The Des Moines Register reports today that Gephardt has overtaken Dean in the latest poll of the Iowa primary. There's a lot of analysis in the article, which runs some 1600 words.

Gephardt's lead may or may not be significant:

However, Gephardt's 7-percentage-point lead over Dean in the Iowa Poll appears a little wobbly. More of Dean's supporters say their minds are made up and they are certain of their participation in the Democratic caucuses, which launch the presidential nominating season for the nation.

The Iowa Poll, taken last week, shows Gephardt is the first choice of 27 percent of Iowans who say they definitely or probably will attend the precinct caucuses. Dean is the favorite of 20 percent. That's a gain of 6 percentage points for Gephardt and a 3-point drop for Dean since late July, when the last Iowa Poll on the race was taken.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts remains in third place with 15 percent, a gain of 1 percentage point from July. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

[Link via Conclusive Evidence.]

We were visiting SK Bubba and laughing at his description of Bush helping out unemployed limo repairmen in conjunction with his fundraising efforts when we came across this link in his comments to great photos of the Bush Fundraiser Protest In Portland, Or. on Aug. 21, 2003. The photos will display one by one automatically for you here.

Here and here are two of our our favorites.

Back to SK Bubba on Bush and Fundraising:

Meanwhile, Bush is having serious fundraising problems. Numerous limousines have sustained damage ranging from ruptured tires to broken axles under the weight of bags of cash collected at $100,000 per-plate bar-b-cue events. Campaign officials are also concerned that there aren't enough banks to spread the deposits around to keep their accounts under the FDIC $100K insurance limit. A White House spokesperson said "It's just another example of Bush economic policies putting people like limousine axle repairmen back to work."

The Seattle Times reports that foregoing the death penalty and accepting a guilty plea to a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the Green River killer case may have saved King County almost $16 million:

King County has spent approximately $10.9 million investigating, prosecuting and defending Gary L. Ridgway, the Green River killer, since his arrest in 2001 through September. The county had projected spending an additional $16 million through the end of 2005, if the case went to trial. On Wednesday, Ridgway finalized a plea deal with prosecutors by pleading guilty to 48 counts of murder in exchange for being spared the death penalty.

The paper today also features an eloquent commentary by Whatcom County Superior Court Judge David A Nichols on why the plea deal was a foregone --and the only just--conclusion--and why the death penalty should be abolished in Washington. Here's a portion:

This is a very interesting comment left today on one of our earlier Jessica Lynch posts:

I came upon this page by accident, however I read some of the comments and therefore am compelled to respond. I was a member of the G2/G3 staff that planned the ops for the Lynch mission. There were some J2 types from Washington, at least one was an NSA agent, involved too. All total there were about 50 people involved with the planning phase and execution phase, these were compartmentalized for security so the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing, which is part of the confusion. It was carried out under a code-name, like most operations, "blue-reel" was the name of the planning code.

The actual operation was not only staged, it was reheased like a stage show, complete with two videographers, a primary and a backup. We used an Iraqi CIA agent, I say CIA, he could have been NSA, I don't really know. He now is in Washington and he is also making money off the Lynch story. He is phony. We even supplied a folded U.S. flag on the chopper so she could be filmed with a flag. Of course flags are not normally standard equipment on choppers or special ops raids, but neither is a video crew. According to what we were told by psyops, the fake, or staged, operation had a nice basis of truth and that the embellishment would be used as propaganda against the Iraqis. Unfortunately it was used against Americans to bolster support for the war.

Recall this was in the first phase at the time when support was waning, we needed a boost because we still had to push into Baghdad. The Lynch rescue provided the needed boost. There are some other details too, but I'm sure they will come out.

The CID did a good investigation which proves that alot of the rescue was fraudulent. I recommend that you read it, you will be shocked at how the truth was covered up or changed. This operation was known by the highest levels of DOD. I'm sure Sec Rumsfeld knew about it. Those involved were all on TDY, or detached from their units, following the success of the mission, us were transferred back to our parent units. I was NOT on the raid, just the planning.

A coalition in Chicago is working along with U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-ILL) to provide more resources to inmates as they leave jail. 30,000 inmates will leave Illiniois jails by the end of the year. Where will they live? How will they get work? How do we avoid the vicious cycle of recidivism? Congressman Davis has a good starting plan: a bill that would grant a low-income housing credit to developers who provide housing for past offenders.

Davis represents the 7th District, which includes six Chicago neighborhoods that are home to more than 30 percent of Illinois' outgoing inmates--Englewood, West Englewood, East Garfield Park, Austin, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale.
Predominantly poor, these communities do not have the resources to accommodate former offenders, many of whom were incarcerated for drug-related crimes and now need substance-abuse treatment, said Sharron Matthews, public director for Safer Foundation, an organization devoted to the successful reintegration of offenders.

Current public policies block inmates' access to such treatment, other forms of health care and educational and employment opportunities, she said, and this fuels recidivism. As a result, inmates are released without the skills or the support to survive. Almost half of them return to the penitentiary within three years, Davis said.Davis' bill would create incentives for developers across the country to build 100,000 units where ex-offenders could live while re-establishing themselves.

The bill failed in Congress' last session. We hope it passes this time around.

As sometimes happens with Washington Post editorials, they start out good and then go south. Such is the case today with Freedom vs. Torture? , about Canadian Maher Arar's deportation to Syria where he was imprisoned for a year and tortured.

The Post gets this right:

Deporting someone to a vicious police state knowing the fate that awaits him there is morally repugnant. America shouldn't be subcontracting torture.

But then, it veers off course. The Post suggests that it would have been wrong to return Mr. Arar to Canada because that would have meant freedom to Mr. Arar since in the Post's view there was little likelihood of charges being brought there. Instead, the Post opines. we should fix Guantanamo so it isn't a "legal black hole" and then we could breathe a sigh of relief as we declare the Maher Arars of the world "enemy combatants" and ship them off to its confines.

No. Maher Arar was changing planes at JFK, not blowing up a building or loaded down with explosives when he was grabbed by the U.S. If the U.S. had credible evidence Arar was a terrorist threat, it should have arranged for a military transport to return him to Canada and relayed the incriminating information to Canada with a request for Canada to investigate the matter, and if Canada deemed it appropriate, to arrest him. And even that action should not have been deemed acceptable unless he was first taken before a federal judge who approved of it after a hearing at which Arar was provided counsel.

Due process of law applies to everyone in this country--citizens, residents and travelers just passing through.

Howard Dean says Bob Graham is on his "short list" of potential running mates.

[Graham] made clear that he is available as a vice-presidential running mate for the Democratic nominee or ``whatever role would help replace the Bush administration.''

.... former Gov. Howard Dean, said in Tallahassee on Tuesday that Graham is on his ''short list'' of potential running mates.

Oliver Willis points us to a new Newsweek poll showing Bush is slip-sliding away:

Fifty Percent Would Not Re-Elect Bush; 48 Percent Disapprove Of Bush's Handling Of Economy, But 44 Percent Approve, A 6-Point Jump From One Month Ago

Fifty-One Percent Disapprove Of Bush's Handling Of Iraq, A Record High; Three-Quarters (75%) Are Concerned (45% Very Concerned) U.S. Will Be Bogged Down For Years

In Trial Heats, All Leading Dems Now Even With Bush In Head-To-Head Matchups

As to the Democratic race for the nomination, the poll finds:

Among contenders for the Democratic nomination, Dean and Clark remain in a statistical dead heat, with 16 percent and 15 percent respectively selecting them as first choice for Democratic nominee. Nine percent would select Gephardt, followed by Lieberman (8 percent), Mosely-Braun and Kerry (7 percent each), Al Sharpton (4 percent) and Dennis Kucinich (2 percent).

Mosely-Braun is tied with Kerry? How 'bout that!

This may be our favorite news story of the weekend:

On November 4th, 31 year old Ralph Ferrucci of New Haven ran for Mayor on the Guilty Party ticket. He didn't win, but he did get 15% of the vote, against long-time incumbent Democrat John DeStefano, Jr.

Ralph is an artist and a delivery truck driver for Pepperidge Farm cookies. He spent $850 on his campaign and did not accept donations. His victorious opponent spent $220,000. That translates to:

.... Mr. Ferrucci spent 42 cents for each voter he successfully courted, while Mr. De-Stefano spent $20.12 a vote on a race he had won five times before.

What we really like about this story, besides the name of the party, is this description of Mr. Ferrucci--

The entire 166 page transcript of the Kobe Bryant preliminary hearing has been released by the Court and published on the web by Smoking Gun.

For defense attorney Pamela Mackey's cross-examination of Detective Winters, go here.

Nine of the 250 undocumented workers who were arrested October 23 as part of a national raid on Wal-Mart stores have filed suit against the giant company. Among the claims are:

...failing to pay overtime, withhold taxes and make required workers' compensation contributions.

The plaintiffs are seeking $200,000 in back pay for overtime.

The nine say they worked seven days a week, at least 56 hours a week, and were not paid time and a half for overtime hours, those over 40 a week. The immigrants say they were paid $350 to $500 a week.

The lawsuit said that Wal-Mart, "knowingly and with the intention to defraud the United States government and the plaintiffs and in order to save money on cleaning service contract contractors," employed certain cleaning contractors, "with full knowledge" that these contractors would pay the illegal immigrants far less than they would have paid legal workers.

The plaintiffs, who face deportation for being in the country illegally, also accuse Wal-Mart and its contractors of discriminating against them by giving them lower wages and fewer benefits than other workers because of their national origin.

Wal-Mart's reaction? Essentially, the company says the lawyers representing the plaintiffs are hungry vultures preying on unfortunate immigrants. We don't think so.

More people are beginning to compare Iraq and Vietnam.

Today, comparisons of the Iraq war to Vietnam are growing louder and steady reports of American troops killed on the battlefield are having a corrosive effect on public opinion of President Bush.

One of the most telling numbers of late: four in 10 Americans, 39 percent, think the United States made a mistake by sending troops into Iraq - roughly the same number that said that about Vietnam in the summer of 1967.

Early on, people approved of Johnson's handling of Vietnam by a 2-1 margin, according to Gallup polls from 1965. By the summer of 1967, four in 10 thought Vietnam was a mistake, and people were evenly divided on Johnson's handling of the war. Public support then slipped steadily.

The decline in public opinion about Iraq has come more quickly for Bush. In April, three-fourths approved of the way Bush was handling the war. In a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll released Thursday, 54 percent disapproved and 45 percent approved. The number who say it was a mistake to send in troops has almost doubled from the 22 percent who thought so in July.

It may be only a matter of time until someone comes up with the sequel to the infamous chant we remember so well, "Hey, Hey, LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?"