What the hell is going on -
Stevens - 54,101
Begich -  49,741

The dude was convicted and yet people are still voting for him. What a joke - he shouldn't be allowed to be sworn in. Let's see if McCain will still call for his resignation, now that the election is over.

A penny for a thought from any of you other lawyers around here about the Stevens trial.

What do you guys make of him taking the witness stand? Conventional wisdom is that you never let the defendant take the stand unless things are going really bad and you have nothing to lose. Defendants are the least credible witnesses to the jury - and worse - if the prosecutor trips up the defendant, even on an irrelevant point, the defendant is going to be found guilty.

Of course, Ted Stevens is no ordinary defendant and this is not your conventional trial. I thought that the trial was going pretty good for Stevens when the prosecutors pissed off the judge - twice! So I don't know what to make of the defense's decision to have Stevens testify. Is it a sign that they didn't thinks were going well? What do other lawyers here make of that?

The news reports are that the prosecutor did succeed in making him pretty angry. In a brilliant exchange, Ted Stevens argued "if these were gifts, why did I ask for invoices", to which the prosecutor said "to cover your butt!".

The news is reporting that the deliberations have been rancorous - which may very well lead to a mistrial. The press says that this cuts in Stevens favor, but I believe prosecutors do pretty good, statistically, on retrials.

Sorry for the short diary.

It's just after all this time volunteering, donating, listening to him, and participating in blogging. I have had the pleasure of voting for Barack Obama to my Senator, and democratic nominee.

Today, 10/21, it was my pleasure to vote for Barack Obama to be our next President of the United States of America!

You can get a link to the report at:

http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/10/10/1 6/Branchflowerreport.source.prod_affilia te.7.pdf

Now here is the smoke screen that the GOP is likely to play. They are likely to jump on finding number of 2 (page 8 of the report), which reads "Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads." They will try to say that it means she did nothing illegal.

The problem is that the report also finds that "Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating ... the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act ("any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of ... trust"). Same page of the report. Think about it carefully - the two conclusion are NOT mutually exclusive.

The other problem, is that Palin has said that neither she, her husband, or anyone in the Governor's office ever pressured Monegan to fire Trooper Wooten. This report, in no uncertain terms, says that this is not true. So at a minimum, Palin has publicly lied about the circumstances for firing Monegan.

Finally, Governor Palin has criticized the report because the report was not based on her testimony. Please - even Mr. Magoo can could see through this one!

www.drudgereport.com

only about 20 have voted so far.

Sorry for the short diary

The media just wants to force it that Palin won last nights debate. Every focus group (with the exception of the totally bogus focus group by FOX), and every post debate poll since the debate says that Biden won. Yet the media, and the dumbass pundits just continue to insist that Palin won.

Here's an example, look at this statistical data, for example:

                     Before    After
Biden's favorability  53        67
Palin's favorability  36        41
    Republican Men    67        73
    Republican Women  70        79
    Democratic Men    19        15
    Democratic Women  21        25

Looks pretty good for Biden, don't it? Well, here's the headline of the story: "Women on Palin: Even critics say she delivers; Researcher: Republican candidate boosted standing among female voters".

here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27009491/#st oryContinued

Another example, the Today show with Amy Robach. The Today show pulls together a focus group of seven women undecided voters

Here's the data - sample

2004 Vote
5 Bush
1 Kerry
1 first time voter

Palin - 5 were Disappointed
Biden - 6 were impressed

Then listen to the discussion after it, with the pundits. They were raving about how well Palin did.

You can see the video by clicking on the above link - on the right hand side, under the picture of Sarah Palin, there is a button labeled "Launch".

we will be home free.The debate tomorrow is going to be McCain's last chance.

Palin is going to win the debate tomorrow. The thing about debating - it's not what you say, it's how you say it. Stupid people make great debaters because they say stupid things with conviction. Biden's years in the Senate will harm him - long-winded answers will hurt him, and with short answers, he is likely to make a gaffe. It's really a no-win situation for Biden.

What I hope for tomorrow is an uneventful VP debate. If that happens, Obama will win the election. If the VP debate goes as I expect it will, I'm sure there will be an initial surge for McCain. All that the news networks will talk about is the fact that Palin didn't fail her remedial course mid-term, and push less important stories such as the banking crisis aside.

But I still think that the news cycle will come to an end by the time of Obama's next debate with McCain. The most important thing is that Obama have a way of changing the news immediately after the debate. If he has a wild card, right after the VP debate is good time to play it. I really wish there was less time between the VP debate and the next Presidential debate. Obama will best him again and what will look like a McCain surge will turn out to be McCain's last gasp.

The half dozen or so polls released this week are showing even more troubling signs for the Obama campaign. In almost every poll John McCain has caught up to within 6 points of Obama. In the Rasmussen poll, John McCain has pulled into a tie.

Many Democrats are worried that the Obama's campaign strategy of responding to attacks by McCain/Palin will be seen as sexist and negative campaigning. "Showing that the things McCain says are not true could backfire by energizing Republicans", said Stuart N. Ark at the local diner in Muncie, Indiana. Highway Patrollman Danny Houlihan appeared to agree, "I hate to use a football analogy, but it's like when Republicans are fired up, they have the 12th man. And that 12th man can make a huge difference in the election".

Political Strategist, T.R. Olliver confirmed, "The Obama campaign may think that two guys at a local diner are not representative of all democrats, but that would be very condescending to a lot of people."

Thank you. We'll keep you posted.