With the middle class being beaten down, Wall Street and the top 1 percent still riding way too high, the Occupy and progressive movements finding new ways to make economic issues resonate in the media, a left-of-center populism is clearly on the rise. Even the famously restrained and centrist President Obama is kicking some serious populist ass. (Did you see the speech to the UAW he delivered on Tuesday? Amazing. I think it is my favorite Obama speech ever.)

Yesterday, I posted about some crown jewel of derp at the “Conservatives Network.” It got tweeted and bounced around quite a bit on Web. Well, I went back to peruse the empty head of so-called crown jewel of derp, and saw this. The fail is strong with this one:

Liberals always claim they are for women. They are actually 100% against women. Liberal ideals tell women that they must be raped.

It’s estimated there is a sexual assault every two minutes in the USA. So every two minutes, liberals are silently telling every woman in our nation that they must be raped.

Liberal policies have promoted gun bans in entire cities. Link Link

So in entire cities, women are told they aren’t allowed to have the one thing that could level the playing field against a rapist who is stronger and bigger. All this against the backdrop of a rape happening every two minutes in our nation.

 

“Congressman Frank has done so much for Massachusetts and America during his service in Congress and he leaves very big shoes to fill,” Kennedy said in his announcement video for the 4th district. “I believe this country was founded on a simple idea: that every person deserves to be treated fairly, by each other and by their government.”

He promises to fight for a “a fair job plan,” a better educational system, “a fair tax code” and “fair housing policy.”

Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today's progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society to see if its component parts can survive in isolation. Tied up in knots of reticence and self-doubt, they will not shout stop. Doing so requires an act of interruption, of presumption, for which they no longer possess a vocabulary.

Perhaps it is in the same spirit of liberal constipation that, with the exception of Charlie Brooker, we have been too polite to mention the Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, which revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence. Paradoxically it was the Daily Mail that brought it to the attention of British readers last week. It feels crude, illiberal to point out that the other side is, on average, more stupid than our own. But this, the study suggests, is not unfounded generalisation but empirical fact.

 

And yes, I realize that Ron Paul — this election season’s physical embodiment of the broken clock — is not, literally, as bad as David Duke. Yes, he supports all those incredibly ass-backwards policies rattled off above (about welfare, immigration, abortion, taxes and education), but he is not, like Duke, a Nazi. He is supported by Nazis, like Stormfront — the nation’s largest white nationalist outfit, which is led by Don Black, who’s one of Duke’s best friends, and is married to Duke’s ex-wife, and is Duke’s daughters’ step-dad — but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Surely it’s not because Paul wants to repeal the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, and allow companies to discriminate in the name of “free association.” And it couldn’t have anything to do with those newsletters that went out under his name, with all kinds of blatantly bigoted commentary about black people being IQ-deficient predators, at a time when he was promoting those very newsletters (and so, presumably, reading them), and not objecting in the least.

Find out in under 2 minutes. Watch:

The Preamble of the United States Constitution includes the phrase “to form a more perfect union”. That phrase describes a struggle that has been ongoing since the Declaration of Independence was signed, sealed and delivered to the King of England. That struggle has involved Supreme Court cases  and the most devastating war in American history. But the struggle is not just historical, not just something to read about in dusty history books, but something that goes on every day in this country…as real today as it was in the time of the Revolutionary War. And that ongoing struggle is most visible in the issue of States’ Rights vs. Federal Authority.

History

The Founding Fathers were divided on the issue of strong federal government. Some, like Hamilton, argued that their new country would not survive without strong central authority. Others agreed with Jefferson, believed that an overpowering centralized authority would be destructive to American’s individual freedoms and should be limited, with most power being reserved for the states. As with many issues of the day, a compromise was reached.

 Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists many specific powers that are “delegated” to the federal government, including declaring war and regulating commerce. It also specifies what states may not do, such as making a treaty with foreign nations and passing a bill of attainder. Article VI also specifies that the states cannot pass laws that conflict with the Constitution and that if there is a conflict, federal law prevails. However, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, designed to calm the fears of anti-federalists, says…The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Constitution and its Amendments, however, did not settle the issue of state’s rights. The issues outstanding led to many critical events in America’s history, including the Nullification Crisis and eventually the Civil War. Numerous Supreme Court cases were brought and decided involving states’ rights and the Tenth Amendment…and more Amendments to the Constitution were added to clarify the limits or extent of federal authority.

Politics of States’ Rights

It would be easy to claim that conservatives are for states’ rights and liberals are for big government. Prime examples are continued calls for secession by Republicans such as Rick Perry, oppressive immigration laws being passed by many states in defiance of federal authority over immigration issues, and calls by Democrats for increased federal social programs to help the millions of Americans devastated by the economic crisis of 2008. But things are not always so clear-cut as we would like to think, and headlines of the last ten years show us that the reality of politics can be quite complex when it comes to states’ rights versus federal authority.

For example, one of the largest expansions of federal power occurred under President George W. Bush. Most people are aware of the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, which empowered the Federal government with unprecedented law-enforcement, intrusion and detainment policies. But the Bush/Cheney administration also implemented No Child Left Behind (an intrusion to traditional state authority over public education) and the Help America Vote Act (contrarily making it harder for Americans to vote all over the country) and the secret energy task force under Vice President Cheney which led to federal laws reduced the states’ authority over energy policy.

At the same time, liberals have used state laws to challenge and undermine federal authority and restrictions over areas such as same-sex marriage, stem-cell programs and health-care reform, attempting to increase personal liberties in the areas of gay-rights, science research, and access to medical care.

When the balance doesn’t work

Some people may think the issue of states’ rights and who has authority to do what is a pure academic exercise. But the Civil War is a prime example of how states’ rights can be carried to the extreme and result in a devastating event that affected millions of American lives. Civil rights is another area where states’ rights are used to try to limit the rights of one minority group or another and the federal government must often step in to keep the minority from being abused by the majority in a particular state.

A more recent example of dysfunction between the states and federal government is Hurricane Katrina. The confusion over authority both before and after the hurricane was devastating to the people of New Orleans and surrounding areas. It is the federal government’s duty to build and maintain dams, locks and levees. And FEMA is responsible for responding to the disasters. But budget cuts made in the interest of “reducing government” made these entities struggle to do their jobs. Then when emergency help was needed, the federal government waited and wondered whether they ought to be nationalizing the National Guard, or waiting for the states to do something. The results were tragic.

Summary

It seems that the Founding Fathers deliberately set up a confrontational position between the state governments and the federal government…probably in an effort to keep either one from becoming too powerful.  Most of the time, the judicial branch of our government must get involved to resolve these conflicts between the governments. In the meantime, we continue to find new issues to fight over and rehash old issues ad nauseum. But as long as American citizens basically have dual citizenship, as an American citizen and as a citizen of their respective states, there will be discussions, arguments, and legal action over which entity has the authority to decide what rules we live by.

To progressives living in red states, it often seems as if there is little we can do to influence the political landscape. No matter how we vote, our states go Republican in every presidential election and continue to elect conservative Republicans to state office. As hopeless as it may seem at times, I'm not ready to give up. There are other ways we can influence the process.

A close adviser told the Globe today that the new district in which Frank would have to run next year was a major factor in his decision. While it retained his Newton stronghold, it was revised to encompass more conservative towns while Frank also lost new Bedford, a blue-collar city where he spent a lot of time and became a leading figure in the debate over fisheries.

Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) is not running again, maybe, in part, because of redistricting. Mr. Frank has been a frequent guest on our show and a YouTube star. From a compilation of his responses to outraged Tea Party citizens:

"On what planet do you spend most of your time? ... Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table."

Also:

"Who do you think paid for the war? Santa Claus?"

Also also:

"Sir, it's been 21 years since I had a secret."

And so on, and so on. Barney Frank has been one of a kind.

 

Watch the video, it's great!

Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.

He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote and has been re-elected ever since by wide margins. In 1987, he came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily.

On November 28, 2011, Frank announced that he would retire from the Congress at the conclusion of his term in 2013.

Barney Frank is known for his quick wit. In one famous quip, he said he was unable to complete his review of the Starr Report detailing President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, complaining that it was "too much reading about heterosexual sex." In 2004 and again in 2006, a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published in Washingtonian gave Frank the title of the "brainiest," "funniest," and "most eloquent" member of the House. In 2008, the same survey named him "brainiest," and runner-up for "workhorse," and "most eloquent," in 2010, he was named "brainiest," "workhorse," and "funniest." He is also widely considered to be one of the most powerful members of Congress. In his book Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches, Democratic speech writer Josh Gottheimer describes Frank as "one of the brightest and most energetic defenders of civil rights issues.

Barney Frank in 2009 Frank had a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America indicating a pro-choice voting record. He was a strong supporter and protecter of civil rights. In 2000 Frank was rated at 89% by Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants indicating pro-rehabilitation crime votes. In 2001 Frank authored of the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act (H.R. 2592), an attempt to stop federal government from preempting states' medical marijuana laws. In 2009, Frank signed the "Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention Act" (HR 179 2009-H179) to "use Federal funds for syringe exchange programs for purposes of reducing the transmission of bloodborne pathogens, including HIV and viral hepatitis" and the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009 (H.R.1866 2009-H1866) to "grant each state regulating authority for the growing and processing of industrial hemp.

There are many more accomplishments by this man during his time in Congress, but as you can see, he has been a very valuable representative and one that has fought hard looking out for the American people. We would do well the have more representatives like Barney Frank in Congress.

Congress will be WORSE off without Barney Frank, and so will the American people.

Reference

Also, please see these seeds about Barney Frank.

Why We'll Miss Rep. Barney Frank (video)

You Will Be Missed, Barney Frank

Barney Frank Will Be Missed, Unlike Super Committee

Frank's support for fishing industry felt in New Bedford, Mass.

Barney Frank Will Be Missed

Barney Frank goes to the Tea Party

Possible reason for Barney Frank retiring

If there’s one constant in the elite national discourse of the moment, it is the claim that America was founded as a capitalist country and that socialism is a dangerous foreign import that, despite our unwarranted faith in free trade, must be barred at the border. This most conventional “wisdom”—increasingly accepted at least until the recent grassroots mobilizations in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Maine—has held that everything public is inferior to everything private, that corporations are always good and unions always bad, that progressive taxation is inherently evil and that the best economic model is the one that allows the wealthy to gobble up as much of the Republic as they choose before anything trickles down to the great mass of Americans. Rush Limbaugh informs us regularly that proposals to tax people as rich as he is for the purpose of providing healthcare for kids and jobs for the unemployed are “antithetical” to the nation’s original intent and that Barack Obama’s reforms are “destroying this country as it was founded.”

Everyone knows that liberals and conservatives butt heads when it comes to world views, but scientists have now shown that their brains are actually built differently.

Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology.

"We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala," the study said.

WASHINGTON — Everyone knows that liberals and conservatives butt heads when it comes to world views, but scientists have now shown that their brains are actually built differently.

Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology.

Politics is a dirty business. Its history contains some of the most unsavory and slanderous conduct imaginable. In recent years there seems to have been an escalation by conservative activists who were never able to accept the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States. From Inauguration Day, when Fox News immediately began speculating that Obama was illegitimate because Supreme Court Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath of office, to the present where we see the president still shirking off allegations of treasonous sympathies for Muslim terrorists, America's right-wingers have orchestrated an aggressive assault on those they consider to be their enemies. Well, we don't have to lay down and take it. Here are some of the ways we can fight back:

These are groups that people who call themselves Progressives, Liberals, Democrats, and part of the Left Wing in general may be interested in joining or following.

If you know of any groups that should be added to this list, please let me know. Thanks!

American Progressives

Arise, American Socialists

BOYCOTTKOCH

DemGuys

Democrats

Elephant POOP!

Extreme Liberal Democrats

FAUX FOX FAILS

FIRED UP DEMOCRATS!

Glenn Beck's BS

GOP Wall of Shame

GOP Watch

Kochtopus

Left of Center

Mad For Rachel Maddow

NeoConservative Watch

Obama Derangement Syndrome

Obama Supporters

ObamaExpress

ObamaVine (anti-Obama articles here too, but the majority seem positive)

Political Talk

Progressive American Rights

Proud Liberal and Progressive

Rational Progressive Party

Remembering Bush-Cheney

Religious Right Watch

RepubliCON Watch

Right Wing Media LYING

Rightwingnutjobs

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin Watchdog

Southern Liberal Democrats

Tea Party Comedians

Tea Party Watch

The Stupidity of Sarah Palin

We Must Change

You Couldn't Make it Up!

Feel free to clip this page to your group if you like. Thanks.

.

And then it hit me. I realized yesterday marked a full week of watching Fox. I knew it had to be the culprit. As one who has banned Fox News from my house for years, it is never, ever on. But with Dave gone, I volunteered to monitor it for a week in his absence. I did learn a few things, about myself and about their techniques.

Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer are leading the charge against House Republicans on Social Security, while at the same time holding the line on the "bipartisan solutions" President Obama would agree to.

For the next hour, we begin with the president of the United States addressing the nation and calling for a massive investment in this country's infrastructure, rebuffing the idea of giant tax breaks for the richest Americans, and warning anyone who would dare touch Social Security to keep their hands off.

You want to talk about red meat for the base? Listen to some of the language the president used. "Workers have a right to organize into unions and to bargain collectively with their employers. And a strong, free labor movement is an invigorating and necessary part of our industrial society." Wow.

How about this one? "Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice."

As I watched the 2011 State of the Union Address, which ended at 10:13 tonight, Eastern Time, one thing that came to mind was how much more I enjoyed watching and listening to an intelligent speaker like President Barack Obama after eight years of listening to President George W. Bush trying to speak. President Barack Obama is a very good and intelligent speaker, and has a great progressive vision for our nation's future. I give him an A- for his speech tonight.

While I don't agree 100% with everything the President had to say, I truly believe he is trying to do what's best for our country and has our country's best interests in mind.

One point I thought was silly was the President saying he would veto anything that came across his desk with earmarks, since earmarks are just guidelines for spending money that is already appropriated for a certain area, and the Republican battle cry against earmarks is a non-issue that has nothing to do with the amount of money being spent. I'm thinking the President was giving this to the misinformed right wingers as a sign that he is willing to compromise on issues.

I also found it interesting to watch John Boehner's reactions to different things the President talked about.

When the president talked about taking tax cuts away from the oil companies and using that money to promote the development of renewable energy, Boehner didn't appear to like that one bit. I can understand, though, since Boehner felt it necessary to apologize to BP for the President making them pay up for their disaster in the Gulf. John Boehner gets a lot of campaign contributions from big oil, and he wants to keep his sugar daddies happy.

Also from watching John Boehner's reactions, it appears that he likes having the military go to college campuses to recruit students to go in the military, just as long as they are NOT gay. He didn't seem happy at all about the repeal of "Don't Ask. Don't Tell".

On a lighter note, when President Barack Obama talked about Boehner coming from a background of sweeping floors for his father's business, the first thing that popped into my mind was that Boehner should go back to a job like that... He would be better suited for it than for being Speaker of The House.

One thing that always annoys me is the rebuttal by the opposition Party after the President's address. I don't like it, no matter which Party the President belongs to. I feel that the focus after the State of the Union Address should be on the President's vision of the future for this country. All the opposition Party does in the rebuttal, is say how most of the speech by the President is wrong and you should listen to what the opposition Party says instead.

This year, they did something even more stupid. They allowed the Tea Party to give a rebuttal, too! That's allowing two right wing speakers to refute what the President has said, the right wing and the ultra right wing. In my opinion, this is completely WRONG!

Americans listening for a still, small voice of reason amid the rhetorical firestorm that followed the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and 17 others earlier this month, found it in Daniel Hernandez Jr. The congressional intern, who will be a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight's State of the Union address, received credit for saving Giffords' life when her Saturday morning meet-and-greet outside a suburban Safeway turned into a killing spree.

Progressives are planning huge counter-event to educate about the Kochs and their billionaire cronies, and peacefully march to give an alternative to their hard-right agenda.

Kanazawa's paper shows that more-intelligent people are more likely to say they are liberal. They are also less likely to say they go to religious services. These aren't entirely new findings; last year, for example, a British team found that kids with higher intelligence scores were more likely to grow into adults who vote for Liberal Democrats, even after the researchers controlled for socioeconomics.

Watching President Barack Obama at the White House health care summit last week, it was hard not to have an obvious thought: Could George W. Bush have done this? It is tough to imagine Bush leading a seven-hour gabfest on a complex policy matter, being able to master the specifics and nuances, and field questions about in-the-weeds details as Obama did. Which brings me to another idea: Are Democratic presidents smarter than Republican presidents?

The major races in the 2010 election cycle are now in the record books (save for Joe Miller's tilting at windmills in Alaska), as the duo of remaining recalcitrant Republicans agreed on the same day to make long-awaited concessions to their Democratic rivals.

Mr. Obama effectively traded tax cuts for the affluent, which Republicans were demanding, for a second stimulus bill that seemed improbable a few weeks ago. Mr. Obama yielded to Republicans on extending the high-end Bush tax cuts and on cutting the estate tax below its scheduled level. In exchange, Republicans agreed to extend unemployment benefits, cut payroll taxes and business taxes, and extend a grab bag of tax credits for college tuition and other items.

For the White House, the deal represents a clear shift in policy focus. Mr. Obama and Democrats spent much of the last year pursuing long-term goals like a health care overhaul and financial regulation, while hoping the economic recovery would continue. But with the recovery faltering and Republicans retaking the House, the administration is turning back to short-term job creation.

Liberal Democrats are in revolt at the tax deal that President Obama struck with Republicans on Monday, and it is not hard to understand why. By temporarily extending income tax breaks for the richest Americans, and cutting estate taxes for the ultrawealthy, the deal will redistribute billions of dollars from job creation to people who do not need the money.

But the Democrats should vote for this deal, because it is the only one they are going to get.

The Democratic House leadership's gambit on middle class tax cuts worked, Republican lies about tax cuts for middle class families being a job-killer and un-American and a travesty notwithstanding. The bill just passed, 234-188, with three Republicans voting for us, and 20 "Dems" voting for the millionaires.

John Boehner, of course, whined about procedure Because, of course, Republicans would never use procedural tricks to get something passed, or to block legislation they oppose. Boehner's real problem? He was stymied in his effort to hold the middle class hostage for the wealthy. He was forced into and up or down vote on middle class tax cuts.

That "chicken crap," by the numbers, from Ezra:

Chin up, after all we've got Rachel Maddow, health care, Pittsburgh's f-you to corporate control, and a whole lot more to be thankful for.

Happy holidays, featuring President Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Keith Olbermann, and Harry Reid! Watch the Democrats rock!

Take Rick Scott, for instance. "He's a criminal—a criminal!" sputtered one staffer standing near the bar, raging against Florida's governor-elect, whose former health care firm was forced to pay out the largest Medicare fraud settlement in US history. "He defrauded all these people of their money, and they turn around and vote for him anyway." The staffer had spent nearly a month on the campaign trail to vouch for his boss, but voters' faces just went blank when he tried to persuade them to keep an incumbent Democrat in office. A colleague of his nodded in sympathy, shaking his head at the absurdity of it all: "Obama wasn't progressive enough—so I'm voting for the tea partiers!"

Steny Hoyer, the number two in the House Dem leadership, told Democrats at a caucus meeting this morning that they would get to vote this year on just extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, a senior Dem aide tells me, signaling support for a confrontational move towards the GOP that liberals have been pushing.

Asked if Democrats would definitely get a chance to hold this vote, the senior aide responded: "Definitely."

This is encouraging: One of the most powerful labor leaders in the country just said that he's in direct talks with the White House and Dem leaders about throwing down the gauntlet and holding a vote just on extending the middle class tax cuts -- and that all parties involved are seriously considering it.

At a hastily-called press conference on Wednesday, the commission co-chairmen - former Sen. Alan K. Simpson and Erskine Bowles, President Bill Clinton's former chief of staff - laid out their proposals that included major cuts for seniors, college students, working families and vulnerable Americans.

"It is no surprise that these two favor draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the needs of our veterans, and education while proposing tax reductions for the wealthy and large profitable corporations," Sanders said. Simpson is a darling of the Republican right wing and Bowles is a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street. Their plan was floated amid reports that the two were struggling to cobble together enough support on their own commission to go forward by a Dec. 1 deadline.

Of the 88 co-sponsors of HR 676, the Medicare for All bill in the 103rd 111th Congress, 81 ran for another term in Congress. One ran for Governor of Hawaii. 79 of the 81 were re-elected to Congress by large margins. The candidate for Governor also won. Hawaii and Vermont now have Governors who support single payer health care.

I corrected their typo where 103rd should have been 111th. McSpocky

Rush Limbaugh dedicated a portion of his radio program Thursday to attacking alleged "racist Democrats" in a segment chock-full of thinly-veiled racial references itself.

Brock's move represents the first clear sign that lefty Beltway power players will heed the White House's call to arms. It also indicates that they've decided the quasi-collapse of the campaign finance system has left them with no choice but to gear up in order to counter the massive spending of outfits like the U.S Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's groups.

The middle class will survive, if Elizabeth Warren has anything to do with it. Last night, the Assistant to the President and Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (whew) gave Maddow an impassioned interview about her new agency's efforts to help taxpayers with debt. She handily slammed its critics: "The Wall Street lobbyists said they would kill it before it was ever born. They lost. And they lost because this is an agency that really is there for middle class families."

As Danny Shea, Sam Stein, and others are well documenting, Keith Olbermann's suspension is getting a ton of attention. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is organizing the public to do something about it. In less than three hours, MSNBC viewers signed our petition saying:

"Keith Olbermann made your network a success. If you want your viewers to keep tuning in to MSNBC, put Keith back on TV now!" Sign here.

(UPDATE: It's now up to 75,000 signers!! Keep it going!)

(UPDATE: 259,213 people have taken action as of 10:10 AM MST Sunday 11-07-2010. Keep the petition signing going!)

(UPDATE! Olbermann will be back Tuesday!)

On the positive side, the Teapublicans were only able to flush our country half way down the toilet.

On the negative side, they should have never been able to do even that much.

What went wrong?

There were a plethora of dirty tricks played by the Teapublicans this campaign season. Everything from asking Latinos to not vote in Nevada, to voter intimidation by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his followers 1 2 , to a massive misinformation campaign 1 2 , to campaigns of hate and fear mongering, and don't forget the decision by the Supreme Court to sell out our democracy to big corporations, which led to almost unlimited corporate contributions to Republican campaigns. When you are funded by the likes of the billionaire Koch brothers 1 2 3 , and others of the wealthiest Americans, your opponents don't have much of a chance. Basically corporations have bought the House for the Teapublicans.

Polls showed that registered voters were in favor of Democrats by a 5 percent margin. However, likely voters were in favor of Republicans by a 4 percent margin. What this means is that there wasn't enough Democratic voters who got up off their duffs and voted!

Because there were too many Democratic voters who were either too lazy or too uninspired to vote, our country can look forward to two years of gridlock and massive partisan politics. You thought Republican obstructionism in the Senate was bad over the last two years, with their massive record number of filibusters? You haven't seen anything yet.

Now with the House controlled by Teapublicans, compromise is likely to be thrown out the window. Boehner, the likely new Speaker of the House, has already stated that they will refuse to compromise with Democrats. The only thing we can do now is try to get through the next two years with the hand we have dealt ourselves, then wake up and get our act together in 2012. We will have one more chance to put a stop to the Teapublican takeover of our government, or we can sit back and watch the rest of out country go down the toilet.

It is Election Day, and every voter needs to have a concrete plan to vote! Will you vote this afternoon? After work? There is a new Google app that helps you find your up-to-date polling place quickly and easily. Click here to see your up-to-date voting location. Then, help your less-political friends vote!

Click here to share a "Vote Sanity Today!" logo on Facebook -- and here to share on Twitter. (When your friends click, they'll also see the voting location app.)

Need a reason to get up off the couch and vote? Take a look at this seed!

When registered voters were recently polled, they favored Democrats by 5 percentage points. When likely voters were polled, they preferred Republicans by 4 percentage points. The difference in this election will depend entirely upon how many Democrats get up off their butts and vote. If you sit at home and don't vote, you can't blame anyone but yourself if Republicans take over Congress.

And for any of your friends who believe nasty conservative lies about the Democrats and Obama, here is the information you need to refute those lies.

Now see you at the polls!

It will come as a surprise to some, but not to others, that there is a fairly strong statistical relationship, but that the direction is the opposite from what you would think if you were listening to rhetoric from Republican conservatives: The red states (those that vote Republican) generally receive more subsidies from the federal government than they pay in taxes; in other words they are further to the right in a graph. It is the other way around with the blue states (those that vote Democratic).

Also visit these two links for further information about how blue states are subsidizing red states...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/the_red_state_ripoff.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20945041@N06/2994934040/

On her show last night, Rachel Maddow looked at a Washington Post/ABC poll that shows registered voters prefer Democrats to Republicans by 5+. Dems score better on the economy, "values", and "fixing the nation's problems." When the poll flips to likely voters though -- the registered voters most inclined to make it to the polls -- Republicans surge ahead.

Maddow has a fairly straightforward solution to the "enthusiasm gap" that threatens sweeping wins for Republicans on election day:

The spirit of the Rally To Restore Sanity was summed up by what dozens of people described on Twitter: The sighting of a little girl in a princess dress, carrying a sign that said "I'm taking back my tea party."
Yes, the Americans who are sick of the far-right haters turned out by the hundreds of thousands to support sanity in our national discourse:

Hey you twenty-something independent who voted for Obama but is now too bummed to show up. Who worked on the campaign and then felt dropped like a hot rock. I hear you. Lots of us do. But Tuesday is vital. This time you will be voting for control of the first branch of government -- Congress. Congress is all of us -- the peoples' house. Today it is the battleground between the past and the future. The terrain is open. You will be the soldiers, the field commanders and the generals of this inevitable revolution. The stakes are huge: How will we go forward as a nation in the world? How will technology improve our democracy? More immediately, how will we respond to the frustrations embodied by the Tea Party movement?

Local rally gets in on the national desire to "Restore Sanity." Hundreds crowd the steps of Boise City Hall.

An estimated crowd of more than 500 people showed up on the steps of Boise City Hall to hear a diverse bunch of speakers

Above all, it will become increasingly transparent in the coming year that the politics of the GOP is absolutely incoherent. Much of the Republican tent is simply flapping in the breeze behind a cascade of public lies. As it now presents itself, the so-called party of conservatism has nothing to bring to the economic crisis except demagogy. So long-term despair is unwarranted for Democrats. They need to harness their poise and undertake to be politically creative not just right now but for the next six years.

it will be a eye-feast of hundreds of thousands of good-humored, well-behaved Americans, there to answer the cynicism of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, at which the notion that the election of a black president somehow sullied the nation's dignity was dressed in sanctimony and a display of patriotism so bombastic that it was almost camp.

But the Fox News audience is not Stewart's target: it's the millions of Americans who don't watch Fox. A show of strength on their part should give mainstream media pause before endlessly repeating right-wing memes about the Restoring Sanity gathering. Whatever liberals do or don't do, Fox News will find a way to distort either their actions or inaction. Yes, we need to be strategically smart, but hiding is not an option.

The Democratic candidates, led by New Hampshire House hopeful Ann Kuster, have launched netneutralityprotectors.com, an online petition and fundraising effort that pledges to stand up "against any attempt by big corporations to control the Internet and eliminate the Internet's level playing field." The candidates are running for House and Senate positions in 34 states.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Who among us has not wanted to open their window and shout that at the top of their lungs?

Seriously, who?

Because we're looking for those people. We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it's appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles.

Are you one of those people? Excellent. Then we'd like you to join us in Washington, DC on October 30 — a date of no significance whatsoever — at the Daily Show's "Rally to Restore Sanity."

Rally to Restore Sanity [video] on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

David Plouffe gives a final campaign update as volunteers prepare for election weekend. Share this with all the Democrats, and like minded voters you know! Important!

As we approach Election Day 2010, a new Pew Research Center/National Journal poll finds that Republican gains in 2010 will have little bearing on the fate of Barack Obama's reelection campaign in 2012. The poll found that voters are more enthusiastic about reelecting Obama than they were at the same point in Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton's presidencies.

Don't have a good enough reason to go out and vote for the Democrats? Watch this video, then you WILL!

One of Fox News' purportedly objective news programs reported the false claim that Mi Familia Vota submitted 3,000 "shady" voter registrations at the "last minute" in Arizona to benefit the Democratic Party. The fake story originated from an Arizona blogger who has a history of making questionable statements, and was denounced as false by the Yuma County Recorder's Office.

Former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson and Jersey Shore star "The Situation" announced their plans to tie the knot on November 2nd. The ceremony will be officiated by Snooki and televised on MTV, and may play a spoiler role in the mid-term elections. When asked if they'd be voting in the election or watching the nuptials, 78% of Americans responded "election?"

Be sure to watch this very important video. You'll be very glad you did!

Every day it seems that more and more seemingly normal American people have suddenly been transformed into mere mental husks of themselves.

Like the pod people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," some strange force has wrested control of their brains and turned them into "sheeple." "Body Snatchers" is just entertainment, and there's a bit more at stake in the real world.

On one side is "Obama's America." The president has sought to invigorate national unity across ethnic boundaries. Obama's America centers on a unifying civic nationalism that embraces citizens of every background. From his recognition of the slaves who helped build the White House, to his defense of the right of Muslims to build a mosque in lower Manhattan, to his reference to families with two dads in his Father's Day Address, to his acknowledgment of religious non-believers in his Inaugural Address, to his belief that every American deserves access to health care, Obama places inclusiveness at the core of his vision of Americanness. This is the basis of much anti-Obama sentiment.

Another American nationalism is out there, one that is ethnic rather than civic. Its advocates see Obama's America as an existential threat to their exclusionary understanding of Americanness. Many on the right play on cultural, religious, and ethnic grievances to divide Americans from one another.

With less than 10 days remaining before Entropical Storm Sarah is expected to make landfall, desecrating this once great nation of ours, emergency preparations are well underway.

All signs point to Democratic losses ranging from the House to the Senate, despite the President's best efforts to shore up the base.

Given this, rather than worrying about voters staying home on November 2nd, Democrats should be focusing on their own survival.

We already know that Murkowski is lying to try to poach enough Dem voters to give her unlikely bid for re-election half a chance. But what Alaska Dems need to remember is: a) the party is united behind the actual Democrat in the race--Scott McAdams; and b) Murkowski is not going to turn into a progressive or even and independent if she somehow pulls out a miracle win. She's already proven it by saying she'll caucus with the Republicans again if she goes back.

This is now the 15,327th severely flawed poll that shows Joe Sestak gaining significant ground on Pat Toomey. Before Rasmussen, and before the internal polls of both campaigns, PPP, Muhlenberg, Quinnipiac, and 15,321 other grotesquely inaccurate polls had shown Toomey's lead collapsing.

This is an act of domestic terrorism against the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. As polls show Grijalva in a dead heat for re-election, this act of terrorism has disrupted his campaign. He is unable to use his office or his staff.

Democrats have dropped a seat to go to 52 in the Senate Snapshot. Still, with seven campaigns within less than 3%, the battleground is wider than ever. Anything between 49 and 55 remains quite plausible. Toss in Washington and Wisconsin, where polling has been close lately, and even 48 and 56 are not entirely out of the question.

On a bright morning this July in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, more than 20 volunteers gathered in the town center to register people to vote and go door to door building momentum for Democratic candidates. They were joined by a local candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's 6th district, Dr. Manan Trivedi. Trivedi, a physician who served as a doctor in Iraq, spoke to the crowd before joining them in hitting the streets to talk with voters. He told the group that this year's election is just as important---if not more so---than 2008:

Voting is a fundamental right--and when we make our voices heard, we can keep moving our nation forward, building a fairer, stronger, and more just America.

Raise your hand. Raise your voice. Raise your VOTE. Learn everything you need to know to vote this November: http://RaiseYourVote.com/

This is an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT election. Raise your VOTE!

The grassroots farmers that made the Revolution were free-thinking hemp growers. Their favorite scribe, Tom Paine, was the son of a Quaker whose Age of Reason assaulted the church with unsurpassed fury. Today's Tea/GOP would have it burned.

Our greatest genius, Ben Franklin, was a proud and joyous sexual adventurer. His very presence today would induce howls of (envious) outrage from the religious right.

It was Franklin who most loved Native America. He introduced himself to the French as "an American savage." He stamped the Hodenosaunee (Iroquois) gifts of personal freedom and a democratic confederation into the soul of the new nation.

After 42 years, the Republicans are far more right-wing than Richard Nixon (and arguably even crazier), and most governing Democrats are far more centrist than the likes of Tip O'Neill, Lyndon Johnson and the old Democratic lions of that earlier era.

In other words, the Left's notion of "teaching the Democrats a lesson" is a myth. It may make some progressives feel morally pure, but it doesn't work. And, the results of the last 42 years should make clear that the idea is not only folly but it is dangerous.

With only 18 days left until Election Day, an NPR survey of likely voters in battleground districts found that while the overall field still tilts to the GOP, Democrats are closing the gap in some places.

The good news for Democrats is that they have improved their position in 58 of the battleground districts. In June, Democratic candidates trailed their Republican opponents in these districts by 8 points. Now, the GOP advantage is only 3 points.

As we head into the final weeks before the election, it is time for closing arguments. Democrats run largely as defenders of working and middle class families, fighting against the entrenched special interests that have stood in the way of the changes we need. They are pushing for jobs programs, for health care reform, for curbing Wall Street, for moving to renewable energy.

By contrast, Republicans are marching in virtual lockstep with banks and corporations in resisting reform. Republicans pushed to weaken the recovery plan, and now pledge to repeal what is left of it.

Democratic candidate Terry Goddard is benefiting from a huge vote from the Latino community, 60 percent of whom say they will vote for him and only 13 percent say they favor Brewer. Goddard also out-polls Jan Brewer among other minority voters, who in Arizona are mostly Native American or Asian. These advantages are off-set by Jan Brewer's anchor of voter strength among those who classify themselves as "Very conservative."

Legalization of cultivation, possession and transportation for personal use is on the ballot this year in California, while the legalization of medical marijuana (which California already enjoys) is on the ballot in Arizona, Oregon and South Dakota. And some analysts are already predicting the California measure might help drive turnout among young people, who in turn will be more likely to vote for Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer over their Republican opponents in California's statewide races:

When Chris Coons was asked last week about a new television commercial in which his rival in this state's Senate race, Christine O'Donnell, assured voters that she was not a witch, his smile was controlled and very, very brief.

"That's got to be one of the more memorable ways to introduce oneself," Mr. Coons said. Then he quickly steered the discussion toward the economy.

In a subsequent interview here, when Ms. O'Donnell's past denunciation of masturbation came up, he said only this: "I have 11-year-old twin boys, and this campaign has allowed us to accelerate awkward conversations."

Republicans are expanding the battle for the House into districts that Democrats had once considered relatively safe, while Democrats began a strategy of triage on Monday to fortify candidates who they believe stand the best chance of survival.

Instead of giving money to political candidates this year, Soros has been been donating to liberal groups that champion causes like the environment and health care.

Asked if the prospect of the Republican Party gaining back control of one or both houses of Congress concerned him, he replied, "It does, because I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I'm not in a position to stop it."

Let's prove George Soros WRONG about the Republican avalanche!

The "Fired Up Democrats!" group has taken off very successfully, and I want to thank everyone who has helped. From mid September to now, October 5, 2010 2:20 PM, the group has gone from zero members to 217 members. The group is very active with a lot of posts, an enthusiastic Group Talk, "FIRED UP DEMOCRATS!'s Conversations", etc. If you haven't looked around at the main group page recently, you should definitely do so and make your voice heard. If you haven't stopped in and visited the Group Talk, you should really check it out. I think you will find it very interesting. Moreover, check out the private conversations listed on the left. There is also some material worth checking out there.

If anyone needs any graphics for articles to fire up people for this fall's election, let me know. I'll gladly give you something to use.

We all need to be fired up, and to fire up any like minded voters we can. They don't have to be Democrats, just people who don't want a Teapublican controlled Congress! If you know of anyone who would like to be part of this group, please send them this way. Let us all do everything we can to keep from getting a Teapublican controlled Congress in November!

Some Capitol Hill lawmakers have decried the steadily increasing poisonous atmosphere on Capitol Hill characterized by the partisan standoff between the two parties, and the public has certainly noted that themselves: Three-quarters say Republicans and Democrats are bickering more, a big jump over the number who felt that way last year, according to a Pew Research Center/National Journal poll conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 3.

The good news is that the DNC raised a whopping $16 million in the month of September alone. The bad news is that the post-Citizens United political landscape is as ugly as promised for the interests of fair elections, giving Republicans a 7-to-1 advantage.

Democrats are trumpeting a record-breaking month of fundraising in September and are hoping it's a sign that the party base is energizing as Election Day nears.

The Democratic National Committee said Monday that it raised over $16 million last month, the most during the 2009-2010 election cycle, according to The Hill. Political parties are required to file monthly financial reports with the Federal Election Commission.

The haul beat the DNC's previous record from March, when it raised about $13.3 million, The New York Times reported.

Liberal activists who rallied in Washington Saturday seemed as concerned about bridging the divide between Democrats and disillusioned progressives as they were about promoting civil rights and other social issues.

The "One Nation Coming Together" rally at the National Mall touched on themes of immigration reform, more funding for schools and equal rights for gays.

Organizers said the rally included more than 400 groups representing black, Latino, gay and lesbian, labor, environmental and civil-rights activists who gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for the "One Nation Working Together" rally.

"We bailed out the banks, we bailed out the insurance companies. Now it's time to bail out the American people. We need to rebuild the infrastructure and provide jobs, and savings for the American people," the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil-rights activist, told the cheering crowd. Jobs, justice and education were frequent themes throughout the day.

Hello Americans. One nation. We are together. This march is about the power to the people. It is about the people standing up to the corporations. Are you ready to fight back? Are you ready to stand up for your brother and sister? This is a defining moment in America. Are you Americans? Are you Americans? Do you love America? It is time. It is a defining moment for this country. For us to look into our heart and our soul, to really find out who we are as a people, as a country, as a family. The conservative voices of America, they are holding you down. They don't believe in your freedom. They want the concentration of wealth. They've shipped your job overseas.

Tapping into anger as the tea party movement has done, a coalition of progressive and civil rights groups marched by the thousands Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial and pledged to support Democrats struggling to keep power on Capitol Hill.

"We are together. This march is about the power to the people," said Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show" on MSNBC. "It is about the people standing up to the corporations. Are you ready to fight back?"

In a fiery speech that opened the "One Nation Working Together" rally on the National Mall, Schultz blamed Republicans for shipping jobs overseas and curtailing freedoms. He borrowed some of conservative commentator Glenn Beck's rhetoric and vowed to "take back our country."

"This is a defining moment in America. Are you American?" Schultz told the raucous crowd. "This is no time to back down. This is time to fight for America."

Regarding the deficit, here's a handy graph that I think speaks volumes. And the CBO projects that health reform will SAVE $118 billion over the first ten years, and $600 billion over the second ten years. Of course, you won't hear those facts at a teabag rally. Another thing you won't hear at a teabag rally is Democrats are historically the ones who give us budget surpluses. His holiness Ronald Reagan was almost as much a budgetary incompetent as Bush was. But again, you won't hear that from a teabagger.

On a press call this morning, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.) announced their united opposition to any Social Security cuts the deficit commission might recommend.

Senator Sanders, along with eleven colleagues, introduced a resolution [pdf] in the Senate "Expressing the sense of the Senate in opposition to privatizing Social Security, raising the retirement age, or other similar cuts to benefits under title II of the Social Security Act."

You know that intensity gap we've been worried will bite us in the ass come election day? The one that convinced everybody and their brother that John Boehner should start measuring the drapes in the Speaker's office?

Well, about that intensity gap (from PPP's Tom Jensen):

The House was finally able to overcome Republican obstruction yesterday and passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, 268-160. Three Blue Dogs (Berry, Bright, and Cooper) joined 157 Republicans in voting against the heroes who were the first responders in the World Trade Center attacks.

So here is what I did learn: Women are the majority of voters. Women are key to the success of the Democratic Party. Men are turning more and more to Republican candidates, and more people are turning to TV, specifically Fox News, for their information.

If women don't vote -- because we are too busy, too exhausted, too angry or too hopeless -- we will very likely lose many of the rights we have only gained in my lifetime. The fact that women are debating each other so fervently and from such high places shows me that we have certainly come a long way in at least some areas of women's rights. And yet there seem to be more and more women arguing against the rights our mothers and grandmothers fought so hard for.

We are One Nation, born from many, determined to build a more united America – with jobs, justice and education for all.

We are young people, frustrated that society seems willing to spend more locking up our bodies than educating our minds, yet still we find ways to succeed and shine.

We are students and newly-returned veterans – persevering in the face of mounting debt – determined not to be the first generation to end up worse off than our parents.

We are baby boomers and seniors – who saw hope killed in 1968 and will not let the dream of a united America be taken from us again.

We are conservatives and moderates, progressives and liberals, non-believers and people of deep faith, united by escalating assaults on our reason, our environment, and our rights.

We are workers of every age, faith, race, sex, nationality, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability – who have suffered discrimination but never stopped loving our neighbors, or our nation.

We are American Indians and Alaska Natives - citizens of Native nations – who maintain our cultures, protect our sovereignty, and strength America's economy.

We are the new immigrants, raising our children in the torchlight of the Statue of Liberty, while confronting the shadows that are bigotry and mass deportations.

We are the native born. We inherited the divided legacies of settlers and American Indians, black slaves and white and Asian indentured servants. And yet, in this moment of shared suffering, we rejoice in newfound friendships and new alliances.

We are people who got thrown out – thrown out of our jobs, schools, houses, farms and small businesses – while Wall Street's wrongdoers got bailed out. We are families who pray every day – for peace and prosperity; for deliverance from foreclosures; for good jobs to come back to urban and rural America.

We are unemployed workers – forced to watch hopes for bold action dashed – because some Senators threaten filibusters, and other would-be champions fold in fear.

And yet, we are the majority – fueled by hope, not hate. We have the pride, power and determination to keep ourselves – and our country – moving up and out of the valley greed created.

And most importantly – from ensuring women are treated fairly at work, to expanding health care coverage for millions– we have been victorious whenever we worked together. We have proven the only thing we need to succeed is each other.

And so, on 10-2-10, we come back together - to march.

I find myself returning to the gut-level feeling expressed at the start of this series: I do not wish to live in a banana republic. There is a reason why, in years past, Americans scorned societies starkly divided into the privileged and the destitute. They were repellent. Is it my imagination, or do we hear less criticism of such societies today in the United States? Might it be harder for Americans to sustain in such discussions the necessary sense of moral superiority?

What is the ideal distribution of income in society? I couldn't tell you, and historically much mischief has been accomplished by addressing this question too precisely. But I can tell you this: We've been headed in the wrong direction for far too long.

Here is a graph that shows why you MUST go out and vote!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/why_elections_matter_in_one_gr.html

More graphs you MUST see!
http://www.slate.com/id/2266174/

On Saturday, the season's lone march on Washington not convened by a television personality will unfold in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. Sponsored by One Nation Working Together -- a coalition of black, Latino, feminist, gay and lesbian civil rights groups; unions; and environmental organizations -- the march is clearly intended as a counterweight to Glenn Beck's religious-right extravaganza of August. It also has become something between a counterpoint and a complement to the Jon Stewart-Stephen Colbert comedic shriek scheduled for late October.

Obama returned to the proven format of a large college campus to launch a pre-election push for fellow Democrats. Speaking to what was once one of his most fervent fan bases - students - he unleashed a string of dire warnings about Republican control, arguing that his opponents are banking on Democratic indifference to return to power.

"The biggest mistake we could make is to let disappointment or frustration lead to apathy . . . that is how the other side wins," Obama said. "If the other side does win, they will spend the next two years fighting for the very same policies that led to this recession in the first place."

Democratic strategists are -- quietly -- growing more optimistic about their chances in the fall election, pointing to improving poll numbers in individual House races as well as an uptick in enthusiasm within the Democratic base nationally.

Continuing to battle a lack of liberal enthusiasm, President Obama told Rolling Stone magazine that Democrats need to realize all of his administration's achievement.

"One of the healthy things about the Democratic Party is that it is diverse and opinionated," the president said. "We have big arguments within the party because we got a big tent, and that tent grew during my election and in the midterm election previously. So making everybody happy within the Democratic Party is always going to be tough."

Continued the president: "Some of it, also, has to do with — and I joke about it — that there's a turn of mind among Democrats and progressives where a lot of times we see the glass as half-empty.

As you may have seen, Alan Grayson has a new ad blasting his opponent Daniel Webster as a member of the American Taliban. The ad uses Webster's own words against him, including a snippet from a speech in which Webster referenced biblical passages calling on women to "submit" to their husbands, and blasts Webster's support for covenant marriage and opposition to abortion even in the case of rape and incest.

One of the head-scratching polling firms this cycle is Quinnipiac, whose Likely Voter model appears to be very favorable to Republicans (or is it just the electorate in the state that gave us Joe Lieberman?) Regardless, trends are most helpful, and this morning's Q-poll (MoE +/-3) has a tightening race at 49-46 (51-45 on Sept. 14) with only 4% undecideds.

President Barack Obama made an urgent plea Monday for college students to get more involved in the upcoming November midterm elections, warning that a disengaged youth vote could lead to major policy reversals over the next two years.

Speaking on a conference call to student journalists, the president said he wanted to send a message to "young people across the country [about] how important this election is."

Hoping to overshadow last month's large rally led by Glenn Beck that drew many Tea Party advocates and other conservatives, a coalition of liberal groups plan to descend on Washington on Saturday to make the case that they, and not the ascendant right, speak for America's embattled middle class.

Republicans also left Democrats an opportunity by committing themselves to a backward-looking agenda -- extending Bush's tax cuts and repealing Obama's policies doesn't demonstrate much in the way of bold new thinking. But Democrats, to their credit, still have big things they want to do. They've just stopped talking about them because they can't pass them. We still need a real energy bill. A payroll-tax holiday would offer a big shot of stimulus and what about Rob Shapiro's idea to permanently end the payroll tax by replacing it with a consumption or carbon tax? The public option remains popular and so, too, does major campaign-finance reform, such as the Fair Elections Now Act.

For the Democratic Party, the difference this year between a rout and survival may come down to Steve Nicholson vs. Rachel Harris. Neither is likely to vote Republican. But it's unlikely that both will vote Democratic. As Nov. 2 approaches, Democrats face a highly motivated opposition. The search for ways to excite people—not just their core voters but anyone who might be receptive to their message—grows more desperate by the day. "Folks wake up!" President Obama told a group of Democrats Monday night. "This is not some academic exercise."

We must work to get the Democratic Party motivated!

The bounce in the GOP's step has already produced record turnout in state primaries held to date. For the first time in 80 years, more Republicans than Democrats have voted in statewide midterm primaries, according to figures compiled by American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

In the 35 state primaries held before Sept. 1, about 17 million citizens voted in Republican elections and 13 million in Democratic ones, according to these figures.

This turnout gap is "the first tangible demonstration of what polls have been showing – a distinct lack of enthusiasm among the Democratic rank and file," said Curtis Gans, director of the American University Center, in a statement.

Democrats MUST start getting fired up for the November election NOW!