and Republicans are in trouble. They've decided to focus on the issues... oh wait, scratch that, nevermind... they've decided to use their old scare tactics. A new series of ads features Osama Bin Laden and seems to imply that a new round of terrorist attacks could happen any day. This is supposed to scare people into voting Republican, because they've protected us so well in the past.

"Wait a second," you say, "haven't the Republicans been in power for the past 6 years, when more Americans have died at the hands of terrorists than at any other point in the country's history?"

Why yes, that's all true, but Republicans have also masterfully portrayed themselves as the party of strength. We could have stayed back and kept our military out of Iraq, but instead we charged in like a retarded bull. Sure, we haven't accomplished much, other than the destruction of a country, but at least Saddam Hussein is out of power. He'll never be able to not fund terrorism again!

Will the new GOP ads scare enough Republicans to salvage a victory or two next month? I guess it all depends on how much rational though Republican voters use when considering who really protects us from terrorism.
BREITBART.COM - GOP to Air Ad Warning of Terror Attacks

I know just linking to an article like this opens myself up to all sorts of libel claims, especially when most of the people listed are lawyers and good friends of prominent lawyers, but here it is: America's Dumbest Congressmen

I think it's a fair list, with dumb Congressmen exposed regardless of party affiliation. Here are some highlights:

- Jim Bunning makes the list for saying his Italian-American rival looked like Saddam Hussein's sons. Way to stick to the issues, Mr. Bunning. Oh wait, you don't have issues, because your political career has been a total failure. If only all the bills could have something to do with baseball, maybe Bunning would show up every once in a while.

- Patrick Kennedy (Ted's son) makes the list for acting too much like his father. He got drunk, crashed his car, and then played the "it was the painkiller medication" card. Nice try, did you learn that move from Rush Limbaugh?

- Cynthia McKinney. What more needs to be said? If she read this right now she'd claim this entire post was racially motivated.

- Katherine Harris has won top honors for various misdeeds: multiple scandals involving defense contractors, using campaign money to fix up her house, and making up a story about some "middle eastern" guy who was arrested after trying to blow up the power grid in Carmel, Indiana. The mayor and residents of Carmel knew nothing of this, because Harris made it up. I guess that kind of thing works when you're representing a district made up of senile old people who fear the night but come out of their house once a year to vote Republican.

Republican politicians are pleading guilty to fraud for their role in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Republicans are calling for one of their own, Dennis Hastert, to resign for covering up the Mark Foley page scandal.

Americans have indicated they are sick of the Republican leadership which has taken us into a war that is a complete failure and piled on the scandals faster than Jerry Falwell can pile up pancakes at a Sunday morning breakfast. So why is President Bush not worried?

Karl Rove and his idiot prodigy have been inexplicably upbeat about the November elections, despite polls that seem to indicate it will be a Democratic blowout. Rove has said he expects the GOP to only lost about 8 seats in the House, not enough to give control to the Democrats. That's despite polls that show the GOP could lose more than 20 seats.

What do George W. Bush and Karl Rove that the rest of us don't? It seems like it's too late to pull Osama Bin Laden out a hat and not draw suspicion. As much as the GOP and its many supporters, including Fox News, have tried to spin the recent scandals (including incorrectly referring to embattled former Congressman Mark Foley as a Democrat), the American people (besides Fox News viewers, the proudly misinformed) have not been buying it. What could the president possibly have up his sleeve?
White House Upbeat About GOP Prospects - washingtonpost.com

The video I display below is not a compilation of a Donald Rumsfeld speech. There is no way you can watch this video and claim that Rumsfeld's words were taken out of context. He is completely caught in a lie, and he had no way out of it. If you haven't questioned America's motives for going into Iraq, you probably will after watching this.

Fox News has sunk to a new low. On yesterday's broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News repeatedly showed a graphic of Republican Congressman Mark Foley, who has dropped out of his re-election race after sexually explicit internet conversations between himself and an underage boy surfaced. The problem with the graphic is that it identified Mr. Foley as a Democrat. He is a Republican, and has been a Republican for as long as he has been an elected official. Trying to somehow link Foley to Democrats is nothing but a disgusting attempt to dump this scandal off on someone else.

Fox News should issue an apology for their "mistake," and they should do it more than once, as they showed the graphic several times. An brief correction comment from Bill O'Reilly will not suffice in this instance. The actions of Fox News were nothing short of election tampering, and they must not be brushed off as a minor accident.


Desperate Times, Desperate Measures - Wonkette

When Matt Drudge reports the news, he offers the latest scoop with a strong conservative slant. When Matt Drudge gives his opinion of the news, such as the current sex scandal with Republican Representative Mark Foley, he can be downright creepy.

Drudge appears to put most of the blame not on Foley, who made sexual advances on an underage boy, but on the young boy. He claims the children who work as pages in the Capitol are beasts preying on the politicians. Comments like that make me wonder what kind of skeletons Mr. Drudge has in his closets.
Crooks and Liars » Matt Drudge blames the kids for Predatorgate: They are 16 and 17 year old beasts