] Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has said Diebold
] deceived California with aggressive marketing that led to
] the installation of touch-screen voting systems that were
] not tested or approved nationally or in California.
]
]
] Lockyer's office issued a statement noting he has
] authority to intervene in and take over false claims
] cases involving vendors to state.
]
]
] "Lockyer determined sufficient evidence existed to go
] forward with a false claims lawsuit against Diebold," the
] statement said. The state's top lawyer earlier had
] dropped a criminal investigation of Diebold.

Yahoo! News - Calif. to Sue Diebold Over False Claims

] A November win by Democratic presidential candidate John
] Kerry would put the United States at risk of another
] "devastating" terrorist attack, Vice President Dick
] Cheney told supporters Tuesday.

We're not even pretending that we're not playing the fear card anymore.

I was thinking yesterday, the RNC had a basic contradiction that is easy to exploit. The official platform of the republican party was written by, for, and of the fundamentalist Christians. However, Rove did everything in his power to spin things at the RNC so that they would appeal to moderate "swing voters." The platform wasn't discussed. Cheney made scripted comments about his daughter.

All the Dems need to do is make sure that details about the Republican's actual platform gets into the hands of the moderate voters.... "Bush promises to do X if he gets into office." If the Republicans play down the discussion they alienate their base, if they admit it (which is what they'll do) they alienate the center. This tactic is too obvious for the Dems to have missed it. I can't think of a good reason for them not to play it...

CNN.com - Cheney: Kerry win risks terror attack - Sep 7, 2004

] Electoral College:
]
] Bush 213 Kerry 175
]
] As part of the Bush Convention bounce, Michigan and New
] Jersey have moved to the Toss-Up column in our Electoral
] College projections. Both states had been leaning in
] Kerry's direction. The first Rasmussen Reports state
] polling data released after the Republican Convention
] showed Minnesota remaining firmly in the Toss-Up column.
]
] President Bush now leads in states with 213 Electoral
] Votes while Senator Kerry leads in states with 175.
] Neither man, however, can yet count on the 270 Electoral
] Votes needed for victory in November. States where the
] candidates are within five percentage points of each
] other are considered Toss-Ups.

Rasmussen is one of the best at poll analysis. He correctly predicted the size of the Bush convention bounce, days before recent polls showed that Time and Newsweek signifcantly overestimated it.

Rasmussen Polling Reports

] The text of a letter former President Carter sent to Zell
] Miller over the weekend ...
]
]
] You seem to have forgotten that loyal Democrats
] elected you as mayor and as state senator. Loyal
] Democrats, including members of my family and me, elected
] you as lieutenant governor and as governor. It was a
] loyal Democrat, Lester Maddox, who assigned you to high
] positions in the state government when you were out of
] office. It was a loyal Democrat, Roy Barnes, who
] appointed you as U.S. Senator when you were out of
] office. By your historically unprecedented disloyalty,
] you have betrayed our trust.
]
]
] Great Georgia Democrats who served in the past,
] including Walter George, Richard Russell, Herman
] Talmadge, and Sam Nunn disagreed strongly with the
] policies of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John
] Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and me, but they remained loyal
] to the party in which they gained their public office.
] Other Democrats, because of philosophical differences or
] the race issue, like Bo Callaway and Strom Thurmond, at
] least had the decency to become Republicans.

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall

] The U.S. budget deficit will balloon to $2.29 trillion
] over the next decade, congressional analysts said on
] Tuesday, a worse outlook than previously forecast and one
] likely to stir election-year debate about President Bush's
] economic policies.
]
] The forecast from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
] Office (news - web sites) compares to the outlook for a
] $2.01 trillion deficit for 2005-2014 it provided in March
] under current economic policies.

[ If you're a fiscal conservative -- a real one, not a closeted right wing fascist -- you simply *cannot* vote for Bush. He is blatantly and unapologetically irresponsible with our money, and worse, our childrens and grandchildrens money. No one paying attention can call republicans the party of small government or fiscal responsibility any more, if the ever could. It's another lie they've managed to build into conventional wisdom... forget it. -k]

Yahoo! News - Congress's Analysts See Worsening Deficit

] In a fresh blow to John Kerry's flagging presidential
] campaign, the Pentagon has ordered an official
] investigation into the awards of the Democratic senator's
] five Vietnam War decorations.
]
] ...
]
] The highly unusual inquiry is to be carried out by the
] inspector-general's office of the United States navy, for
] which Sen Kerry served as a Swift Boat captain for four
] months in 1968, making two tours of duty.

[ You've got to be fucking kidding me. We *STILL* haven't seen the records proving that this irresponsible fool in command *right now* didn't go AWOL. If it wasn't so fucking despicable, I'd been impressed. How is it that the right can consistently bury it's own wrongdoings while hyper-exaggerating or outright fabricating those of their opponents.

I swear to fucking god if i hear much more newspeak out of my leaders, i'm gonna have to leave the country. I can't fathom how gullible people are. So damn sad. -k]

Telegraph | News | Pentagon to check Kerry war record

] Now in his appellate case, Gilmore maintains the federal
] government has yet to disclose the regulations behind the
] ID requirement to which he was subjected.
]
] "How are people supposed to follow laws if they don't
] know what they are?" Harrison said.
]
] The government contends its court arguments should be
] sealed from public view and heard before a judge outside
] the presence of Gilmore and his attorneys. The
] government, however, said it would plan to file another
] redacted public version of its arguments.

[ Shenanigans. -k]

Government wants ID arguments secret

] Plot Outline: A series of Rashomon-like flashback
] accounts shape the story of how one man defeated three
] assassins who sought to murder the most powerful warlord
] in pre-unified China. (more) (view trailer)

Yeah I saw this on opening day. Jet Li rules. The movie's historical heart is in the right place and Qin Shihuang would have liked it I think.

Ying xiong (2002)

] For many months we've been warned by tut-tutting
] commentators about the evils of irrational "Bush hatred."
] Pundits eagerly scanned the Democratic convention for the
] disease; some invented examples when they failed to find
] it. Then they waited eagerly for outrageous behavior by
] demonstrators in New York, only to be disappointed again.
]
]
] There was plenty of hatred in Manhattan, but it was
] inside, not outside, Madison Square Garden.
]
]
] Barack Obama, who gave the Democratic keynote address,
] delivered a message of uplift and hope. Zell Miller, who
] gave the Republican keynote, declared that political
] opposition is treason: "Now, at the same time young
] Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the
] mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart
] and made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession
] to bring down our commander in chief." And the crowd
] roared its approval.

[ Krugman weighs in. -k]

Op-Ed Columnist: Feel the Hate

] "Taking advantage of the panic, hostages began to
] escape," a spokesman for North Ossetia's president, Lev
] Dzugayev, said in an interview, referring to the initial
] blasts. "The bandits began shooting them in the back. The
] special forces on our side had to cover the fleeing
] hostages. This is unfortunately how it happened."
]
] The number of dead and wounded far surpassed the number
] of hostages that were even reported being held, prompting
] accusations here that the authorities deliberately
] underplayed the severity of the crisis. Today, a
] presidential adviser said for the first time that as many
] as 1,200 hostages might have in fact been held.

[ In case this doesn't propagate thru the major channels in the midst of all the RNC and hurricane Frances stories, I thought I'd post it here. A sad ending to a horrible situation -- this story reports at least 120 dead and over 5 times that many injured. -k]

Soldiers Storm Russian School; Fate of Many Hostages Is Unclear