I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today. Discussing the debate.

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Open Thread.

So the pundit consensus (as well as the snap polls) say Romney won the debate last night. I don't agree but that's not what decides these things.

President Obama has never been a good debater (For those who have forgotten, Hillary Clinton cleaned his clock in the 2008 primary debates.) And he was not good last night. But I thought Romney was terrible - frantic and wild. Answers filled with word salads.

And in particular, I thought Romney' performance on the tax issue was simply absurd. Below the fold I present you the transcript of the tax portion of the debate:

A Senate Committee has released the results of its two year investigation into the $1.4 billion post-9/11 fusion centers The bi-partisan report finds the programs, intended to facilitate sharing of information among law enforcement, were ineffective, overly expensive and intruded on civil liberties.

“It’s troubling that the very ‘fusion’ centers that were designed to share information in a post-9/11 world have become part of the problem. Instead of strengthening our counterterrorism efforts, they have too often wasted money and stepped on Americans’ civil liberties,” said Senator Tom Coburn, the Subcommittee’s ranking member who initiated the investigation.

The investigation determined that senior DHS officials were aware of the problems hampering effective counterterrorism work with the fusion centers, but did not always inform Congress of the issues, nor ensure the problems were fixed in a timely manner.

The iinvestigation reviewed 600 reports and found most had nothing to do with terrorism. The full report is here. [More...]

Rosa Linda Cafe is a long-standing, family owned, really good Mexican food restaurant in Denver that contributes to the community. Here are the awards it has received.

Now the family is getting death threats. Why? The Romney campaign learned owners Oscar Aguirre and his parents are Mormon. In an attempt to capitalize on this, it asked the restaurant to allow it to hold a campaign event at the restaurant. The restaurant, which says it does not support either party (they are Independents) or hold political events, declined.

"It was presented to us that (Romney) wanted to do a political stump here. (He wanted to) talk about our small business (and) because we share our religious views with the candidate and are Latinos it would be great for him to do a campaign stop," Aguire said. "We did say 'no' because we are not Republicans, nor are we Democrats. We will welcome any sitting President of the United States. But, we did not want to be a campaign stop."

The threats started after Denver's Westword learned of the rejection, and wrote a story. (Skip the comments, you'll want to take a shower afterwards.) [More...]

Remember when Romney said the other day young people who got deferments under Obama's order wouldn't face deportation? Now he's issued an addendum, lowering the boom. Only those who actually get a deferment before he becomes President will avoid deportation -- because they've purchased it and it's a done deal. Once he's President, he'll end the policy and those who haven't already received a deferment will be subject to deportation.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would end an Obama administration policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the country and work, though anyone already granted a reprieve from possible deportation wouldn't see that permission revoked.

Romney told The Denver Post on Monday that people who are able to earn the two-year reprieves to stay and work wouldn't be in danger of deportation if he is elected. His campaign later clarified that while Romney would honor permission to stay as granted under President Barack Obama, a Romney administration wouldn't grant such permission.

Romney also says he'll veto the Dream Act if passed.

Mitt was the energizer bunny. Obama was Steady Eddie. If you missed the debate, here's the full transcript.

By the end, Romney's bright-eyes were fading.

Romney had no memorable lines.

What I recall: Obama's refrain that Romney has no details. Is he withholding them because they are so good?

Another good point by Obama: If you're 54 or 55, listen up, Romney's proposed Medicare and Social Security changes will affect you. [More...]

Live Thread. Live Blogging to Commence as Soon as Possible. (Added (TL): I'll fill in till BTD arrives and then add my thoughts in comments.

90 minutes about domestic issues. 6 15 min segments. 2 minute answers for first question with remainder of time open. Lehrer picked the questions. There will be 3 on the economy, 1 each on health care, role of government and role of governing. They will focus on differences, specifics and choices. (Good luck with that.)

The audience will be silent. [More...]

Are folks interested in a live blog of tonight's debate? I think I can swing it, though to do the fancy "Cover It Live" doohickey, I need Jeralyn.

Anyways, Open Thread.

Last week, the Prime Minister of New Zealand apologized to Megaupload co-founder Kim Dotcom for the illegal interceptions of Dotcom's communications before the raid on his mansion and arrest, conducted at the behest of the U.S. which was seeking his extradition to face criminal charges.

Today the Prime Minister released the results of the review of the GCSB's illegal interceptions.

The Prime Minister's press release is here. It doesn't say much, other than to give the PM a clean bill of health for not having been briefed on Dotcom prior to the raid. He acknowledges there may have been a quick reference to Dotcom at a meeting after the arrests in February, 2012, but insists nothing was said about his residency.
[More...]

One advantage Democrats have over Republicans: They get the most popular musicians to perform at campaign rallies, while Republicans get requests from musicians to stop using their music.

Bon Jovi will be performing at at two free early voting events for Obama in Iowa this week. Both will be acoustical performances. On Sunday, Bon Jovi will join Katy Perry, Jennifer Hudson, and Earth, Wind and Fire at a concert in Los Angeles.

Politicians give back too. Check out Al Gore's rousing introduction of Bon Jovi at the 2007 Live Earth concert. The Live Earth concert is my favorite Bon Jovi performance, you can watch 20 minutes of it here. [More....]

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson has blocked Pennsylvania's voter ID law. He ruled it could go into effect for next year's election, but cannot be implemented for the November elections.

His ruling came after listening to two days of testimony about the state's eleventh-hour efforts to make it easier to get a valid photo ID. He also heard about long lines and ill-informed clerks at driver's license centers and identification requirements that made it hard for some registered voters to get a state-issued photo ID.

The ruling, available here, was not based on constitutional issues.

Rather, the state Supreme Court had ordered him to stop the law if he thought anyone eligible would be unable to cast a ballot because of it or if he found the state had not complied with the law's promise of providing liberal access to a photo ID that voters were required to carry on Election Day.

The Denver Post picked a terrible week to add a most annoying feature to its website. There's now an animated bar across the bottom of every page. I haven't been able to close it. It may be the most annoying media feature next to sites that automatically play video when you click on a news article (ABC News in particular.) It's even more annoying than sites like MSNBC where you have to scroll halfway down the page before you get to the article.

The Post should fire whatever agency came up with this lame idea. Until it removes the obnoxious bottom bar, I'm not reading the Denver Post.

So where to get local news of the upcoming presidential debate and other issues?

• 7 News (KMGH)
• CBS News Denver
• 9 News (KUSA)

Update: Today there is an arrow in the center of the bar you can click on to collapse. I also was able to block it with my virus software. So I'll be reading the Denver Post again.

In tonight's debate between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown, the 'independent" Brown was asked who is his favorite Supreme Court Justice.

His answer: Antonin Scalia.

I expect that to be in ads tomorrow.

Scalia arguing that the Constitution does not bar gender discrimination:

Leave it to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to argue that the Constitution does not, in fact, bar sex discrimination. Even though the court has said for decades that the equal-protection clause protects women (and, for that matter, men) from sex discrimination, the outspoken, controversial Scalia claimed late last week that women's equality is entirely up to the political branches. "If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex," he told an audience at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, "you have legislatures."

Full version on the other side.

Eric Hobsbawm has passed away. He was 95 and an unrepentant Marxist-Leninist. A giant figure in the study of history, his studies of the 19th Century are classics. May he rest in peace.

Mitt Romney urges that the US should repeat its catastrophic errors regarding the Iraq Debacle and listen again to Bib Netanyahu, this time on Iran. Juan Cole remembers Bibi's urging the Iraq Debacle, even though the Media seems to have conveniently forgotten.

Open Thread.

A few days ago, the New York Times reported that Mitt Romney would overturn Obama's position barring the used of enhanced interrogation techniques.

There are 18 lawyers, most of whom were part of the Bush Administation, on Romney's National Security team.

Here's the memo they wrote.

In related news, Romney and Ryan are now getting security briefings from the Obama administration.