Ladywriter

unfortunately in this election I came to the same conclusion and will be voting Obama Bidden. If the republicans toxic ticket was way (lets say more then 20%) behind in the polls I would be happy writing Dr Ron Paul all over my ballot. but the race is too close for my comfort Republicans are infamous for stealing elections We wont financially survive a W's 3rd term ~ which is McSame together they will destroy the rights and equalities women and minorities have fought and died for Wars w/ countries that just want to protect themselves from eminent US invasion... More breaks for 40 billion dollar profit having oil companies a health insurance nightmare and an environmental disaster This time I have to vote against dangerous arrogance and ignorance or my world country and loved ones will end up in even deeper shit then we're all trying to climb out of now Lesser of two evils, sure. I'd vote Bon Clay over Crocodile any day of the week

Paxil hfQUTHrWnRk

Big Pharma Big Bucks Hh99CN5tLrc rdh9_Uz6cIs e_o2YtAUA4o Dix4Q44LFaA MRm5VFyMQXU IVDTo8Rm1rE

What would YOU say to an undecided voter? If you can take two minutes to answer that question right now ... that's exactly how you'll have the most impact in this election. The thing is, over the last few months, I've traveled all over the country to try to make sure people know just how disastrous a McCain/Palin administration would be for women's health. And I can tell you: Rallies and posters and ads are important -- but they only go so far. At the end of the day, it's the one-on-one conversations I've had with undecided voters that make the deepest impact. Even more, it's the one-on-one conversations that YOU have that make the difference. I saw a bit of that when the Planned Parenthood Action Fund met Sarah Palin in St. Louis for the VP debate with nearly 100,000 signatures on our open letter describing why she is not our candidate. The combination of real people signing that letter with the leadership of a trusted health care voice (us!) was and is extremely powerful. Now, in the last few weeks before the election, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund is in battleground states like Michigan and Missouri to meet undecided voters and have those critical conversations. You don't have to travel to have a voter-to-voter conversation. You can do it right now, from your computer, and it will take just a moment. Here's how: : 1 : Take two minutes, right now, to write a short personal note to an undecided voter about why a McCain/Palin administration would be disastrous for women's health. Not sure how to get started? Don't worry, we've got a sample note for you to use. http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/voter_to_voter/iwsw56krh8kx768?source=vtv08_e1af : 2 : Once you've submitted your message online, we'll print it out, and one of our volunteers will deliver it straight to an undecided voter in a battleground state. : 3 : Join us this weekend in your own community to educate voters during our Mobilization Weekend. http://www.ppaction.org/ct/O1MI_Jp1_rMu/OnTheGround Time and again I've seen Planned Parenthood Action Fund supporters harness their passion, strength, and conviction to achieve truly amazing things. From the enormous support you've shown us in response to Sarah Palin's nomination as vice president to helping get our messages out to the public, you're making a tremendous difference. Today I need you to harness that energy again: Send your voter-to-voter note right now. Thank you for all you continue to do -- together, I know we can change the course of this election! Sincerely, Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Action Fund P.S. Ready to do even more? This weekend is our big push for on-the-ground volunteers -- find out more here. http://www.ppaction.org/ct/O1MI_Jp1_rMu/OnTheGround **************************************** To update your account settings, please visit your subscription management page at: http://www.ppaction.org/ppvotes/smp.tcl?nkey=iwsw56krh8kx768&. If you would like to unsubscribe from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund go to: http://www.ppaction.org/ppvotes/remove-domain-direct.tcl?ctx=center&nkey=iwsw56krh8kx768&.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h Subject: The Fed is destroying your money, RIGHT NOW In a continuing effort to rescue and reward those who made bad financial decisions, the Federal Reserve is making you pay yet again, in another way, on top of the Big Bailout. Apparently, the $700 billion Big Bailout wasn't a large enough payout to America's poorly run companies. Still more of your hard earned money is needed. The federal government will take this new pound of flesh in the form of a massive inflation tax. You pay an inflation tax whenever the Federal Reserve creates new dollars. This causes every dollar you hold to be worth less than it was before. Those who get this new money first will become vastly richer, at your expense, because they'll get to spend the money before it causes prices to rise. Who gets the money first? The banking system -- the very institutions that profited from the government policies that inflated the housing bubble. First they profited from the bubble, and now they're going to profit from the bubble bursting too. How many new dollars has the Fed created? Nearly half a trillion dollars in the space of just two weeks. This increase in the money supply is unprecedented. <http://news.goldseek.com/SpeculativeInvestor/1223395882.php> The Federal Reserve is taking this action because the Big Bailout was constructed on an inherent contradiction. How could the government solve the supposed problem of tight credit by borrowing $700 billion to bailout the credit system? Money borrowed by the government cannot be borrowed by others, which must inevitably tighten credit in the private economy. Of course . . . The $700 billion will flow back into the credit system as the government buys up distressed assets from banks and mortgage companies, but only after a delay, and what if, as many have predicted, the $700 billion isn't enough? The Federal Reserve intends to "solve" and "forestall" these potential problems by creating massive amounts of new dollars. But this won't change the fact that too many house have been built, and that houses are overpriced -- both of which occurred because of government polices that focused previous credit inflation in the housing sector. They won't cure the disease by re-introducing the bacteria that caused the disease in the first place. Expanding the money supply will do nothing to clear the housing market. Only time and falling prices can do that. Instead, all this new money will simply flow into other sectors of the economy, creating yet another bubble. Of course, those who support this monetary inflation claim that the Fed will be able to reabsorb the new dollars later. They're right, the Federal Reserve adds and subtracts from the money supply all the time. But here again there is another contradiction . . . We're told that the Fed must inflate the money supply in order to combat deflation, but if the Fed reabsorbs the new money later, THAT WILL BE DEFLATION. Why would deflation be bad now, but good later? This kind of sloppy thinking is how we got into this mess in the first place. The Fed, under Alan Greenspan, inflated the supply of money and credit in 2001. This helped cause bubbles in the stock market and the housing market, which then burst when the Fed later reduced the flow of money and credit to avoid a general rise in prices. We're about to repeat the whole process over again. And you will once again pay the price. It's a simple fact, if not for the Federal Reserve and the federal government you would be vastly richer than you are now. Instead, you're constantly robbed by government policies that reward those with political influence -- influence gained as a result of riches obtained at your expense. We must redress this imbalance. You must gain political influence of your own. And the only way to do that is to build a huge army with which to overwhelm Congress and end the policies that rob you of the wealth that would otherwise be yours. Meanwhile, as our army grows, we must continue to apply pressure on Congress to adopt better policies. Congressman Ron Paul has provided us with two bills that would move things in the right direction. The "Honest Money Act" and the "Free Competition in Currency Act," would end the Federal Reserve's monopoly control over what American's use as money. This would force Federal Reserve Notes to compete with other potential forms of money, such as gold, and thereby constrain their ability to create new dollars. Please send Congress a message supporting these bills. <http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/85> Use your personal comments to tell your representatives that you're aware the Federal Reserve has recently inflated the money supply by nearly half a trillion dollars. Tell them that you know that this will create new bubbles, and make your own wages and savings worth less. Tell them you want to end the Federal Reserve's monopoly control over your money.

e are Constitution Voters It's time candidates talk about warrantless NSA spying on innocent Americans, including military personnel and international relief workers. Email debate moderator, Bob Schieffer, and tell him to ask the candidates about warrantless NSA spying on innocent Americans, including military personnel and international relief workers. FTN@cbsnews.com ************************************************ Dear ACLU Supporter, Tomorrow night, at the last debate, one thing we can be sure of is that Barack Obama and John McCain will go out of their way to tell us how much they respect America's fighting men and women. There's a simple test that moderator Bob Schieffer can use to see if they mean it. He can ask them how and when they plan to put an end to our government's ineffective and unnecessary spying on the personal phone calls of innocent Americans, including the phone calls of military personnel serving far away from home. Late last week, two whistle-blowers -- former National Security Agency (NSA) military intercept operators -- the people who actually listen in on phone calls -- revealed that hundreds of innocent Americans, including soldiers and humanitarian workers for the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, were routinely and intentionally eavesdropped on. It's hard to think of a more insulting way to disrespect those serving our nation and the world overseas than intruding on their personal, sometimes intimate, phone calls back home. Email Bob Schieffer, and tell him to ask the candidates about warrantless NSA spying on innocent Americans, including military personnel and international relief workers. FTN@cbsnews.com Anyone vying to be our next Commander in Chief should have a ready answer. The only way to stop this reckless spying is to make sure the NSA does not have unchecked spying power. That is why the ACLU is challenging the FISA Amendments Act with our Amnesty International v. McConnell lawsuit brought on behalf of an impressive array of journalists, human rights organizations and lawyers. This misguided law -- rushed through a timid pre-election Congress -- gives the government nearly unfettered access to the international phone calls of Americans without any meaningful judicial oversight. Such unchecked and unaccountable power is an outrage and essentially authorizes mass, suspicionless, warrantless spying -- exactly what the ACLU has been fighting to undo since the Bush administration began its illegal warrantless spying program in 2005. Last week's revelations about NSA spying on our troops and international relief workers makes painfully clear that our government has run amok, spying on innocent Americans while claiming to be spying only on suspected terrorists. The American people deserve to know whether our next President is committed to bring out-of-control eavesdropping to an end. Send a message to Mr. Schieffer. FTN@cbsnews.com The men and women serving in the military make so many sacrifices for our country. They leave home for months -- even years -- at a time. They put themselves in harm's way, and some of them never return home at all. It is unconscionable that our government has turned their most intimate phone calls into fodder for the amusement of NSA spies. That's exactly what's happened according to the NSA whistle-blowers' reports. Tomorrow night, Bob Schieffer can ask a simple question and let the candidates tell the American public exactly how they are planning on bringing out-of-control government spying to an end. Please send a message to Mr. Schieffer today. FTN@cbsnews.com The ACLU is leading the fight to stop out-of-control eavesdropping, and we will not yield until we bring this reckless spying to an end. Please stand with us today. In defense of freedom, Anthony D. Romero Executive Director ACLU P.S. The debate happens tomorrow night. Help to ensure Bob Schieffer asks about this critical issue. Please pass this along to five friends, and take time to send Mr. Schieffer a message right away.

aquaNj9J0l0 Let's face it, our country is addicted to oil. Even George W. Bush, a former oil peddler, has admitted to this addiction. And like any sickness, our addiction to oil has serious consequences: higher temperatures, melting glaciers, more violent storms and $4 a gallon gasoline to name just a few. The U.S. burns 25 percent of the world's oil, but we only have three percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Offshore drilling won't even deliver a drop of oil for ten years, according to the Bush Administration's own numbers. That means we'll never be able to drill our way to lower gas prices or energy independence. Drilling for offshore oil is like giving an addict a bigger dose - it doesn't solve the problem, it just makes it worse—for all of us. It's time to quit oil, get clean, and make a permanent switch to renewable energy. Our oil "high" has serious effects on global health. Here's how to recognize the symptoms. Symptoms of Oil Addiction: - Higher global temperatures - Erratic temperature fluctuation - Record sea ice losses - Rising sea levels - Stronger and increased storms and hurricanes - Severe droughts and crop failures - Increased wildfires - Depleted fresh water supplies - Rising food prices - Spread of tropical diseases - Increased flooding - Massive species extinction - Bleaching coral reefs - Acidification of our oceans - Global warming refugees worldwide - Heightened international conflicts - Gas prices reaching $4 a gallon or more ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Greenpeace USA 702 H Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20001 (800) 326-0959 Take Action Tell our next President to just say no to offshore drilling. Our addiction is making the planet sick while Big Oil is getting rich. Global warming threatens us all, and if we don't break our addiction, we'll ALL suffer the consequences. The cycle of addiction must end now - and it's our generation that needs to stand up and make the change.

Dear Friends, This Wednesday, we have a crucial opportunity to show the Presidential Candidates that people around the world want them to attend the upcoming UN Climate Meetings in Poland and commit to a strong climate treaty. Over 18,000 people have invited the candidates to the meetings - can you help us get to 20,000 before Wednesday's Presidential debate? Send your invitation today: http://www.350.org/invite Now it's time for us to take the message directly to the candidates themselves. At the final Presidential debate, this Wednesday, 350.org supporters will gather outside the debate, dressed as pilots and flight attendants, carrying a giant ticket to Poland for the next US President. The ticket is a symbol of the thousands of invitations you've helped send the candidates. 350.org staff are working to make sure the campaigns know about this delivery. Help us get to 20,000 signatures before Wednesday's debate: http://www.350.org/invite The more signatures we get, the more likely the campaigns will listen. If we can get over 20,000 signatures, the delivery will attract lots of attention for our important message: if the next President is serious about stopping climate change and repairing the United States' image in the world, he must attend the UN Climate Meeting this December in Poland. Thanks for all your help, Jamie Henn, Co-coordinator, and the whole 350.org Team

I was wondering who'd catch that X'D

If you have looked in this thread If you laid eyes on my Palin sig or Dx's current sig if you participated in any of those campaigns in Take Action If you or someone on your buddy list has posted in 1408 If you have been within 25 feet of a computer viewing AC you might be a domestic terrorist

Gov. Sarah Palin: I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America, as the greatest source for good in this world. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country. Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Pub. L. No. 107-52) expanded the definition of terrorism to cover ""domestic,"" as opposed to international, terrorism. A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act ""dangerous to human life"" that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. Additionally, the acts have to occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States and if they do not, may be regarded as international terrorism. Section 802 does not create a new crime of domestic terrorism. However, it does expand the type of conduct that the government can investigate when it is investigating ""terrorism."" The USA PATRIOT Act expanded governmental powers to investigate terrorism, and some of these powers are applicable to domestic terrorism. The definition of domestic terrorism is broad enough to encompass the activities of several prominent activist campaigns and organizations. Greenpeace, Operation Rescue, Vieques Island and WTO protesters and the Environmental Liberation Front have all recently engaged in activities that could subject them to being investigated as engaging in domestic terrorism. One recent example is the Vieques Island protests, when many people, including several prominent Americans, participated in civil disobedience on a military installation where the United States government has been engaging in regular military exercises, which these protesters oppose. The protesters illegally entered the military base and tried to obstruct the bombing exercises. This conduct would fall within the definition of domestic terrorism because the protesters broke federal law by unlawfully entering the airbase and their acts were for the purpose of influencing a government policy by intimidation or coercion. The act of trying to disrupt bombing exercises arguably created a danger to human life - their own and those of military personnel. Using this hypothetical as a starting point, we will go through the USA PATRIOT Act and explore the new governmental powers that could be brought to bear on Vieques Island protesters whose conduct falls within the overbroad definition of domestic terrorism. Seizure of assets - Sec. 806: Section 806 of the Act could result in the civil seizure of their assets without a prior hearing, and without them ever being convicted of a crime. It is by far the most significant change of which political organizations need to be aware. Section 806 amended the civil asset forfeiture statute to authorize the government to seize and forfeit: all assets, foreign or domestic (i) of any individual, entity, or organization engaged in planning or perpetrating any act of domestic or international terrorism against the United States, or their property, and all assets, foreign or domestic, affording any person a source of influence over any such entity or organization or (ii) acquired or maintained by any person with the intent and for the purpose of supporting, planning, conducting, or concealing an act of domestic or international terrorism against the United States, citizens or residents of the United States or their property or (iii) derived from, involved in, or used or intended to be used to commit any act of domestic or international terrorism against the United States, citizens or residents of the United States, or their property. This language is broad enough to authorize the government to seize any assets of any individuals involved in the Vieques Island protests or of any organization supporting the protests of which the person is a member, or from any individuals who were supporting the protesters in any way. Possible supporters of the protesters could include student organizations that sponsored participation in the demonstration, the Rainbow/Push Coalition, the Rev. Sharpton's National Action Network, and religious or community organizations that provided housing or food to the protesters. The civil asset forfeiture power of the United States government is awesome. The government can seize and/or freeze the assets on the mere assertion that there is probable cause to believe that the assets were involved in domestic terrorism. The assets are seized before a person is given a hearing, and often without notice. In order to permanently forfeit the assets, the government must go before a court, but at a civil hearing, and the government is only required to prove that the assets were involved in terrorism by a preponderance of the evidence. Because it is a civil proceeding, a person is not entitled to be represented by an attorney at public expense if they cannot afford to pay an attorney. The time between seizure and forfeiture can sometimes be months; meanwhile, organizations or individuals whose assets are seized are forced to make do without the assets. Only the most financially flush non-profit organizations would be able to successfully defend themselves against government forfeiture. In short, without the full due process afforded in criminal cases, the U.S. government can bankrupt political organizations it asserts are involved in domestic terrorism. Disclosure of educational records - Sec. 507 This provision of the USA PATRIOT Act requires a judge to issue an order permitting the government to obtain private educational records if the Attorney General or his designee certifies that the records are necessary for investigating domestic or international terrorism. No independent judicial finding is required to verify that the records are relevant. This means that the Attorney General may obtain the private educational records of a student involved in the Vieques protests by asserting that the records are relevant to a domestic terrorism investigation. These records may include information such as a student's grades, private medical information (counseling, abortions), which organizations the student belonged to, or any other information that the educational institution collects about its students. Disclosure of information from National Education Statistics Act - Sec. 508 This provision of the USA PATRIOT Act requires a judge to issue an order for the government to obtain educational records that have been collected pursuant to the National Education Statistics Act. NESA includes a vast amount of identifiable student information from academic performance to health information, family income, and race. Until now, this information has been held to strict confidentiality requirements without exception. Again, all the government needs to certify is that the information is relevant to a terrorism investigation and the court has no choice but to issue the order. Single-Jurisdiction Search Warrants (Sec. 219) This section of the USA PATRIOT Act amends Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to authorize the government to go before a singe Federal magistrate judge in any judicial district in which activities relating to the terrorism may have occurred, to obtain a warrant to search property or a person within or outside the district. This means that the government could go to a single judge to get a warrant to search the property or person of the Vieques activists in New York, Chicago, California, or wherever else the protesters were from. If the government chose to go before a magistrate in New York, a person in California, who wished to seek to have the warrant quashed because he or she believed it was invalid, would have to find a way to appear before the New York court that issued the warrant. This would be a daunting task for most. Post-PATRIOT Act Laws Since passage of the PATRIOT Act, two other new laws have passed that implicate domestic terrorism. Taxpayer Information - 26 U.S.C.A. Sec. 6103(i)(3)© requires the Secretary of the Internal Revenue Service to provide taxpayer information to the appropriate Federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating or responding to the terrorist incident. If abused, this provision could be used by law enforcement to gain access to confidential taxpayer information of political protesters. Regulation of biological agents and toxins - 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 262a and 7 U.S.C.A. Sec. 8401 regulate biological agents and toxins. If a person is involved with an organization that engages in domestic or international terrorism, he or she is not permitted to gain access to these regulated agents. Under the law, the Attorney General identifies individuals involved in ""terrorism"" to the Department of Agriculture. Once the person is listed, he or she cannot get access to any of the regulated agents or toxins. This provision will probably not impact most people, however, it might impact someone such as a scientist who might regularly use biological agents or toxins in their work. Conclusion - The ACLU does not oppose criminal prosecution of people who violate the law, even if they are doing it for political purposes. However, we do oppose the broad definition of terrorism and the ensuing authority that flows from that definition. One way to ensure that the conduct that falls within the definition of domestic terrorism is in fact terrorism is to limit the scope of the conduct that triggers the definition. Thus, domestic terrorism could include acts which ""cause serious physical injury or death"" rather than all acts that are ""dangerous to human life."" This more narrow definition will exclude the conduct of organizations and individuals that engage in minor acts of property damage or violence. ACLU

The U.S.-financed War on Drugs has had savage results in Mexico, and now its president wants to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin possession. If passed, Calderón's legislation would decriminalize up to 2 grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine, 40 milligrams of meth, and 50 milligrams of heroin. To qualify, any individual arrested with those drugs would have to agree to a drug treatment program to address admitted addiction or enter a prevention program designed for recreational users. Those who refused to attend one of these kinds of programs would be subject to a fine.

I like Countdown w Kieth Olberman (last nights worst person in the world deserved it) and Rachel Madow. I'll watch a lil CNN to see how the mainstream stuff is being reported and MSNBC for a more liberal view. If I need a laugh I'll watch Fox noise X'D

it could be she refused to move against Whitebeard cuz she's one of his former nakama.... Where is everybody else? The clock is ticking Sunny will be ready soon! will they reunite and run or will they get tangled up in all the fighting? So much to be happening!

go for it until ppl realize that faith and religion should be about their personal relationship w god and not damning everyone that doesn't agree with their fanaticism the world will continue to be shit

Don't feel too bad. Most of America is asleep at the wheel >.<

she's the perfect representation of the far right denies human involvement in climate destabilization- check anti environment because of the check from big oil in her pocket- check anti women rights- check aint worried about the world cuz she believes a messiah is gonna float her ass up into the sky in her lifetime- check in short shes nuts

didja get good presents?

Subject: Congress will not authorize a naval blockade of Iran We've won another victory -- this time in our fight against H.Con.Res. 362. This House resolution would have urged President Bush to impose a naval blockade on Iran, bringing the U.S. to a state of undeclared war with that nation. The House Democratic leadership has decided to NOT bring the resolution to a vote. This looks like it is a final victory. If any resolution comes to the floor in the next Congress it is unlikely to include the naval blockade. This victory is due entirely to public pressure. DC Downsizers were a major part of that pressure. Massive public protest led five co-sponsors of the resolution to officially withdraw their names from the bill, while other co-sponsors flipped and voiced strong opposition to the naval blockade provision. Jim Fine, the Legislative Secretary for our coalition partner, the Friend's Committee, puts it this way, "None of us at FCNL can remember another time when five members withdrew from a resolution they had agreed to cosponsor." H.Con.Res. 362 is also another demonstration of the need for Downsize DC's "Read the Bills Act." Many of the co-sponsors were unaware of what they were committing to, because they hadn't read the resolution before agreeing to support it. Your pressure helped make them aware of their error. Pressure works, as long as there's enough of it, applied relentlessly for a long enough time. We need to keep up the pressure, on all fronts. Which means . . . We need to continue to pressure Congress on old issues as we also prepare for a long fight on the host of government interventions surrounding the Big Bailout. We must not allow old transgressions to be forgotten, and become locked in place, because the politicians have diverted our attention to their latest set of crises. For instance, let's not lose sight of our fight to repeal the REAL ID Act. It's been a few weeks since we've pressured Congress on this issue. They may think we've forgotten about it. Let's show them that we haven't forgotten, and that we will never relent until we get what we want. Send a message right now asking Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act. <http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/30> Tell Congress that you will not submit to a national identification card loaded with highly sensitive personal bio-metric information. You can send your message using our Educate the Powerful System. <http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/30> Please also make a contribution or start a monthly pledge so that we can grow big enough to win more battles more often. You can contribute instantly at our secure website, or print out the form and mail a check to the address listed on the page. <https://secure.downsizedc.org/contribute> Congratulations on your latest victory, and thanks for being a part of the growing Downsize DC army. Jim Babka President DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

John McCain has promised the court to the right wing, and Roe v. Wade is first up on the chopping block. BOSTON -- I really hate to bring it up. We already have two branches of our national government in full-scale meltdown. The president looks like a guy pleading before the parole board for early release. The Congress makes "dysfunctional" sound like a compliment. But there is the third branch also in dire need of a rescue operation. Oyez, oyez, or should I say oy vey. I give you the Supreme Court. When the court opens Monday, it will look like an oasis of calm in the capital. There are no neon-bright cases on the docket this term. Indeed, my personal favorite is the case of the "fleeting expletives," a suit brought against -- and made for -- Fox News, asking whether the FCC ban on dirty words covers the occasional Paris Hilton outburst. But even the court's routine cases will wrestle with personal injury suits, job discrimination, sexual harassment and the environment. The not-so-fleeting fact is that the court ultimately touches every life. And so I come reluctantly to my quadrennial and usually futile plea to consider the court when you get into the presidential voting booth. Most Americans have some guilty, civics-class understanding that the Supreme Court hangs in the electoral balance. More than 85 percent tell pollsters that the court is either very or somewhat important in how they cast their vote for president. But the court rarely rises to the top of the voting issues. In support of my plea, take this pop quiz. What are the three longest lasting legacies of the Gerald Ford administration -- and the Betty Ford Clinic doesn't count. The answer? John Paul Stevens, John Paul Stevens, John Paul Stevens -- 88 years old and still on the bench. (OK, Dick Cheney was Ford's chief of staff, but let's not go there.) George W. Bush's shadow will hover over the country long after he's gone, in the shape of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. In just three years and counting, the Roberts court has chilled desegregation efforts, allowed the first abortion ban with no exception for a woman's health, made it harder to claim employment discrimination, and easier to mix church and state. In the cold world of actuarial tables, the next president is certain to have one choice and probably more. Candidates for retirement are Stevens, the 75-year-old Ruth Ginsburg and the homesick David Souter. That's three of the four moderate and liberal justices on a bench that has made an art of 5-4 decisions. You do the math. If Obama is elected, the court will stay pretty much the way it is. If McCain is elected, Katie bar the door. McCain, who plays a maverick on TV, promised the court to the right wing. He told the women of "The View": "I want people who interpret the Constitution of the United States the way our founding fathers envisioned for them to do so." This prompted Whoopi Goldberg to ask if she should worry about being returned to slavery. Of course, slavery is not up for review and not every case comes with an ideological amicus brief. But you can count on one more Scalia, one more Alito, one more Roberts to limit or strike down the federal power for things such as cleaning the air and safeguarding workers. And need I remind you, McCain is out to overturn Roe v. Wade. Pro-choice groups have been crying wolf for so long that it's hard to believe that the wolf is actually at the door. Or at least the border of South Dakota. There a full-tilt abortion ban on the November ballot with high-hurdle exceptions only for rape, incest and the life of a woman is pointed directly at Roe and targeted to arrive at the Supreme Court in time to greet a new justice. If what happens in South Dakota doesn't stay in South Dakota, a woman's right will depend on whether she has enough gas to drive to the next, or the next, or the next state. Finally, if you want to know which candidate just plain values the Supreme Court, try checking out their first appointments, the vice presidents. Joe Biden has spent a career on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sarah Palin went blank when asked to talk about a single court case beside Roe v. Wade. Ah yes, remember when only a few Cassandras warned that subprime mortgages and credit derivatives would affect everyday American life? We'll be paying for the next Supreme Court even longer. That's two branches of government down, folks, and one to go. © 2008, Washington Post Writers Group

Everything you ever wanted to know about the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression but were afraid to ask.

Religulous is an entertaining, thought-provoking movie that even religious people will enjoy, especially if they’re able to get a laugh at their own expense. If they aren’t, well, that sort of proves the whole point Religulous and Bill Maher are trying to make.

Jesse Jackson Jr. from the Huffington Post What the Republicans are Really Afraid of The Republicans tried to make fun of Barack Obama as a community organizer at their national convention in Minnesota, which I guess just goes to show how little Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have to fear from right-wing "humor." Now they've gone further: Now they're attacking ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), one of the strongest, hardest-working, most dedicated community organizations in both Chicago and in 40 states across the U.S. Why are they after ACORN? Well, I'm sure they're going to come up with a lot of "reasons" in the coming days. But the real reason is obvious: Because ACORN, along with Project Vote, just announced that they had successfully registered 1.3 million poor people this year. Get that? 1.3 million, including 148,000 in Pennsylvania, 152,000 in Florida, 217,000 in Michigan, and 238,000 in Ohio. No wonder the GOP is up in arms. They're scared of too many poor people preparing to vote this year. In the last week, the right wing has tried to blame ACORN for the collapse of the globalized financial system--yeah, that's a viable argument. They got excited because they found a some possible fake registration forms in Florida, which predictably led to a bunch of whining from the party that stole an entire presidency from Al Gore by blocking vote counts, mischaracterizing voters as felons, refusing to recount entire counties, sending congressional staff down to riot and intimidate volunteer vote-counters, and topped it all off with the most partisan, badly-reasoned, illegitimate Supreme Court decision since Plessy v. Ferguson. A decision so illegitimate that the partisan majority, to their eternal discredit, themselves damned by writing into their own decision that it should never be used as a precedent for any other court ruling. This week, the right-wing is hyperventilating because apparently Democratic election officials raided an ACORN office after they found the names of some Dallas Cowboy football players among the 80,000 new registration forms that ACORN helped to get done in Nevada. Obviously it's not right for a fake "Tony Romo" to be registered in Las Vegas, so someone was probably playing a not-very-funny joke, or trying to pad their registration numbers to get paid a little more money rather than doing the hard work in the hot Nevada sun that helping voters to register requires, or maybe a provocateur was setting up ACORN for some bad press. But remember the basic point--it's not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on election day and tries to pass himself off as "Tony Romo." And who would try to do that? No one is going to be that stupid. The truth is, the main voter fraud efforts going on in my lifetime--and I was born the week of the Selma march in 1965--have been repeated conservative attempts, far too many of them successful, to demonize and suppress the vote of African-Americans and Latinos in election after election, a history for which former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman actually apologized a few years ago, while promising the GOP would no longer engage in such tactics. So they stole an election from Gore, made the Department of Justice into an outfit for partisan hacks, allowed New Orleans to drown, lied us into a war against a country that did not threaten us, replaced science with bad ideology, indebted our grandchildren to China, and turned our banking system into a deregulated casino--but thank the Lord that "Tony Romo" will not be able to sneak in to vote in Nevada next month. This time, there are already fake flyers mysteriously appearing on the streets of minority areas of Philadelphia, illegal voter purges in numerous states, "caging" tricks, threats of using home foreclosure lists to strike voters from the rolls, and "black box" electronic vote-counting systems under the control of private companies--and we haven't even gotten to election day! Meanwhile, I say thank you, ACORN. Thank you, Project Vote, for taking our democracy seriously enough to try to include 1.3 million more poor people in a more perfect union. Steven Rosenfeld: McCain's Racist ad John McCain's latest ad attacking Barack Obama and ACORN, the low-income advocacy group whose members mostly are people of color, is not just false on the facts, it may be the most racist ad in presidential politics since 1988's infamous Willie Horton mug shot. 1 2 3 4 Next page » View as a single page

Like most people I know in their 20s and 30s, it takes a stretch of the imagination to understand that I have a stake in the national economy.