Here's a new endorsement for John Kerry by the Daily Texan. After criticizing Bush on a number of domestic and foreign issues, it says:

The Bush-Cheney campaign itself offers the best endorsement for John Kerry: He changes his mind. When it became increasingly obvious that the war in Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and downright ignorance, Kerry was willing to call out the administration. As law enforcement officers began using anti-terrorism powers to create an unsettling culture of surveillance in America, Kerry attacked the way the Patriot act is used.

Far from being a mindless flip-flopper, Kerry has proven that he is willing to listen to public input. Kerry's brand of flip-flopping would be a welcome change from an administration that simply refuses to admit mistakes or accept any responsibility for the disaster zone it has created in the Middle East. It's about time that someone in the White House has an open mind.

John Kerry, a fresh start and an open mind. Sounds pretty good to me. And in case you missed it a few weeks ago, here is the endorsement of Kerry by the Crawford Iconoclast, the hometown paper where Bush's ranch is located.

Dick Cheney is once again trying to instill fear in the heart of every American in an attempt to snag votes:

Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday evoked the possibility of terrorists bombing U.S. cities with nuclear weapons and questioned whether Sen. John Kerry could combat such a threat, which the vice president called a concept "you've got to get your mind around."

"The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists ending up in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever before been used against us - biological agents or a nuclear weapon or a chemical weapon of some kind to be able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans," Cheney said. "That's the ultimate threat. For us to have a strategy that's capable of defeating that threat, you've got to get your mind around that concept," Cheney said.

Bush-Cheney have no strategy to counter a catastrophic attack. Take the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act that Bush signed into law yesterday. Bush insisted that funds for first responders be reduced.

A new poll shows that John Kerry has wider support among black voters than Bush:

Blacks prefer Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over President Bush by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, though their support for the Democrat is down slightly from the backing Al Gore received in 2000, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Bush didn't get good marks for his handling of the war in Iraq or for his overall job performance, according to the poll of black Americans from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The center is a Washington-based research group that focuses on issues concerning blacks.

Not suprisingly, support for Bush was strongest among Christian conservatives and those over 50.

Atrios has begun the October Surprise Watch. We all know Rove and Bush will try to pull a rabbit out of hat before the election. The question is, what will it be? I'm sticking with my earler prediction, Osama bin Laden turns up dead.

If he turns up dead, it will be as if Bush killed the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz...people will be chanting, "Ding, Dong, the witch is dead" as if all our battles with terrorists will be over.

Bush needs Osama gone, not captured. Now here's the question: If he turns up dead, will an independent pathologist or medical examiner be allowed to examine his remains to determine how long he's been dead? Wouldn't you want to know if he died a few days ago or has been in storage for six months or more, in preparation for an October unveiling?

What say you?

A Judge in Troy, New York has been permanently removed from the bench after 11 years as a sitting judge. His offense:

[The Commission on Judicial Conduct ] charged Bauer with setting excessive bail and not affording defendants the right to counsel in order to coerce guilty pleas, among other judicial infractions. The Court of Appeals agreed that his conduct was too egregious for him to stay on the bench.

HaikuEsq has more and some context.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today endorsed a state ballot measure supporting stem cell research.

Proposition 71 would spend $3 billion of California state money funded through bonds on stem-cell research and use another $3 billion to finance the interest payments over 30 years...."I am, of course, a supporter of stem cell research. Research that we do now holds the promise of cures for tomorrow," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "We are the world's bio-tech leader and Prop. 71 will help ensure that we maintain that position while saving lives in the process."

Polls show the measure is favored among California voters.

The AP reports that Democrats have registered more new voters than Republicans in these swing states:Arizona, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and New Hampshire. In Florida, they are tied.

There are no numbers for Ohio and Pennsylvania. No mention is made of Colorado.

Al Gore blasted President Bush in a rousing speech today at Georgetown University. Some choice quotes:

I'm convinced that most of the president's frequent departures from fact-based analysis have much more to do with right-wing political and economic ideology than with the Bible."

"It is love of power for its own sake that is the original sin of this presidency," he said. He painted the Bush administration and its "right-wing" supporters as pursuing policies for the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the rest of the country.

"The essential cruelty of Bush's game is that he takes an astonishingly selfish and greedy collection of economic and political proposals and then cloaks them with a phony moral authority, thus misleading many Americans ... who have a deep and genuine desire to do good in the world," Gore said.

"And in the process, he convinces them to lend unquestioning support for proposals that actually hurt their families and their communities," he said.

"Truly, President Bush has stolen the symbolism and body language of religion and used it to disguise the most radical effort in American history to take what rightfully belongs to the American people and give as much of it as possible to the already wealthy and privileged," he said.

Lots more, if you find a link to the entire speech, please leave it in the comments.

This is for advertisers....nine days for the price of seven--The TalkLeft premium spot on the left, under the logo, opens up tomorrow. Beginning Oct. 28, it is taken for a month. It's limited to one ad at a time, so the first person to take it for a week will have their ad run until the 28th.

Here's the ad signup page.

by TChris

The Supreme Court will decide whether a criminal defendant's right to a fair death penalty hearing is violated by forcing him to appear before a jury in shackles. Carmen Deck was convicted of two murders. During the six hour death penalty phase of his trial, Deck was handcuffed to a belly chain and he was kept in leg irons.

Deck's public defender, Rosemary Percival, has it right:

"Shackles and other restraints tacitly communicate to the jury that the court believes the defendant is still so dangerous that he must be restrained even in the confines of the courtroom," she said.

The shackling of a defendant during a trial has long been understood to be unfair. It is no less prejudicial to force a man to fight for his life while binding him in chains.

Early voting in Florida began today. Within one hour, problems began. Armies of lawyers are on hand and and already heading to court.

I hope no one has forgotten what happened in 2000 and how the Republicans and the Supreme Court stole the election from Al Gore.

TalkLeft was not a blog in those days, but it did provide daily coverage of election news. I have combined the coverage into one page, 2000 Recap, and think that it will be a valuable resource for bloggers and journalists looking for comparisons between 2000 and 2004.

The page is divided into sections: Election Day to Concession Day news, Post Concession Day News (only one article of interest there), Opeds (all from the Democrats point of view), Humor (just two funny pieces, still relevant today) and Court Documents.

Amazingly, almost all of the links still work. I'm not sure how long the page will stay up as some may disagree with my "fair use" statement, so use it and save what you want while it's still available.

Bottom Line: Re-acquaint yourselves with what happened in Florida in 2000, broadcast it and make it more difficult for it to happen again.

The time has come to limit the "chatter" on TalkLeft--constant comments by those who disagree with TalkLeft's positions, designed to overtake the discussion. I am receiving emails from TalkLeft's loyal readers who say that they feel the discussion is no longer valuable because of the constant commenting by three or four of these individuals.

So, here is the new policy. The "chatterers"--and they know who they are --will be limited to four comments of reasonable length during a 24 hour period. All comments over this amount will be deleted without explanation. After the third violation, the chatterer will be banned.

This group includes the relatively new poster "ras" who I notified of this policy last Friday and has ignored it. It does not include Jim (poker player) or Cliff--who although they take the other side, in my opinion stimulate debate. They also are the first to respond every time I put out a call for contributions.

I am not worried about chatterers using different names to get around the rule because I can track them by ISP address and their past comments. Of course, I do not publish this information.

Please feel free to email me with the names of commenters you believe I should be limiting under this new policy. Or , you can leave their names in the comments.

I'm not happy about this new policy as it will take up a lot of valuable time. But I agree with those of you who believe that these commenters are spoiling the disussion for the rest of you. They are trying to dominate the conversation on TalkLeft and it will be not happen.

Also, if you find someone who has broken the new rule and not been held accountable, send me an email and I will delete their excessive comments and add it to their strikes.