the things you believe you're seeing...

From the NY Times , fearing that electronic ballot machines may experience problems, or perhaps afraid that they might be more accurate than paper ballots, dems have proposed funding that will reimburse localities for printing paper ballots to backup touch screen machines. Dozens of states are using optical-scan and touch-screen machines to comply with federal laws intended to phase out lever and punch-card machines after the hanging-chads confusion of the 2000 presidential election. Widespread problems were reported with the new technology and among poll workers using the machines this year in primaries in Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio and elsewhere. Local and state officials have expressed concern that the new systems might not be ready to handle increased turnouts. Election experts fear that the lack of a paper trail with most touch-screen machines will leave no way to verify votes in case of fraud or computer failure.

In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Howard Dean unveils what the Democrats are calling "A New Direction For America." After reading through the first 3/4's of the article which is just a restatement of all of the Dems anti-Bush positions we get to the meat the "plan" as Dean calls it. And what do we find? Democrats offer America a new direction in fiscal policy, for the middle class, and in the war in Iraq. We believe that America should work for everyone: We will restore honesty in government, starting with the pay-as-you-go discipline in Congress that served Mr. Clinton so well. Balancing the Federal budget will be a high priority with concurrent limitation of spending. We will ease the burdens on middle class Americans and reverse Republican cuts in college tuition aid and health care. We will ensure that a retirement with dignity is the right and expectation of every single American, including pension reform, and preventing the privatization of so...

Since you will not hear this in any MSM coverage, Bush approval is trending upwards and currently at 47% in the latest Rasmussen poll.

Another article about how gas and oil prices may be crashing even more in the coming months. Here's why: For most of the past two years, oil prices have risen because the world's oil producers have struggled to keep pace with growing demand, particularly from China and India. Spare oil-production capacity grew so tight that market players feared that any disruption to oil production could create shortages. Fear of disruption focused on fighting in Nigeria, escalating tensions over Iran's nuclear program, violence between Israel and Lebanon that might spread to oil-producing neighbors, and the prospect that hurricanes might topple oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil traders bet that such worrisome developments would drive up the future price of oil. Oil is traded in contracts for future delivery, and companies that take physical delivery of oil are just a small part of total trading. Large pension and commodities funds are the big traders and they're seeking profi...

How pathetic! Please by nice to us because even after all this time its beginning to look like we are snathcing defeat from the jaws of victory. Pelosi and Reid Urge Networks to Devote Fair Coverage to House and Senate Democrats 9/12/2006 6:02:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: Brendan Daly or Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616, both for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Jim Manley or Rebecca Kirszner, 202-224-2939, both for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter today to the presidents of network news companies calling on them to devote more coverage to House and Senate Democrats if they continue to give extensive coverage to President Bush's national security speeches. Below is the text of the letter: September 12, 2006 Steve Capus, President, NBC News, 30 Rockefell...

Rival admits leaking Schwarzenegger tape By LAURA KURTZMAN, Associated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Democratic rival acknowledged Tuesday that it downloaded — and leaked to the media — a recording of a private meeting in which the governor described a Hispanic legislator as having a "very hot" personality. But Cathy Calfo, campaign manager for Democrat Phil Angelides, said the campaign had done nothing wrong because the file was available publicly on the governor's Web site. "No one hacked," Calfo said at a news conference to address the role played by the Angelides campaign, first reported by The Sacramento Bee. "They accessed information that was available to the public." However, Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said Monday that the sound files were stored "in a password-protected area of the governor's office network computer system."

ONE ARAB'S APOLOGY By EMILIO KARIM DABUL September 12, 2006 -- WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing. The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it. Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large. Yes, our extremists and our culture. Every...

Revealing his superior intellect, President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez says that 9/11 was an inside job; Theory that U.S. orchestrated Sept. 11 attacks 'not absurd': Venezuela Sep 12 2:23 PM US/Eastern Theory that U.S. orchestrated Sept. 11 attacks 'not absurd': Venezuela CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that it's at least plausible that the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Chavez did not specifically accuse the U.S. government of having a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks, but rather suggested that theories of U.S. involvement bear examination. The Venezuelan leader, an outspoken critic of U.S. President George W. Bush, was reacting to a television report investigating a theory that the Twin Towers were brought down with explosives after hijacked airplanes crashed into them in 2001. "The hypothesis is not absurd . . . that those towers could have been dynamited," Chavez said in a speech to supporters. "A buil...