UPDATE: The full video has now been posted at C-SPAN. Clicking the image will now take you to the full length presidential debate featuring Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin. 103108

A longer, 16 minute clip has been posted, clicking the image will now take you to that video. I will update again when I find the full debate posted. 103108

Did you miss it? Click now on the image to watch a 5 minute clip. More updates as I come across them. 103008

By Greg Sargent - October 27, 2008

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."

Click Here for the full story.

These tactics are bottom of the barrel, desperate moves by people posing as Republicans.  As I've blogged in the past, sending out DVD's to voters in swing states showing graphic violence and making threats of violence is defined as terrorism. So is making 'robo-calls' spreading a message of impending doom and danger.

dictionary results for: terrorism dictionary.reference.com

1.The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2.The state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3.A terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

Third party presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin faced each other in debate today in the Colonial Room at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. Chris Hedges moderated the debate.

Click on the link below to watch the debate. (click the white 'f' in the red circle on the right hand side once there)               Third Party Presidential Candidate Debate 281952-1 : C-SPAN Video Library | Created by Cable. Offered as a Public Service.

Breaking the Sound Barrier: Third-Party Candidates Ralph Nader & Cynthia McKinney Respond to Final McCain-Obama Debate

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain met last night for the final debate before the November 4th presidential election, sparring over the economy, tax policy, negative campaigning, trade agreements, abortion and the educational system. As with the other debates, third-party candidates were not invited to participate. We break the sound barrier and hear from Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney and independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/16/breaking_the_sound_barrier_third_party

Nothing is going to change until we do something different!

FREE DEBATE - THURSDAY 23 OCTOBER 2008
Washington DC

Call C-SPAN to make sure they will broadcast live - tell them it's right down the street. When you call please please please PLEASE be very nice and polite.
CSPAN 202.737.3220

CALL WASHINGTON JOURNAL IN THE AM
202.628.0205 7-10am est EVERYDAY

THE DNC and GOP Received 4 LIVE PRIVATE DEBATES - ALL These Parties Ask Is ONE WITH SIX
Millions of voters still undecided. Millions more can be persuaded. A few Hundred can make the difference, just ask Florida
Call Barack at 866.675.2008 and Call John 703.418.2008 ask them both to show up, their chairs will be nice and warm. Tell them this debate could make or break this election. Least they forget the silent majority which has morphed into the independent undecided voter

C-SPAN Is This Country's Last Open Media Hope
http://www.cspan.org
http://www.freeandequal.org
VISIT
http://www.opendebates.org
http://thirdpartyticket.com
http://www.opensecrets.org

music
http://www.awakefromyourslumber.org

SPREAD THIS INFORMATION FAST!
TAKE YOUR DEBATES BACK FROM THE CPD CORPORATION!
IT'S THE AMERICAN THING TO DO!

Write CSPAN: viewer@c-span.org                                               
Dear Mr. Lamb and Mr. Scully,
Please broadcast LIVE the DEBATE on the
23 October 2008 at 9:00PM est in WASHINGTON DC.
C-SPAN has broadcast the two parties (DNC & RNC) last four debates live, it is only fair to allow candidates who will surely draw millions upon millions of votes the same opportunity, voters who could change the course of this election, who have tghe potential to win the 270 electoral votes. It is the right thing to do, for the sake of democracy and this nation. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,

Carpe Diem!

Category:  News & Politics

What Adam has to say about himself:

"In November 2006 I was honorably discharged (barely) from the US Marines after my second activation as a reservist. I moved to Washington, DC to get a master's degree in political management at George Washington University. Fortunately, I was unable to secure gainful employment, and stumbled into full-time activism with Iraq Veterans Against the War. You can email me at adam dot kokesh at gmail dot com." 

You can read his blog here: www.kokesh.blogspot.com

Whatever you do, please take the 8.5 minutes out of your busy day to watch this very patriotic and inspiring speech.

Below is a bit of a longer story at Salon.com.  It's full of good points, but the one below is the main interest for me.  I so often hear, to my utter disbelief, people blaming the Democratic party for the current economic crisis. They don't bring up policies and programs from the Clinton administration, or even Carter. No, they are somehow referring to the last 7 or 8 years.

"They've stood in the way!", and more recently "they're in control and they do nothing!". And unless you are really paying attention, and are not relying on ABCNBCCBSFOX media for information, there is no reason to expect you to think any differently.  But once you DO look a little closer, the facts clearly tell a different story.  The one surprise I came across in drudging up information was the increase of Independent and third party candidate names that have been appearing recently (5-20 years), and that reminds me how most of the issues that spur these comments wouldn't exist if there were more competition, ie more political parties.  Much harder to collude and keep secrets, let alone commit crimes, with more eyes on the ball. 

In any case, the Salon article presents easy to understand graphs, my favorite.

As polling data conclusively demonstrates, the mindset of the voting public is infinitely more rational and substance-based than the pundits and the Right fantasize when they lyrically praise the Regular American -- at least it is in this time of perceived (and actual) crisis. What's happening in this country, and in this election, is rather simple and easy to see: (1) the country is in total shambles -- possibly far worse than what people even realize; (2) we have lived for the last eight years under virtually absolute GOP rule; (3) the public knows this; (4) the Republican President and his party are therefore intensely -- historically -- unpopular; and (5) the voting public doesn't want to continue living under the rule of the same faction and same political party that has driven the country into the ground. Having Sarah Palin drop her gerund endings and desperately trotting out the standard, tired GOP attack ads to depict Obama as a radical, fist-pumping, America-hating, unhinged socialist -- when everyone can see with their own eyes that he isn't -- won't change any of that.

That the Right believes in the fundamental stupidity of the American voter while simultaneously pretending to revere and speak for them them is reflected in their belief that they can successfully blame the financial crisis and the country's woes generally on Democrats, who -- while hardly covering themselves with glory -- haven't had any meaningful power in this country for as long as one can remember. Ponder how stupid you must think Americans are to believe that you can blame the financial crisis on the 2004 statements of House Democrats about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when that was a time when the GOP controlled all branches of the Government and nothing could have been more inconsequential than what Barney Frank or Maxine Waters, languishing in the minority in Tom DeLay's tyrannical House, said or did about anything.

In sum, Americans hate the way the country has been ruled, the economic crisis is making them hate that more by the minute, and the country has been dominated by Republican rule for the last eight years -- at least. It's just this simple:

And the reality is even more imbalanced than that graph illustrates: between (1) the tiny margins the Democrats have had when controlling the Senate, (2) the true functional majority of "GOP + Blue Dogs" in the House, (3) the extraordinary centralization of power in the White House, and (4) Democratic complicity and fear, it is GOP policy which ends up prevailing in virtually every instance of alleged "bipartisanship" even during those tiny slivers of ostensible Democratic control.

The overarching reality of the country is that we've lived under unchallenged Republican rule and the country has virtually collapsed on every level. No matter how dumb Rich Lowry and David Brooks fantasize The Regular People to be, those facts are far too glaring to suppress.
UPDATE: In comments, Harksaw suggests adding the Supreme Court to the graph, based on which party appointed the justices. Doing so produces this:

We've been an overwhelmingly Republican-dominated country for the last eight years (at least) and the results of that couldn't be clearer -- or more devastating.

Please Click below to read the entire article, of which this is only a part.

A country in shambles, under GOP rule - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Additionally, here are some numbers to add to the clarity of the picture.

The first number is years WITH same party House control, the second Senate. The third number is WITHOUT same party House control and the fourth without the Senate. (the others are, in order; years served, elections won, and wallstreet journal ranking)

The current balance of power, when you consider the White House, tilts right to the GOP=Republican side. Because while the House of Representatives sits a majority of Dems:

110th House of Representatives
Second Session

Democrats: 234
Republicans: 198
Independents: 0
Vacant Seats: 3
Total: 435

The Senate stacks up like this:

110th Senate
Second Session

Democrats: 49
Republicans: 49
Independent Democrat: 1* (Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut)
Independents: 1 (Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont)
Vacant Seats: 0
Total: 100

With the VP and Republican Dick Cheney, as President of the Senate, voting to break ties.  Add to that a name followed by "Independent Democrat" who has publicly announced his support of Republican candidate for the President of the United States AND a couple of sick Democrats who are unable to vote, and you can see clearly that there is NOT a Democrat controlled congress. Jan. 2007 marked the first time the Dems had been in control, albeit only technically, since 1994.

Pelosi in an '07 interview posted over at Bravenewfilms:

But having said what you said, I’m as disappointed as you are that we can’t get past the sixty votes in the Senate. But it’s no use to complain about that. We have to take… the court of public opinion is where the sixty vote barrier will come down. We can’t kick it down internally. But we can try to point out what is at stake, the ground truth in Iraq, so that in the districts… You know, I’m responsible for the House. We passed – we can pass a bill any day in the House, but if it can’t get through the sixty votes in the Senate to be heard… to go to the President’s desk… then we have to use our energy in another way and I think that is to focus in a public way, as you all have done.

That interview lays into Pelosi pretty hard, and ends with dubious hopes that her plans will come to fruition, because after all  "She can't even get John Dingell on board for higher CAFE standards... "  Looks like she got her way on that in the end.

Sunday on Meet The Press, Tom Brokaw moderated a debate between McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama strategist David Axelrod on topics ranging from Iraq to the Wall Street bailout. At the end, Tom Brokaw did something strange. He opted to give himself the last word and told the audience:

In fairness to everybody here, I'm just going to end on one note. And that is that we continue to poll on who's best equipped to be Commander in Chief, and John McCain continues to lead in that category despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Gentlemen, thank you very much.¹

We checked, and the latest NBC poll actually has no question about Commander in Chief.² We contacted NBC about this, and it turns out Brokaw was referring to a poll taken weeks ago—right after the Republican convention and well before Friday's big national security debate.³ And in each of NBC's last two polls, Americans chose Obama over McCain.⁴

Can you email Tom Brokaw today? Let him know that this election is very close, and we need journalists to be responsible. Giving himself the last word in the debate, and citing an outdated poll number as if it was current, was a mistake. As a responsible journalist, he should apologize for both.

Here's where to contact him:
Tom Brokaw, Meet The Press feedback form: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/

Every major poll after that debate showed Americans thought Obama won—and a CNN poll said voters trusted Obama over McCain to handle Iraq.⁶ Plus, three major polls released on Sunday showed Americans choosing Obama over McCain.⁷

So Brokaw's insertion at the end of the debate wasn't just random—it painted an inaccurate picture of the race for voters. Can you contact Brokaw today?

1. Video of Brokaw's remarks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qzQ0usmc4M

Meet The Press transcript, September 28, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26927711/page/2/

2. NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, September 19-22, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30545&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=3

3. NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, September 6-8, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30547&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=4

4. NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, September 19-22, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30545&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=5

NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, September 6-8, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30547&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=6

5. ABC News, September 26, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5898364

6. "CBS News / Knowledge Network Undecideds Give Debate To Obama," The Atlantic blog, September 26, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30534&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=7

"Debate Reviews Go To Obama," Huffington Post, September 26, 2008 (includes CNN poll)
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30535&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=8

MediaCurves poll
http://mediacurves.com/

7. Sunday's polls showing voters preferring Obama over McCain  (via RealClearPolitics.com)
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=30541&id=14095-9633372-xHED1.x&t=9

********************************************************************************

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/2/no_debate_how_the_republican_and

Palin - Workin' the Lie   http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7828250

REID: McCain is "Erratic", Lacks Temperament to be POTUS 
 

Allegations resurface that McCain made propaganda statements and tried to keep Viet Cong records about him classified. 
 

 In the wake of last week’s financial meltdown, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been calling for more regulation and criticizing lax oversight of Wall Street, despite the fact that he and former senator Phil Gramm passed much of the deregulatory reforms that led to the current crisis.

This Bruce Wilson video from last month is the best available introduction to religion Sarah Palin-style, though it will probably make more sense to the uninitiated after reading the glossary.
 

McCain and Palin Are Trying to Take Political Lying to the Next Dimension

Red-faced, Palin Forced to Apologise. Blunders Talks with British Ambassador Ahead of Crucial TV Debate.

Cindy McCains Despicable Lie About Mother Teresa

McCain - Palin, Running on a Lie

I could go on for days, or pages.  Other people have come to the same conclusion, so here is the 'Lie Counter', so you too can play along:

McCainpedia - Count the Lies - http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Count_the_Lies

Discussing the Wall Street bailout yesterday during an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said the failure of Congress to act is “just not acceptable.” Then — presumably making an attempt at humor — McCain added that, if only he were a dictator, then the bill would be just right:

MCCAIN: I just want to make a comment about the obvious issue and that is the failure of Congress to act yesterday. Its just not acceptable. […] This is just a not acceptable situation. I’m not saying this is the perfect answer. If I were dictator, which I always aspire to be, I would write it a little bit differently.

Be sure to click through to read the Think Progress article, and  the UPDATE.  Think Progress » McCain: ‘I Always Aspire To Be A Dictator’