The following is my letter to the editor of our local paper. It's short and to the point. Use it to pass out to your wing-nut acquaintances who keep reflexively uttering "manufactured scandal."
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You know you're getting your information from a propaganda source rather than a news source if you heard that the recent attorney firings are a "manufactured scandal." Propagandists quickly adopted their favorite "Blame Bill Clinton" theme without telling you that not only did Clinton fire all attorneys when taking office, but so did the first President Bush and Ronald Reagan.

As in past elections, the traditional media all rallied to proclaim there were very few problems in 2006 with electronic voting machines even before enough time had passed to report such problems. All the better to frame any possible protests as unfounded.

That should have been our first clue. History should have been our second clue. The reported election results have followed historic trends in second term off year elections as far as losses for the party in power goes. In fact, the loses are even on the light side in historical terms. This despite the massive dissatisfaction with the way things are going. Iraq. Katrina. Domestic spying. Tax give-aways to the filthy rich. The list goes on and on.

Do you ever recall any election when so many conservative and Republican leaders were urging their followers to "vote the bums out?" Even large portions of the Republican base were switching sides. Until, of course, the votes were counted. More after the fold.

Second, the really big story in all this is that Webb has won and the results will not change because NO RECOUNT IS POSSIBLE!!!

This race should be held up as a monument to the utter stupidity of allowing us to vote on electronic voting machines without a paper trail. Join me after the fold.

According to Avi Ruben:

The authors show that "even if the memory card is sealed and pre-election testing is performed, one can carry out a devastating array of attacks against an election using only off-the-shelf equipment and without having ever to access the card physically or opening the AV-OS system box." The attacks presented in the paper include manipulating the count so that no votes for a particular candidate are counted, swapping votes for two candidates, and reporting the results incorrectly based on biases that are triggered under certain conditions.

We should never have invaded Iraq in the first place. That's a given only the most die hard Kool-aid drinkers will argue against. But given the fact that we're there now, if you look at only Iraq, the question about a quick withdrawal is still a bit fuzzy. Honest people can still  disagree about the best course to take.  

But if you look at a broader question, it becomes clear that our continued presence in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States. That broader question is "What is our continued presence in Iraq doing to our standing with the rest of the Middle East?"

One of the answers, of course, is that when a reporter or low level editor suggests giving coverage to such an event, they are told "Look, we just merged with Bigger-Than-Shit Media Consolidated to form the fourth largest communications company in the country. In the interests of corporate efficiency, we had to cut a lot of reporter positions who were duplicating each other's efforts. We simply don't have the staff to cover these types of events."

But it astounds me that anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000 protesters gathered in Manchester England on September 23rd for the "Time to Go" protest of Tony Blair and the wars he supports, but the U.S. media didn't cover it at all. Even Blair's sister-in-law spoke against him, but very little British media covered it either. But I'll show you where to find coverage (and how to increase future coverage) after the jump.

What an incredible night! In Warren county, one of the two reddest counties in Ohio, a spectacular lineup of all the major state candidates and a guest appearance by Michigan representative John Conyers created an air of excitement and expectations for the fall. Expectations were lifted not only by John Conyers' remarks that the latest Democratic projections were that Democrats will capture seven more seats than the 15 they need for a majority (insert the usual disclaimer about early polls), but also by the two distinct groups of people attending the dinner.

Over two hundred Democrats attended Warren county's fundraising dinner, paying an average of $100 a head. But in addition, an even more remarkable group of people wanted an opportunity to meet the stellar lineup of candidates attending: disaffected Republicans.

After an initial flurry of publicity, far too little has been made of what a lousy choice John Boenher is to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader. John Boehner...to restore ethics...what a joke!

Boehner passing out checks from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House is legendary, but a lesser known illustration of his character flaws is his ten-year struggle to keep elected officials' wrongdoing hidden from public view.

In much the same way administration insiders attacked Joe Wilson and his wife to discourage others who might consider exposing White House lies and distortions, John Boehner continues to fight an unprecedented battle to discourage whistle-blowers from exposing the wrongdoing of elected officials. More after the fold.

As it just so happens, because there are, as of yet, no bedpan galleries to display his creations (even his new George W, Bush Bedpan of Shame), he also travels to flea markets around the area to sell them.

Gauging from the reactions he gets from the typically NASCAR/Red State crowd he finds at the shows, he is ready to predict a landslide victory for Democrats this fall (provided, of course, no Diebold machines or tabulating software are used again). I'll explain after the fold.

But now, in a widely overlooked story, USA Today has followed up and discovered vast data mining programs that were supposed to have been discontinued back in 2003. See highlights from the article after the fold.

Click here or on the graphic to the left to see a version you can read on screen. On the page that loads, you will be given an option to download a larger image suitable for printing if you'd like to share it with any wingnuts at work, or distribute them in fundie church parking lots.

I am open to suggestions for improvement and also encourage you to use the comments section to suggest topics for future comics. Enjoy.

I've been playing around with creating comics as a means of communicating the dangers the current administration poses. But I'm at a loss as to how to distribute these comics, or even who the target audience should be.

Please click here to see a larger version of my first attempt and give suggestions for:
1) improving it.
2) to whom it should be aimed.
3) how it should be distributed.
-or-
4) improving skills at my "day job" so I won't inflict such pain on the world ever again.

In a speech in London, [Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith,] said the camp had become a symbol of injustice and its existence was "unacceptable".

Now that the criticism is coming from America's closest ally (if we have any of those still around), it will be much harder for the Right Wing Propaganda Machine to dismiss all the other calls for basic human decency coming from so many human rights groups. Unless, of course, they are ready to throw Britain into "Old Europe" now. More after the fold.

Unbelievably, the war in Iraq is going so well, that according to a story in the Washington Post, "The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq."

The email detailing the specific talking points to be incorporated into each speech was "accidentally" sent to career administrators as well as political appointees. Needless to say, this didn't go over with them too well. Make the jump to see how to respond.

If, instead of doing what his oil buddies want, he used his bully pulpit to ask Americans to reduce their personal consumption of oil --even giving pointers for how to do so-- we would see an almost immediate drop in the demand for oil, perhaps even a very significant drop.

It should be clear that, when global warming is factored in, the only prudent course is to reduce the use of oil in the short term. In the medium term, a growing economy will demand additional gasoline, but we should do all we can to minimize the growth in demand for oil until alternative technologies can be brought to market. Using less oil will not only drive down its price, it will slow our approach towards the temperature cliff that threatens to pull us all over the edge.

Modeled after a V for Vendetta poster, this interesting wall ornament can be downloaded for free and then printed in a size up to 13 x19 (you could go even larger, but the image may start to look fuzzy). This poster is actually a revision of a previous posting here on the DailyKos, but this new one incorporates changes suggested by community members. The poster is now as close to perfection as is humanly possible :-) (be sure to look at the motion picture rating assigned to the "film"). More after the fold.