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.

by TChris

TalkLeft reported in July that Jesselyn Radack lost her job with the Justice Department after objecting to the Department's ethical lapses in its prosecution of John Walker Lindh. Now Radack is fighting back.

In a federal lawsuit, the lawyer, Jesselyn Radack, accused Justice Department officials of destroying internal e-mail messages that spelled out her concerns about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's interrogation of Mr. Lindh after he was captured with the Taliban in late 2001.

Radack says she complained about the Department's decision to interrogate Lindh in the absence of his lawyer. Radack's lawsuit contends that the Justice Department retaliated against her whistleblowing by giving her negative performance reviews and by forcing her to resign.

Wrinkled shirt? Poorly sewn jacket backseam? Or a listening device? Salon has the answer and newly enhanced photos. Dr. Robert M. Nelson, a physicist and senior research scientist for NASA and for Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an international authority on image analysis, enhanced and examined the photos and says Bush wore a listening device.

A professional physicist and photo analyst for more than 30 years, he speaks earnestly and thoughtfully about his subject. "I am willing to stake my scientific reputation to the statement that Bush was wearing something under his jacket during the debate," he says. "This is not about a bad suit. And there's no way the bulge can be described as a wrinkled shirt."

The more I think about that first debate and Bush's wierd demeanor and hesitant, broken often inapt responses, it seems the only explanation is that he was trying to listen and speak at the same time.

[link via Americablog]

A must read today....Bob Herbert in the New York Times, Letting Down the Troops.

We have not done right by the troops we've sent to Iraq to fight this crazy, awful war....The thing to always keep in mind about our troops in Iraq is that they were sent to fight the wrong war. America's clearly defined and unmistakable enemy, Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, was in Afghanistan. So the men and women fighting and dying in Iraq were thrown into a pointless, wholly unnecessary conflict.

This has been a war run by amateurs and incompetents. Whatever anyone has felt about the merits of the war, there is no excuse for preparing so poorly and for failing to see, at a minimum, that the troops were properly trained and equipped.

Catholics for Political Responsibility (CPR) has launched radio ads on 45 stations in Ohio,Wisconsin, Colorado, West Virginia and New Hampshire, condemning President Bush for his "failure of moral leadership." The ads cite "mounting casualties in Iraq, the torture and rendition of detainees, the growing number of families in poverty and rising abortion rates."

"I voted for Bush in 2000 because of my pro-life values but I am heartily sorry now. On war, health care, poverty and abortion, he has failed to promote the culture of life when it counts," said Sidney Callahan, award-winning Catholic writer and CPR Co- chair.

....This group of prominent theologians, clergy, and laypeople bares witness to the moral failures of the Bush administration, the Catholic values of service and stewardship lived by John Kerry, and the obligation of Faithful Citizenship to have an informed conscience on all Catholic teaching.

Here is the text of two of the ads:

Have you heard this one? After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive," Osama himself decided to send George Bush a message in his own handwriting to let him know that he was still in the game.

Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a coded message:
370HSSV-0773H

Bush was baffled, so he typed it out and E-mailed it to Colin Powell. Colin and his aides had no clue either so they sent it to the CIA. No one could solve it, so it went to the NSA and then to MIT and NASA and the Secret Service.

Eventually they asked Britain's M-I6 for help. They cabled the White House: "Tell the President he is looking at the message upside down."

At least two electoral vote projectors have Kerry now ahead of Bush:

2004 Poll Watcher
Electoral-Vote.Com

The Bush campaign admitted doctoring an ad depicting Bush surrounded by soldiers. Daily Kos shows you how they did it. The Kerry camp responds.

Where your BlogPAC dollars go. This ad will be running in Ohio through election day. More available here.

Received by e-mail, author unknown:

MISSING EXPLOSIVES: There were two “must see” news reports on Wednesday night that pretty much clear up the mystery of the missing explosives. The first was on ABC and featured video taken after the fall of Baghdad showing explosives at the Al Qaqaa facility. Let’s go to the videotape.

David Kay was also on television on Wednesday night and summed up the Bush administration’s blunders in Iraq like this: “I think it's important, this loss of 360 tons, but Iraq is awash with tens of thousands of tons of explosives right now in the hands of insurgents because we did not provide the security when we took over the country. Let’s go to the videotape.

What’s Bush going to say on Friday about these revelations? Rudy redux?

ALL HALLIBURTON’S EVE: As the campaign winds down and comes to a close, it seems fitting that Halliburton is back in the news. The fact of the matter is that the Vice-President’s former company has bilked billions from the taxpayers, and driving up costs. It’s fitting that this issue, which has haunted the vice president all year, should return from the grave for one last appearance before the election. Look to see what Edwards does on this on Friday.

Check out these photos, the size of the crowd, Kerry's face, Bruce.....

I'm beginning to think this election is over and Bush will soon be on his way to Crawford for good. I don't even think it will be that close. The proliferation of newly registered voters, absentee balloters, early voters and non-military expat voters to me is a signal that people want a change. People don't come out in these kinds of numbers to preserve the status quo.

Barring election day antics or fraud by Republicans in suppressing or counting the vote, I think we'll be saying hello next week to President Elect John F. Kerry.