I just got forwarded this mail; worth a read.

Tonight, don’t let W’s henchmen steal a post-debate victory, as they did in 2000. We need your online help immediately after the debate, so save this email, print it out, and have it ready with you as you watch the first Presidential debate tonight.

Below is a list of all the sites where people can vote on who won the debate. Please forward them far and wide. The Republicans will doubtless be organizing volumes of people to vote, so this is critical.
We all know what happened in 2000. Al Gore won the first debate on the issues, but Republicans stole the post-debate spin. We’re not going to let that happen again, and you will play a big role.
Immediately after the debate, we need you to do three things.

1. Vote in online polls.
2. Write a letter to the editor
3. Call in to talk radio programs.

Your 10 minutes of activism in the minutes following the debate can make the difference.

Vote in online polls.

National and local news organizations will all be conducting online polls during and after the debate asking for readers opinions. Look for online polls at these national news websites, and make sure to vote in every one of them:
ABC News: http://www.abcnews.com/
CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/
USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/

And be sure to check the websites of your local newspapers and TV stations for online polls, and vote in them. It is crucial that you do this in the minutes immediately following the debate.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

Immediately after the debate, go online and write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
If you feel John Kerry commanded the debate and had a clear plan for fixing the mess in Iraq, write the letter. If you feel George Bush dodged tough questions on Iraq and didn’t level with voters, then write the letter. With just a few clicks, you can write your letter at our online media center: http://www.democrats.org/media/Call.

Call in to radio and TV talk shows.

Do you listen to national or local call in shows on the radio? How about on TV? Call them and let them know what you thought of John Kerry’s plan to keep America secure and George Bush’s continuing refusal to admit the truth about his record.

Find shows in your area on our Speak Out website: http://www.democrats.org/media/find.html.

Your actions immediately after the debate tonight can make the difference to help John Kerry win on November 2.

Make your voice heard tonight!

Not that he needs any more of it. But my advice is summed up by these two words: be funny.

Who is the most beloved man in America right now? Jon Stewart. Why? Because he’s sincere? Partly, but just because John Adams was sincere, didn’t make him endearing (in his own words, he was “obnoxious and disliked”). People love him because he’s funny. If you want people to like you, you need to have a sense of humor. And if you want people to vote for you, you need them to like you.
(more…)

Would you give $10 if it would get Kerry elected?

What about $20?

What about $100? What’s your threshold?

Okay, now that you know your number… have you done it?

Salon.com Politics | The Republican war critic

“As a matter of general principle, I believe there can be no doubt that criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government … too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it as far as I am concerned, because the maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur.”

— Sen. Robert Taft (R-OH), Dec 19, 1941

Followup: Daily Show viewers are also smarter than Leno’s or Letterman’s. And they’re richer.

Guess all those moments of Zen really are enlightening us.

The Lone Star Iconoclast, the local paper in Crawford, TX, has… endorsed John Kerry.

(via Dailykos)

File under “things we instinctively knew already, but now can gloat about“:

The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly kept referring to “The Daily Show” audience as “stoned slackers.”

So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?

Viewers of Jon Stewart’s show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Nielsen Media Research.

Stewart 1, O’Reilly 0.

Michael Moore wonders exactly who the flip-flopper is.

I swear to God, you can’t make this stuff up:

The Abe Lincoln Black Republican Caucus (ALBRC), a group of young urban Black gay Republicans, voted today in a special call meeting in Dallas, Texas, to endorse President Bush for re- election.

Professor Juan Cole writes a short article showing what America would look like if it were in Iraq’s situation. It’s worth a read.

Bishop Spong, the famous iconoclast of the Episcopal Church, was recently asked why he doesn’t support Bush. Below is part of his answer:

I see in this president one who resisted the appointment of the 9/11 Commission until public pressure forced the formation of that Commission on him. Then he appointed Henry Kissinger to head it, a choice that was to me inconceivable having read of Henry Kissinger’s clandestine operations in China prior to the opening of diplomatic relationships with that nation by Richard Nixon. When Dr. Kissinger declined because it would create a conflict with some of his Saudi business clients, he then accepted former Governor Thomas Kean of New Jersey as a necessary evil. Next, he refused to allow National Security Advisor Condaleeza Rice to testify under oath before that Commission, once again relenting only after massive political pressure. Then he refused to testify himself except in the company of Vice-President Cheney. Next he opposed extending the time the Commission needed and requested to complete its work until once again being forced to do so. Finally, when the report was made public, he expressed no urgency to implement its findings until once again political pressure made at least the appearance of cooperation necessary. He then opposed the primary conclusion of a centralized Intelligence Czar to be over all intelligence gathering. That does not sound to me like a person who has a great desire to get to the truth.

The Republican Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts of Kansas, has now forced his hand by making a proposal even more sweeping than the 9/11 Commission had recommended. That would surely not have been done if there had been anything other than foot dragging from the White house. Certainly, Donald Rumsfeld has publicly opposed making intelligence in the Department of Defense subject to the authority of that proposed office.

…

Finally, it is abundantly clear to me that the stated reasons this administration gave for entering the war were wrong. The 9/11 Commission found no weapons of mass destruction and turned up no link between Al Qaeda and Iraq. This war has been a costly mistake causing the dead and the wounded to be numbered in the thousands. We have not yet pacified the nation of Iraq. We have alienated one billion Muslims in the world. We are hated and feared throughout the world. I agree with a former Middle East ambassador who said in my presence last month in Denver, “Terrorism is the war of the powerless, war is the terrorism of the powerful.”

Jon Stewart puts it best when he appears on the O’Reilly Factor:

O’REILLY: If you’re not hearing the audience laugh, you’re getting a little nervous.

STEWART: That would be exactly correct, because it is, at heart, a comedy show. But it’s a comedy show about things we care about. So naturally, it’s informed by relevant issues and important information.

O’REILLY: What do you think Kerry wants to get out of coming on your show?

STEWART: He wants to get what any politician does: access to a new constituency. He wants to get…

O’REILLY: The stoned slackers.

STEWART: … that’s exactly right, because the stoned slackers, this election is going to rely on the undecided. Who is more undecided than…

O’REILLY: Than the stoned slacker, right.

STEWART: … the people who are high. Right now, they’re thinking to themselves, ice cream or pretzels, ice cream or pretzels.

That’s what we’re spending on Iraq, each week, per American.

Reuters reports that Iraq spending is now over $1 billion per week. With the U.S. population reported at 293,027,571, that’s $3.41 per person.

Remember, for just the price of a daily cup of coffee, you can help a boondoggle desperately in need of your money! Please, call today.

Kerry appeared on Letterman and offered his Top Ten list:

Kerry’s “Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals” are:

10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents…

CNN reports that recent polls vary widely; Gallup still puts Bush up a dozen points, while Pew puts them at a dead heat.

Wondering how there could be such difference? The Left Coaster will tell you:

Because the Gallup Poll, despite its reputation, assumes that this November 40% of those turning out to vote will be Republicans, and only 33% will be Democrat. You read that correctly…

…[The] Democrats have been 39% of the voting populace in both 1996 and 2000, and the GOP has not been higher than 35% in either of those elections. Yet Gallup trumpets a poll that used a sample that shows a GOP bias of 40% amongst likely voters and 38% amongst registered voters, with a Democratic portion of the sample down to levels they haven’t been at since a strong three-way race in 1992?

Folks, unless Karl Rove can discourage the Democratic base into staying home in droves and gets the GOP to come out of the woodwork, there is no way in hell that these or any other Gallup Poll is to be taken seriously.

Sciortino 2,301, Ciampa 2,184! Ciampa’s 16-year tenure comes to an end.

Town-by-town breakdown here.

Americans’ voter turnout is low. Primary elections run lower still. Lower yet for local elections. This means that A HANDFUL OF VOTES CAN TURN A PRIMARY. Go vote.

In Medford and Somerville, we have a tight race between Sciortino and Ciampa. As the Phoenix notes,

…activists see a great opportunity in Sciortino, a young, openly gay candidate who has pledged to “oppose any effort to write discrimination into the state constitution.” His position stands in stark contrast to that of Ciampa, [who] backed various versions of the amendment that would bar same-sex couples from civil marriage. This, despite the fact that his district boasts a significant gay population, particularly in Somerville. Indeed, Ciampa was one of only two legislators in the Somerville-Medford delegation to vote against gay marriage.

Somerville and Medford residents, get out the vote. Your vote matters. Turn Ciampa out on his ass.

In other Somerville races, Pat Jehlen has been an unflinching supporter of the right to marry. Tim Toomey also has a solid record:

Toomey, in fact, voted nine times against any discriminatory marriage ban and was one of about a dozen or so who had voted consistently that way.

Last but not least, throwing out the bigots in the Democratic party during the primary means you won’t have to vote for a Republican in order to oust them on Election Day.

The New Yorker presents, in its entirety, Monkey Bowl‘s song “Al Gore“. (Turn on your speakers.) Featuring our actual President himself.

The Poor Man scoops the forthcoming Kitty Kelley book with these shocking revelations about W.