So here's what I think we should do.  Raise a fair amount of money and use it to buy a whole bunch of stimulants (anything from caffeine to cocaine).  Put them all in a big box and send them to Ted Kennedy.  Have him just spend the next four years filibustering in the Senate, straight.

Seriously though, we need our senators to find their backbones these next four years.  While my plan of coking up Kennedy is entertaining (to me, at least), something more pragmatic would be ideal.  And, well, I've got just that!  The short of it: write your senator if they're a Democrat, and if not then write whoever your favorite Democratic senator is.  More below the fold...

Now is the time for action.  Write Democratic Senators and Representatives and encourage them to resist the Republican agenda!  We cannot allow the next four years to be like the past four.  I'm writing my Senator (Ron Wyden, D-OR), and will attach a copy of my letter in the extended entry (and it's also cross-posted at my blog).

As we all know there's a lot of quite justified buzz going on about the potential for a military draft.  Well, I ran across this interesting and potentially potent petition against the draft and I encourage you to sign it.  In addition to being a good petition, the site has some valuable information and a very neat map of how the petition has spread.  Once the map is full he intends to send it to Bush, which would be quite a message indeed.

So, sign the petition and spread the word!  Make it clear to this administration that we do not support this unchecked military aggression and the dire potential for a draft.

Okay, not really, but there is an interesting eBay auction that offers the Gmail account CheneyEatsBabies(at)gmail(dot)com for sale, and the proceeds will benefit a progressive cause agreed on between the winner and the seller.  An amusing address and an interesting auction, so I figured it was worth the plug.

I subscribe to the campaign emails from Kerry, Bush, and Nader just to see how they do things. I just got an email from the Bush camp asking to go to the main news sites after tonight's debates and "make my voice heard".

Disclaimer: I'm not advocating irresponsible use of alcohol, I'm just providing what I feel to be an entertaining potential addition to the debates. Know your own limits, and use alcohol responsibly.

Okay, so I've played the fantastic SOTU address drinking game for two years now, and can tell you that it has made listening to Bush much more bearable and entertaining. While we do get to have our guy up there in this event, I thought that it'd likely be fun to drink some while watching regardless. So, I've come up with rules for doing just that. These rules are specifically tailored for the topic of tonight's debate (terrorism and foreign relations).

Yes, that is Daily Kos being prominently displayed on Google News (specifically as the lead for the second story under the "US" section, a cluster about Porter Goss).  You can check out the full screenshot to see it in context.  All in all, a very nice thing to see after Daily Kos was classified as "Satire" for awhile...

Alright, I must admit that I'm as driven by the horse-race element of politics as anyone.  I follow any number of polls, not just presidential but for interesting senate races and other issues.  But it's really just getting out of hand.  The media has gone hog-wild, with strongly conflicting polls, vastly different headlines, and just general ignorance to actual legitimate statistical method.

I'm not even going to bother linking to a story as you know what I'm talking about: every day, some source will boast of a Bush lead, another will say it's really a tie, another will say Kerry is up in critical swing states, and so on.  And the public is ill-equipped to interpret these results, they just get the numbers crammed down their ears on the evening news and accept it.  So, I feel obligated to give a few general pointers about polls and their significance.

Washington, DC, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will not pull television ads attacking John Kerry's service despite President Bush's wishes, sources said Monday.

Sources close to the Swift Boat Veterans said the issue of Kerry's military service is too important to drop.

"It is not a Republican or Democratic issue. If John Kerry was a Republican, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth would still run this ad."

Mmmhmm, sure.  It's not a partisan issue at all.  I mean, ignore all the ties (both in terms of money and politics) between this group and the GOP.  Ignore the fact that even if everything they're claiming about Kerry is true (which it obviously isn't), Bush has a very dubious military record himself.  If they were really non-partisan, they'd be putting him under equal scrutiny.

This is just nonsense.  Kerry is doing a decent job of responding, but each and every one of us need to help too.  We need to tell people that these accusations are blatantly false and coming from a group with obvious ties to the GOP.

The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government, U.S. officials said.

The administration plans to accomplish that step -- which would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before the transfer of power -- by extending an order that has been in place during the year-long occupation of Iraq. Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."

So basically, Iraq is supposedly sovereign, but it's occupied by some 130,000 folks who are armed and are totally immune to prosecution by their system.  Something isn't adding up...

The Democratic National Convention Committee is pleased to announce that for the first time ever, bloggers will be offered Convention access through the official media credentialing process.

Because the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston is less than 90 days away and space is extremely limited, we encourage those interested in this first-ever opportunity to act now. To apply to cover the 2004 Democratic National Convention as a blogger, you will need to submit applications to both the Senate Periodical Press Gallery AND the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) Press Gallery before the May 28th deadline.

It's nice to see that we're starting to have actual influence, or something.

Furthermore, I would propose perhaps Googlebombing this 404 page to get it a little more coverage.  I think the phrase Patriot Act would be appropriate.  If that sounds like a good idea, then feel free to Googlebomb it on your own sites or blogs or whatnot.  Who knows, it might catch on... and certainly if somebody has a different suggestion of words for Googlebombing just post them.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Republican ad criticizing Democrat John Kerry is on an Internet video game site in which a player can pretend to be a cartoon President Bush killing terrorists who have invaded the White House.

The ad sponsored by the Republican National Committee is shown at various times above and below the game called ``Bush Shoot-Out: Starring President Bush and Condoleezza Rice,'' one of several free video games offered on the Web site Miniclip.com.

The ad says: ``Senator Kerry says his own vote to 'abandon our troops' was reckless and irresponsible'' before flashing to another screen that says ``To Listen to Senator Kerry in His Own Words Click Here!''

The RNC last month began placing such anti-Kerry ads - pop-ups, banners and column ads - on some 1,400 general interest, news, sports, technology, entertainment, music and business Web sites.

Ludicrous stuff... the game itself is ridiculous too, but in a sort of hilarious way, if you're really cynical.

Inside: unrelated poll.

Inside: totally unrelated poll.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he believes people are born gay but are not guaranteed the right to marry within their own gender.

Ummm, huh?  So what of people born straight?  They're allowed to marry the people they find attractive, right?  Yet gay people aren't.  Equal protection, indeed.

Don't get me wrong, I realize Kerry essentially has to take this stance, and I'll probably still be voting for him come November, but it's frustrating.

Note: this is simulcast on my personal blog, but since this particular entry seemed like it'd be particularly interesting to the crowd here and something that you're not going to hear elsewhere I figured I'd post it here too.

Okay, it was closer to 2 hours and 45 minutes. Still, it was a lot of Nader.

Consumer advocate and serial presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke at the University of Rochester today (or actually yesterday as of the time of this writing). Slamming Bush, pushing Linux, and justifying his choice to run again in 2004, Nader spoke well and entertained the crowd. His actual planned speech, which took a bit over an hour, was almost a sort of consumer advocacy pep rally. If you're at all familiar with his history or his stances you've probably heard it all before: consumers need to be informed, they need to be empowered to hold corporations accountable, the whole deal. Still, it was very interesting to see him actually speak on these issues, as he's obviously well informed himself and a quite effective speaker.

After his planned speech he accepted questions. I was sitting up in the balcony and as such could not participate in the mad dash to get in line behind the microphone to ask questions. When over a dozen people got in line and when it became obvious that he was taking his time giving his answers, I thought he'd only answer the first few. Well, I was wrong: he answered all but the last one or two.

Inside: poll.