NYT: In House Races, GOP Races Are Seen at Risk

See also this link for a color coded map of the congressional House races.

Ready For Some Fun? Watch This.

Here's a fun campaign ad....sure beats the heck out of the negative ad campaigns!

Have You Had Enough? Click here!

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment

Awesome commentary from Countdown's Keith Olbermann.

Indiana to take 1200 California prisoners--Thank You Mitch Daniels

I think I'm going to get sick. I've heard that the prison system is nothing more than a big business industry for the wealthy. Not only are the toll roads and our state hospitals up for leases and privatization respectively, but our nation's prison systems have also been moving to become operational through private enterprise. I wonder who are those receiving the benefits here? Into whose pockets do these tax dollars go? I am an RN and I've seen first-hand the use of agencies in the prison system. The state relinquishes the duty of providing benefits for these healthcare workers yet they pay double the salary to the contracted agencies of which the nurse only gets half of that pay on the hour...many times the nurse will receive a slightly higher payscale than at a regular facility but often without decent health benefits and no guarantee of a job when the contract is over. Every so often the state will take bids for nursing agency contracts for these prison & mental health systems and the contract, of course, goes to the lowest bidder. So where does this leave the nurse in the long run? The nurse is often forced to switch tp the agencies that pay the lowest because those are the ones who win the contracts with the state government. This is a race to the bottom in pay for nurses--if only they would understand how they are being used longterm.

But back to the article....

Do you suppose the average Hoosier Joe would be happy knowing that we will be receiving some of California's overflow of criminals?? I thought I've also recalled that our local county jails are overcrowded and much money is needed to expand these particular facilities?? I suppose those die-hard conservatives will continue to support such representatives as Daniels no matter what--so long as they "win". What a pity. What a shame. I wonder if this will make front page Hoosier news? I'll be surprised if it does.

Click here for full story in another window.

Condoleezza Rice Should Resign?

Since calls for Rumsfeld to resign have become so common place as to seem pedestrian, I thought we'd take a swing at a Condi should resign rant. Its been a few years since we've seen somebody really go after her, and what makes this all the more surprising is its from a Conservative. And it far more inflammatory then what you see coming from our side.

The fact that Rice cared nothing of the warnings, however, should surprise no one. Having a long association with neoconservatives, Rice cares nothing for the United States. As many close to her have revealed, she was secretly pleased by the 9/11 attacks (as were many neocons, like David Frum and Bill Kristol), because they could be used as a pretext to invade Iraq. Her loyalty to America is about as thick as a checkbook, and her disdain as long as the proposed NAFTA superhighway.

That sort of language from a liberal would have the lapdogs of the right (I'm looking in your direction Mr. Drudge) screaming bloody murder, and its probably one of the more polite thing said in the article. You doubt me? Try this:

She has received many reports about Iranian and Arab terrorists - Spanish speaking and disguised as Mexicans - crossing the US-Mexico border, but she has done nothing. She knows of the Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwestern United States, and she (like Bush’s left-wing Mexican nephew) secretly supports it. As someone recently said, "Condi hates traditional white America with a passion." Not many realize how left-wing Rice truly is.

Like all of her neocon associates, Rice cares for only one thing: power. She wants power, and she doesn’t care what it takes to acquire it. She is willing to throw aside the Constitution and American lives to obtain it. And she (supporting almost unlimited immigration) plans to transform the US into a third-world wasteland.

Condoleezza Rice should resign immediately and treason charges should be brought against her.

Secret plot by Mexico to retake the South West? Treason? The next time somebody starts foaming at the mouth about Cindy Sheehan, ask them to explain that.

Poll Prediction Site Links

Here are some links for some websites that track polls:

Election Projection

Election Prediction

Electoral Vote

Real Clear Politics

The Foley Follies

A lot has been made of the GOP's Orwellian Speak over the past few years, the Clear Skies initiative creates more pollution, Healthy Forests is the name of a massive logging operation.

But this one has to take the cake. No doubt we've all heard by now about Rep. Mark Foley who resigned Friday after it was revealed that he had sent explicit email to an underage page. The piece de resistance?

Foley, co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, helped write a law signed by President Bush in July that toughened prison sentences for sexual offenders. He told USA TODAY earlier this year the bill was needed because of online child exploitation. Referring to online predators, he said: "We're going to make your life a living hell."

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. For those keeping track this would be the fourth Republican Representative to resign in the last year. And as we learn that Republican leadership may have been protecting Foley we may see more heads roll.

Chocola gets TV stations to yank ads against him

Click & bookmark for future reference.

Poll: Donnelly Ahead in tight race in 2nd congressional district--South Bend Tribune

Click here for full article. It's about 10 days old but I found it on another site. I think Joe is looking good right now but we must keep our nose to the grindstone. A little over a month from an election is like an eternity in politics. Much can happen. However, right now, if yard signs could determine the vote, Donnelly would be winnign in a landslide. If that's what it takes to get name recognition, it's what we've got to do.

I also heard on the radio this morning that Joe Donnelly was endorsed by the Democrat Pro-Life group. I bet many of the one-issue voters never realized he was a pro-life candidate. I remember campaigning in '04 for Donnelly and I knocked on the door of this one home in my precinct to canvass for Donnelly. The occupants didn't want to hear anything from me because I was Democrat. They were obviously staunch religious right-wing Republicans. I saw allusions to this by the stickers in their window and their bumper stickers on their car. The next week they had Chocola signs in their front yard. Little did they know they were supporting the opponent of a pro-life candidate. I tried to tell them!

More Signs of Dissent from the Military

What started out as a few retired Generals publicly criticizing the preparation leading up to the war has now spread inside the Pentagon. Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, who has in the past weeks made pointed criticisms, has refused to submit the Army's 2008 budget. After Secretary Rumsfeld limited the Army's budget to $114 billion Schoomaker responded:

On Aug. 23, at a speech before the National Press Club, Schoomaker publicly threw down the gauntlet: "There is no sense in us submitting a budget that we cannot execute … a broken budget."

The problems with Rumsfeld's budget cap?

A month earlier, Government Executive reported that Schoomaker had told a group of congressional staffers about grave backlogs at the Army's repair depots. Nearly 1,500 Humvees, M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, and other vehicles were awaiting repair at the Red River Army Depot in Texas. The same was true of 500 M1 tanks at the Anniston depot in Alabama. None of the Army's five largest depots was operating at more than 50 percent capacity—all because of a shortage of money.

The cost to repair the Army's equipment damaged in Afghanistan and Iraq is in excess of $17 billion. Due to the budget shortfalls the Army's 3rd ID, the group that so successfully charged to Baghdad currently faces a situation where half of it's brigades have no armored vehicles and only half it's troops.

The war in Iraq has taken a toll on this country, the loss of over 2500 young men and women, thousands more wounded. This war has become a recruiting poster for Al Qaeda, failed to find any of the WMDs that Iraq once had, and further destabilized the region. Now we are finding that it is eroding the military, leaving us with an Army that is increasingly struggling to meet it's duties, and leaving America less safe then it was before.

Does anybody really want to argue that the GOP is the party of national security?