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5 Reasons Edwards is a good choice

Kerry's Number Two Is a Number One Choice

Five reasons why John Edwards is the perfect choice – and will leave Dick Cheney dropping the F-bomb.

Nader debates Dean

Justice Talking is broadcasting a debate between Howard Dean and Ralph Nader today. With so much at stake in this election, now is not the time for a third party candidate. Governor Dean will make the case that anyone who cares about the future of our country and undoing the damage George Bush has done will be voting for John Kerry.

Kerry picks Edwards as running mate

Edwards campaign theme - Two Americas will now be returning to center stage. It will be interesting to see how the Kerry/Edwards ticket will mobilize those on the fringe of the Kerry ticket alone.

Bush or Kerry: The Electoral College Map

The LA Times has a cool tool to track the electoral college on their website. Of course as with all polling results, keep a sound head and a grain of salt in your palm.

Check out the 2004 Electoral Vote Tracker

The U.S. presidential election is decided by the results of 51 electoral vote contests. In all states except Maine and Nebraska the electoral votes go to the winner of the popular vote in a "winner-take-all" system. Thus, trends in the campaign must be considered on a state-by-state basis.

Electoral Vote Changes for 2004:

After the 2000 census, seats in the House of Representatives were reallocated based on new population trends. Electoral votes are based on those numbers. Here are the changes for 2004 from 2000:

Gained Electoral Votes: Arizona (+2); Florida (+2); Georgia (+2); Texas (+2); California (+1); Colorado (+1); Nevada (+1); North Carolina (+1). All gained electoral votes are either in Bush dominated states on swing states

Lost Electoral Votes: New York (-2); Pennsylvania (-2); Connecticut (-1); Indiana (-1); Illinois (-1); Michigan (-1); Mississippi (-1); Ohio (-1); Oklahoma (-1); Wisconsin (-1).

Read more about this issue at NaderKerry.org

George W does not stand for Women

baltimoresun.com - Anti-woman deeds louder than words

NEW YORK - There has been quite a bit of chatter on the Web about how President Bush is trying to portray his middle initial, W, as standing for "women" and attempting to cast his agenda in a pro-woman light. While no elected official will ever declare that he is "anti-woman," it is difficult to see the Bush agenda from any other perspective.

Whether it's the gag rule on women's health clinics overseas or messing with breast cancer research here at home, the Bush administration has systematically degraded services and science that benefit women. In an election where women will play an influential swing-voter role, this is an important story to get out, and Carmen Barroso of International Planned Parenthood is just the woman for the job.

Electoral Voting Reform

TomPaine.com - Flunking College

With ABC's The Note   predicting today that "Whoever wins the electoral votes of 2 out of 3 (or 3 out of 3) of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida will be the next president of the United States," Democrats should be worried. Here, the Center for Voting and Democracy offers a feasible solution to the problems of the anti-democratic Electoral College system.

Rob Richie is executive director of the Center for Voting and Democracy. Steven Hill is the Center's senior analyst and author of Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics.

what's going on?

AlterNet: Election 2004: The frightened, the clueless, and the 'f word'

There are too many interesting things going on this week to simply focus on one. So here's a smattering of stories about the frightened, the clueless, and the "f word":

I'll spare you the jokes about how the controversy over "F-9/11" is "heating up" but the particulars are worth a mention. The Federal Elections Commission, in addition to its own internal recommendation that it prevent "F-9/11" ads after July 30 from mentioning Bush (or using his image), is considering a complaint, filed by a Republican group, alleging that the film amounts to a glorified campaign ad and as such violates campaign finance laws. Yeah, I'm sure that's what McCain-Feingold had in mind...

DailyKos reports that Ralph Nader is getting some much needed help in building a strong and lasting progressive movement -- from conservative groups in Oregon. From a "Citizens for a sound Economy" phone banking script: "Ralph Nader needs 1,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot and we need to ensure he gets them...Ralph Nader is undoubtedly going to pull some very crucial votes from John Kerry, and that could mean the difference in a razor-thin Presidential election."

Finally, the latest Gallup poll brings good tidings to Kerry and anyone interested in removing the Bush. In a space of three weeks, Americans went from believing that it was not a mistake to send troops to Iraq by a margin of 58-41, to believing that it was, 54-44. Even more devastating for Bush is the fact that these numbers precede the devastating events of the past couple of days. The number of registered voters who believe the war has made us safer has gone from 56% in December to 37% now.

But the bottom line is how the states line up. According to poll-expert Ruy Teixeira: "Bush (is) ahead by 8 points in the solid red states (won by Bush by 5 points or more in 2000), but Kerry (is) ahead by 14 in the solid blue states (won by Gore by more than 5 points) and ahead by 9 in the purple states (decided by less than 5 points in 2000). And Kerry is carrying independents nationwide by 10 points and moderates by 24 points."

So what's it all add up to? Bush gets all snippety with an Irish journalist who, unlike too many of his American counterparts, has the gall to seek an actual answer to his question while Cheney opts to keep it simple telling Sen. Patrick Leahy to "F--- yourself."

Why the Right has not gotten around to hating Kerry.. yet

The Gadflyer: I Want My Kerry Hatred!

It's been five months since John Kerry won the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary and thus became the all-but-inevitable Democratic nominee, and it seems that the Right has been slacking off. Where are the anti-Kerry books? The conspiracy theories? The intimations of murder and drug-running? The maniacal ravings of the unhinged Right we've come to know and love? Paul Waldman examines why the Right is still so focused on Bill Clinton. He says the Right has not gotten to know Kerry yet, but who has?

Small campaigns and technology

Kayne McGladrey has an interesting offer out to Washington Democratic candidates. "Would the public read the web log of a local candidate? And would a local candidate periodically write on a community web log?" The response is sort of disturbing... and shows that politicians are still stuck in the 1990's when it comes to approaches to campaigning. Kayne quotes Einstein:

Einstein, who's not often thought of when discussing politics, said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result each time.By following the same tired but true approach, established politicians risk that another insurgent campaign like Howard Dean's will succeed by engaging voters where others have failed. The question is simply a matter of who's going to be first, and what side of the aisle they're sitting on.

Sex pros get ready for the big GOP

Sex pros get ready for party

With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party.

Agencies are flying in extra call girls from around the globe to meet the expected demand during the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 gathering at Madison Square Garden.

"We have girls from London, Seattle, California, all coming in for that week," said a madam at a Manhattan escort service. "It's the week everyone wants to work."

"It's going to be big," agreed one operator at a midtown escort service.

Charging from $300 to upwards of $1,000 for an hour of companionship and a whole lot more, escorts said they can always count on conventioneers for big business.