Rashid Khalidi? Cool sounding name. Shareem Abdur Rahim? Also a cool sounding name. Mahmoud_Abdul-Rauf? Also cool. And Kareem Abdul Jabbar? Also a cool sounding name. Not to mention Nuri Al Maliki.

What do Republicans have against vowels? Say what you want about George Bush, but he seems to not hold any grudges against people with a lot of vowels in their name.

This is an Open Thread.

Your turn.

Leonardo DiCaprio and a slew of the Hollywood celebrity-types who are so irksome to Republicans join with non-celebrity Americans to urge viewers to vote. "5 More Friends" is the second PSA; the first ("5 Friends") is here.

This is an open thread.

Dean Barnett, a conservative blogger, has passed away. Barnett was an antagonist of the left blogs, especially Daily Kos, when I was posting there. On a personal level, it appears he was a very fine man. Our thoughts go out to his family.

This is an Open Thread.

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

Gators up 1421-0, thanks [in part] to 2 blocked punts. Penn State will lose to the Buckeyes today. College football's BCS system is a travesty and will be proven beyond redemption this year. As early as next year, college football will add a +1 game after the BCS bowls.

Also, I understand there is a baseball game tonight in Philadelphia.

This is an Open Thread.

You'll be pleased to know that the Pennsylvania Republican Party agrees (when confronted) that it has no reason to believe Barack Obama "taught members of Acorn to commit voter fraud." The Party also admits it has no evidence that "known terrorist William Ayers ... thought the terrorists didn’t do enough on 9/11." Forced to make those concessions, the Party blamed and "fired the strategist who helped draft" an email containing those assertions that was "making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week."

The email also

equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.”

Because of the two factual errors (lies) in the "unauthorized" email, the Party plans to send a correction to the 75,000 recipients of the original. Whether that will happen before or after the election is unclear.

Ron Howard channels Andy Griffith. This is an open thread.

Update: (TL) It's 9:30 am MST and we already have 14 posts up today. This may be a record for us. The front page only holds 15, so you may want to click the "more" button at the bottom of the page. I'm off to the jail now and won't be back until late this afternoon.

****

The New York Times has a nice internet feature accessing their Presidential endorsements through the years - back to their 1860 endorsment of Abraham Lincoln. It is interesting to see the discussion of the historic issues in real time. Fun fact - The Times endorsed Wendell Willkie over FDR in 1940.

This is an Open Thread.

I'm at work today. Big Tent Democrat and TChris have several posts up, but in case they need to get on with their day, here's an open thread for you. All topics welcome, just be civil. I'll be back tonight.

Bob Somerby on Josh Marshall.

I'll make this an Open Thread.

Cite to Somerby on Marshall endorsed solely by me.

Ted Stevens will return to the witness stand Monday as prosecutors continue their cross-examination. Although two senators testified for Stevens as character witnesses, a third has been in the audience lending his support: Larry Craig. You can understand why Craig wasn't asked to testify in support of Stevens' good character.

You can review trial coverage in these posts: 9/29, 10/2, 10/9, 10/14, 10/17. The New York Times has this preview of the trial's closing days.