Late Afternoon at the Last Manatee

For many of us, one of the most profound influences on our lives has passed away at the age of 90--Alexander Anderson, Jr.. Anderson teamed up with his childhood friend Jay Ward to make low-budget TV cartoons. He created "Crusader Rabbit", which was the first animated television series in the 1950s. But it was his greatest creations, Rocky the flying squirrel and Bullwinkle the moose, who shaped a younger generation growing up at the height of the Cold War. "Rocky and His Friends" debuted in 1959 and ran for many years, bringing up great moments like Fractured Fairy Tales, Boris and Natasha, the sinister but hapless spies, and Dudley Do-Right and Nell. Besides Mad magazine, "Rocky and His Friends" was one of the m0st subversive influences in America, encouraging young people to question authority.

For someone like myself with eye and brain issues, it's timely that Oliver Sacks has just published The Mind's Eye ( Knopf), which delves into the complexity of vision and the mind's adaptive powers. Sacks is a practicing physician and most known to laymen for The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. In this new book, Sacks gets a little autobiographical when he explores how his eye cancer affected his sight and the odd sensation of seeing when he had totally lost vision in one eye.

The election continues to produce more oddities than ever before. Our teabagger Joe Miller seems to have mislaid his 40-acres in the Alaska wilderness and never declared it on his personal financial form for the FEC. No problem, teabaggers don't believe in government agencies. But it may prove a slight problem for the Alaskan voters. You see it is held in the name of the Wilmington Trust, whose only trustee has no awareness of it. It seems it was bought by Miller during the time he applied for his hunting and fishing license as an "indigent". Alaskans are wondering whether Miller was gaming the system to get his licenses. No problem. But there may be an issue since it was discovered there was a two-story house on the property and not the cabin most people supposed.

Usually, criminals play behind the scenes in politic but this year they are actually real candidates. A Republican running for congressman in New Hampshire is refusing to reveal his finances and how he could loan his campaign the large amount of money he's recently taken in. We already know Rick Scott, a healthcare racketeer, may be the next Governor of Florida. Art Johnson , who is running against Russ Feingold, slipped when he started accusing Feingold of backing a string of wasteful spending. Feingold just countered with every government subsidy the guy ever got and refused to admit. Not quite criminal but larceny.

Texas discovered today that it's $18 billion budget gap ballooned to $25 billion. There is only one politician to blame--Rick Perry. But it does look like he will be re-elected. I read an article by a Texan who explained that none of the scandals in the state government ever made it into the peoples' consciousness. Besides, the author wrote Texas is fourth in illiteracy in the nation.

Intratrade, which is the political betting wire, has the Republicans gaining 8 Senate seats and 55 in the House. The Senate figures have shown the most volatility, ranging from 4 to 9 seat gains.

Latin Decisions Poll records that Latin enthusiasm for the election, which was only 40% in September has shot up to 60% now. There is alot of disappointment with Barack Obama for failing to get immigration reform the first year as promised. But the uptick in enthusiasm has been caused by the anti-immigration sentiment expressed by Republicans.

Dick Morris appeared on Fox News to warn that the SIEU was trying to rig the elections for the Democrats. Wish that were so. But this type of nonsense has motivated the platoons of voter integrity squads by conservatives and chilling ads that you will go to prison if you commit voter fraud. I expect there will be several incidents around the country on election day as the goons try and muscle voters.

Early voting in California has Jerry Brown seven points ahead of Meg Whitman and Barbara Boxer only two points ahead of Carly Fiorina, who was hospitalized today. In Colorado early voting, Michael Bennet is ahead of Ken Buck. No one knows what the Nevada race looks like now.

Rand Paul seemed to be breaking way in Kentucky. We don't know the effect of last night's debate and the stomping of the Move On person by a Paul staffer. Will this be his Altamont moment? OK, probably not. They probably think it's cool down there.

MSNBC had a fascinating analysis of what the Republican Congress would look like. Quite frankly, they indicated that there were several areas where compromises can be made. The great laffer was Bohner being interested in alternative energy. Not when the oil companies just bought you the majority. And, yes, I was right, the Republicans are going to ditch thePayGo rules, just like they did under W. Instead, they are going to call it PayCut. They resolve to find government programs to cut for every program approved.

MSNBC claims that Republicans will seek cover behind the Catfood Commission's recommendations of the debt. Alan Simpson has said that the Commission is likely to reach some consensus positions even though it's been tough. Alice Rivlin claims there will be lots to create a bipartisan consensus around. Frankly, I doubt it.

One Week To Go

We mourn today the death of Paul the Octopus, that magnificent creation who successfully predicted the World Cup winners round by round. An amazing accomplishment. Paul had to endure death threats from German fans, who thought he was unpatriotic.

In Kentucky, Rand Paul's teabagger brownshirts stomped on the head of a Move-On female protestor. Unfortunately, it appears that Paul is beginning to pull away from Conway. If you watched the debate last night, you casn only shake your head. Paul was ill-informed, could not defend his own positions, and tried to avoid acknowledging his controversial stances on Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance.

Jerry Brown wins today's Best Ad. Open with Meg Whitman telling why she moved to California thirty years ago. "Everything seemed possible. There was so much innovation." Continue the superlatives. Cut to announcer "Who was Governor then?" Segue into what Jerry Brown did for California. Nicely done.

Mitch McConnell appealed to Americans to have patience because,Mitch Republicans can't do much in 2 years. (But Obama is supposed to save the country and create peace on earth in 20 months.) He said that the whole purpose of Republicans in Congress is to ensure that President Obama is a one-term President. He also said that the Republicans in Congress would be developing a platform for the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.

Think Progress is still on the American Chamber of Commerce ads like a dog on a bone. This time they documented over a dozen foreign oil companies, plus American branches of companies like BP, who are putting money in the till.

Washington is still weirdly oblivious as to the meaning of having secret money percolating in our electoral system. As we learned from Watergate, this leads to intimidation, blackmail and straight-up bribery. One commentator also wrote that it's also the money that's not spent that should be concerned--used as a threat against any politician who doesn't capitulate to the demands of the corporations. It does appear that the torrent of money is wearing some Democrats down and is forcing Democrats to practice triage on candidates.

Electoral-Vote has the House today Republicans 208, Democrats 206 with the rest tied. I wonder if they are just holding back until closer to election day. They also have Democrats up to 51 Senate seats. Chris Bowers over at Daily Kos still has Democrats at 52 in the Senate. Also, Bowers wrote why Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman will not change parties.

Nate the Great Silver is now a star on NPR. Yesterday, he said the Republicans look to win the House but then he went into numbers wonkland and said that their gains could be 20-60. Well, if it's below 40, it's tough luck. He also has Republican chances winning the Senate, close to none or about 11%.

Organizing for America plans to call 7 million people in the next 7 days. Strangely enough, the Alexandria site for this is the car dealership where my wife bought her car. It happens to be owned by a former college classmate of mine. ActBlue and other progressive websites are still burning candles for Democratic candidates.

On the other side, seven conservative (anonymous) astro-turf groups are trying to coordinate a GOTV drive. This is where the rubber meets the road. As I've written, Republican GOTV efforts this year are in disarray because the Republican party apparatus has collapsed.

The question I have are the Undecideds really undecided or are they like the Undecideds during Reagan first election. You were supposed to be too embarrassed by Reagan so you didn't tell anyone you would vote for him. Is this a portion of our population who knows that teabaggers are nutjobs but will vote for them? Or vice versa. Independents that can't reveal they are voting for a Democrat.

Election analyst Eric Rudenour wrote a blog yesterday where he recounted his own election success since the 1980s and predicted Democrats would lose 30 House seats and 5 Senate seats but retain control of both chambers. He has an excellent record and I wonder if he really is cheerleading.

Nate Silver said that nothing has happened in the elections since Labor Day. All the ads, all the Obama campaigning, all the debates have not changed any race so far. He also believes that Democratic "momentum" is Democrats coming home to the party and that accounts for the natural tightening of the races. It will be interesting to see what he thinks about the efforts by Howard Dean and David Plouffe in the GOTV department.

Things don't look good when the Washington Post does a positive profile of Chris Van Hollen and his role for the Democrats's House Committee. Van Hollen criticized Obama for starting too late in defining the election as a choice and that Obama did not focus on the positive points about Congress and the economy. Nancy Pelosi had been furious at the White House by its insistence on saying that Congress was broken, when the House passed more progressive legislation than any chamber since FDR. That it was the Republicans in the Senate, who were the obstacle. Otherwise, Congress was doing just fine, thank you.

If you want an economic illiterate, you will have one with John Boehner. Yesterday, he said he would push for a moratorium on all government regulation so as to create jobs. Food and Drugs? Mine safety? Oil drilling? What is this guy talking about? The other thing that Democrats did not make hay out of was Boehner's economic plan for the House. Analysts claim it will result in the loss of 1 million jobs. Then Boehner promises to cut some government program every week to reduce the deficit. He also promises to get government spending back to 2008 levels.

George W's memoirs are supposed to come out the end of election week. He had asked that they be postponed until then because he said some things would upset people in his party. Well, it can't be admissions about torture or that he knew Karzai was on the Iranian payroll. What it seems to me is his vigorous defense of TARP, which says saved the United States from a Greater Depression than the Great Depression. After all it was TARP and the Black President that created the Teahadists.

Our Alaska race is looking pretty dirty. Miller has admitted he committed ethical lapses at his job but, for unknown reasons, keeps avoiding why he is a disabled vet. He avoided this question in the debate and the follow-up question-and-answer period afterward. The reason for his discharge was " miscellaneous". Nobody has asked if while at Yale Law School did he join the Oathkeepers, the right-wing outfit of veterans, police and active duty military who will oppose any perceived infringement on the constitution. It was created at Yale by a libertarian activist.

Everybody is suing the state of Alaska for posting the write-in candidates in the voting booths because it would favor Lisa Murkowski. Lisa Murkowski has been up to some dirty tricks by reproducing endorsements from state Democrats and Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray. Unfortunately, none of them are true. This race will take all night and it might be that no one will know the winner until next year like with Al Franken.

Colorado Republican teabagger candidate Ken Buck said yesterday that he does not believe in the separation of church and state. That's actually seen as a positive among the large Colorado radical right Christian crowd. In the campaign for the Conception starts with Ejaculation bill, pro-lifers are running ad that calls Barack Obama the "Angel of Death". Unrestrained by any laws on accuracy, they reproduced almost every falsehood about the President, the healthcare bill, funding abortions abroad, and end that a vote for this bill is a way to take "America back." Women's groups are finally waking up and running counter ads against both the bill, which would outlaw "non-barrier contraception" , and Ken Buck, who wouldn't prosecute a confessed rapist because the woman had had an abortion and he said it was a case of "buyer's remorse".

This Senate race is tied--if you want any indication about how far we have fallen.

Glenn Beck yesterday said that President Obama communicates with Satan. This seems to be a right-wing refrain nowadays. But consider this,Glenn Beck is a Mormon. President Obama and his family have been baptised by proxy by the Mormon Church. Mormons believe Jesus Christ is the brother of Lucifer. So does this make Barack Obama Jesus Christ? Inquiring minds want to know.

Jeff Sharlet has a piece in this month's Mother Jones on how C Street and the politicians involved in it have their own foreign policy and have used tax-payer funds for trips to proselytize foreign leaders. The piece demonstrates how the Christian Right has sunk their hooks into Uganda and how they plan to "convert" Muslims. Sharlet's story about C Street in Syria actually rings a bell with me because a conservative told me that Blackwater had been guarding missionaries in Muslim countries like Syria.

How many more ways can people trash President Obama? Torture King, Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen claims the "downfall of President Obama" came when he told the Republicans at a meeting on the stimulus that "he won". Thiessen is not honest enough to talk about the Republican leadership meeting a week before Obama took office where they gave orders that no one cooperate with the new President. Thiessen writes that it's Obama's fault that he didn't reach out to Republicans. If you read anything on the Left, they explode about all the times Obama tried to accomodate Republicans.

We are being conditioned for the interpretation of the election results. In the New York Times, President Obama mistook a protest vote, which brought him victory, for a mandate. We have the usual pundits say that Obama has governed too far on the Left and this is a reaction to that. We already hear from Democrats themselves that Obama should have emphasized job creation at the expense of healthcare. Paul Krugman grumps that the elections are a result of a failed economic policy. Of course, 15% of the teahadists say it is because of his race, not program.

What is so interesting to me is that during the first 20 months of Obama's presidency, the beltway pundits never wrote about how irrational the Republicans were. Now we are hearing about how the election results will force bipartisan cooperation. There is simply no evidence from any Republican that this is true. Jimmy Carter yesterday said the Democrats would lose the House but that would be good because President Obama can run like Harry Truman against the "Do-Nothing" Congress. Even Doug Schoen, former partner of Mark Penn, claims that having a Republican Congress would be the best thing for President Obama because they would give him an excellent foil. Democrats themselves invoke Clinton's comeback after the 1994 loss of Congress. David Broder continues to believe that John Boehner will act as a responsible Speaker of the House and actively negotiate with President Obama.

I don't believe any of them.

The Republicans are committed to the destruction of President Obama and returning to power in 2012 because they believe they are entitled to power and the presidency. Remember before President Obama, Republicans had the White House 20 out of 28 years.

Meanwhile, Pew has a poll out that says President Obama is in better shape than Reagan in his first term in so far as people wanting him to run again. About 47% want Obama to run again and 51% did not want Reagan to run again after the 1982 midterms.

Looney-Toons

Alright, Nate the Great has the Senate at 51 today, Electorial Vote agrees and DailyKos has it still at 52. But this number would mean Reid,Bennett,Illinois and Feingold and Alaska are lost causes. None of these sources have Conway or McAdams or Sestak in the game. What we are seeing is the low number possible. Electoral Vote still has Dems at 207 to 204 for Republicans in the House. Although the momentum there has been for the Republicans until the last two days.

While headline writers have only 2/3rds of the Obama voters going to vote for the Democrats, the actual CBS polls says something very different. The little paragraph buried is the Independents--which 42% are voting Democrat, 12% Republicans and 38% are still persuadable. The large persuadable independents indicates how hard the GOP is having to make the sale. That this is so large two weeks out means this election is still undecided.

The 2/3rds note would be excellent if that is the likely voter. Remember the strategy is to get a sizable percent of these voters out, not the whole bunch. Polling over the last two weeks indicates that we may have a larger turnout this year than during other mid-terms. And of the Obama Voter 89% approve of his performance. So we're not seeing the great sampede to the Republicans that Washington pundits have been talking about.

Obama's approval rating in Gallup today is 48% and Rasmussen 49%, making the recent media drumbeat for the GOP look awfully suspicious.

Apparently, the Republicans have caught on to the silent but developing GOTV efforts by the Democrats. In Nevada, a Republican front group called "Latinos for Reform" is running ads urging Latinos not to vote at all. The Latino former-Bush official in charge of the group said that it was a protest against Barack Obama and Harry Reid for not pushing immigration reform and that Latinos are going to show they were not going to be taken for granted. The group admitted that Sharron Angle was anti-immigrant. But this is an operation meant to suppress the normally Democratic voter.

National Republican Lawyers group, which is mounting aggressive voter suppression efforts in the black community, are being funded by GOP financial giant and Republican bankroller Dick DeVos,Mr.Amway and the father-in-law of Eric Prince, the CEO of Blackwater. These groups will be mobilized in Illinois and reports are appearing in Texas. Ostensibly to ensure "voter integrity", these are imitations of the people from the "Brooks Brothers" riots in Miami-Dade county during the 2000 election. It's clear Republicans are more worried about Obama surge voters than they had let on.

There is nervous chatter of right-wing websites about Obama's campaigning. Of course, they say he is only going to areas where leftists live and his efforts will be for naught. But it seems they are obsessively concerned about the President out and about the land. Rush Limbaugh is trying to whip up the Cheetos-worshippers by calling Obama "demonic" today.

A race that always intrigued me was Bill White's challenge to Rick Perry in Texas. I read a very detailed article on why Texas won't elect him governor because the revelations of Perry's corruption are not read by many and the true state of the Texas economy has not yet been felt by the average citizens. Polling in Texas has been sporadic but showing Perry would win in a walk. But I also read an analysis of the whole scale of the Democratic Party's effort in the state. It dwarfs the Republican efforts and they have created White headquarters in every district and conducted massive GOTV drives. If you think, as I do, organization matters, this is a race to watch on election night.

Following that up, I read last night the statements by the AFL-CIO on their efforts in Pennsylvania on behalf of Joe Sestak in his race against Pat Toomey. This race was another one pronounced dead a few weeks ago. Sestak had a few point lead over Toomey among union voters but after the AFL-CIO's campaign he has soared to 55%, some 20 plus points over Toomey. This shows up in the polls the last two days which shows Sestak has moved ahead by a point or two.

If Independents can still be persuaded, why won't Republicans in tight races appeal to them. That shows the ideological bind the GOP is in. Any such effort would alienate their increasingly fascist base. Also, I think there is a blind belief that money does indeed buy you anything.

The GOP are paying George Washington University students $50 per day to campaign for Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. In last night's debate, Claremont constitutional scholar Christine O'Donnell challenged Chris Coons to show where in the Constitution there was the separation between church and state. He calmly said,"The First Amendment" and the audience laughed at Christine.

Also providing laughs has been Sharron Angle, who appeared before Latino high School students to explain why she was running the menancing dark-skinned Latino ads against Harry Reid. She explained that she didn't know these people were Latinos but she added that she was concerned about the terrorists who came in the country from Canada. The students laughed at her but the Canadian Ambassador to the United States has demanded an apology. She also told the students they looked Asian. And she waxed nostalgically that people often said she was the first Asian legislator in Nevada. Something veteran reporter John Ralston claims no one has ever said.

In my favorite Senate race, Joe Miller did not show up at the debate last night because the man he handcuffed was the moderator but he did find time to speak to CNN. His added complaint against the reporter was that he followed him into the men's room, something no one can attest to. To me this is more of the Tea Bag fixation on gays--O'Donnell suggesting Mike Castle was gay, Sharron Angle demanding Harry Reid put his "man pants on" and here the suggestion that somehow Miller was fending off some gay move.

Unfortunately for Miller, a former supporter Mrs. Symbol came to the townhall meeting and saw the whole fracas and told reporters that while the journalist was aggressive, he did nothing wrong. She complained that she brought her son to hear Miller on his support on gun rights but Miller turned and ran right over her son, pushing him over. Now she won't support Miller.

It seems two of Miller's security guards were active duty military and when their commanding officer heard about their moonlighting, he was furious and vows to bring action against the men.

My candidate Scott McAdams told reports he has never seen an Alaskan politician escorted by armed guards with Secret Service earpieces. He said that his entourage consists of his son or daughter.

Miller's attempt to avoid discussion about his ethics problems during his days as an attorney for small town has only lead to the press opening the discussion further. Miller has not been able to put this back into the box. His failure at damage control has led to a further decline in his popularity. Remember after he won the primary, he was at 53% and was a lock. Now he is at 34% and is in a three-way tie.

Scott McAdams got the best line of the debate. Asked to say something nice about Lisa Murkowski. She said,"She's less Right than Miller. But then John Birch was less Right than Miller."

Don't feel sorry if Sharron Angle loses. Nevada will have to appoint a new Senator soon when Ensign is forced to resign. And the governor's seat will remain Republican.

Love will find a way. The Love Gov, Governor Sanford of South Carolina is still seeing his Argentine bombshell. This is reported by his former wife. Elliot Spitzer's madam is now running for Governor of New York. Next, we might see Diaper Dave Vitter's New Orleans Madam run.

Recent polls show the California races are tightening but this just may be outlier polls.

Apparently, the Chamber of Commerce is angry at Velvet Revolution, the website which created the Stop the Chamber campaign. The Velvet Revolution has requested the FBI to investigate threats against them by Chamber employees and management.

Advocacy groups are just flooding the FEC, the IRS and the FBI with complaints against the Chamber. A veterans group charged their funding creates a "clear and present danger" to our democracy because of the foriegn component. Karl Rove and Republican apologists are trying to laugh off the charges. But yesterday, it became clear that Saudi businesses owned by the royal family were funding some of the anti-Democrat attacks ads. Naturally, torture man, Marc Thiessen asks in the Washington Post who's funding the Democrat's attack ads. This is going to blow up on conservatives like an exploding cigar.

Check out the website www.immenseconsequences.com for how the military is faring with the suspension of DADT. Secretary of Defense Bill Gates complained that the repeal of DADT would have "immense consequences" for the military. The website lists the type of incidents, etc. one can look forward to--complete with a running clock that started once the Judge ruled DADT unconstitutional. Naturally, total number of incidents so far is "O". Judge Virginia Phillips just didn't buy DOJ's argument for a stay and ruled the appeal to continue.

All The News Unfit To Print

In case your television was broadcasting Sarah Palin and Michael Steele's 2,000 person rally in California, President Obama appeared at a rally on the campus of Ohio State University, where only 35,000 showed up. Our commentators felt that this might have been mis-timed because Wisconsin beat Ohio State in football the night before and Obama might not be able to rally his base. Maybe it's true but everyone there was enthused.

At least Obama can rally his base when he appears on Mythbusters to demonstrate whether Archimedes really did burn the invading fleet with mirrors.

Albert Hunt, the former Wall Street Journal columnist and now a writer for Bloomberg News, warns about the major scandal coming out of this election season, which will involve politicians, bribes and secret money. He says that this will be worse than Watergate.

Remember Congressman DeFazio trying to find out who was behind Concerned Taxpayers of America? Well, apparently, someone did find out whose backing Art Robinson, Climate Change denier and advocate for more nuclear testing for our own health. The Concerned Taxpayers is not an inaccurate title. It does refer to more than 1. It's two--Robert Mercer of a New York-based Hedge Fund and Daniel Schuster Inc. of Owings Mill, Maryland. That's it. So these anonymous two guys are buying up some ads to run against one Maryland Congressman and one Oregon congressman, who must have offended them personally. I wonder what they did to create such a fuss.

The Left in the United States owes all of us an apology for mis-using the word Fascist all these many decades. Because now is the time where it applies.

Exhibit A. Joe Miller, the Tea Party Thug candidate in Alaska, answers a question on how we can deal with illegal immigration and he answers "If East Germany can do it, we can." That's like conservatives telling me that even though we used North Korean techniques to torture people we're not as bad as North Korea. Put aside the issue of where illegal immigrants are coming from to land on the shores of Alaska. Or how many people really tried to smuggle themselves into East Germany? But notice, please, how fungible Miller's once stated libertarianism is and how quick he wants to use police state tactics.

But the kicker of the evening occured when Tony Hopfinger, the founder and editor of the Alaska Dispatch, started asking Miller about the reports of his illegal behavior at his former job. His father had e-mailed the tea party that this wasn't a problem because Miller did it on the weekend. Hopfinger tried to follow up. But Miller had his security people threaten Hopfinger with trespassing--this was public property--and they handcuffed him. The Alaskan police had to show up and uncuff the reporter.

Of course, the Miller camp immediately sent out an e-mail trying to rationalize their action. Now who is Tony Hopfinger? He is the host and moderator of tonight's Senate debate in Alaska. Can you imagine if this had happened with Tom Brokow, who moderated the Whitman-Brown debate? Remember this wasn't a mistake. This happened in full view and with the permission of the candidate.

Now who were the security guards? This is an issue the media has not picked up on but the tea baggers have security guards of dubious backgrounds. Miller's thugs look like Skin-heads. They come from a local security company named "Drop Zone Security", who boast members of the Alaskan militia, which is more right-wing than the Michigan militia, and former employees of Blackwater. We know these people from the twenties and thirties in Germany.

Maybe if we looked hard enough, we would find that Miller really is a member like Todd Palin of the Alaska Independence Party, which was founded by a man who wanted the United States to be consumed by fire. He blew himself up with dynamite while building bombs.

I refer all readers to Richard Evans' The Coming of the Third Reich (Penguin Press), which deals with the origins of Nazism, the development of its ideas and its rise to power in 1933. It should be mandatory reading for all Americans, who want to know what's going to happen.

The AP decided to run a story today that the 111th Congress probably accomplished more than the landmark 89th Congress of 1965-1966. Norman Ornstein, the last sane man at AEI, puts this Congress' actions on a par with the Congress that passed civil rights legislation and Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, reaction set in on that Congress and Democrats lost 48 seats in the House that year. Ornstein has previously written that Barack Obama has accomplished in his short term more than any President since LBJ. Other scholars have noted he was accomplished more than Carter and Clinton combined.

Scott Rasmussen predicts Republicans will win 55 seats this year. That would surpass the 1994 Newt Revolution. I'm still not buying into this as of yet.

I know we like good honest debates between candidates. But I enjoy the Jack Conway-Rand Paul debates, which are descending into mud fights. Conway got in the best line: "As Attorney-General of Kentucky, I'm always amused to get a lecture in constitutional law from a self-certified opthalmologist." Bang. Zoom. Ouch. Paul wouldn't shake Conway's hand last night because he had questioned his faith. I knew that ad was a dicey gamble but I'm glad Conway is one Democrat who turned the religion cards against Paul. I hope in 2012 we see more of this, aimed at the self-righteous radical Christian right.

Republican John Raese is fighting back against Gov. Manchin's ad saying he lives in Florida. His response--"We have a home in Colorado also." I'm sure West Virginian voters will appreciate that. That makes it all the more reasonable he's running for Senate in a state where he doesn't live.

E.J. Dionne has a good piece in this morning's Washington Post about the multi-level strategy being used by the Republicans this year, where they can claim plausible deniability on the smear campaigns. He also points to the article in the new New Yorker piece about the radical right wing roots for some of the teabagger ideology.

It's so bad that even the New York Post endorsed Andrew Cuomo over Carl Palladino. So even some people in Murdoch land cringe at the lunacy of the teabaggers.

Remember my observation that the vast sums of money being raised by Republicans is somewhat neutralized because they pay so much for fund-raising? Well, John Bircher Sharron Angle blew through $10 million over the last 3 months. One-third of that was spent on fund-raising.

President Obama has boxed himself in on DADT. Instead of fighting the court ruling that it was unconstitutional, the Administration should have left itself wiggle room. It's clear to me that Gates wants to delay repealing it for his own good. It's also clear to me John McCain is playing some inside game with the Pentagon. McCain vows to filibuster the Defense Appropriations bill if it includes DADT, which he did before recess.

First, we will know the results of the elections by the time this comes up. We know the results will show a more conservative Senate and a nutty House. The prospects of getting any Congress to repeal it would be diminished. The House already repealed it. I would make McCain actually filibuster the Bill--make the Republicans speak on the floor of the Senate for ever. Then President Obama should acknowledge the DADT can't be repealed by legislative action and sign an executive order like Harry Truman did on integrating the army. This is a policy that needs to be killed as soon as possible and waiting for a process to do it isn't right to the men and woman in uniform who face discharge every day. Obama would have two years to recover from any backlash. We would already have experienced the first wave of reaction on November 2.

The other item on the agenda after recess will be the tax-cuts. The Administration has to play power politics on this. President Obama must make it clear he will veto any extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy on the basis of fiscal responsibility. I bet the House under the Republicans will suspend the PayGo rules to adopt these tax cuts.

19 Days to Go--My How Times Flies!

So Electoral-Politics.com has today's polling at 50 Senate seats for the Democrats, 47 for Republicans and now 3 tied. For the first time, Republicans have a 203-202 lead over the Democrats with 30 seats tied.

Nate the Great lowered his percentage for Republicans taking the Senate to 18%. Personally, I have the Democrats winning between 52 and 56 seats right now. The Senate looks secure. Remember the Democrats started this cycle by basically ceding Arkansas, North Dakota and Indiana. So they start out at 55 seats. My high estimate is a fantasy of Democrats either taking Kentucky or another Democratic seat and holding all the rest.

Is the American voter acting rationally? For the past year with all the hype about the Tea Party and the full reign of insanity shown on the conservative websites and Fox News, one begins to wonder. The media narrative is that we are facing an enormous Republican tidal wave because Obama has govern from the Left. Since we are supposed to be a conservative country, Americans are so outraged that you could run an empty suit or pantsuit with an R by his or her name and get elected.

At this moment--prior to the final money frenzy--is there any evidence of this? One reassuring phenomenon is that there is a great deal of difference in many states between the governor races and the Senate and--to a lesser degree-the House races. For instance, Ohio ,which is a really strange state the more I travel in it, shows that the race between Gov. Strickland and John Kasich is neck and neck, while the Senate race shows Rob Portman (R) walking away with it. Portman is Bush's former OMB director but is running as a normal Republican in a state that votes this way. He would be replacing Voinovich, a moderate conservative who has strongly condemned the influence of the South on the GOP.

Once the avalanche of Chamber ads hit Washington State, Patty Murray started opening the gap against Republican Dino Rossi. The Chamber ads only reinforced the view that Rossi is a crooked businessmen.

In Connecticut, Linda McMahon was a woman issue. Women voters can't stand her. This was what brought down Sarah Palin. Women in Connecticut report being repulsed by seeing her ads everyday.

Another positive sign is that general election voters are beginning to turn off on the teabaggers. In Maine Tom LePage had a 15 percentage lead for Governor, opening his mouth a few times more and he only has a 1% lead. By election day, it will be the third parties who will determine whether Le Page will squeak to victory. But the momentum is now on the Democrat's side.

Alaska's Senate race could become the surprise of election night. Joe Miller is disintegrating. His former boss, a Republican, finally made a statement about what he knows about Miller's seven years part-time work as an attorney for the small borough. Miller used the public computers of government employees to try and rig the election for the Republican party chair by submitting proxy votes in these peoples' names. It was a serious violation of the town's ethical policy and was a firing offense. But the city manager intervened and wanted Miller around to complete one last project, having to do with the taxing of the gasoline project. Then he left his job. This was one of the issues Miller kept hiding. Before this, the more he spoke the more his approval ratings fell and he had a 1 pt. lead over Lisa Murkowski. Again it comes down to a three way race.

Unfortunately, in Colorado, voters have on occasion sent madmen to the Senate. Senator Hank Brown was a straight libertarian, who wanted to cut off all USAID funding and end the entire National Endowment for Democracy because we had won the Cold War and all this was unnecessary. Their own party chairman Bruce Benson sought the governorship and would have won if his physically violent fights weren't recorded and aired on television. So, it is conceivable that someone like Ken Buck, who wants to eliminate the Department of Education, privatize Social Security, and have women who have been raped bear the child, could get elected. However, his own ethics issues are surfacing and his failure to prosecute a rapist, because the victim previously had an abortion, is beginning to draw a reaction. This comes down to voter turnout.

Would Florida voters really vote Rick Scott, a man whom many Republicans have publicly said should be in prison? Now that Alex Sink is focusing on Scott's record, she has moved out in front and the momentum is going her way.

So the gubernatorial races will be a mixed bag on election day and the Senate will simply reflect the usual attrition for the President's party. So far, this doesn't appear to be Mark Halperin's scenario that "Obama is in the Jaws of Death."

But we still have no clue as to the House. The reason control of the House this year is vital is because Republicans intend not to fund the Healthcare and Wall Street Reform bills. They know they can't repeal it. Also, they want to conduct a series of prolonged investigations into the imaginary crimes of the Obama Administration. They know at this point they can't impeach because of the Democratic majority in the Senate. Also, the Republicans are still clueless about the economy. John Boehner released a new plan last week to create jobs but economic think-tanks have studied his proposal and said it would cause another 1.1 million jobs to be lost. Also, the continuation of the tax cuts for the wealthy would only cost another $80 billion for two years and if permanent at least $750 billion.

We know Boy Genius Karl Rove has thrown in the towel on the Senate because he announced a new push on House seats. This is also in coordination with the Chamber of Commerce. People who have been canvassing the districts have been reporting dread and fear about the deluge of ads coming. Some of the expenditures on House districts are over $10 million. With most Americans in wobbly financial shape, won't this ostentatious flaunting of wealth back-fire? 47% of Americans say that they are less likely to vote for a candidate who is aided by anonymous donors. Only 7% were more likely to vote for such a person. And if you really believe everyone is a Glenn Beck he made it publically clear he has donated $10,000 to the Chamber today.

We simply have never seen such media bombardment of the electorate in such a short time. To get some idea about the magnitude of the problem, Karl Rove's Crossroads America--the American Chamber of Commerce and the anonymous conservative front groups--will spend more than the entire DNC and all their election committees and the RNC and all its commitees combined. That is stunning and potentially destabilizing to the American political system. What you now have is a gigantic Third Force, with no transparency and accountability, trying to directly determine the outcome of the election.

Now the next problem with this is that the ads both Rove and the Chamber are running are false in their accusations against candidates. Many local news stations and the media are pointing this out. In Pennsylvania, some of the ads had to be pulled because they were so inaccurate. But oftentimes the damage is done. This takes Willy Horton to the next level. In many states, where some of Rove's ads have run, people note the fear-mongering aspect and the deliberate distortion of the candidate's record or ,many times, total non-record on the issue.

While we are used to this with the Swiftboaters and Willy Horton. Candidates could fight back--even though Kerry didn't--against the other party and the deliberate smears. Now we have anonymous assassins, who can smear politicians without consequence. One of the Republican candidates ,who has been endorsed by the Chamber, is getting nervous about this and called for the FEC to audit the Chamber on the source of its funds.

Shareholders in Fox and other corporations are demanding answers about the directors' use of funds for political purposes. But this will not affect anything for another two years and it may be too late.

The interesting aftermath of this anonymous money was brought home by Howard Fineman, now writing for Huffingtonpost.com. Fineman claims that this opens a bag of worms for the Republican presidential primaries. You will have all these secret front-groups launching ads against various candidates and saying anything they please. There will be utterly no accountability and no one will know who is backing whom. This is a recipe for total chaos. Fineman speculates on a Mormon-Harvard-Bain frontgroup to get behind Romney. But remember the teabaggers like Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and Joe Miller will have scads of money left-over, which can be funneled into the presidential primary. In this case, Barack Obama will be the prime beneficiary. The odds this money will produce a real extreme rightwing Republican candidate.

For a different opinion, Karl Rove claims that the Center for American Progress, which released their investigations into the Chamber, doesn't release its own donors and is run by John Podesta, who was on the transition team of Barack Obama, who knows Bill Ayers, who blew up the Pentagon's toilets. Unfortunately for Karl and the Chamber, Think Progress continued its investigation and found even more foreign funders for the Chamber, despite their assurances they received only $100,000 from abroad.

There is one other thing about the media narrative. How do we get to a massive republican landslide with one party significantly lower in approval than the current party in power? Also, why is it a great things for billionaires and businesses and banks to secretly fund campaigns when this class of people have significantly less respect than politicians. It's like the slime leading the slime.

Hopefully, in the words of Woody Guthrie "You fascists will lose."

30 Days To Go

So here we are a month out. This morning it was 51-49 Dems in the Senate, 202-201 Dems in the House and the rest tied. The Dailykos pollster again put Dems back to 51 Senate seats.

Today, American banks have $1.8 trillion in cash and American corporations $1.7 trillion in cash. The DOW is above 11,000. Yet Depression stalks the land. Now if you want to go back to the time America was losing 750,000 jobs a month, be my guest and support the candidates supported by the American Chamber of Commerce and the intelligence services of Russia, India, China and Saudi Arabia.

I don't know why some group doesn't run ads in the election: "the American Chamber of Commerce wants us to go back to the days when we we're losing 750,000 jobs a month. Their funders do. We don't." And list the top 18 companies who are members.And keep playing it around the country.

Barack Obama's first forays into the mid-term campaign was his stock speech about how Republicans got us in the ditch and now we got the car back on the road they want the keys back. Delivered with fun it was a good speech but did not make the visceral impact to translate into the campaign. Obama also made the point that Republicans were doubling down on Bush policies. I also thought this was not alarmist enough.

So how do you make this theme kick in? Enter Boy Genius Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, the masterminds of the George W. Republican Party, with their anonymous billionaire's club. This are the very guys who ran the car into the ditch and they are coordinating their campaign with the Chamber. Beltway punditry says that Democrats are making too much over nothing here. The Chamber sends out a PR notice that none of their money comes from abroad. Don't believe them. But as Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who is pretty straight, said on Rachel Maddow last night the polling on this issue is a big score for Democrats. Voters are starting to focus as we run down the stretch and they are beginning to connect the dots--Bush cronies versus America.

Y0u wonder why I think Karl Rove is a net plus for Democrats. Yes, he can rig elections in Alabama and mobilize voter suppression in Ohio, but he lost the 2000 election, he barely won 2004 with a sitting war-time President and lost both the Senate and the House in 2006. The Bush people basically had a covert economic and foreign policy. If you want to influence elections quietly, why would you brag to the Washington Post and New York Times you are meeting at your home with wealthy people to plot strategy in this year's elections? You have to be so egotistical or totally clueless or both. And if you are an anonymous billionaire donor, why would you like to see Rove and Gillepsie all over the television screens? I know much of this is psychological, but now that the fat is in the fire, why would you brag as Ed Gillespie did to the New York Times that an anonymous donor just gave you a million dollars yesterday?

Then the Chamber of Commerce, now convinced it neutralized Democrats' attacks on its ad campaign, vowed to increase its expenditure in defiance. If I were a legitimate business, I would run from these guys. Remember the Chamber spent billions upon billions to stop healthcare reform, wall street reform, credit card reform and the reform of the student loan programs. AND THEY LOST. Now they figure the expenditure of a few million around the country will literally buy them the Congress they need. This really should be a Democratic ad, "the Chamber fought reform with billions paid to lobbyists, now they want to buy Congress for a few million. Tell them No."

As Celinda Lake pointed out, not only is the anonymous aspect of this gigantic ad campaign an issue in the campaign but voters are connecting this to the issue of outsourcing in the key Midwestern states. I never thought "outsourcing" could have become a viable issue since it has been going on for over a decade. But the Chamber has made it so by their heavy-handed campaign and ensured that the more conservative blue-collar voter will stay in the Democratic column.

Tantrums by George Will and other conservative columnists that unions are doing the same may get the Republican base enthused but no one else believes this stuff with the Chamber spending three times Labor will be on the election.

What is strange in all this is that the psychological dynamic has changed. Democrats, who control the Presidency and the Congress, are now perceived not as incumbents but as underdogs. Congratulations, Karl Rove. Notice how seamless the faux populist Tea Baggers has melded into the GOP and how Karl Rove and the Chamber are funnelling millions to their campaigns. Since this alliance has become so overt, even the teabaggers like Art Johnson in his debate with Russ Feingold had to admit he couldn't stop these anonymous ads and had no influence over these groups. That's pretty damaging that you can't even control your own campaign.

These tea baggers are beginning to look like the carpetbaggers of old. Rand Paul kicks off his campaign in New York City for a run for the Senate in Kentucky. Joe Miller commutes from Alaska to fund-raise among corporate donors in D.C. Sharron Angle receives mega-millions from anymous donors. So the great popular uprising against Barack Obama is kaput. The teabaggers are just the astro-turf corporate fronts their critics always said they were.

Notice how quiet the media is now about the great populist Tea Party movement? Yes, there are stories about the fun and crazy aspects of these candidates. But is anyone really writing that they are serious as a group or movement?

I've written many times that Barack Obama changed our political language and that his language will be the dominant vocabulary for the next period of our political history as Ronald Reagan controlled the terms of the debate for a generation. I still maintain this. The optics--everyone loves the word "optics"--have changed back to his agenda and he and the Democrats are again portrayed as the underdogs and the insurgents. The GOP tried 20 months of this imitation of what they think is the Left and simply exposed themselves as shameless defenders of large corporations and the very, very wealthy.

The GOP strategy could only work in this mid-term. This is the last chance for white males to dominate the electorate for the foreseeable future. By 2012, we will be back with millenials, gays, women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Muslim-Americans. The GOP electoral strategy for the last several election cycles is to suppress turnout, narrow the electoral pool. Right now the GOP only dominates the oldest demographic, which will continue to die off. This is the last chance they have before they must change their ways.

If only a small percent of Obama's surge voters come out in the mid-term, the GOP advance will be neutralized. Do the Democrats have enough time to achieve this? I don't know. The biggest financial assaults on the electorate are soon to come. But we know from polls in California that the barrage of Meg Whitman ads turned the voter off. We know from the last election that the GOP's robocalls against Obama in Maine created a backlash. We are seeing some this happening now in races in lower population states.

Of course, if you rent a candidate, strange things can happen. Carl Paladino's anti-gay remarks only sparked a Daily News article how he owns Cobalt and Buddies, two gay clubs in Buffalo. Sharron Angle warns about the threat of sharia law citing a town in Texas that doesn't even exist anymore-it's just a cemetary and a few houses incorporated into Dallas. Joe Miller can't seem to explain how he's earned a living since graduating from Yale Law School. Republican Iott, the Nazi re-enactor, can't explain what he does for a living except to claim he's a local businessman. But his Ohio records show he claims to be a soldier. These people are self-destructing.

Or you can shoot your self in the head like Rand Paul. Barely escaping from his social security and Medicare snafus, he came out yesterday for replacing the income tax with a flat tax. Apparently, Rand doesn't keep abreast with what happened to teabaggers Ken Buck in Colorado who proposed the same thing. He was slammed with an endless series of ads showing how everything you purchased would cost more by 35%. He since reneged on this position. But Rand marches bravely forward.

Local polls are emerging in specific races showing gains for Democrats in both the Senate and gubernatorial races. Early voting apparently has benefited Democrats. The Republican take-over of all the Midwest governors' mansions now seems shaky. The race in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio are now toss-ups, when they were leaning Republican. Democrats will pick up the governorships in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hawaii,and probably California and Florida. And, as I've written for over a year, Texas is open. Rick Perry just stepped into another scandal yesterday of giving away millions in state funds to his contributors.

The Senate races in Washington and West Virginia are breaking into the open. Dino Rossi in Washington looked competitive until the barrage of Chamber ads reminded voters of Rossi's own dubious business background. Who knows what RFK, Jr.'s endorsement of Charlie Crist will do in Florida? That race is looking more like Rubio.

In Alaska, Teabagger Joe Miller is now close to 35% to Lisa Murkowski's 33%. That's almost a 15-point drop in a week.

The interesting question I have is whether this year's polls will get more accurate as move to election day or less accurate. Some of the local polls in Washington state and Nevada appear to me to be giving a more accurate picture of most national polls.

The other question I have is where will the money go that Sharron Angle, Joe Miller and Christine O'Donnell have accumulated after the election? Any bets on a little theft by the Grifters?

Remember the October 30th Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert rally in Washington,D.C. Musical guests are Mavis Staples and Wilco's own Jeff Tweedy. So it's worth going to if you are nearby. KEEP FEAR ALIVE!

Finally, Meg Whitman has tossed another $20 million into her campaign to buy California, bringing her over $140 million. She makes the Chamber of Commerce look like pikers.

The Continuing War against America

Karl Rove is still fuming about being attacked by the White House. Yesterday he called on President Obama to release his enemies list. Bob Gibbs had fun in saying they didn't have one so now Karl Rove can release the names of his donors. Rove claimed that President Obama wasn't concerned about the donors of Think Progress, who are all openly known. Rove was trying a dog-whistle here about George Soros, which the Chamber had already used. Unfortunately for Rove, George Soros told the New York Times on a separate matter that he was n o longer getting involved in elections in the United States and could not stop the Republican avalanche. The Washington punditry tried to downplay the charges against the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove but outside the beltway the charges are sticking.

We are now down to the Air War versus the Ground War. The tsunami of money is to pour in the elections this week. Just imagine some of the waste. Conservative groups have ponied up $10 million to defeat Alan Grayson in Florida. Sharron Angle declared her last quarter fund-raising topped $14 million from conservative groups. The AFL-CIO has announced its will expand its ground operation to 20 more House seats and vow to be the strategic dam for the Democrats.

But there are some strange things happening out on the hustings. Republicans are trying desparately to avoid debates. Michelle Bachmann even skipped a debate held 15 minutes from her house. They are even avoiding interviews with the local press. Alaskan Teabagger Joe Miller has come under more fire recently as the Alaskan newspapers are simply asking what did he ever do for a living. Miller was supposed to have held a press conference yesterday afternoon but cancelled it and said he would not answer any questions about his private life for the rest of the campaign. He said he was "drawing a line in the sand."

I watched several of the candidate debates yesterday. Joe Miller came across as a thug and an ignoramus. Democrat Scott McAdams outlined his qualifications for the job but came across as very young in attitude. Asked whom he admired in the Senate, he talked about Jon Tester of Montana and mentioned an older Alaskan senator. Lisa Murkowski spoke also and talked about Tad Stevens and others. Both candidates received sustained applause. Joe Miller said that he admired Jim DeMint. There was dead silence--you could hear tumbleweed roll by. There seems to be more buyers' remorse with Miller and questions are being raised about everything from his resume, to his debts and to his positions.

The Koch Brothers' Tea Party Express is due to dump $500,000 on Miller's campaign this week. But polls are actually showing tremendous slippage in Miller--his support now is evaporating down from the 50% to mid-30s in no time.

I had already written off Russ Feingold as dead for his refusal to accept out of state financing in Wisconsin. But his internal polls show it is now tied at 48-48 after two victories in the debates. Even Rasmussen shows Feingold has cut Johnson lead to 7% from 12% in no time.

Chris Coons still maintains a 16% lead over Christine O'Donnell even though her money train arrives this week. Delaware is a state where Democrats will also pick up Mike Castle's old House seat.

Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer, is being staalked now by Terry Goddard, the Attorney-General who refused to defend the Arizona immigration law. Goddard is only 3 back among registered voters, and some 11 with likely voters. The strong momentum is based on Goddard winning the Hispanic vote.

Governor Mankin has taken the lead in West Virginia after his hard-hitting ads. He launched his third one in a row with real West Virginians firefighters talking about his Republican opponent.

Mark Kirk of Illinois , who now is behind the Democratic, was caught on tape talking about "voter integrity squads" to be sent to "vulnerable districts", mainly Hispanic and Black areas. Traditionally, this is GOP speak for vorter suppression efforts and Kirk earlier had bragged about how he had the best voter suppression effort in the state.

I watched the James Conway-Rand Paul debate in Kentucky. Remember Conway got more votes in his primary than Paul did in the GOP. Registered Democrats in the state outnumber Repubicans by 600,000. Conway is a handsome ,articulate candidate with a sure grasp of the issues. Rand Paul was caught off guard and showed he didn't know much about his own state. He tried to cast the debate as a protest against Barack Obama, sounding all the racial dogwhistles. But I don't think it worked. Rand Paul came across as an awkward ,inarticulate personality. Conway dominated the whole debate both visually and verbally. Today, Rand Paul tried to get back at Clinton campaigning in the state, saying how can you believe a person who had an affair with an intern. Clearly Rand was wounded.

Ken Jenson at PPP polling says that he thinks the Republicans will take the House by a wide margin but the Democrats will do much better in the Senate than anyone thinks. On the Senate I happen to agree with him. Last night I reviewed some House polls, which show the Democrats can pick up 10 Republican seats, meaning that the Republicans need 49 seats to take the House. While Nate Silver projects a Republican win also, he also points out that the highest odds are for 47-48 seats.

Major Garrett, former Fox news reporter, writing in the Washington Monthly, outlines the whole Democratic approach since a week after Barack Obama took the oath of office. Even then the Democratic leadership told their members what the Republicans had in store for them in 2010. With a strategy created by Rahm Emmanual, the Democrats sought to raise funds early and often so that vulnerable members would have a cushion when the onslaught began. The whole idea was that the Democrats could maintain control of the House by a bare minimum and still claim victory.

Polls, more Polls and Hocus Pocus

Nate Silver today has increased the odds of the Republicans taking the House, saying the Democratic comeback is only slight and that the local environment in House races still favor Republicans. He also said that Republicans have increased their odds but only to 25% of taking the Senate.

And now the whining begins about polls but there are some interesting complaints that should be taken seriously. Gallup last likely voter screen was amazingly lopsided for conservatives --54%--and for Republicans, raising serious questions about its validity. The CNN poll which shows Sharron Angle leading by two points over Harry Reid, neglected to poll anyone under the age of 35. Rasmussen polls and the Fox polls in Nevada also showed heavy samplings of men and Republicans. At this rate I am totally confused and so are all the pollsters.

There are some anecdotal stories that cast the situation in a slightly different situation. John Ralston, the veteran political reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, wrote a piece yesterday that expressed amazement of the last few polls that showed Angle leading Harry Reid. He wrote that he has been travelling around the state and he can not think of anyone more marginalized than Angle. He writes that there does exist an extensive anybody but Harry sentiment but that has not translated into support for Angle. He said he asks every gathering to show hands about who's going to vote for Harry . The early meeting started with about 50% raising their hands and now it's about two-thirds. The other point he makes is that no one is polling for all candidates including the Tea Party candidate and in Nevada you have "none of the above" as a choice.

While pollster now show Republicans are 50 seats in the Senate, this means they have to win Illinois, Nevada, West Virginia,Colorado and Washington, where Dino Rossi is now challenging Patty Murray. The Dailykos pollster has the Senate now at 51 but a close analysis actually shows 6 races where Democrats are within 7 or less.

More anecedotal hearsay, I spoke with a lifelong Republican, who works in the House. This person reported that the Democratic staff believes they will lose the House but this person believes that the Republicans have recruited such strange candidates that they will come short. This person alaso said that the new crop of Democrats, even though they represent traditionally Republican districts are nicer and more hard-working than their older Democratic counterparts and actually are good representatives. This may be one of the reasons that polls for people running in Joe Sestak old seat or Tom Pierrello here in Virginia are much more competitive than previously thought.

My naivete still amazes me. In this conversation with the Republican, the person complained about the quality of the Republican recruits by saying surely the GOP could have done better because "they are paying these people to run." I had never heard that about candidates. "But it makes alot of sense with the Teabaggers and other fruitloops in the races. So the cynicism here is great. You campaign on any crazy idea you have so has to get the base enthused--we cover you overhead with the Chamber of Commerce ads--you win and then all you obey the instructions from the corporate lobbyists, but still maintain the facade of the great patriot. So this year we really do have hundreds of Manchurian candidates--little robots that will not represent your district but some multinational.

Now the Chamber of Commerce's chief lobbyist was dispatched yesterday to explain to the Washington Post and New York Times editorial boards that there was nothing to worry about on the charges that the Chamber is using foreign funds for attack ads. But Think Progress pressed further and found that the Chamber and Karl Rove's outfit are coordinated by a former Chamber legal counsel and both are using the same ad agency for their attack ads. Think Progress reproduced the ad schedules in certain Senate races showing how they are piggybacking on each other. Remarkably the Republican Senatorial Committee isn't spending a dime on the Missouri race, it's all the Chamber, Rove and faceless conservative groups.

But the foreign element hasn't been as camouflaged as much as the Chamber likes. Pat Toomey in his race with Joe Sestak gave a full-throated defense of corporations shipping jobs to Chinese and the Chinese economic policy in general. This in steel mill Pennsylvania. Nancy Pelosi in her rebuttal to John Boehner's final call speech blasted the House Republicans for repeatedly voting against closing the tax loopholes against corporations that ship jobs overseas and against real small businesses.

The Chamber tried to defend themselves by saying labor does the same thing. An important distinction, the American Labor movement openly discloses to whom it's contributing funds. You can see the records at the Department of Labor. Second point, the American labor movement are real flesh and blood Americans. The UAW and the Steelworkers have Canadians members also. But they do not have Bahrain state owned banks as members.

While President Obama and the Democrats are trying to seize this issue. As several reporters have pointed out, this is not resonating because people think all politicians use this money. The Chamber's behavior this cycle will be a major issue in 2012 because you will see the dramatic results in Republican behavior if they take back the House.

Even so, I would urge C.R.E.W. and other watchdog groups to insist that the Chamber register as foreign agents for any lobbying they do in the future. As I said yesterday, the prohibition on foreign money in our elections recalls the Cold War. Contrary to Justice Roberts thinking he was repealing century old prohibitions against foreign funds, the teeth to these laws came during the Cold War for the simple reason American officials were concerned for Soviet attempts to manipulate our political system.

Now with the declaration of war by fundamentalist Christians and American corporations against the United States, who better to manipulate the situation than the world's most political powerful Pentecoastal Christian, former KGB head Vladimir Putin? Think about it.
The last President said he could trust him by looking into his heart.

Could we give it up for America's great Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont? Yesterday, America's greatest "pork barrel" scheme went into effect. Sanders attached the amendment to the Healthcare Reform bill of funding a nationwide network of Free Clinics for people who can not afford medical treatment. Blasted by Fox News and the Republicans as a massive payoff to Vermont, it actually benefited the whole nation. Heath and Human Services made their first payment yesterday of over $770 million for the free clinics. Bravo.

Meanwhile in Northern Exposure, the teabagger candidate and Todd Palin's friend, Joe Miller continues to astound me. Joe Miller finally had to file his personal income forms with the FEC or face $50,000 fines. Joe has more credit card debt than myself--an astonishing $65,000, $15-30,000 in college student debt, $55,000 in Law School debt, and claims he loaned his campiagn between $120-200,000. He also owes back real estate taxes and has a small "agricultural" land holding for which he receives government subsidies. So, he's immensely leveraged. Remember he has been earning $70,000 a year and his wife is on unemployment. I would like to see the paperwork on the alleged "loan" to the campaign. That will be his payment for running and be used to pay off his debt. The Alaska Grifters Society is fantastic on gaming the political system.

Joe Miller already has promised to shut down the Federal Government and claims he has Mitch McConnell's blessings (since denied) to do so when he wins. Back here in Virginia, the teaparty held a convention because they are concerned that the Republicans will betray them and not shut down the Government. Also they are demanding that the first piece of business is for the House Republicans to vote to repeal the Healthcare bill. Then they can shut down the Government. Of course, in the real world, we are teetering on a Depression, fighting two wars and millions upon millions are dependent on the federal government for small things like Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Benefits and Income Tax Refunds. Even Joe Miller's father receives Social Security. He must hate him alot. Eric Cantor has shied away from this,"We'll look like Yahoos."

Progressives tend to think that this is all choreographed but the Republican startegy for the past 20 months has been a work in progress. Once the Tea Baggers toppled establishment types, the financial kingpins have moved in to use the Christine O' Donnell's and other exotic creatures as the shiny metal object for the media and others to observe, while they work covertly behind the House Represenatives and other Senatorial candidates they need to win. It looks clever and cynical, but it's all made-up. That's why if the Republicans take the House, it's going to be a free-for-all. None of the new Republicans will have even read the Pledge and they have no loyalty to Bohner, Cantor or the Young Guns. Over on the Senate side, Jim DeMint will be their leader, not Mitch McConnell so all hell will break loose. Joe Miller will be demanding that any bill will have to be evaluated whether it is constitutional. Goodby, CIA. Goodby, standing military. That would be sort of fun.

That's why I want the implosion to be Republican-specific. Even with slight majorities in both chambers, the Democrats can at least minimize the total damage to our political system. President Obama is already studying what policies he can implement by executive order so as to short-circuit the mayhem these people will create.

If the Republicans take back the House, Galileo will be tried again. Rep. Sesenbrenner wants to hold hearings on the "Climate Change Hoax" and wants to investigate all the leading scientists who have studied the subject. Maybe we can have Michelle Bachmann investigate evolution. Rep. Issa might be hampered with his ACORN investigation because the GOP is now hiring these people for their Get Out the Vote effort. But he will surely focus on the New Black Panther Party.

Think about this sad fact, the only moderate Republicans left in Congress will be Senator Lugar, Senators Snowe and Collins, the last I'm not so sure about. The ACU rating on the House side will rise above the 95% rating now. It's one thing for a major political party to blow its brains out but to afflict the whole country is criminal.

Forget the Hope and Change--Vote the Criminal Class

The post below was a celebration of IDS'15th anniversary and a thank you to all the human rights activists who have donated their time and ideas generously over the years. It also carried my thoughts on my 60th birthday. Since it was written on another computer, I guess it got scrambled by the National Security Agency. The long and short of it is that I now should be called by the Swahili honorific Mzee. So from now on , Mzee McColm if you please. No more Senor Bruce.

A follow-up note about Karl Rove's appearance at Oberlin. Rove has very strict clauses in his speaking contracts that any who might disrupt his speeches must be removed or he personally will leave and you have to pay. So one person sought to make a citizens' arrest and was himself arrested. Protestors were disrupted beforehand based not on the First Amendment but Karl's contract. He basically forces his host to break the law. Anyone remember what used to happen if someone in a George W. Bush audience asked him a hostile question, even politely. They were bodily removed and arrested. That's Karl's signature.

I was planning to attend the One Nation Rally at the Lincoln Memorial this Saturday at noon. But, should I? Glenn Beck has gone all chalkboard on this one showing that the organizers are all devotees of V.I. Lenin and want to takeover America for Marxism. Since Organizing for America is urging people to attend, Beck wants Obama to denounce socialism and Marxism once and for all. Apparently, Beck didn't hear President Obama in his Wisconsin speak address this criticism of his policies. I haven't been accused of being a Marxist or Socialist for decades so to bring things full circle I'm going and hope everyone who is able can.

But there is an alternative for this year's mid-terms. The nation has a chance to vote for a unique type of candidate this year--the thoroughly criminal. Forget that corporations are pouring anonymous millions into front organizations, forget that the Koch Brothers are trying to buy whole states, including California, forget that the GOP now has a 6-1 funding advantage in terms of advertising. This is your chance to vote for a criminal. And they are everywhere. The criminal profile allows a certain authenticity, a roughness that shows the person isn't a slick politician. With teabagger types, the public can sympathize with their financial difficulties because they are just like you and I, except we would be in jail. We have the run-of-the-mill grifter type like Christine O'Donnell and Joe Miller. We have the Northeast quasi-mobster like Carl Paladino and we have the amazing corporate criminal type like Florida's Rich Scott. The array this year is truly amazing.

Carl Paladino has made Youtube fame with his beef with New York Post veteran, Albany editor Fred Dicker, where he threatens to take Fred out. Fred may have been out of bounds because he went to interview Paladino's "love child", whom Paladino openly accepts and even campaigns with. Paladino has a superstar staff. One senior official is a woman who was forced to quick her government job because she was siphoning off public funds to private businesses. Another was Michael Boomberg's manager for a $1,000,000 GOTV effort the first election and just walked off and bought a house with the money. Another just got out of prison for a DUI accident. But Carl is going to "clean up Albany". Carl received notoriety with his racist e-mails photoshopping President Obama as a pimp and First Lady Michelle Obama as his prostitute. But his more egregious e-mails were discovered by reporters in Buffalo--hard core porn streams to business colleagues and political cronies.

Rick Scott in Florida is also one for the record books. When he beat Bill McCollum in the Republican primary, Bill would not endorse him, saying "I don't know why he isn't in jail." Scott, the CEO of a hospital chain, had to be removed--of course with about a $20 million golden parachute--after federal authorities caught his company in the largest Medicare fraud case in history. The company was forced to pay over $1.1 billion in fines for the crime. But, the kicker is that the criminal part of the case continued all the way until about one month before the elections. Scott in secret testimony is alleged to have invoked the 5th Amendment over 100 times. Then the man has the chutzpah to declare his candidacy for Governor a few weeks later.

Ron Johnson, who is against all government subsidies for business except for his own, testified in Wisconsin against a bipartisan child abuse bill, which would have extended the statute of limitations on pedophilia. He testified as a business man and community leader concerned that law suits would put constraints on many good organizations. Missing was that he was sitting on the Catholic Diocese Board, which was concerned with a rash of cases emerging against priests involved in child abuse. Apparently, this did not involve just one priest, who eventually went to jail, but a bunch through the Green Bay Diocese. He's running against Russ Feingold as the non-politician.

Joe Miller from Alaska first started his grifter act in Kansas where he received farm subsidies. Then he moved to Alaska and applied and received hunting and fishing licenses for the indigent. These are meant for people who must fish and hunt for their daily food and might be excluded because of the limited number of regular licenses. Joe at the time was a lawyer making $70,000 a year. Joe is mandated by law to file with the Federal Elections Commission a statement of his personal income or face upwards of $70,000 in fines. He was supposed to have done this last year but so far he hasn't. Joe also wants to eliminate Social Security. His father survives on Social Security. But you can say Joe knows how to game the system. I personally think he doesn't believe a word he says.

Christine O'Connell makes my own higher education look pretty bad. She's amazing--she has a master's from Princeton, went to Oxford and studied constitutional law at Claremont. And this was all before she even received her B.A. a few weeks ago. I wonder if she's for Sharia Law. Unfortunately, all said institutions issued strong denials of her educational prowess. Apparently she went to none of the above except Farleigh Dickinson. But this makes her more authentic--we all want such an education but we can't afford it. So just make it up. Apparently, she also made up a multi-year law suit on sex discrimination against a conservative organization. This eventually got John Fund to condemn her for lying to him. But John had no problem with her using campaign funds to pay her rent, her mother, her bowling games and her personal gas. "I have no problem with that," John said, invoking the new high standards of conservatives. Now, Christine's own pseudo-Christian non-profit is in jeipardy of losing its legal status because it failed to submit the usual legal papers to the state--and that's a very lax state. But remember Glenn Beck says Chris Coons, the Democrat, is a Marxist.

Meg Whitman has joined the criminal class--probably years before. At her losin debate effort against Jerry Brown, she opined that the law should crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. The next morning her former housekeeper filed suit for damages saying that Queen Meg knew she was illegal for over nine years. Whitman fired her just before she announced she was running for Governor. This all has made the Whitman campaign go Glub,Glub, Glub.

Sharron Angle, who already has made record books for her John Birch views, wants to eliminate government healthcare programs. One slight problem, she is covered by her husband's healthcare plan he got as a government employee. In fact Sharron's main source of income is her husband's goverment pension. Also her father gets both Medicare and VA benefits.

Rand Paul with his bogus medical credentials had a little problem at Dairy Queen the other day. He was supposed to answer questions from local voters but was startled when he saw they were local union guys. He bolted to the car and refused to answer questions. What they wanted to know was how he could suggest a $2,000 deduction for Medicare, when everyone in that neck of the words depended on social security and Medicare.

The avoid questions m.o. makes sense. If you only have to report to the major corporations, why should you have to answer questions from a bunch of voters or , worse, journalists. This is the beauty of the Roberts Court decision on Citizens United. You don't have to disclose the source of your donations and you really don't have to campaign. Just buy alot of air time and make up all your credentials. Want to go to Oxford or Cambridge. Why not? The corporations don't really care what you say. There is a beauty to this.

David Plouffe was on NPR today explaining the real stakes in this election. He did a superb job. But I think the Obama people are making a mistake about Republicans wanting to turn back the clock to the last administration. They want to turn the clock back to the 1890s.

Read another analysis of the House races by a NYU poli sci professor who ran all his computer scenarios and came up with the Democrats keeping the House.

The polling data shows that all the races except in the headline contests in California are tightening up. That good news for Democrats in some places and bad news elsewhere. The Senate will be touch and go throughout the evening.

I am mortified that I got one question wrong on the Pew Survey on Religion. Top scorers were atheists, agnostics, Jews, Mormons, mainstream protestants, then the less knowledgeable evangelicals and Catholics. Catholics were the least savvy in terms of the quiz, even getting their own doctrines wrong. This survey drew all sorts of dismay from pundits. But as someone this morning wrote--the Surveys shows that Americans are more knowledgeable about religion than history or science. Scary.

My wife's note on my birthday card was that she was amazed that she has known me since the age of 21. I find it incredible also but then we are really people of Traditional Family Values instead of the phonies who don't know their own religion.

For the record, I may embrace my inner Teabagger and declare that I am Dr. R. Bruce McColm, expert in Neuroscience. I always liked neuroscience and believe it will yield amazing discoveries in the near future. So why not get ahead of the curve. If Glenn Beck can be a Doctor of Humanities and he lacks all semblence to the humane, why not.

Back from Away

Only two hours away from the United States and America looked ridiculous. From abroad, we look like a bad reality show with the sans culottes running around. Tea parties are for little girls with imaginary friends. Apparenty, there seem to be alot around. The victory of Christine O'Donnell in Delware is like randomly picking a neighbor to be a nominee for the U.S. Senate. Imagine my surprise when from afar I saw Karl Rove actually accuse a Republican of waging a dirty campaign. After all he is the architect. But he soon came back to support her. The question is whether her victory will solidify the larger story of the Republican Party simply going mad.

I came back to E.J. Dionne wakening from a deep sleep to discover moderates are gone from the Republican Party, something anyone breathing could tell you after the last 18 months. Olympia Snowe, who was a long-time friend of Mike Castle from their days in the House, lamented the diminishing number of moderate conservatives left in both chambers. In her home state of Maine, where she won re-election with over 70% of the vote, the tea baggers have taken over the Republican Party and now 68% of them want a more conservative nominee than Snowe the next time around. The role of Senator deMint in fostering runs against incumbent Republicans is beginning to tick Republicans off. Charles Cook, who had predicted a Republican takeover of both houses of Congress has backed off, saying that the O'Donnell win ends the GOP's chances for a victory in the Senate.

How bad is Christine O'Donnell? Besides the various appearances on Bill Maher's comedy shows, she has been sued by a Farleigh Dickinson University for failure to pay outstanding debts, she accepted a graduate scholarship at Claremont even though she didn't graduate from college until this year, and she paid her rent and personal expenses from campaign funds from the last campaign against Joe Biden. She says she is being followed everywhere and must check her bushes. She keeps her home residence private because bill collectors are after her. And she hasn't had a real job in years. She sounds like Allan Keyes without the minimal qualifications.

She must be bad news. The night she beat Mike Castle, his campaign manager walked across the street to the Coons headquarters and picked up lawn signs for Coons. Christine O'Donnell also has imaginary friends--she claims to have been backed by a Catholic group that simply doesn't exist.

What observers have not mentioned about the five tea bagger candidates for the Senate is that all of them are extreme Christian right-wingers, even Marco Rubio in Florida, who is more of an opportunist. Christine O'Donnell is the most visible extreme Christian after Christian reconstructionist Sharron Angle. Joining Ken Buck, they are absolutists against abortion, even though they proclaim to be small government conservatives. Throw in Mike Lee from Utah and Joe Miller from Alaska and you have candidates that have no ideas about the economy whatsoever.

Another characteristic is that almost all, with the exception of Rubio, avoid debates and the press. This is a deliberate strategy because they want to avoid expsoure to the average voter. Joe Miller on Fox News was a astonishing in his economic illiteracy. He claims unemployment insurance is unconstitutional--something the Supreme Court has actually ruled on. And he claims we are going to face almost $140 trillion in a national debt in a short time--that's ten times the amount we have now. He wants to end Social Security and Medicare. This seems to be a tea bagger perennial.

A Canadian said to me that these people don't care, they've given up. In a way, he is right. They have given up on self-government. That's why there are no standards by which they observe. Lisa Murkowski commented how the tea baggers pumped $600,000 into Alaska to run a campiagn against her totally based on lies. If you check comments out of Ms. O'Donnell's mouth you'll also notice that she is a habitual liar. The same applies to Sharron Angle and the other tea baggers. In their worldview, this simply doesn't matter.

SO AFTER A WEEK, how do the mid-terms look? Nate the Great still has the Republicans taking the house by 223 to 211 but he has blinked somewhat upping the odds of the Democrats retaining control to 37%. The Republicans are now campaigning on de-funding everything that passed in the last Congress--which ups the stakes for Democrats. And if you care about the national debt, keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich will add another 3.8trillion to the national debt. Interestingly, all the teabaggers are for keeping the tax cuts for the wealthy. Paul Krugman had a wonderful op-ed about the selfish rich today.

But what still makes me hesitate is the massive unpopularity of the Republicans as compared to the 1994 wave election. For example, a CBS/NYTimes poll conducted September 15 has Republican approval at 20%. In a Washington Post poll on who deserves to be re-elected, Democrats top Republicans 34 to 31%. But what is most astonishing is that the GOP net favorable is now a negative 25, which means they have fallen by three times since July. And now President Obama is in the campaign mode and Organizing For America has ramped up their operations even more since I left. Remember President Obama has about a 48% approval rating, while campaigning against people with a 20% approval rating. The AFL-CIO just sent out their largest mailing in years to solidfy the Democratic base. Even though there is little more than 40 days left to the election, I think only a small percentage of Obama surge voters can turn the tide. I also have noticed that even the disgruntled Left is getting its act together because they understand the stakes.

President Obama did himself and the rest of us a service by appointing Elizabeth Warren special adviser with the task of creating the new Consumer Protection Agency. But I have a question? What in Elizabeth Warren's speeches make her a "progressive"? I know she appeared at Netroots Nation and frequently on the Rachel Maddow Show. But when is defending the middle class the sole property of "progressives"? The whining from the Republicans about her should tell you how far that party has grown away from the middle class. But nothing Elizabeth Warren has said or written is anything but clear-headed and commonsensical. I read in the Washington Post that her appointment was popular but polarizing. After watching countless interviews and Youtubes of her lectures, I can not think of a less polarizing figure. I think any fair-minded person would see her as a straight-talking person of intelligence and commonsense. Already we have the Wall Street Journal raising doubts about whether she can really create the Consumer Protection Agency because of legal restrictions and other hoo-haa. This reminds me of the constant challenge on anything President Obama does.

For election junkies, Steve Singiser had an interesting post at the Daily Kos "Likely Voters, Unlikely Voters" about the accuracy of polls based on registered voters versus those of likely voters. The conventional wisdom is that likely voter polls favor Republicans, particularly in low-turn out mid-terms. But what Singiser's analysis shows is that likely voter polls generally favor the front-runner. But at the end of the day, his analysis of polls from 2006 and 2008 indicate that polls based on registered voters won 32, polls on likely voters 21 and three were ties. For a full analysis, his post is worth reading because it's conclusion is counter-intuitive to how ,at least, I've been taught to think.

And file this away--I just came across my notes on Hans-Herman Hoppe, who is a favorite of libertarians. When thinking of the tea-baggers, remember Hoppe advocated something called "anarcho-fascism". He wrote "Democracy: the God That Failed". Through in a dab of Christian theocracy and you basically have tea-baggism.