This from Thomas in Jefferson City:

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5? What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

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A large group of Callawegians turned out to watch the Biden /Palin debate this week. Folks in Callaway County are really fired up for Obama. This week the Fulton Sun ran the front page headlined story "Obama campaign reaches out to the deaf community" The article on the local campaign's efforts to use adaptive telephone technology to reach hearing impaired persons was picked up by Politico, Daily Kos and Huffington Post.
http://www.fultonsun.com/articles/2008/10/02/news/090news01.txt
What a great effort!

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I want to get this out tonight before I have a chance to read how they of the mainstream media think it went and how they think I should think it all went.

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The first thing I thought of when I read the headlines with the news of the demise of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch was, what would Howard Kunstler have to say about all this?

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/

I didn’t see Stephanopolous’ interview with Greenspan on Sunday and am so happy to have missed it. These days, even the sight of that clueless old fool is enough to send my blood pressure (normally, surprisingly low for my advanced years) into a stratospheric inflationary spiral.

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My 9/11 Message - Delivered on Sept 20, 2001

I am somewhat surprised to find no mention of this anniversary on these pages. I was not planning to contribute this piece because of its length – but in the absence of any other comments, I feel compelled to put my two cents in.

I went back over my own archives and found this piece I wrote on Sept, 20th, 2001.

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It was a geat speech preceeded by a rousing intro by Judy Baker. lots of Dems in attendance. I see Scott Christiansen, Don Salcedo, Barbara Hoppe...
Are YOU in there someplace?
Lets turn out to the Obama HQ on 9th Street and get these guys elected!

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Nice to hear the truth...too bad it has to be accidental:

And something more from Alternet:

8 More Shocking Revelations About Sarah Palin
By Isaac Fitzgerald and Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
Posted on September 3, 2008, Printed on September 3, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/97350

Since the McCain campaign apparently didn't even bother Googling Sarah Palin before picking her to join the Republican ticket, we've taken it upon ourselves to compile some important -- and terrifying -- revelations about Palin.

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After a 12 hour drive starting at 4:30 in the morning...I am checked into our Hotel (16 miles from the Convention site!) and am preparing to crash for the night.
I have had time to look over some of the welcome articles included in not one but two cloth goody bags prepared for the Delegates. Seems we must really like to drink coffee on the fly as there are two insulated travel mugs. Also two T shirts...one of them long sleeve which may come in handy here in the evenings. And...let us not forget the yellow rubber ducky...no kidding!

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Wayne has an excellent article on Left in Missouri about how clueless the punditry is when it comes to 9th Congressional politics. The press has continuously have gone to these "experts" for political analysis, despite being wrong.

The Fulton Sun provided some really good front page coverage of the debate conducted by Democracy for Missouri last evening between David Moen and Don Salcedo. These two excellent candidates are running to be the Democratic nominee for 20th District MO House of Representatives. Check out the Fulton Sun article:
http://www.fultonsun.com/articles/2008/07/31/news/153news02debate.txt
The Primary election this Tuesday will decide. Whoever is nominated will need our help to take back Callaway County for the Democratic Party.
Missouri Democrats must win back the House and Senate to start the healing process under our new Governor Jay Nixon. We need 11 new House seats...lets do it!

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http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07112008/watch.html
This is a great Moyers interview of leading Conservatives. The Republican Party has left their principles in the dust.

This is a great local website in Central Missouri which has as its audacious goal, taking back the White House this Nobvember.
http://www.midmobama.com/
Check it out...get involved!

Joseph Rich, a 35-year employee of the Department of Justice, has nothing but harsh words for former U.S. Attorney Brad Schlozman. Schlozman was installed as U.S. Attorney by the Bush Administration without Senate confirmation.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Bush administration used the opportunity to push out the ethichally-challenged Todd Graves, only to replace him with a political tool that would do Karl Rove's bidding--with the full law enforcement authority of the United States government.

Here is Rich on Schlozman:

JOSEPH RICH: Well, another thing that happened in this administration right from the outset was a great priority on voter fraud. It continued to increase through 2004 and then, I think, particularly after I left in 2006. The priority on voter fraud -- voter fraud is done by the Criminal Division. The Civil Rights Division works on voter intimidation based on race during elections. And the increase in emphasis on voter fraud became more and more apparent, to the point that last year Bradley Schlozman, who had been one of the ones responsible for politicizing the Civil Rights Division -- he had been there from 2003 to 2006. He was one of the first -- I think the first -- interim US attorney appointed under the PATRIOT Act, that gave the Attorney General the authority to appoint people without confirmation indefinitely. He was appointed in Missouri, a battleground state in 2006.

Five days before the election last fall in Missouri, he brought five voter fraud cases against members of -- or I think employees of ACORN for alleged voter fraud. This was contrary to longstanding department policy not to bring or even investigate voter fraud cases shortly before an election because of the sensitivity to having any impact on elections. The longstanding policy was one in which, if there was evidence of voter fraud, the investigation would take place, unless there was a real emergency, after the election.

The fact that that happened in Missouri, the fact that the United States attorneys in New Mexico and Washington, who were following the priority of investigating vigorously voter fraud and yet were removed because they did not indict, is extremely disturbing, because they were doing their job, but in their professional judgment they did not have evidence to bring the cases, and that appears to have been a major factor in their removal.

Click here to watch the video.

Obviously, the Springfield News-Leader Doesn't.

Check out this editorial in the paper today. Bob Dixon believes that the Secretary of State's office should be sending voting registration information to hunters and fishermen that are not registered. While this is a sound theory, why wouldn't government send registration forms to ALL UNREGISTERED VOTERS?

The editorial does a good job of summing up the sane position:

That's a great idea if your goal is to add to bureaucracy and be able to stand before the occasional National Rifle Association meeting to rousing applause.

But if Dixon really wants to add to the voting rolls, there are much better ways. Dixon's proposal would create one special class of Missourian that is targeted for voting. That doesn't make sense to us.

Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) continued the recent stream of GOP praise for outgoing Mayor Kay Barnes as she considers a bid to challenge Rep. Sam Graves (R-Westar).

The Hill reports that at a press conference yesterday, Bond said of Barnes:

“Obviously the mayor and I are of different political parties, but the people of Kansas City expect elected leaders to work together to get things done,” Bond said in the release. “Because of [Barnes’s] commitment and dedication, Kansas City is a better place to live and work.”

This follows the unusual public display of admiration of Barnes from House Speaker Rod Jetton.

The fact that these GOP leaders are going so far out on a limb to praise Barnes speaks both to her unique gift at working with others to solve problems facing her constituents and to Graves' ineffectiveness and inability to work well with others.

Professor Richard Fulton put it this way in today's KC Star:

Richard Fulton, political science professor at Northwest Missouri State University, said Bond is sending a signal to his supporters that they can back Barnes with his tacit approval. Fulton said the news conference is a further sign of a split in the Republican Party in Missouri.

“The Bond people just do not like the way Graves does business with (campaign consultant Jeff) Roe and his crew of attack politics,” Fulton said.

Fulton said Bond won’t overtly endorse Barnes, but could offer behind-the-scenes campaign help to ensure she isn’t blindsided by any attack from Roe.

Stay tuned for further developments in the dramatic split within the MO GOP.

With yesterday's masterfully synthesized compendium of Missouri-related Department of Justice malfeasance on Brad Blog and Talking Points Memo's assertion that there's some big U.S. Attorney Purge news on the way regarding the short-time U.S. Attorney for Western District of Missouri, it is a perfect time to reflect on some woefully unremarked upon pieces of Bradley J. Schlozman's record.

Of course, Schlozman earned his way to top billing as a Purge-gate player via his work on a couple of politically motivated hits that were run through him while he served in various Justice-related offices.

It's looking more and more like Missouri will emerge as ground zero in the U.S. Attorney scandal. Josh Marshall, over at Talking Points Memo teases us with this:

As we move forward in the US Attorney scandal this week, remember this name: Bradley J. Schlozman.

Stay tuned.

It's worth noting that Talking Points Memo has driven much of the coverage of the U.S. Attorney scandal so far, so this is no minor development.

And Brad Friedman, at BradBlog, who monitors the GOP's attempts to commit election fraud by making false claims about election fraud weighed in with a heavy duty post on the Missouri situation. (It's worth clicking through just to see his graphic.)