"Obama To Jon Stewart: Maybe You Should've Had Your 'Rally To Restore Sanity' Two Years Ago" (with video)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

TPM with video, Pt. 1 (06:40), Pt. 2 (09:41) and Pt. 3 (09:22) from Comedy Central:

On The Daily Show last night, President Obama acknowledged to Jon Stewart that things have gotten a little crazy since he's taken office. "The one other thing that might have made a difference is if you held the 'Rally To Restore Sanity' two years ago," Obama said.

Stewart mostly questioned the President on the difference between the rhetoric during the campaign, and the reality of what's been accomplished: "Are you disappointed in how it's gone, are you surprised that other people, even your base, can be disappointed, or do you reject that narrative?" MORE...

Howie P.S.: For another account, see "Laughs in short supply as Barack Obama gets serious on The Daily Show" (GuardianUK).

Giordano: "Next Tuesday’s US Elections in Black and White"

(CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Al Giordano:

Democratic Senators Patty Murray in Washington state, Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Michael Bennett in Colorado, and US Senate candidate Paul Hodes in New Hampshire – all in states where African-Americans make up less than five percent of the vote – will only win if young white and Hispanic voters get their butts to the polls on Tuesday. (And, frankly, Sestak, Giannoulias, Reid and Feingold need plenty of that kind of help too.) Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer in California is likely going to get reelected because the marijuana referendum will pull enough young voters to the polls (and also because the 6.1 percent of her state’s population that is African-American will turn out in big numbers).

For the Democratic Senate and House candidates in overwhelmingly white states and districts, the last and only hope is the ground war: that their field organizations and that of Organizing for America can drag enough first time voters from 2008 and other young and Hispanic folks who don’t usually vote in midterm elections and get them to the ballot box (or bring the mail-in ballot to them). Organizing for America is targeting these potential voters and also you. They want you to help make seven million phone calls this week, something, they remind, that you can do from home or work and they’ll set you up with the list, the script or even invite you to a phone bank location in your area where you can do it together with other interesting people like you who aren’t just sitting around complaining and worrying. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I'm having trouble believing OFA can do the heavy lift for this election.

"@katiecouric: Midterm Elections" (video)

CBS News, video (38:30):

A political panel including Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, National Review editor Rich Lowry, and Kate Zernike, author of "Boiling Mad," discuss the upcoming election.

H/t to Ari Melber.

Democracy Now!-Ari Berman and Nate Silver on the Midterms (with audio/video/text)

Democracy Now! with audio/video and text:

Candidates are entering the final few days of campaigning in what may turn out to be one of the more interesting midterm elections in recent decades. Most polls are forecasting Republicans will take control of the House, while Democrats are expected to hold on to the Senate, which would result in a rare split Congress. We speak to New York Times pollster and FiveThirtyEight.com founder Nate Silver, and Ari Berman, political correspondent for The Nation magazine and the author of the new book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.

"Zemke runs to chair King County Democrats"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

A relentless, tireless Seattle activist for more than 30 years, Steve Zemke isn't waiting until election day to throw his hat in the ring to become the new chairman of the King County Democratic Party.

The party in Washington's most populous (and pro-Democratic) county will choose its chair at a reorganization meeting on December 4. Incumbent chair Suzie Sheary is not expected to run again.

Zemke made his announcement on a newly created stevezemke.com web site. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Steve Zemke is an intelligent, hard working guy with the right motivation for his activism. You can checkout his website here.

"Prop 19: Up In Smoke?"

(Image: View of the burning of 134 tonnes of marijuana on October 20, 2010 in the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, seized by the Mexican Army after a clash with drug traffickers. By Francisco Vega/AFP/Getty Images)

Andrew Sullivan:

Ed Kilgore attempts to diagnose the proposition's slump in the polls:

One possible explanation for the polling trend is that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s apparent effort to undercut Proposition 19, by pushing through legislation that all but decriminalizes small-scale pot possession, has worked. This new law, which Schwarzenegger signed on September 30, makes possession of under one ounce of pot an “infraction” punishable by a $100 fine—significantly less than the average California speeding ticket. This may have deflated support for Proposition 19 among voters who are less motivated by the desire to fire up a doobie themselves as by concerns about the injustices caused, particularly against minorities, by criminal sanctions on the use of marijuana.

Mark Kleiman shows why decriminalization isn't enough:

Possession arrests are already infrequent, except in connection with other offenses. But that’s partly because a custodial arrest is a fairly expensive process from the viewpoint of the criminal justice system. By contrast, writing tickets is cheap: probably a source of net revenue. In one of the Australian states, decriminalization actually increased the number of cannabis possessors going to jail; there were far more tickets than there had been arrests, and some of the people getting the tickets didn’t pay the fine and went to jail for that.

"Stop Dino's secret money"

People for Patty Murray:

Did you know that Dino Rossi has benefited from more than $6.3 million in secret money to power his campaign -- more than any other Senate candidate this year?

It’s true.

He’s being propped up by shadowy right-wing front groups and big Wall Street donors who know that Dino will be a shill for their corporate, special interest agenda.

Dino’s buddies, including Karl Rove, are launching millions of dollars of attack ads against Patty Murray, trying to mislead the voters and distort Patty’s record.

And we need your help to set the record straight.

Please contribute $5 now -- and help us fight back against Dino’s shadowy, secret money!

It’s no surprise that the folks backing Dino’s campaign don’t want to reveal their true identities.

After all, Dino and his pals are championing the kind of destructive policies that benefit the big corporations, the big polluters, the special interests, and the very wealthiest -- but hurt all the rest of us.

That’s why Dino’s donors are channeling millions of dollars into shadowy front groups that aren’t required to open their books to public scrutiny, and Dino is all too happy to accept their help.

Well, Dino Rossi may have these shadowy outside interests -- but Patty Murray has you, and thousands of people like you.

Now it’s time to stand up and help Patty fight back against these right-wing attacks.

Please contribute now -- and help us fight back against Dino’s shadowy, secret money!

Every day, Patty Murray goes to work for you and for hundreds of thousands of Washington state families. All she wants to do is help people and solve problems.

Dino doesn’t have our interests at heart.

The shadowy front groups backing him know it. That’s why they’re pouring millions of dollars into the campaign to defeat Patty Murray.

And with just seven more days until Election Day, it’s up to you and me to stop them.

Please contribute now.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bjornstad
Campaign Manager
People for Patty Murray

"Chuck Todd's Interview with David Axelrod Oct. 26" (with video)

Today with President Obama with video from MSNBC, (10:19):

David Axelrod says Obama didn't endorse anyone in Rhode Island out of respect for Lincoln Chafee. In response to a NYT story that said a republican-controlled Congress would make a good foil for Obama, Axelrod says Obama doesn't need a foil.
Axelrod also answers David Brooks' recent column in which Brooks said the Obama administration spends too much time blaming the republicans. I don't think Obama would be pointing out the republicans if he wasn't always being blamed for their mess. Ironically, the people that created the recession are going to be put back in power because people lack a basic understanding of what happened to the economy.

Ben Smith: "Sherrod records GOTV ad for NAACP" (with audio)

Ben Smith, with audio (00:31):

Former Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod has recorded a get-out-the-vote PSA for the NAACP, expected to air on American Urban Radio Networks and some of its 300 AURN affiliates.

"The outcome is critical for our community," Sherrod says in the ad, which makes no reference to her firing by the Obama administration, which later apologized.

The ad is part of a turnout push by the organization that also includes a PSA from the actor Blair Underwood and a new portal for making GOTV phone calls.

"The upcoming midterm elections will determine the course of our nation just as much as the 2008 elections did," said NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Jealous in a statement.

"Katrina vanden Heuvel & Hendrik Hertzberg: Moneybombing the Election" (video)

GRITtv, video (17:52):

"What we are seeing is a dagger directed at the heart of our democracy, with this money," says Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, of the ongoing influx of corporate cash on election spending this cycle. She notes that this has been a $5 billion--with a B--election, with $1 billion spent just on the House, and no matter what Karl Rove tries to say, there is nowhere close to parity with spending from left-wing causes.

Katrina and Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker join Laura in studio for a discussion of the money flooding the election cycle, and to consider ways to counter the corrupting influence of cash on our political system. Is there a way to save the 2010 elections?

Ben Smith on Tim Kaine: "Nice guy in a nasty time"

Ben Smith:

Kaine was handicapped, particularly at the beginning of his term, by the pressure to keep his focus on Virginia and by rules that forbade him from fundraising while the state Legislature was in session. That local focus, however, didn't prevent an embarrassing defeat for Democrats in the race to replace him.

But Kaine seemed to grow into the post in the substantial aspects of his job; where being a nice guy means a lot, he has triumphed. He seems universally liked, even by people with good reason not to like him. Dean, his predecessor, was not even invited to the announcement of his appointment, but Dean’s supporters blame former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for the snub, and Kaine draws warm words even from Dean’s circle.

He’s also managed to avoid a conflagration over altering Dean’s “50-state strategy,” which guaranteed that the party would finance staffers for every state party. The new regime has shifted some of that funding to Organizing for America employees, who don’t report to state party chairmen, but when state leaders threatened revolt, Kaine gave a little, involved OfA staff in state campaigns and smoothed the waters, winning friends across the often-feuding Democratic family. MORE...

Michelle Obama Campaigns for Patty Murray: "Women, man the phone lines" (with video)

Michelle Obama spoke during a campaign fundraiser for Sen. Patty Murray at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Monday, October 25, 2010.

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com) with video (01:57) from the Seattle Times:

The message of Michelle Obama to a lunch audience dominated by women was blunt: Women should man the phone lines and Internet to save the imperiled political career of Washington Sen. Patty Murray.

Nothing less than the middle class and its access to the American Dream is at stake, the first lady declared in a fiery speech.

"For years middle income people have seen their incomes falling while the costs of things like health care and education continue to go up," said Obama, emphasizing a moment later:

"Keeping that dream alive and within reach is what drives him, drives him every single day. We're not here just because of an election . . . We're here to restore that dream." MORE...

Howie P.S.: Michelle Obama has another video (00:50), "Don't wait—vote early," out just now.

"Seattle's proposed tree rules prompt opposition"

Phuong Le (AP):

Tree lovers are now fighting proposed city rules that would remove current protections for large, exceptional trees, and do not include a requirement that property owners get a permit to remove a tree.

"We're the Emerald City because of the trees," said Cass Turnbull, founder of PlantAmnesty, a Seattle-based nonprofit, who favors a permit system as a way to slow down tree-cutting and give people pause. "Trees grow here very easily so we tend to take them for granted."

The proposed tree regulations come at a time when the city is trying to expand its tree canopy to 30 percent by 2037, and a city audit last year called for improvements in the city's stewardship of trees. Seattle's tree coverage shrank from 40 percent in 1972 to about 23 percent in 2007. MORE...

Franken: "Take it from me — every vote matters"

Al Franken:

When the President took office, not only had the car gone into a ditch, the car had flipped over and was rolling down a steep embankment. We, the American people, were in the back seat, and the Bush Administration had removed all the seat belts, so we were all flying around the interior of this car as it was rolling and flipping and careening down this steep embankment, headed to a 2,000 foot cliff. And at the bottom of that cliff were jagged rocks. And alligators.

Now, at noon on January 20th, 2009, as the car was careening toward the cliff, George W. Bush jumped out of the car.

President Obama somehow managed to dive in through the window, take the wheel and get control of the thing just inches before it went over the precipice. Then, he and Congress starting pushing this wreck back up the embankment. Now you can't push a car up an embankment as fast as it careens down the embankment, especially if some people are trying to push against you. But we got it going in the right direction. And slowly we've gotten ourselves up the embankment, out of the ditch and onto the shoulder of the road. MORE...

Dylan Ratigan on the Financial Mess (video)

MSNBC-Dylan Ratigan, video (12:48).

Ratigan talks with a panel of financial experts about the banker/financial crisis and what can be done to clean up the whole fraudulent mess.

"California pot advocates release first television ad, starring a cop" (with video)

Yes on 19, with video (01:14):

The campaign to legalize marijuana in California has been pretty low-key in terms of media ad buys, but a week out from the election proponents of drug law reform are finally joining the fray and they've chosen none other than Joseph McNamara, former police chief of San Jose, to carry their message to the masses.

GRITtv (John Nichols): "Citizens United Corrupts Absolutely" (video)

lauraflanders, video (02:11):

The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United is being felt right now, argues John Nichols of The Nation. When the decision came down, many thought it would take years to sort out the effects, but instead, he says, "We may have our first fully corporate-defined election this year, in 2010.

Hertztberg on this "Recession Election"

Hendrik Hertzberg:

President Obama and the Democrats kept the Great Recession from becoming a second Great Depression. But the presence of pain is more keenly felt than the absence of agony. MORE...

60 Minutes on the 99ers (video)

CBSNewsOnline, video (13:15):

Even after an extension of unemployment benefits to 99 weeks, many of those about to go off the program are in a quandary. Scott Pelley talks to some of them in Silicon Valley.

More from Greenwald on "NYT v. the world: WikiLeaks coverage"

Glenn Greenwald:

>Media outlets around the world prominently highlighted this revelation, but not The New York Times:

BBC:

The Guardian: Al Jazeera:

Hindustan Times:

Even Politico acknowledged and trumpeted this fact:

By stark and deliberate contrast, here's how The New York Times framed these revelations to its readers (h/t Remi Brulin):

Three cheers for the U.S.! While a handful of American soldiers -- a few bad apples -- may have abused Iraqi detainees in hellholes like Abu Ghraib, those detainees "fared worse in Iraqi hands," so we weren't as bad as the new Iraqi tyrants were. That's the way The New York Times chose to frame these revelations. MORE ...