Iowa Senator Tom Harkin weighs in on the potential for a military draft:

President George W. Bush may or may not have a secret plan to reinstate the draft. But this is besides the point. The deteriorating facts on the ground in Iraq, plus the Bush doctrine of acting pre-emptively and unilaterally against hostile regimes, will soon leave him no choice. If Bush is re-elected, he will have to restart the draft.

Welcome readers of 5280--and thanks to Dan Brogan for that nice introduction. Fellow blogger Colorado Luis and I will keep the site updated on Colorado political issues several times a day through the election and its aftermath, before broadening to other topics. The RSS feed is here.

Someone was bound to ask. Any takers for the theory that it's a setup?

Here are some:

• The Fake bin Laden Audio
• The Taliban Home Video
• Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
• The Truth is a Valuable Commodity

Personally, I see a lot more similarity than differences in the photos. But there are some differences from previous times we've seen him:

• no quotes from the Koran or Islamic rhetoric
• no automatic weapon in view
• no al Qaeda commanders with him

Are we sure he hasn't been taken prisoner, dressed up and told what to say?

Last minute addition to the Bush/Cheney campaign schedule....Cheney will campaign in Colorado Springs Monday.

Is Bush afraid he's lost Colorado? Or that Amendment 36 splitting the electoral vote will pass?

Steve Gilliard: Anyone who thinks this is good for Bush is an idiot.

Digby: Mediawhorgy

Daily Kos (by DemforCT)

Josh Marshall

Update: Bonassas has links to more reaction.

Billmon returns to say this is the October surprise.

Question: Has anyone asked whether Osama could have made this tape in captivity?

John Kerry's campaign on Bush's use of the Osama tape as an occasion to make a mean spirited, partisan political attack on John Kerry (by email):

This is a serious issue, and it’s disturbing that the White House seems intent on making it a political issue. The president was briefed on the tape before he delivered one of his most negative and divisive attacks of this campaign.

“America deserves a national security debate on the merits rather, than a president who desperately resorts to distortions, falsehoods and untruths on a regular basis.

“John Kerry was very clear tonight that we will stop at nothing to hunt down and kill the terrorists and that all Americans - Republicans and Democrats - are united in the war on terror. George Bush wasted no time in dividing us again.”

Bush was briefed hours on the contents of the tape hours before its release. Kerry's first statement was made before his briefing. After being advised of what was on the tape, Kerry made this statement:

"In response to this tape from Osama bin Laden, let me make it clear, crystal clear. As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists. They are barbarians. And I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes. Period.”

Update: Transcript of bin Laden video here. Fox reports on this facet:

Bin Laden suggested Bush was slow to react to the Sept. 11 attacks, giving the hijackers more time than they expected. At the time of the attacks, the president was listening to schoolchildren in Florida reading a book.

"It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone," he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

"It appeared to him [Bush] that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God," he said.

So where is Osama?

***************
What's up with the Osama bin Laden tape? Does anyone other than Reuters believe it helps Bush?

Bin Laden, in his first video in more than a year, threatened new attacks on the United States.

"Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened," he said.

I don't think it helps Bush at all. I think if anything, it re-raises the issue of why is Osama still out there? Why didn't Bush get him? It may redirect attention to Tora Bora and how Bush let Osama get away. See, "How Bush blew it in Tora Bora"and "9/11's betrayal in quagmire of Iraq"

For more, check out the newly revised Tora Bora timeline--it now has sourced links.

Heads Up: Here's an e-mail just in regarding voting problems in Jacksonville Florida and St. John's County, predominantly a Republican area:

This is an alert that the Official Sample Ballot for St. John's County, Florida, has a mis-printed telephone number for the Julington Creek Annex, 725 Flora Branch Blvd., Jacksonville, FL It is printed as 904-320-0107 and SHOULD BE 904-2 3 0-0107. The 2 and 3 are reversed. I kept getting a "wrong number" and was transferred to an Operator who also verified that it was a wrong number. She then placed me through to Bellsouth to which there was no answer except a menu system. I finally realized while waiting for a human voice that the numbers were transposed.

I initially had called my local office in St. Augustine, Florida, prior to placing this call but no one had answered the phone there despite several rings on three sequential calls; thus I called the Julington Creek Branch Annex Office to ask a question on how a voter can vote if they have moved to a different county.

Via Daily Kos, Pandagon and Oliver Willis.

If Republican Arlen Spector gets reelected, he's next in line to be Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Joe Hoeffel, his opponent, says that will be a disaster.

Hoeffel has attacked Specter as voting for "every right-wing and, in many cases, unqualified appointment to the federal bench" that Bush has made. "In many cases, women-hating, civil rights-denying, labor-bashing, environment-trashing, unqualified people," Hoeffel said in a recent WHYY radio interview.

Hoeffel ridiculed Specter's vow to appoint "centrist" judges, and accused Specter of being "inconsistent" on abortion rights by confirming nominees who did not support Roe v. Wade.

Santorum validates that claim.

And if the race is a tie? The Guardian says we will have "stark chaos" for a month.

Daily Kos is running an election prediction contest. Get your entry in before noon on Saturday.

by TChris

Memo to nonprofit organizations: don't criticize President Bush, lest you incur the wrath of the I.R.S.

In a letter dated Oct. 8 and released Thursday, the I.R.S. told the [N.A.A.C.P.] it had received information that [its chairman, Julian] Bond conveyed "statements in opposition of George W. Bush for the office of presidency" and specifically that he had "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush in education, the economy and the war in Iraq."

The President has a contentious relationship with the NAACP, as evidenced by his refusal to address the group at its last four annual conventions. Julian Bond contends that his criticisms of the administration were directed to policy and did not cross the line by soliciting support for a particular candidate.

"This is an attempt to silence the N.A.A.C.P. on the very eve of a presidential election," [Bond] said. "We are best known for registering and turning out large numbers of African-American voters. Clearly, someone in the I.R.S. doesn't want that to happen."

No word on whether the IRS is chasing after all the nonprofit churches that have given visible support to the President's reelection efforts.