More at Political Wire.

The DCCC exposes President Bush’s hypocracy. Bush wanted to influence what Kerry would say or make it sound weak. It backfired. Now, whenever I hear someone using the phrase ‘mixed-messages’, I won’t be able to help think of the person as a Bushite.

Over at Political Wire comes some great news. Register if you haven’t and if you know how someone can, help others do the same. This is not an election that we can afford to be decided by others. And then tell Andy Rooney to bite it.

Pennsylvania is one of the states where the election will be decided. Imagine how the past four years would have been with Al Gore. Your vote counts, and if you choose not to vote, you have made a choice for Bush, whether you like it or not. There are reasons they are attempting to depress turnout with their negative campaign. It’s because when people speak up, things can change.

1. You can verify you are registered by calling a phone number on this list. In Philadelphia it is:
   Mr. Bob Lee Voter Registration Admin. Riverview Place, 520 N. Delaware Ave. 5th Fl. Philadelphia, PA 19123-4295 (215) 686-1500 OR 1505. Everyone I have given this number to has been pleasently surprised at the fast and friendly service provided. Go city of Philly! Call it if you have a question. Do it now!

2. If you are not registered, or have changed your personal information in some way, in Pennsylvania, the League of Women Voters give the simplest information on how register or re-register. You’ll want to read their FAQs. The main site is a wealth of information on your rights and what to look out for.

3. Seventy.org has a clickable map, for Philadelphians to locate their polling place.

4. After you are registered and confirmed it, get involved to get out the vote.

5. Help the EFF to verifiy every vote gets counted. The EFF is providing background information on the new E-voting systems that have been rolled out across the country. Seventy.org has details on the machines we are using in Philadelphia.

6. If you’re interested in what money your candidate is taking from whom, check out opensecrets.org. A site many more should visit.

7. Election Protection is a link to pass around. There is a history of voter intimidation in some parts of Philly. This is a national resource to make sure your vote gets counted.

8. The Smithsonian’s “The Machinery of Democracy” is an online exhibit that “explores how ballots and voting systems have evolved over the years as a response to political, social, and technological change, transforming the ways in which Americans vote.” Fascinating stuff.

9. The following is NSFW: Votergasm wants you to take a pledge: Have sex with your friendly voter on election night and withhold sex from your friendly non-voter. Cybersex doesn’t cut it folks.

10. And finally, you maybe wondering, “What Are You Voting For?”. This linked comic book lays it bare for you in clear terms. Pass it around.

The Bush campaign spin seems to be influencing Mr. Jarvis’s take on what John Kerry sees as the real enemy in the war on terror. In this post he’s asking to hear John Kerry admit that the true enemy we face is Islamic fascism itself. Well guess what Jeff?

…The war on terror is as monumental a struggle as the Cold War. Its outcome will determine whether we and our children live in freedom or in fear. It is not, as some people think, a clash of civilizations. Radical Islamic fundamentalism is not the true face of Islam. This is a clash between civilization and the enemies of civilization; between humanity?s best hopes and most primitive fears. The danger we face today will become even greater if the terrorists acquire what we know they are seeking ? weapons of mass destruction, which they would use to commit mass murder. We are confronting an enemy and an ideology that must be destroyed. We are in a war that must be won.

Americans know this. We understand the stakes. On September 11th there were no Democrats, no Republicans. We were only Americans. We all stood together. We all supported the President. We all prayed for victory, because we love our country and despise everything our enemies stand for.

But three years after 9/11, we see our enemies striking — in Spain, in Turkey, in Indonesia, in Kenya, and now every day — in the most despicable and gruesome ways in Iraq, which was not a terrorist haven before the invasion. In fact, there were more terrorist attacks in the world last year than the year before. And we see an administration in confusion; we hear the president, the commander in chief, proclaiming one day that this war can?t be won and then saying something different the next day. And we hear the Secretary of Defense himself wondering whether the radicals are recruiting, training, and deploying more terrorists than we?re capturing or killing.

Then, yesterday, when asked about conditions in Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld told Congress, and I quote: ?Let?s pretend, hypothetically, that you get to election time in January and let?s pretend that it?s roughly like it is, or a little worse, which it could be, because you?ve got to expect it to continue?.So be it, nothing is perfect in life.? If there was any doubt that the leaders of the Bush Administration are living in a fantasy world of spin, I think Secretary Rumsfeld put that doubt to rest.

We need to end this confusion. We need national leaders who will face reality ? not only in Iraq but in the war on terror. And we need a president who has no doubt that the war on terror can and must be won.

The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy ? Al Qaeda — which killed more than three thousand people on 9/11 and which still plots our destruction today. And there?s just no question about it: the President?s misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement of the war in Iraq all make the war on terror harder to win. Iraq is now what it was not before the war ? a haven for terrorists. George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority. I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority. As president, I will finish the job in Iraq and refocus our energies on the real war on terror.

I will wage this war relentlessly with a single-minded determination: to capture or kill the terrorists, crush their movement and free the world from fear. To destroy our enemy, we have to know our enemy. We have to understand that we are facing a radical fundamentalist movement with global reach and a very specific plan. They are not just out to kill us for the sake of killing us. They want to provoke a conflict that will radicalize the people of the Muslim world, turning them against the United States and the West. And they hope to transform that anger into a force that will topple the region?s governments and pave the way for a new empire, an oppressive, fundamentalist superstate stretching across a vast area from Europe to Africa, from the Middle East to Central Asia.

The American people have a right to hear the answer to a fundamental question: How are we going to win this war? What is our strategy for eliminating the terrorists, discrediting their cause, and smashing their forces so that America can actually be safer?

John Kerry: Speech at Temple University, 9-24-2004

The long slide is over. Seeing Bush and Kerry side by side exposed who looked and sounded presidential versus who sounded like a spoiled brat with five lines coached to him that he repeated over and over again with increasing frustration. More at Talking Points Memo.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” – Dante Alighieri

Never heard that one before, but its a great quote. Russell Beattie opens his rant with that quote to shake you into getting involved and making known where you stand and why. If you’re a blogger, and you care about about the future, you have a duty to help convince people to vote for Kerry and get involved. Let those people who are on the fence know that you’ve made your decision and why.

Dear Friends,

This is it: One month to D-Day! That’s “Dump Bush Day,” November 2nd.

It’s now time to roll up our sleeves — each and every one of us — and get to work. There will be nearly 10 million of you who will read this letter either on my list or on my site. An army of ten million cannot be defeated! The time for hitting the snooze button has passed, voter registration deadlines start Monday and we only get one shot at this!!!

My plan is simple. Will you join me in the following?

1. REGISTER FIVE PEOPLE TO VOTE THIS WEEKEND. There are only a few days left in most states before voter registration is cut off. Keep asking like-minded people you know if they are registered. If they are not, take them to this website where you can show them where they need to go to get registered. Offer to take them there yourself. Take them to lunch afterward! If you can, pick up registration forms from your local city or county clerk (or get them from you local Democratic Party or Kerry HQ). Carry them with you everywhere you go. Hook up with local groups standing outside shopping centers and events this weekend or Monday or Tuesday and register people there. Nothing is more critical in the next 48 to 72 hours than to get our people registered. The wealthy and the conservatives are already registered — the poor, the single moms, the recent transplants to your town are not. And neither are students and young adults (check local and state laws, some of which make it very hard for college students to register and vote). VOTER REGISTRATION ENDS ON MONDAY IN Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Make no mistake, if you live in any of these states ? realize now that WHAT YOU DO OR DON?T DO THIS WEEKEND will have an effect on this election!!!

2. CALL AND VOLUNTEER NOW. There is nothing more important in the next 31 days than spending whatever free time you have working to remove George W. Bush from the White House. Again, call the local Democratic Party HQ or the local Kerry HQ or the ACT office and say you want to help. They will put you to work making calls, going door to door, putting up yard signs, lining up rides on Election Day for senior citizens, etc. Removing Bush and electing Kerry will require physical labor on all our parts. We just can’t sit home and wish it to happen. (A Warning: Some local Dem HQs are not always as organized as you would hope them to be. If you call and they don’t have it together, don’t get discouraged. Just move on to my next point, #3…)

3. START YOUR OWN KERRY CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS! If the Dems don’t have it together in your area, don’t complain, just take matters into your own hands and run your own campaign for Kerry. Or, even if there is a strong Kerry presence in your county seat, there still may not be in the outlying areas where you live. There’s nothing wrong with you and your friends saying, “OK, today we inaugurate the Kerry HQ here in Hooterville…or Kurt Cobain High…or Dorm Building 5!” If you can’t get signs or leaflets, make your own! Don’t wait for someone to do it, otherwise it won’t get done. Send me pictures of your own renegade Elect Kerry/Dump Bush HQ and I will put them up on my site!

4. IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN A SWING STATE, GO THERE AND START SWINGING. Virtually everyone in this country lives within driving distance of one of the 20 battleground states where the election will be close. Pick one weekend this month and go on a fall color tour to dump Bush. Pack up the kids or the neighbors, pick a town — any town — in your nearest swing state, reserve a room at the local Motel 6 and hit the road! Volunteer online or call ahead to the local party HQ to say you are coming and you want them to put you to work (again, if there is no one there to put you to work, make your own handbills, print out a thousand of them, and just show up in Anywhere, Ohio and start going door to door). There are other groups doing work in the swing states that you can hook-up with, like ACT and Driving Votes who could really use your help getting out the vote. You don’t have to feel left out of this election just because you live in New York or California or Illinois or any of the other 29 states the candidates won’t be visiting. Take matters into your own hands. Think of what a great educational experience it will be for your kids — or yourself. JUST ONE WEEKEND THIS MONTH — PLAN IT NOW!

5. TAKE OFF WORK OR SCHOOL NOVEMBER 2. We need everyone working the polls, the phones, the neighborhoods from dawn to dusk. Poll watchers are needed to make sure there is no cheating. Help is needed in all 50 states and you can do it from home or you can park yourself in a swing state for the day.

There you have it. Five Simple Steps. I?ll be doing my part as I travel the country to the 20 swing states. Please join with me in this effort. Kerry is doing his part, he won the first debate (stop the kvetching…of course YOU would have done a better job! But YOU’RE not running for president! He beat Bush…Bush must go!!). Remember, what’s at stake in this election is bigger than John Kerry, bigger than political parties and all the other noise that accompanies politicians and their elections. This is about that mother from Flint, Michigan — and all the other mothers from all the other towns in America — who have lost and WILL LOSE their sons and daughters in Bush?s never-ending war in Iraq.

Please, put aside whatever keeps you from jumping in to do the necessary work to remove George W. Bush from office. This can only be accomplished when you, right now, stop reading this letter and make that call (or click that mouse) to get involved.

Thanks so much…

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/vote/

P.S. If you are having trouble registering or voting, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

P.P.S. If you have a chance to see Going Upriver, the great new documentary about John Kerry in theaters this week, do so!

A horrific graphic at the NYTimes.