I have been saying that the numbers are pretty clear on what is missing from Healthcare Reform for a while, and is a political killer for Dem incumbents, has clearly been the fact that there was no public option in the final Senate bill that passed. All along the way you could see the politicians' numbers dropping like an anchor while the public option remained pretty darn steady in its popularity. While everyone is concerned about jobs and the government opening up the taxpayer's wallet to the greedy banksters, via Charles Chamberlain's diary, we get a pretty clear picture of what is pushing the people over the edge and will likely lead to a Dem salughter in the next elections:

This isn't just a strategy that makes good policy sense, it's the
key issue these Freshman Democrats need to pass to get reelected.
Here's the headline details of the voters Democracy for America and the
Progressive Change Campaign Committee had Research 2000 poll over the weekend.

FRESHMAN DEMOCRATS FACE TROUBLE IN 2010 IF CONGRESS DOESN'T PASS A PUBLIC OPTION


Polls in 10 frontline freshman districts show:

•    68% of voters want a public health insurance option
  

•    By 5 to 1, voters want their Representative to fight to add the public option over simply passing the Senate bill
  

•    By 3 to 1, persuadable voters are less likely to vote for
  local Democrat if Congress doesn't pass a public option as part of
  reform
  

•    55% say Democrats need to do more to fight big corporations
  

•    6% say Democrats haven't done enough to fulfill Obama's 2008 campaign promises
  

•    52% of Democrats less likely to vote in 2010 if Congress doesn't pass public option -- Republicans more likely

 

These numbers are not a surprise to Americans out-side of
Washington, but you can be sure they are turning a lot of heads today
inside Washington.

Those numbers are about as damning to the Dems as Senator Nelson's strategy to kill health reform should be by now. Via slinkerwink:

The Polls are open in Massachusetts and there are early reports are of a high voter turnout. Polls will be closing at 8 P.M. Eastern time. The mathcup between Coakley/Brown has clear ramifications in the Senate and on future legislative efforts by the Obama administration being that it will decide the fate of the Democratic party's 60th vote and the filibusterosity of the Senate.

Greg Sargent at The Plum Line reported one very fishy voting ballot, though it appears to be an isolated incident:

Rep. Weiner has been hammering Lieberman's stupidity lately in his own special way and, below the fold, hits Harold Ford with a Lieberman too...

The boycott of the election by registered voters will gain a clear plurality, around 48%, and possibly a majority, of registered voters.

The 2009 Mexican boycott includes those who deliberately nullified their ballots and those who simply chose not to vote.  Early reports indicate that 8% are actively nullifying their vote (voto nulo) and that another 40% of registered voters are not showing up at all.  That combined figure, 48% or so, will handily beat the vote totals for the ruling PAN Party and the former rulers, the PRI, without out any doubt.  While totals will change, there is no way that PAN and PRI can overcome the anulistas and those who stayed away from the polls.

... Code?

A California software company has filed a lawsuit against Diebold and its subsidiary, Premier Election Solutions, claiming that PES' electronic voting machines violate its copyrights.

Artifex Software, of San Rafael, Calif., claims that PES systems infringe on its copyrighted Ghostscript PDF interpretation and printing software. Artifex claims PES is using Ghostscript in its electronic election systems even though Diebold and PES "have not been granted a license to modify, copy, or distribute any of Artifex's copyrighted works," Artifex claims in court papers filed late last month in U.S. District Court for Northern California.

Why is this important?

Obtaining GNU Ghostscript

GNU Ghostscript is a copyrighted work; it is distributed under the GNU General Public License. You can get the current version of GNU Ghostscript by Internet FTP from ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ghostscript from any of the GNU distribution sites; likely, alpha versions may be available on alpha.gnu.org/gnu/ghostscript.

As (h/t) lambert at Corrente pointed out, under GNU General Public Licensing, if Diebold and PES used Ghostscript to create their product they may be legally bound to make their product's code open for our inspection, as well.

The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft. Under this philosophy, the GPL grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved, even when the work is changed or added to. This is in distinction to permissive free software licences, of which the BSD licences are the standard examples.

[ed. - bumped on preliminary NTSB report - luaptifer]

The crash of Michael Connell's single-engine Piper last Friday leaves a somber Christmas season ahead for his wife and four children and ends the career of an information technology pioneer.  Connell's expertise drove the Republican Party onto the infotech highway of the Internet era in time to seat the most famous of his three Bush clients in the country's top office.

His death should mark the beginning of a thorough examination of his political role inside the technology infrastructures that elected and that supported an Administration so widely recognized for politicizing the machine of Federal governance and justice.   

For the Bush dynasty's RNC, Connell embodied a paraphrase of his favorite place -- he ~was~ the cutting-edge, not just at it.  His partnership with the Party and its most powerful operatives (now known as DCI Group among other names) gave its political and corporate leaders the Internet edition of mass communication 'astroturfing' tools by which to engineer the consent of the public.

hat tip Huffington Post

Big Three CEO's  get the true religion, promise to become $1 a year men aput their corporate jets on the marketn if they get bailout funding. Check this out  at Huffinton Post to find out about the proposals they are putting on the table.

                                 *******************************************

Polls closing in Georgia at 7 p.m..

Time now 8:11, according to Nate Silver, who usually get's it right, Chamblish has it.

8:01 EST [Nate]: I haven't found a single county with a significant percentage of the vote in where Chambliss isn't performing better than he did on November 4. This looks like a 14 point win for him or something./

Seems like a low turnout with a 3:1 vote for Chambliss among white voters.

This certainly isn't a game changer, but just a tad disappointing.

                                  * ********************************************

The news Minnesota recount is thatFranken claims to have narrowed the difference to double digits--maybe down to 13 now. He found some ballots that had never been counted due to a machine malfunction. He is not giving up!   According to the the Minneapolis, Star Tribune.com:

The final day of recounting in Ramsey County in the U.S. Senate race kicked up controversy today when 171 uncounted ballots from Maplewood turned up. The ballots apparently had been uncounted because of a ballot-counting-machine malfunction on Election Day.

Democrat Al Franken made a net gain of 37 votes from the ballots, as he got 91 of the total, to 54 for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and 26 for other candidates, including Dean Barkley of the Independence Party.

The final day of recounting in Ramsey County in the U.S. Senate race kicked up controversy today when 171 uncounted ballots from Maplewood turned up. The ballots apparently had been uncounted because of a ballot-counting-machine malfunction on Election Day.

Democrat Al Franken made a net gain of 37 votes from the ballots, as he got 91 of the total, to 54 for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and 26 for other candidates, including Dean Barkley of the Independence Party.

A New Political Party Is Needed

Joel S. Hirschhorn

Set aside any Obama euphoria you feel. The other important news is that third-party presidential candidates had a miserable showing this year, totaling just over one percent of the grand total with 1.5 million votes nationwide, compared to some 123 million votes for Barack Obama and John McCain. It couldn’t be clearer that Americans are not willing to voice their political discontent by voting for third-party presidential candidates.

Dennis Greenia, Vampire Slayer

I first learned about Jack Abramoff's successful plot to help Heather Wilson ambush and bleed dry my good friend, Richard Romero, in two separate New Mexico congressional elections while strolling with dengre down K Street. Both times, Abramoff employed a stealth PAC purportedly championing health care reform. By 2004, New Mexico's political aquifer flowed red.

I'm not the first person to learn about Abramoff from dengre. He's one of the brave few whose nocturnal obsession with vampires unearthed Washington's Empire of the Undead for the slumbering masses.

Get'em to vote in the Nick "Kids Pick the President" poll... But before you do:

Talk to them about the candidates. Teach them a bit about the policies of the candidates. Even a little political talk around the dinner table can be enough to spark their interest. After having them vote in the poll bring them in to volunteer for the campaign if they are old enough. Take them canvassing. Take them to a debate. Take them to see you vote. It is the best lesson in civic responsibility they will ever get. Take them out for a beer afterwards. ERRRRP! Ok, scratch that last one.

Just get them involved now so they will know what to do when they are older.

Teach them to VOTE!

Results for the Nick poll will be viewable on Monday.
Results in your kids will be viewable immediately.

Barack Obama is burning rubber in the Poll position leaving McCain far behind in his dust. Meanwhile, Nate Silver at the poll watching site FiveThirtyEight.com sums up the remaining weeks of the McCain campaign in a Bush terror threat like chart.

McCain is, again, asking his supporters to "Stand Up!" on the starting line with Bush and himself:

McCain is busy doing hard right turns on a track that only allows for left hand turns and wonders why he is getting lapped over and over again...

As John McCain asks his supporters to be more respectful of Barack Obama - and gets booed for it by his rabid supporters - MSOC at My Left Wing finds some disturbing actions by the right wing:

Posted with permission of Nick Benton,owner/editor of the Falls Church News Press.

Barney Frabj abd Cantor's Lunch
by Nicholas Benton

Grizzled Democratic Rep. Barney Frank slapped down pretty boy GOP Rep. Eric Cantor twice in two days on national TV this week.

It was an amusing, if not so dead serious, display of superior intellect and integrity by Frank that also cut to the core of the differences between the two major parties in face of the current financial crisis, and going into the national election barely a month away.

Appearing on Wolf Blitzer's Sunday morning "Late Edition" on CNN, the two squared off to discuss the impending $700 billion Wall Street bailout legislation that failed to pass the House Monday afternoon.

While they both generally concurred about the need for such an extreme bailout, when the conversation went to how things got so bad, Frank blamed "the terrible policy of complete deregulation that got us here."

Given what we know about the closed door meetings on Capitol Hill, I want to know what the meeting insiders - from the corrupt Bush administration on down to the supposedly surprised Senators and Representatives and including all of the other government officials that have known or just found out about this - have done with their own investment portfolios in the last little while.

Our Republic Raped and Still No Revolution!

Joel S. Hirschhorn