Might today’s elections be the last that matter in America? This is, I know, a gloomy and apocalyptic idea. But we live in gloomy and apocalyptic times, and I believe that if the Republicans do well enough this year they will destroy all faith in democracy on the left. No one will believe that the election was not stolen with the aid of crooked computers. Hell, I won’t believe in a pro-Bush result, knowing how easy it is to break into one of the Diebold voting machines. There are already stories spreading across the net that signal this has been spotted, from such commentators as ‘the thoughtful Baptist’, the journalist Fred Clark.
Even the Miami Herald has reported ‘a story’ about voting machines that mysteriously registered a press on the Democratic candidate as a vote for a Republican one. Similar stories have come from Texas.
So all the materials for a first-rate conspiracy theory are there. The means, the motive and the opportunity are all in place; and no one who has watched the Bush government over the last six years could believe that they have any scruples whatever about – God save the mark – fairness or the rule of law. They know nothing more about democracy than they know about competence. This is obvious to everyone now, even to the neocon supporters of the invasion of Iraq, who have filled the papers, in the run up to the expected Republican defeat, with ‘rat-like chitterings’ of ‘It wasn’t me!’
Well, it was them and it was Bush, too. The one overwhelming justification of democracy is to punish such mistakes. It cannot ensure that the right people are elected.

Crooks and Liars: By: David @ 8:12 PM – PST

Bill Clinton provides the star power at tonight’s campaign rally for Webb. He delivers the famous Clinton stump speech and seems to enjoy to ripping Republican campaign tactics.
Video – WMP Video – QT “

Crooks and Liars: By: Steve @ 7:05 PM – PST
Alas, the story late last week about the Bush administration accidentally publishing nuclear secrets in Arabic on the Internet did not cause quite the stir that I had hoped for. Perhaps if John Kerry had told a joke about it, and left out a word, the story could have received wall-to-wall coverage on TV.
That said, there has been some interesting follow-up. For example, one of the people who convinced the Bush gang to publish the materials is now publicly criticizing the administration for its poor judgment.
House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra criticized the Bush administration on Sunday for its handling of a trove of once-secret documents from Saddam Hussein’s covert nuclear program disclosed on a federal Web site.
Hoekstra, R-Mich., complained the U.S. intelligence community hadn’t properly declassified the documents.
‘Well, you know, we have a process in place. It looks like they screwed up,’ he said on CNN’s ‘Late Edition.’
That’s great, but Hoekstra does realize that this whole scheme was his idea, right?”

Crooks and Liars » 2006 » June » 23:By: John Amato @ 3:25 PM – PDT
Steve raises a good point:
‘Do you wonder like me why Santorum and Hoekstra chose this week to embarrass themselves, at a time when Santorum is heading for a huge drubbing in November? Guess who helped these two roll out this ridiculous claim this week? Our Director of National Intelligence.
So let me get this straight. Negroponte is now using his position to play a partisan role in the 2006 election? He is politicizing intelligence? Or does this go higher?…read on'”

Jon Stewart, Enemy of Democracy?

Crooks and Liars: “Those Dirty Republicans
By: Jamie Holly @ 10:43 AM – PST
Seems like the Republicans still love their dirty tricks. From Matt Stoller:
Terry Nelson, an unindicted co-conspirator in the TRMPAC Tom Delay scandal, and the boss of Jim Tobin, the convicted felon in the NH phone-jamming case, is the head of opposition research for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. So it’s not a surprise that these kinds of unethical dishonest tactics are being used.
Sources in Bergen County are reporting that an autodial robocall is being made that starts out sounding like a positive Bob Menendez message. If you hang up, it repeatedly calls you back. If you listen all the way to the end, it finishes by saying that Menendez is an embezzler and under criminal investigation.
This is a voter suppression tactic being used nationwide by the GOP. Initially callers will think they are hearing a call from the Menendez campaign asking for support. If they hang up, it will repeatedly call them back. The intention is to annoy the voter so much that they no longer support the candidate. For those who actually listen to the entire call, they are presented with a series of lies and smears against Menendez, also with the intention of suppressing turnout. It’s a win-win tactic for them.
The NRCC is doing the same exact thing in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and at least 53 other races across the country.
Terry Nelson is a key GOP operative, a senior advisor to John McCain and someone heavily involved with both Tom Delay and Karl Rove. This guy breaks the law and gets rewarded for it. Democrats should make election reform a very core part of their agenda for a lot of reasons, but the rampant criminal nature of the Republican operative class is a pretty good rationale…read on
Josh Marshall has also been on top of this story.”

Crooks and Liars: “OLBERMANN: “This country was founded to prevent anybody from making it up as they went along.”
By: Jamie Holly @ 6:29 PM – PST

Keith delivers another powerful special comment. This time it is about tomorrow’s elections.
Video – WMV Video – QT (Both should be working now)
‘And so we look at the verdict in the trial of Saddam Hussein yesterday, and, with the very phrase ‘October, or November, Surprise’ now a part of our vernacular, and the chest-thumping coming from so many of the Republican campaigners today, each of us must wonder about the convenience of the timing of his conviction and sentencing. ‘
Transcript below the fold

(Read the rest of this story…) “

AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth: “GOP ‘robo-call’ scandal grows, now hitting Washington state as well
by John in DC – 11/06/2006 05:20:00 PM

UPDATE: Add New Jersey to the growing list of states where the Republican party is trying to defraud voters with fake phone calls.

UPDATE: Fraudulent calls hitting Virginia voters too. In Virginia, Democratic voters are getting phone calls telling them they’ll be arrested (Markos has the audio via the link above).

The fraudulent GOP voter-intimidation scam has now hit Washington state. Other states being targeted by the GOP calls, that we know of so far, include Pennsylvania, Kansas, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York.

We are the point of needing an FBI investigation because this is now clearly happening across the country in a clearly coordinated way (across interstate lines, mind you).

The Republican party is engaging in a campaign to defraud the voters and Democratic congressional campaigns by making phone calls to voters, often late at night and repeated, and making the voters think that the calls are coming from the Democratic campaigns when in fact they’re coming from the Republicans.

This is fraud. It an effort to steal the vote. It violates a number of consumer telemarketing laws, and more.

We already knew the GOP had decided to run racist and anti-semitic ads in the South a”

Gone to Croatan

Crooks and Liars: “CNN Gives Coverage To The Robocall Scam
By: Jamie Holly @ 3:13 PM – PST Submit or Digg this Post

cnnrobocall.jpg

The robocall scam is starting to get some national attention. CNN just reported about it on the Situation Room:

Video – WMV Video – QT

Talking Points Memo was highlighted in the segment, which Josh does deserve the credit on this, as he has been working none stop to bring this scandal to the natio”