It’s time to get inspired:

Here’s the deal:

--Democrats are down in the House, but they are not out of it.

--Democrats look good to hold the Senate, and President Obama has endorsed filibuster reform.

--Early voting is well underway, and Democrats are holding their own.

--Today and tonight are the final times you can give money to campaigns, and still have your money spent on or before Election Day.

--The Daily Kos community is really close to hitting our $1,000,000 goal.

This is it. This is our time. Don’t let it pass you by, and always wonder what could have been.

One last time, contribute $10 to Orange to Blue candidates.

TPM reports on an incident from a few weeks ago in which another young, female political activist was assaulted by a Republican man.

The incident occured outside GOP headquarters in Walla Walla County where the demonstrator, Christie Stordeur, was "one of five protesters standing about 40 feet from the entrance of the office," according to the Tri-City Herald.

Stordeur and the other protesters "were wearing bags over their heads and holding a sign that looked like a check." That's when Victor Phillips, according to a Sheriff's deputy on scene, walked over to Stordeur to "lift her bag off her head." When Stordeur "lifted her arm in defense," Phillips hit it "with 'force.'"

The Herald reports that the deputy on scene "immediately stepped between the two and arrested Phillips on a charge of investigation of assault."

Incidentally, the assailant, Victor Phillips isn't just any Republican. He's a precinct committee officer in Walla Walla, so is in the GOP establishment there. He said he wanted to get a picture of the protestors. The assault is getting attention now because of the headstomping of Lauren Valle in Kentucky. In the absence of that highly publicized attack, this one would probably have just received local media coverage.

And that's not how is should have been. This is just one of a handful of incidents in Washington that have been high profile enough to make the news.

Republicans have worked hard to sow fear and anger this election season, and if recent events in the Washington Senate race are any indication, their rhetorical hyperbole is having an unsurprising effect. On October 14, a man was arrested for threatening Patty Murray supporters with a meat cleaver outside a debate in Spokane. Four days later, a man was arrested outside Walla Walla County Republican headquarters for assaulting a young woman who was protesting Dino Rossi, hitting her with "force." And just a few days ago, a man was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for threatening to kill Sen. Murray.

Patty Murray's been a target of violent rhetoric for the length of the campaign, with one teabagger saying she should be hung and another saying she (and Maria Cantwell) should be shot. It's remarkable because we're pretty low-key people up here in the PacNW, and multiple incidents of violence in a single campaign isn't too common in our politics. Yes, there's the whole white supremacist problem, but they're not generally out there assaulting 23 year old women. Even in the extremely bitter and nasty Gregoire/Rossi rematch in 2008, the most that made the media radar was a Joe-Miller like roughing up of a Dem tracker at a Rossi event.

If the headstomp hadn't been recorded, it's likely that the nation wouldn't know about this other assault on another 23 year old woman by a Republican man. And if there's this much that's been reported on in Washington state alone, how many of these incidents are occurring around the country that aren't making the news?

There's more on this incident in phenry's diary.

Neck and neck:

While most of Florida's 25 congressional races tilt toward Republicans this year, Democrats' best chance for a takeaway is in South Florida's sprawling 25th District, a new Sunshine State News Poll shows.

Republican David Rivera holds a 44-43 lead over Democrat Joe Garcia in a four-way contest for the seat being vacated by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.

Rivera is certainly getting hammered in the closing days of the election. His efforts to hide the source of his income has generated a frenzy of investigative stories:

Republican congressional candidate David Rivera has repeatedly failed to file annual reports detailing the activities of his consulting company in Puerto Rico, records show -- further compounding the mystery surrounding the state lawmaker's private work.

Rivera, a four-term state representative from Miami, first founded a company called Interamerican Government Relations in Puerto Rico in November 2003. But Rivera never filed any annual reports on the company as required by law, according to a review of the company's records in Puerto Rico.

"This corporation should have had a notification of cancellation since April 2006,'' said Eduardo Arosemena, assistant secretary of Puerto Rico's Department of State. But because of administrative problems at the department, the agency has allowed Rivera's company and thousands of others to remain as technically active companies.

Rivera has already come under scrutiny over questions about his purported work as an "international development consultant'' for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Though Rivera said for years that he worked for USAID -- through his Puerto Rican company -- USAID officials told The Miami Herald they have no record of any work done by Rivera or his firm.

There's this, from his fellow Republicans:

Rep. Juan Zapata, who heads Miami-Dade County's 25-member delegation, recalled Rivera telling him he worked for USAID but said he never knew in what capacity.

"He's always unclear about things, and if you ask him too much, he'll just laugh," Zapata said.
Former state Rep. J.C. Planas, a Rivera rival, had a similar response.

"Honestly, I never understood what David Rivera did for a living," he said.

It'd be hard for him to admit the likely source of that mysterious revenue -- money laundering and god knows what else.

This is a rare Democratic pickup opportunity, and the polling shows it'll be a race to the finish. So if you can help out, please do so. We can offset the loss of a Blue Dog with a victorious great Dem.

Orange to Blue candidate Ann Kuster is leading the charge with 95 of her fellow Dem candidates, are making Net Neutrality an issue in the remaining days of the campaign.

The Democratic candidates, led by New Hampshire House hopeful Ann Kuster, have launched netneutralityprotectors.com, an online petition and fundraising effort that pledges to stand up "against any attempt by big corporations to control the Internet and eliminate the Internet's level playing field." The candidates are running for House and Senate positions in 34 states.

The effort is backed by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a group working to "elect bold progressive candidates."

"This is the first time ever that congressional candidates have joined together to make net neutrality an election issue," Jason Rosenbaum, the senior online campaigns director at PCCC, said in a statement.

The pledge they have signed says:

"I believe in protecting Net Neutrality - the First Amendment of the Internet. The open Internet is a vital engine for free speech, economic opportunity, and civic participation in the 21st century. I stand with millions of working families and small businesses against any attempt by big corporations to control the Internet and eliminate the Internet's level playing field. In Congress, I'll fight to protect Net Neutrality for the entire Internet - wired and wireless - and make sure big corporations aren’t allowed to take control of free speech online."

Kuster isn't the only O2B candidate on the list (not surprisingly). Three Senate challengers: McAdams, Conway, and Sestak have signed the pledge, as have House candidates Garcia and Trivedi.

You can sign on as a "citizen signer" to the pledge, and as always,
show your gratitude to the candidates who stepped up for Net Neutrality by kicking in a few bucks now, while it counts.

Quinnipiac. 10/18-24. Likely voters. MoE 3.5% (10/10 results)

These are the best numbers for Crist in a long time, and the worst for Meek, who has been at 20% or lower in five straight polls. The trends:

It's clear that Meek is fading, but what's not clear is that Crist is picking up that support. Meanwhile, Rubio is vacuuming up much of the undecided. And it's not hard to see why -- he's gotten a virtual free pass as Meek and Crist nuke each other over the Democratic vote, splitting the left and moderate voters.

One bit of good news for Crist -- Democratic early voting has been exceptionally slow in Florida this year, and anecdotally, it seems that Democrats are holding off on casting their ballots because of the complicated Senate race. It's clear Crist still has a shot with that crowd, but he'll likely have to make a dramatic gesture to win a significant enough percent of Democratic votes to have a prayer of toppling Rubio.

At this point, days out before the election, it's obvious that it's either Crist or Rubio. The only drama left is whether Democrats despise Rubio enough to vote tactically against him. It would help him significantly if Crist promised to caucus with the Democrats.

In order to take back a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, the party out of power needs to win the national popular vote by around 2.5%.

With that in mind, here’s how the generic congressional ballot polls looked in the final 25 days before the 2006 election (I have found the 25-day simple mean to be the most accurate way to forecast elections). Republicans were doomed:

House 2006: Party in power doomed

Every single generic congressional ballot poll at the end of the 2006 campaign showed Republicans losing the House. The final average of the polls gave Republicans a 0% chance of keeping the House. It was over.

Now, here’s how the generic ballot polls taken in the final 25 days of the 2010 election look:

House 2010: Party in power not doomed

(Note: Zogby Internet polls not included in either chart. All polls are of likely voters.)

In 2010, 4 of the 21 polls show Democrats in a position to retain the House. Also, the current average gives Democrats a 16% of retaining control. That isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than 0%.

The bottom line is that Democrats can still win, according to the totality of available evidence. Further, today is the last day when you can give to campaigns, and which they can deposit the money in time to spend it before Election Day.

So this is really it. Contribute to Orange to Blue candidates today.

And really, how firggin’ sweet would it be to win after all the tea party crap we have put up with over the last two years?

• There are 5 days until the November 2 elections. Early voting is now taking place in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Virginia allows early absentee voting under certain circumstances -- check here and see if you qualify. And New Jersey allows voting by mail -- apply here. And if you vote in Oregon or Washington, mail in your ballot today. And if you vote in Oregon or Washington, mail in your ballot today. And if you vote in Oregon or Washington, mail in your ballot today.
• Hurry up and vote so you can help ACORN SEIU steal the election!
• Cell phone sample in Maclatchy poll skews heavily Democratic:

  Among the roughly three-fourths of registered voters interviewed on a landline by Marist for McClatchy, Democrats and Republicans were tied on the generic congressional ballot with 43 percent apiece. However, among the roughly one-quarter of registered voters interviewed on their cell phones, the Democrats held a sizable 59 percent to 33 percent lead.

  Before you get too excited, dismissing all landline-only polling as biased against the Dems, note that Gallup calls cell phones, and they pain the direst picture for Democrats this cycle. But it's certainly something to look at, particularly as we analyze the polling in the postmortem after the election.

• AZ-03: Someone is feeling optimistic:

  Phoenix businessman Jon Hulburd put the additional quarter-million into his campaign account Wednesday so he can continue running ads through Nov. 2, his campaign told POLITICO. The new money brings Hulburd’s total personal investment to $500,000, all invested in the last month of the race.

  Arizona Democratic insiders said a new Hulburd internal poll — taken after a Public Policy Polling survey for the liberal blog Daily Kos showed Hulburd up 2 points over the former vice president's son — shows the difference between the two men is within the margin of error as the race enters its final days. It's a big shift from a different internal taken several weeks ago that showed him trailing Quayle.

  “Everyone’s really energized" about the poll, said Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. Johnson said the race would come down to how strong Hulburd's field and get-out-the-vote operations are.

• RI-Gov: Obama refused to endorse in this race, as the Democratic nominee for governor, Frank Caprio, once flirted with becoming a Republican, while Lincoln Chafee endorsed Obama after he quit the GOP. Pissed off at the lack of endorsement, he raged that Obama should take his endorsement and "shove it". Bad move.

  Democrat Frank Caprio’s support has collapsed in the wake of controversial comments he made about President Obama’s decision to withhold an endorsement in the Rhode Island governor’s race, according to a new poll from NBC10 and Quest Research.

  The survey, released late Wednesday night, shows independent candidate Lincoln Chafee solidifying his lead in the three-way race with 35 percent, but it’s GOP nominee John Robitaille who has surged late in the race, leapfrogging Caprio to claim second place with 28 percent. Caprio, the state treasurer, is close behind Robitaille with 25 percent of the vote. Moderate Party candidate Ken Block registered 2 percent support, and 10 percent of respondents were still undecided. The poll tested 523 likely voters and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

  The poll is the first taken after Caprio told a Rhode Island radio station on Monday that the president could take his endorsement and “shove it” after it was announced that Obama would not be wading into the race.

• A Tea Party founder:

  It began as a movement to take back the United States from corrupt politicians. The Tea Party movement has been hijacked by Republicans and is now all about guns, gods and gays. Karl Denninger of The Market Ticker was one of the original founders of the Tea Party and calls the direction of the group an absolute joke.

• DE-Sen: O'Donnell surgest to a 21-point deficit. Maybe she's not praying hard enough.
• The latest in early voting from Nevada:

  More than 228,000 people have now voted in Clark County at the polls or by mail – 46 percent Democrats (a tick above their registration) and 38 percent Republicans (about 5 points more than their registration). Republicans now have nearly a 5 percent turnout lead in Clark – the next two days, presumably the heaviest, could be key to the U.S. Senate race.

  About 54,000 people have voted early in Washoe County, with the Republicans holding a 3 percent edge. Rural tallies are harder to come by, but one knowledgeable source says the total number voted is now about 330,000, and the Republicans have under a 4 percent edge. (It was 6 percent overall in 2006, but more people proportionally will vote early this year, so it’s not apples to apples.)

  Dems have a 14,000-vote lead in urban Nevada. Polling also shows that Reid gets significantly more support from Republicans than Angle gets from Democrats, so remember that this aren't vote tallies, just ballots cast.

  One final note about the intensity gap -- at least here in Nevada, it's not that Dems aren't turning out, it's that Republicans are disproportionately turning out relative to their registrations. So 46 percent of Nevada voters are registered Democrats, and that's the level they're turning out. Republicans are way outperforming their 33%. That means that it's independents who are turning out at lower levels. Why? Because the mid-terms are base elections. Republicans understood that the last two years, the Democrats didn't.

It's almost like he doesn't know when the Great Depression started.

John Boehner looks back to Nick Longworth

When today’s Capitol Hill insiders hear about Longworth, they most likely think about the House office building located between those named for more famous former Speakers: Joseph Cannon and Sam Rayburn.

But John Boehner has a more visceral connection: He sees Nick Longworth as a role model. Longworth, a popular House speaker during the 1920s, was a dealmaker, a believer in bipartisanship and, like Boehner, a Cincinnati politician who made it big in Washington.

Of course, by the end of the Longworth era we were in the middle of the Great Depression. And it took FDR and the New Deal to put America back on its feet. So forgive me Mr. Boehner if I don't want to see my country go back to the way things were done in the 1920s.

Larry Sabato has his last set of House race predictions, and like other prognosticators, predicts a massive Republican wave:

Even at this late date, we see no need to do anything but tweak the total R gains, based on more complete information now available to all. Thus, we are raising the total to +55 net R seats. We consider 47 to be in the ballpark still, but more of a floor than a ceiling. In fact, if you’ll go back to our pre-Labor Day analysis, that’s exactly what we suggested +47 would end up being.

I went through and compared his predicted Democratic losses to the membership of the Blue Dogs, and got the following list: Berry (retired), Bishop, Boyd, Carney, Childers, Dahlkemper, Ellsworth (running for Senate), Gordon (retired), Herseth-Sandlin, Hill, Kratovil, Markey, Marhsall, Melancon (running for Senate), Mitchell, Moore (retired), Murphy (the one in Pennsylvania), Murphy (the on New York), Nye, Pomeroy, Salazar, Space, and Tanner (retired)

Now those are predicted losses. There's several on this list who will survive, and probably several more who Sabato thinks are safe who will not. And of course, Democrats may be in better shape than suggested. As Nate Silver wrote yesterday:

Our projection says that Republicans are favorites in 231 House races, which would reflect a net gain of 52 seats.

But suppose that our forecast is biased against the Democrats by one point across the country as a whole, perhaps because pollsters are overestimating the enthusiasm gap very slightly. Just one point. Well, there are 6 seats in which we have the Republican candidate projected to win by less than 1 full point (it might be a very long election night, by the way). If Democrats hold those 6 seats, the projected Republican gains would be down to 46.

Now suppose that the forecast understates Democratic support by 2 points. There are 8 seats in which we project the Republican candidate to win by a margin of between 1 and 2 points; now these would also be wiped off the board. Now the Republican gains would be reduced to just 38 seats — and the Democrats would hold the House, 218-217!

But still, let's assume Sabato and the rest of the prognosticators are right. Their projections aren't unreasonable.

If they're right, that means that 23 of the 54 Blue Dog members would bite the dust, decimating their caucus. That means that the Blue Dogs would make up 44 percent of Democratic losses, even though they only make up 21 percent of the caucus.

If the worst-case scenario comes to happen, we can enjoy this silver lining -- the brunt of the losses will be felt by the very same people who helped obstruct the Democratic agenda, who fought middle class tax cuts and the Public Option, and who fueled the "Dems are divided" narrative. We'll get rid of the hypcorites who, like their Republican BFF's, scream about "fiscal responsibility" while fighting desperately to cut taxes on the wealthiest.

Some of those Blue Dogs are actually not terrible (like Pomeroy and the Pennsylvania Murphy), but I'll be cheering the losses of the Marhsalls, Bishops and Boyds. We'll have a smaller caucus when the new Congress gets sworn in next year, but it'll be a more ideologically cohesive one. And that can only be helpful moving forward.

If Republican Party teahadists had their way, we'd have nothing but pain and misery. Instead, we have this:

Chrysler to Invest $600 Million in Illinois Plant

DETROIT—Chrysler Group LLC will spend $600 million to upgrade production at its Illinois assembly plant, bringing the auto maker's total announced U.S. investment to $2.1 billion since its exit from bankruptcy court last year.

The company will use the funds to build a body shop and install new machines at the Belvidere assembly plant to support the production of future models in 2012. The plant is home to the Jeep Compass, Jeep Patriot and Dodge Caliber.

Isn't this a better way to go than letting America fail?

Hays Research. 10/26. Likely voters. MoE 4.8%

The intrepid bloggers at Mudflats got their hands on this poll and published it. It's the first poll showing McAdams slotting into second place, as Republican disaster Joe Miller fades in the face of a terrible campaign, bizarre behavior, and embarrassing revelations. Note, this poll was also taken before Miller's latest scandal hit the front page of Alaskan newspapers.

Believe it or not, Miller's favorability ratings are 26/68, with 60 percent of that beng "very unfavorable". That's crazy unpopular!

Now check out the trend. I'm assuming that all the "write-in candidate" are for Murkowski. That may actually overstate her support by a point or so.

Like our previews poll, the "write-in" Murkowski lead is built in large part on Democratic support:

Yup, write-in gets over a quarter of Dems, which make up 16.4% of this poll's sample. Bring those Democrats home, and that'd be a 4.2 percent shift toward McAdams and away from write-in. In other words, McAdams 33, Write in 31.

I don't have access to the crosstabs of the previous polls, so I can't say where McAdsms' gains are coming from. Murkowski may have picked up three points from McAdams ... or from the undecideds. McAdams certainly has picked up undecided support, but has he gotten any Miller support? Mudflats certainly thinks many of Miller's supporters are more anti-establishment than crazy, and thus have shifted over to the Democrat. It's plausible. And the undecided category isn't static. McAdams may be draining from that pool, while Miller adds to it with each new revelation about his past.

Point is, this is a real game, and the situation remains quite fluid.

When we last polled the race, we found that 25 percent of Murkowski's support came from Democrats. As I wrote at the time:

Murkowski is competitive because of the 25 percent of Democrats who plan to write her in. Indeed, 35 percent of Obama voters plan on voting for Murkowski, compared to 58 percent that stick with McAdams.

Take that 35 percent who think they're doing something useful propping up Murkowski (and Mitch McConnell, who she has promised to vote for), give those votes to McAdams, and he's suddenly at 39 percent, or in the lead. In other words, the Democrats can win this seat if they come home to their excellent candidate.

McAdams refrain to Alaska Democrats has been, "vote your values, not your fears". Too many Dems think Murkowski is the only way to keep the crazy teabagger Miller out of the Senate. Well, now that Miller is fading, there's further reason for that fearful bunch to reassess.

There's a reason that Murkowski is now ignoring Miller and going hard after McAdams. There's a reason her new stupid slogan is "A Vote for McAdams is a Vote for Miller".

It's because McAdams is well positioned to pull this off. And there's no Senate race in the country in which your money goes further.

Scott McAdams is currently at a bit over $70,000 in our O2B ActBlue page. What do you say we get him to $100,000 by the end of Friday? Ready. Set. GO!

p.s. Thanks to the folks at Mudflats, who let me look at the internals of this poll so I could harvest additional data from it.

Check out this report from ABC documenting why Kentucky nursing home owner Terry Forcht has donated millions to fund Karl Rove's ads against Jack Conway:

Millionaire Targets Kentucky Democrat Who Is Prosecuting Alleged Abuse in His Nursing Home
Terry Forcht Is Banker For American Crossroads, Rove Group Spending Millions To Beat Jack Conway

In the bitter U.S. Senate race in Kentucky, a local millionaire has helped launch a barrage of ads attacking the Democratic candidate – a candidate who, as the state's attorney general, is prosecuting the businessman's nursing home for allegedly covering up sexual abuse, records show.

Before reading this story, if I told you that the reason they were trying to steal this election is that they wanted to cover up the sexual abuse of senior citizens just so they could make an extra buck, you'd have laughed me out of the room. In fact, I'd have laughed me out of the room.

But it's true.

Help Jack Conway fight Karl Rove and Rand Paul with $5 or $10 today.

Charlie Melancon hammers David Vitter and his prostitution problem in his campaign's closing ad, which will begin airing statewide in Louisiana today:

This is one of those campaigns that might be worth keeping an eye on. Recent polling shows that the race narrowing and this is the kind of ad that could do some real damage, particularly because it reinforces what voters are hearing about David Vitter.

Indeed, anytime there's coverage of this campaign, the one thing people seem to focus on is that David Vitter used the services of a prostitution ring while serving in the United States Senate. The latest example: after last night's debate, news coverage focused on Vitter's multiple apologies for having used the services of the D.C. Madam while holding high office. There's no point in making a prediction here, but I will say this: given that David Vitter needs the votes of Christian evangelicals to win re-election, he can't be happy the closing days of the campaign are focusing on his "serious sin."

For the third time this week, a top Republican leader has made it clear that the GOP will not cooperate with Democrats after the election. The Hill reports:

Boehner: 'Not a time for compromise'

Republicans aren't in the mood for compromise, especially on repealing healthcare reform, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday.

Boehner, the party leader who would likely become Speaker in a GOP-controlled House, distanced himself from a senior senator's suggestion last week that trying to repeal the new healthcare reform law wasn't in Republicans' best interest.

"This is not a time for compromise, and I can tell you that we will not compromise on our principles," Boehner said during an appearance on conservative Sean Hannity's radio show.

Boehner echoes comments by Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell who said that the GOP would not compromise with Democrats after the election and that the GOP's top goal after November is defeating President Obama in 2012.

For the next two years, the only thing these guys want is paralysis. And that's exactly what they are promising to deliver.

Not taking a restraining order as an answer, the Alaska Elections Divison appealed to the state Supreme Court for a stay of the order and got it, with some restrictions.

The Supreme Court's order (PDF) does say that the list cannot include the candidate's party affiliation or any other information, however, and also calls for the segregation of all ballots cast by voters provided with the list of write-in candidates.

The Court obviously expects continued litigation in the issue, and the very real possibility that this election goes into recount territory and these write-in ballots will be the core controversy. The Democratic Party, likely with the support of the GOP, will file to ask the court to take up their suit.

ThinkProgress deserves a boatload of credit for turning the nation's attention to the huge amounts of money very shadowy groups on the Right--and the handful of people who are pulling the strings. Case in point, a story done today by NPR: "'Independent' Groups Behind Ads Not So Independent."

With these advertisers and others, the same words come up again and again: Grass-roots. Nonpartisan. Independent.

Their ads seem to imply the groups are homegrown. But every single one mentioned here is based within 20 minutes of Capitol Hill. Most of them, in fact, are in just two office suites.

As for their independence: It would be illegal for them to coordinate their attacks with the candidates they're helping, or with Republican Party committees. But among themselves, they're proud of the way they synchronize their efforts.

"If one group puts an ad on television in a certain congressional district, they let everyone else know that," says Jonathan Collegio with American Crossroads. "This way they don't double up on the advertising."

.....

This teamwork didn't happen by accident. But it's hard to grasp just how interconnected these secret donor groups are — so it may help to take a look at this map....

This clearly isn't a bunch of individual, independent groups — as you can see from the map. It's one big network: a Republican campaign operation, working outside the official party.

Here's the map, or in keeping with the season, a spider web with Karl Rove and John Boehner as the big fat spiders connecting just about all the strands.

(Click on the image to see the chart in full size and to use the interactive feature to explore the network.)

Here's sort of a thumbnail from the story:

Rove co-founded American Crossroads, which later set up Crossroads GPS.... They both use the same media services firm to buy airtime for their ads, Crossroads Media.... Other clients of Crossroads Media include House Republican leader John Boehner, the Republican National Committee, and the Republican Governors Association, or RGA.

This fall, the RGA received a donation of $3.5 million from Bob Perry. You might recognize that name, since Perry helped to fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

This fall, Perry made another donation: $7 million to American Crossroads, the group co-founded by Karl Rove.

Huge amounts of money (including all that from the Chamber--they're up there in the upper right of the map, linked to Steven Law who is in turn hooked up with, Crossroads GPS, American Crossroads and through American Crossroads, just about every group and every individual on the list) that is almost entirely secret.

Which, yes, is a big issue for American voters: "71 percent of registered voters are concerned that 'a candidate who is helped' by groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, and the Rove-inspired money mills 'could be beholden to their interests.'" And we don't have any idea who they're beholden to, because it's all secret.

The AARP is keeping its eye on the post-election ball, when the nation--and the lame duck Congress--will be refocused on policy again, and particularly on the recommendations of the catfood commission. They've released a new survey of "older" voters.

In a survey of 1200 registered voters aged 40 and above, conducted in late September and early October, 39% cited “protecting Social Security” as “among the top two issues of personal importance” to them. That was second only to “creating jobs” (cited by 44%) and well ahead of the third ranked personal issue—“reducing health care costs”  (cited by 29%) and the two issues tied for fourth —reducing the federal deficit and tax cuts for the middle class (cited by 22%).

The question’s framing (as an issue of “personal importance”) may have influenced the results. Still, AARP tapped into what is a deep well of anxiety over retirement security--an anxiety that could make any deficit solutions that curb benefits politically problematic. For example, only 49% of those aged 40 to 49 and 48% of those aged 50 to 64 said they were very or somewhat confident that they “will have enough money to live comfortably throughout” retirement. By contrast, 64% of those 65 plus were very or somewhat confident.

The survey also found little support for the notion of curbing benefits for “millionaires and other wealthy seniors”--a solution supported by many deficit hawks. Instead, 76% of those surveyed agreed with the statement that “Social Security is not a welfare program” and those who pay into the system “deserve to get back” when they retire. Another possible solution--curbing inflation adjustments--also received thumbs dumb. Only 29% agreed with the statement, “Social Security is going to run out of money unless we make changes--like reducing the benefit increases that happen automatically.”

Which tells you that 71 percent of registered voters over 40 are much smarter than their FOX watching cohorts--the 29 percent who have bought the zombie lie that Social Security is in crisis. Dems, who will continue to have the majority at least through the lame duck session, need to remember that a large part of their political fortunes will depend on representing that vast majority who know that major cuts don't need to be made to Social Security.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE

We'll return To Our Blog After This Message...

Hello, friends! Say, are you sick and tired of all the crappy music out there these days? Well, have I got news for you!

Billy-Tel is proud to present our awesome new CD: Now THAT'S What I Call Teabagger! These awesome tunes will set your toes a tappin' and your brain a poundin' for hours of drug-free trippin'! Like this rockin' remix of Great Balls of Fire...

He says it's fine if we don’t serve any blacks
The ADA was clearly written by hacks
He says "Uh huh!" Then says "Nuh-uh!"
Goodness gracious Rand Paul's a liar!

He says entitlements are big 'ol train wrecks
But all along he's cashing Medicare checks
Hypocrisy?  "By gum, that's me!"
Goodness gracious Rand Paul's a liar!

Or this remake of the lovely Broadway ballad, Maria...

Joe Miller!
I just met a nut named Joe Miller
I said, "Your record's fluffed!"
And suddenly I'm cuffed
by thugs!

Hey! Get yer hands off me, you asshole!

That, by the way, is the shortest song on this CD! And, just in time for Halloween, this riff on the Classics IV's hit, Spooky...

In the cool of the evening
Chris Coons and Miss O'Donnell they debated.
She chuckled and guffawed when he said
that church and state are separated

She's got gleaming teeth and has a puritan mind
And she says "Stop! Or you'll go blind!"
Delaware is spooky with a kooky candidate like you.

Order now and you'll receive, absolutely free, this exclusive bonus CD, Holiday Hits of the Teabagger, including this Xenophobic favorite...

I'm dreaming of a sealed border
Just like East Germany of yore
Where the barbed wire glistens
And armed guards listen
For mines exploding by the score

I'm dreaming of a sealed border
And Joe Arpaio's my brave knight.
May your tower searchlights be bright
And may all your citizens be white.

Yup, the teabaggers have unleashed a tidal wave of creepy cacophonic crud this election season. To prevent the release of Now THAT'S What I Call Teabagger! Volumes 2, 3,4...To Infinity and Beyond, click on the Orange-to-Blue thermometer...

...and let's bust the million-dollar goal. Today's the last day to make your contributiuon count. And, uh...tell 'em Billy sent ya.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]