John Cole has some choice words for, believe it or not, a friend of mine from Red State:

[S]ince Leon wants to lecture me about making Republicans honest, how about he start with Red State? How about a few less front page posts to videos in which you pose as a question whether or not Harold Ford’s called someone a cracker? Sure, he didn’t really call anyone a cracker- but the truth isn’t really what matters at Red State. Winning is what matters, because, as they will tell you any time you listen- the Democrats are worse. Or how bout some more defenses of Rush Limbaugh attacking Michael J. Fox? Watch the video- he was just asking legitimate questions, right? Or how ‘bout some more links to videos of a talking fetus- pretending that is same thing as an embryonic stem cell would fall under honesty, right?

I am a partisan too in case you have not noticed. But like Cole, I like to think I can keep my integrity at the same time. Witness my criticism of Harold Ford's gay bashing.

Barack speaks:

Ned Lamont has waged an impressive grassroots campaign to give the people of Connecticut a choice in the November Senate election. He has a vision for his state and country, and his campaign has been about presenting that vision to Connecticut voters.

Ned Lamont and I share a commitment to bringing our troops home safely from Iraq, to achieving energy independence, to helping all our citizens realize the American dream, and to empowering the American people to reclaim their government. Ned Lamont’s campaign is about delivering on these goals in Washington.

The November 7th election is right around the corner. Please join me in supporting Ned Lamont with your hard work on-the-ground in these closing weeks of the campaign.

At daily kos yesterday, I wrote a diary highlighting ABC's political director Mark Halperin's promise that ABC will favor the GOP in the two weeks running up to this year's election. To date, no Democrat has denounced ABC or Halperin. And Halperin is not stopping:

HANNITY: So the liberal media does exist? The old media is liberal?

HALPERIN: We say it in the book, and we give examples. . . . I'm proud of where I work, where we understand that we've got to not be liberal, we've got to not be perceived as liberal. But the overall old liberal media covered that story in such an unfair way, and I think anybody who denies that just isn't paying attention.

Is there a Democrat in this country who can denounce this? Hello? Any Democratic LEADERS here? Obama? Reid? Pelosi? Hellooooo?

For those of you near Denver, forget the snow and come on out tonight:

Amendment 44 would legalize adult possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. I will be a panelist at an event hosted by NORML Board Member and former Washington State Senator George Rohrbacher (DU, ‘70). It is free and open to the public. Here are the details:

Thursday, October 26
7 p.m. - 9 p.m. — “Marijuana: The Unnecessary War”

University of Denver - Boettcher Hall - 2050 E. Iliff Avenue, Denver

I just returned from a blogger roundtable (much as we had with President Clinton last month)with Sen. John Edwards. About 15 Colorado bloggers attended the get-together at the downtown Denver Hyatt Hotel.

In a nutshell, color me impressed with him and his ideas. It was all q&a, no speeches, for about 45 minutes. Everything was on the record.

Pictures and details of the conversation to follow later this afternoon tonight. Also check out the Colorado blogs on the right side of TalkLeft, many were there and will be writing about the event.

A big thanks to Bobby Clark of Progress Now Action for putting this together.

Update: Other bloggers writing on the event:

Via Cursor:

Ontario's premier declares that his province is no "dumping ground" for American sex offenders, after a former school teacher was sentenced to Canada by a Buffalo judge.

A new Zogby-Reuters poll finds that 44% of voters are more likely to support Democratic candidates in House races in November. Only 33% were likely to support Republican candidates.

On the issues:

Asked to rank which party they thought was better suited to handle 13 pressing issues facing the country, likely voters favored Democrats on nine of them, the Reuters/Zogby poll shows.

As to where we are headed:

Those who support life should also support stem cell research.

Crooks and Liars has the video of Rush Limbaugh's absurd attack on Michael J. Fox.

I have an op-ed today in The Examiner, Choose Life, End the Death Penalty.

What I’m asking is, assuming arguendo, that a fetus is a live person, which is what those who are pro-life believe, how can these same people justify the death penalty?

The way I see it:

It is hypocritical for those who rely on their religion to support their pro-life views also not to oppose the death penalty. A life is a life and it is not their place to determine which are innocent and which are beyond redemption, particularly when the tenets of their religion provide that such decisions belong to their Maker.

It's time to call them on the hypocrisy. My modest proposal is to start with a small step:

Any state that authorizes license plates to display the words “Choose Life” must do so at the top of the plate, with the phrase “End the Death Penalty” at the bottom.

As kos says, it is hard to get excited about Harold Ford's candidacy for Tennessee Senate when he talks like this:

"I do not support the decision today reached by the New Jersey Supreme Court regarding gay marriage. I oppose gay marriage, and have voted twice in Congress to amend the United States Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. This November there's a referendum on the Tennessee ballot to ban same-sex marriage - I am voting for it."

Ford deliberately lies about the New Jersey decision to enable him to bash gays. I call this the Politics of Hate. It is despicable when practiced against Ford by Corker. It is despicable when Ford is the perpetrator. I think he is going to lose in Tennessee, mostly because he is black. But, like Markos, my tears will be few when it happens.

Again, David Broder provides us a view of his idea of independent centrism, as he weighs in again in favor of Joe Lieberman in Connecticiut:

The outcome of [the Connecticut] fight is important nationally for the meaning that will be attached. While other states such as Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio and Virginia will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate, this Connecticut race constitutes perhaps the nation's clearest test on the Iraq war. Lieberman['s] . . . winning and returning to the Senate and its Democratic caucus would slow, if not reverse, growing pressure from the Democrats for an early pullout of U.S. forces. On the other hand, should Lamont repeat his primary win over Lieberman and capture the seat, it would add immeasurably to the momentum of the antiwar forces. He says that he is running in order to end the nightmare of "140,000 of our brave troops stuck in the middle of a bloody civil war."

David Broder's independent centrism call for rubberstamping the Bush/Lieberman Iraq Debacle. He acknowledges that that is what a vote for Lieberman in Connecticut would be. Connecticut voters -- do you support the Iraq Debacle? Because that is what voting for Lieberman means. Broder told you so. As Chris Matthews said:

OK. Just let me say this to Connecticut, if we have a war that keeps going after this election, don't sit back and say, "I did my best." Because the best thing you can do is vote against the war, right? If you're against the war, vote against it. You only get one vote. Shouldn't you vote against it, if you care about it? There's nothing complicated. Use your intelligence and vote your brains.

Libertarian Loretta Nall is running a write-in campaign for Governor of Alabama. She was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight.

Loretta did a great job. Her platform:

• Legalize marijuana
• End the Iraq War
• Don't Comply with the Patriot Act
• Legalize the state's undocumented immigrants

If she loses the race, she'll run for Congress in 2008.