Let's break through the denial, mmmkay?

You're not crazy and neither is most of America. Nor are "they," (yeah, the mythical "they, out there, I don't actually know any of these people, but they're out there, I just know it") nuttier than fruitcakes, or dumber than rocks. The election was stolen in o4.

Hi Mark,
How is it that when "our side" (for lack of a better term) tries to expose the ample and irrefutable Republican thievery and election fraud of recent years it gets tossed aside as "conspiracy theories" and almost no one of relevance gives it any credit--but as soon as the Repugnicans start spreading their thinly-veiled falsehoods of Democratic "voter fraud" not only they're NOT considered conspiracies--oh no no, God forbid! They're actually all over the media as legitimate allegations, plus they get immediate and overwhelming legislative attention, and vote-restricting laws are passed almost instantly to counteract this nonexistent B.S.
I'd sure like to know how they do it, how they manage to be such magicians in manipulation of the public opinion. "We" (whoever that motley crew is) should studiously learn how it's done, and start using the same tools to shoo these slimebuckets back into the holes they crawled out of. Let's make lemonade out of this huge lemon called "American politics".
best,
XXXX


AS GOES OHIO... Keynote Address


Miller on The "Trinity" of Reform



He mentions petrodollars? Man, I can't read any more than three or four pages of this book and I'm crying. No, folks, it ain't some sappy, fiction, love story, I haven't read that crap since I was fifteen, I happen to like real men.

I wonder if some McCain/Palin fans are confusing reality with movies?

These are movies.



Miss Congeniality (2000)



Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005)


Sarah Palin is NOT starring in Miss Congeniality 3.

The realities are much uglier.

Republican rallies have adopted an increasingly incendiary tone towards Barack Obama, with shouts of "kill him", "treason" and "terrorist" interrupting speeches by John McCain and Sarah Palin.





Legislative Panel: Palin Abused Authority
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 10, 2008
Filed at 8:48 p.m. ET

Left, William Thomas Cain/Getty; Right, Al Grillo/The Associated Press
A committee investigating Gov. Sarah Palin found that she unlawfully abused her authority in firing Walter Monegan, right, the state’s public safety commissioner.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain's Republican ticket.

This is what the hate from Right wing talk radio, bloggers and FOX News creates

Crooks and Liars exposes the nasty, hateful, McCain supporters.


NOW PBS Driven to Despair
NOW investigates the connection between high gas prices and the housing crisis.

Tonight on Bill Moyers

Oy. Despite what the right-wing nut-jobs are screaming, here is The Gist of the ACORN Story

I miss my blogroll, dang it

So here is a temporary one.

Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Outta the Cornfield
Jonestown
Guys from Area5 1
Welcome Back to Pottersville
Scoobie Davis Online
Ketchup is a Vegetable
ROTUS
Ornery Bastard
Alternate Brain
BlondeSense
johniwanski.com
Dyre Portents
Pooflingers
The Political Cat
skippy the bush kangaroo
They Gave Us A Republic...
The Great Endarkenment
One Pissed Off Veteran
distributorcap NY
The Democratic Daily.com
Monkeyfister
Leftblogistan
WTF is it Now?
INSTAPUTZ
Hullabaloo
The Apostate
The Barefoot Bum


The big kids on the playground that I normally don't link to
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Feministe - In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set
AMERICA blog
MyDD :: Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics
Bitch Ph.D.
Oliver Willis
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community
Eschaton
The Daily Dish By Andrew Sullivan
Fire Dog Lake
tbogg


News

Mother Jones
The Nation
Bradblog
TPM
TPM Muckraker
OB Rag
Voice of San Diego.org
San Diego Reader
Crooks and Liars
Think Progress
Huffington Post.com
Alternet.org
NY Times
UK Guardian
LA Times
Washington Post
San Diego Citybeat

Lakoff and Oliver

Deceiving Images

Source: Link TV
...if you want to understand how rhetorical framing works and how political strategists strategize, this 85-minute video provides some interesting examples.

In other words, the preceding should help you understand the "stupid vote."



Feds question new voter checks in 6 states
By KATE BRUMBACK – 1 day ago

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal officials have asked election officials in six states to investigate whether social security number checks are being improperly run on people registering to vote.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue sent a letter Friday to the secretaries of state of Alabama, Georgia and battleground states Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. The letter noted they had submitted "extraordinarily high levels" of verification requests.

"Such a volume appears to be much greater than one would expect, given that states of comparable or larger populations have a significantly lower number of verification requests," Astrue wrote in his letter to Georgia officials...


10/7/08: Velvet Revolution Calls On John McCain To Fire Michael Connell For Covering Up For Karl Rove In Federal Election Manipulation Lawsuit

Velvet Revolution today issued a press release calling for Republican candidate John McCain to fire computer expert Michael Connell from his campaign for covering up alleged election manipulations of Karl Rove and others. Mr. Connell, the GOP’s top computer expert, was subpoenaed based on a September 19th court order to testify under oath in an Ohio federal lawsuit looking into serious allegations that Mr. Rove has directed a strategy to illegally manipulate elections through the use of computer technology. Rather than cooperate in the investigation, Mr. Connell hired attorneys close to the Bush/Cheney Administration and refused to appear for the deposition arguing client (GOP) confidentiality. Those attorneys have said that they will do everything possible to keep Mr. Connell from testifying before the November general election...


11:54 AM 10/9/2008
Looks like the Islamist dickheads thrashed blogrolling but good, we'll see. They hacked it last night.

Supreme Court hears case Wednesday on Navy sonar, whales

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008
Court hears case Wednesday on Navy sonar, whales
By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is weighing whether presidential power in wartime can override environmental concerns in a case that pits the Navy's submarine-hunting training against protection for whales.

Why do I get the feeling that the whales are going to lose this one?

Maybe because they're up against the US Navy and if the Navy loses, then the oil companies will feel like they are threatened?

Reading now

Petrodollar Warfare by William R. Clark (c) 2005 New Society Publishers

Page 10 "In general, the ability to produce jobs in the US is deteriorating."

Hmmmm. Don't tell Perino-bot that.

Watch for GOP vote thieves

Blogged by Brad Friedman on 10/7/2008 4:30PM
GOP's ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Lie Ramped Up; State Police Raid ACORN Office in Vegas
I had been intending to post an answer to the ongoing --- and quickly escalating --- ACORN smears being issued of late by the GOP enemies of democracy out there, who have decided to intensify their unsubstantiated assaults on the community organization, given its effectiveness at registering millions of low-income voters across the country...
For Immediate Release: October 7, 2008

ACORN Statement from Bertha Lewis, Interim Chief Organizer, on Incident in Las Vegas:

"Over the past year, ACORN has worked hard to help over 80,000 people in Clark County register to vote. As part of our nonpartisan voter registration program, we have [to] review all the applications submitted by our canvassers. When we have identified suspicious applications, we have separated them out and flagged them for election officials. We have zero tolerance for fraudulent registrations. We immediately dismiss employees we suspect of submitting fraudulent registrations.

For the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application in to election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual.

Election officials routinely ignored this information and failed to act. In early July, ACORN asked to meet with election officials to express our concerns that they were not acting on information ACORN had presented to them. ACORN met with Clark County elections officials and a representative of the Secretary of State on July 17th. ACORN pleaded with them to take our concerns about fraudulent applications seriously. One week later, elections officials asked us to provide them with a second copy of what we had previously provided to them. ACORN responded by giving election officials copies of 46 "problem application packages," which involved 33 former canvassers.

On September 23, ACORN had received a subpoena dated September 19th requesting information on 15 employees, all of whom had been included in the packages we had previously submitted to election officials. ACORN provided our personnel records on these 15 employees on September 29.

Today's raid by the Secretary of State's Office is a stunt that serves no useful purpose other than discredit our work registering Nevadans and distracting us from the important work ahead of getting every eligible voter to the polls."




Q&A: E-voting security results 'awful,' says Ohio secretary of state
October 8, 2008 (Computerworld)
How bad? 'I thought I was going to throw up,' Jennifer Brunner recalls

This article was written by a junior high student. If a kid gets it, why don't adults? Specifically, editors for local news programs.

Electronic voting machines imperfect
October 8, 2008
Editor's note: Throughout October, the Wausau Daily Herald will publish students' columns about this year's elections as part of Kids Voting USA.

Why I'm voting NO on CA Prop 8

Obama McCain debate #2

8:30 PM

Local ABC
Who won the presidential debate between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama?
Choice Votes Percentage of 10510 Votes
Barack Obama won. 6195 59%
John McCain won. 4056 39%
I'm not sure. 130 1%
I didn't watch. 129 1%

Local NBC
Who won the presidential debate between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama?
Choice Votes Percentage of 10154 Votes
Barack Obama won. 5975 59%
John McCain won. 3924 39%
I'm not sure. 129 1%
I didn't watch. 126 1%

October 7, 2008
CNN Poll: Obama won the night

If there were polls on the local CW, CBS, and Fox, I couldn't find them. So much for a Red County.

Frankly, McCain saying "My Friends" incessantly drove me out of the room a couple of times.

Damn GOP thieves

Can the GOP Steal The Election Again? You Betcha!

Blogged by Brad Friedman on 10/7/2008 1:11PM
AUDIO: Head-to-Head with the GOP's Hans Von Spakovsky, Vote-Suppressor, Liar
Brad Takes on the Unapologetic Democracy-Hater on Tavis Smiley's Radio Show
PLUS: Taking on John Fund, Another GOP 'Voter Fraud' Scammer, on the Radio, the Following Day... (scroll down for audio clip)


And about that debate tonight...

The Caucus.
October 7, 2008, 2:25 pm
Axelrod Says Obama Will Counterpunch if McCain Raises Ayers
By Patrick Healy
NASHVILLE — Senator Barack Obama is prepared to hit back, including with Keating Five scandal if necessary, if Senator John McCain uses tonight’s presidential debate to attack him over his associations with controversial figures like former William C. Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist said this afternoon.

And if they mention clean coal tonight, just know that at this time, there aren't any clean coal plants in the US right now. Follow the Coal Money

Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, The Ultimate Election

posted October 07, 2008 10:36 am
Voting the Fate of the Nation

Will Economic Meltdown, Race, or Regional Loyalty Be the Trump Card in Election 2008?
By Chalmers Johnson

... Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal introduced a brief period of approximate democracy. This ended with the U.S. entry into World War II, when the New Deal was replaced by a wartime economy based on munitions manufacture and the support of weapons producers. This development had a powerful effect on the American political psyche, since only war production ultimately overcame the conditions of the Great Depression and restored full employment. Ever since that time, the United States has experimented with maintaining a military economy and a civilian economy simultaneously. Over time, this has had the effect of misallocating vital resources away from investment and consumption, while sapping the country's international competitiveness.

Socioeconomic conditions in 2008 bear a certain resemblance to those of 1932, making a realigning election conceivable. Unemployment in 1932 was a record 33%. In the fall of 2008, the rate is a much lower 6.1%, but other severe economic pressures abound. These include massive mortgage foreclosures, bank and investment house failures, rapid inflation in the prices of food and fuel, the failure of the health care system to deliver service to all citizens, a growing global-warming environmental catastrophe due to the over-consumption of fossil fuels, continuing costly military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, with more on the horizon due to foreign policy failures (in Georgia, Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, and elsewhere), and record-setting budgetary and trade deficits.

The question is: Can the electorate be mobilized, as in 1932, and will this indeed lead to a realigning election? The answer to neither question is an unambiguous yes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm excited. My friend is almost 60 and she's never registered to vote. She filled out a voter registration form and put it in the mailbox today. I asked her if it was exciting and she grinned and said "Yeah, it kinda is."

Sarah Palin, the trailer-trash beauty contestant

Braizilians get it---

"When cornered, Palin resorted to winks, smiles and other vulgar coquette gestures that must have led to some sort of fascination from the male public— the green line on CNN, which measured the reaction of male independent voters from Ohio, would go up. But the women, represented by the yellow line, were not as fooled."

Matt Taibbi breaks it down--

"And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning."

Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neoliberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

Way to change the Middle East, neocon idiots

Source: Saudi hosts Afghan peace talks with Taliban

Crime up in Afghanistan, as is nostalgia for Taliban

Israel tries to dissuade Russia from selling weapons system to Iran

US-Russia divide allows the Middle East arms race to flourish

Iran, Venezuela sign multi-billion-dollar deals
Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:03:40 GMT

Chavez defies US by cozying up to Russia and China

America’s ambassadors have been expelled by Venezuela and Bolivia, a move that Brazil has supported. Brazil has also objected to the presence of American warships in the region, warning that his nation would put its own warships on alert in response. Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchener said recently with obvious satisfaction that the First World, which had been “painted as a place we should strive to reach, was popping like a bubble.”

Meanwhile...

October 2, 2008: Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Bailout Bill Passes


It doesn't matter if you missed the debate, SNL wrapped it up just fine.

Bill Moyers

Good stuff Maynard.

Governor Failin' (debate analysis)

FackCheck.org
Palin 4 corrections
Biden 2 corrections



The Debate: Again, A Pundit/Viewer Divide

Ex-CIA Operative Discusses 'The Devil We Know'

Fresh Air from WHYY, October 2, 2008 · In his new book, The Devil We Know, former CIA operative Robert Baer argues that Iran is an up-and-coming — and often misunderstood — superpower, with strong influences throughout the Middle East.

"The sooner we understand the Iranian paradox — who they are, what they want, how they want to both humble us and work with us — the sooner we'll understand how to come to terms with the new Iranian superpower," writes Baer.

Baer's previous book, See No Evil, was the basis for the George Clooney film Syriana.

Typical weaseling out of cleaning up after themselves

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008
Top court will review who pays for Superfund site
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has agreed to decide what share railroads and an oil company should bear of the cleanup of a contaminated industrial site in Arvin, Calif., near Bakersfield, that threatened drinking water supplies.
Shell Oil Co. and the railroads - the Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. and the Union Pacific Railroad Co. - say they are being unfairly tagged with an inordinate portion of the cost of cleaning up

The companies contend they merely transported and sold legal, useful products and were not involved in years of soil and groundwater contamination.
The site was once the home of a fertilizer and insecticides manufacturing facility.2008-10-01 14:16:29 GMT

My prediction? They'll just keep fighting in court, the mess won't get cleaned up, and people, and their groundwater will continue to suffer. It's how big corporations work. They protect profits, to hell with people.

Republicans will only win this election if they cheat

Which they are in the process of doing.
hat tip to Scoobie Davis


hat tip Danny

Oh. My. God. McCain supporters must be idiots. Who is John S. McCain?

The VP debate tonight?

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates
The Obama and McCain campaigns jointly negotiated a detailed secret contract dictating the terms of all the 2008 debates. This includes who gets to participate, as well as the topics raised during the debates.

It's a game, and we're not invited to play.

Bush had no plan to catch Bin Laden

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times
Oct 1, 2008

WASHINGTON - New evidence from former United States officials reveals that Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders were able to skip Afghanistan for Pakistan unimpeded in the first weeks after September 11, 2001, as the George W Bush administration failed to plan to block their retreat.

Top administration officials instead gave priority to planning for war with Iraq, leaving the United States with not nearly enough troops or strategic airlift capacity to close the large number of possible exit routes through the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area where Bin Laden escaped in late 2001.

Because it had not been directed to plan for that contingency, the US military was also forced to turn down an offer from then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in late November 2001 to send 60,000 troops to intercept the al-Qaeda leaders...

Home » Spin of the Day » Sep 30, 2008
New York Times Managing Editor Admits Pre-War Failings


-------------------------------------------------------------------


And today I had some Southern Fried idiot McSame campaigning in my comments section.

F-U-C-K-I-N-G --- A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

San Diego's RepugnanThuglicans

Hmmmm. Last night I watched a TV ad for the local right-wing hate spew radio station . There's plenty of brainwashed, hate-spew loving, RepugnanThuglican freeptards in this city, what's up with the ad?

This morning I flipped on NPR (I thought) and was instantly irritated by a whiny, nasally voice and doubly irritated that she was complaining about Gwen Ifill ("Who is black." she said, and I thought, wtf? who cares?) and a book and the debate. I realized with horror that I was listening to AM radio (which is only safe for liberals from 3-6 weekdays on 1700 when Stacy Taylor is on) and that whiny, nasally voice was Laura Ingraham. Laura spent time as a "white collar criminal defense attorney" Ewwwww, what a way to wake up. I was instantly reminded of this National Geographic special I watched last week on stress. The animals studied were baboons, and humans. Put some Dockers and chambray shirts on the tailed bullies in the National Geographic special and you've got a portrait of most AM radio listeners in this city.

Stress: Portrait of a Killer
A National Geographic Special



It was fascinating.

Sarah Palin needs to sit down, shut her speaking in tongues mouth and watch it.

I can't wait till Palin makes an a$$ of herself at the debate. I happen to adore Gwen Ifill. I think Ms. Ifill is beautiful.

In the reading queue

Click on pics for more information.



After I finish this.


This essay by Richard Rodriguez is worth a listen. It's why I'm glad I never developed a taste for illegal drugs. Too many people die because of them. And yes, I do think it's stupid that marijuana is illegal, and even more stupid that alcohol and tobacco are legal.

Update 7:05 PM 10/1/2008 Tijuana body count 38 in the last 48 hours in the drug cartel war. Drug cartel violence killed more than 2,500 people last year

Reagan

PBS Presidents

Last night was the second part of the show on Reagan. Ahhh, yes St. Ronnie the Raygun. Fucking deluded asshole totally fucked up my first attempt to go out and pay my own rent as a young adult. I was going to install solar powered domestic hot water heating systems. He cut the tax breaks for people choosing to invest in renewable energy 25 years ago.

Asshole never made it out of the 50's in his own mind. I wish his acolytes would just fucking croak already, or at the very least, wake up and see the reality of his legacy.

At one point I was watching all of these metallic balloons at a "no nukes" rally and I was reminded that moneyed interests control even those at the top of the government. The metallic balloon manufacturers won the battle in California yesterday. Fuck safety and your electricity source, they're going to sell balloons.

Here's your congresswhores in action:
House members who voted ‘yes’ on bailout received 54 percent more from banks/securities firms.»

Corporate Crime Reporter stories

Professor Bowman Says It’s Either Regulation or Criminal Prosecution, Take Your Pick
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 36(12), September 22, 2008

Big business has been working for years to undermine civil regulation.

Into the void has stepped the Department of Justice.

Now, big business is crying foul.

No more criminal prosecution, they say.

Well, you can’t have it both ways.

With regulation crippled, business wrongdoing is shooting up.

And criminal prosecutors are just doing their job.

So, get used to it.

That in a nutshell is the take of Frank Bowman, a Professor at the University of Missouri College of Law.


Times Reporter Morgenson Says Paulson, Bernanke Lied about Meltdown
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 36, September 24, 2008

First the Bailout, Then the Bailiff
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 37(12), September 29, 2008

When McCain started blathering at the debate about how Corporate taxes are too high in the US at 35% I was screaming at the TV "Do they PAY those taxes, asshole?!?!"

NO, they don't.

Paulson sez we are angry on 60 minutes

Paulson: Economy Is In A Fragile Situation
Treasury Secretary Talks To Scott Pelley About The Controversial $700 Billion Bailout

No shit Paulson, how did it get that way, asshole?

No, No really, dickhead, what happened?

Man, I am so fucking sick of the foxes eating everything in the hen house, shitting in it and making us clean up after them. Are they gonna bring the chickens back? I don't fucking think so. I spotted this neat little gem in it:

SEC. 122 INCREASE IN STATUTORY LIMIT ON THE PUBLIC DEBT.

Subsectiion (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting "$11,315,000,000,000"

Nice. My share of that just went to $37,717, and so did yours. Chalmers Johnson chimes in here. on how the recently passed a 612 billion dollar defense authorization bill for 2009 that didn't merit a blink.

Update 3:12 PM 9/29/2008

Afghanistan has seen 'spiral downwards': top US general

Unh huh, Johnson said yesterday

"In Afghanistan, our historically deaf generals and civilian strategists do not seem to understand that our defeat by the Afghan insurgents is inevitable. Since the time of Alexander the Great, no foreign intruder has ever prevailed over Afghan guerrillas defending their home turf. The first Anglo-Afghan War (1838-1842) marked a particularly humiliating defeat of British imperialism at the very height of English military power in the Victorian era. The Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) resulted in a Russian defeat so demoralizing that it contributed significantly to the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991. We are now on track to repeat virtually all the errors committed by previous invaders of Afghanistan over the centuries."

Well, isn't there some other dude running things over there now? What does he think?

Oh. Iraq is fucked too?

EmTech 08: Audits, Open Source Needed With E-voting

EmTech 08: Audits, Open Source Needed With E-voting
Elizabeth Heichler, IDG News Service
Thursday, September 25, 2008 12:20 PM PDT

No shit. My dad's been saying this for years.

It might prevent stolen elections

Almost Saturday Squirrel Blogging

Are debates always this predictable? Have they always been so? Yeesh, what a snoozefest... Well, except for McInsane trying to change the things he's said and done.

Yeah, we will check your record and spend ten minutes on YouTube looking for clips of what you really said, old man.

Danny on the Real News

Tomgram: Snitow and Kaufman, Water Wars in America
posted September 25, 2008 1:04 pm
...administration officials are using the politics of fear and panic over the very financial mess they had a hand in creating to institutionalize a presidential power grab of startling magnitude. And then, of course, following the pattern of this administration, they will privatize that power, undoubtedly subcontracting the work of governmental buying and selling to the very financial characters involved in creating this mayhem....

Read the whole article to find out just how awful privatization of a water system in a US city can be.

Thirst. (documentary)

If you haven't read Naomi Klein's the Shock Doctrine , you need to.

The unwritten laws of discussing wages, politics and religion being impolite

Fuck it. Too fucking bad. This election is too important to cower beneath that middle class unwritten law bullshit. Fuck polite. Middle Class Republicans need to be shaken from their slumber with the facts. They have been voting against their own best interests by voting for a party that DOES NOT GIVE A GOOD FLYING FUCK ABOUT THEM, and DOES NOT CARE TO PROTECT THEM.

This is what I get whenever I leave information on my congressman's website regarding a vote when I want him to represent me:

Message from 50th Congressional District‏
From: UnattendedMailboxBilbray@mail.house.gov
Sent: Wed 9/24/08 5:36 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxxx

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate hearing from you. If you are writing about an issue before the House of Representatives, please be assured that I will take your views into account before I cast my vote, and will make every effort to respond to your concerns. Additionally, if you are requesting help with a federal agency, a member of my staff will respond to you in the coming days. Again, thank you for contacting me. BRIAN BILBRAY Member of Congress P.S. - If you are planning to visit Washington D.C. in the near future, my staff can help arrange a number of tours for you, including the U.S. Capitol, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Library of Congress. For assistance, please complete my tour request form.

Would you feel like your request for representation from your representative was getting through if every response from him came from "Unattended mailbox?"

The alternative press rocks

The Press and Phil Gramm
The alternative press leads on the policy roots of the credit crisis
By Elinore Longobardi Wed 24 Sep 2008 10:45 AM
The alternative press has led the way on the story of Phil Gramm and the policy roots of the financial crisis, beating the mainstream business and other media rather badly about the face and neck.

Another example of how the alterantive press pays attention and reports, in depth:

One Million Weapons to Iraq; Many Go Missing
Ooooops.