I meet Brian Dunkiel , a dem lawyer from Burlington, VT. He is on the observer team. He is about 30, sharp, witty and "gets it". In wrap around shades he informs me in a whisper that he is also doing an NPR audio report about the election down here. I tell him I am writing for this blog. I take some photos of the crowd. He freaks."Don't let the republican poll watchers see you. They've been getting the Sheriff's men on any photog they see. We saw one guy arrested moments ago."

No one knows if this is legal or not. But it is clearly intimidating. The Repubs do not want these long lines to be seen. However, the oddity is that tons of news crews are video taping with impunity. I resort to my Motorola V-300. I took a shot of two poll observers inside. These democratic lawyers were about to get involved in my case, but pulled back when they realized I had it under control.

Time 10:47am EST

"Local news posted photo of arrested photog - all arrests were directed by Republican poll watchers. I don't nor does any other legal authority, know why it is illegal" to photograph - TV news cameras abounded. I will challenge it tomorrow. It was intimidation pure and simple and the people buckled after the arrest. I have taken photographs myself and will have them in a few hours. That's if I'm not arrested too!"

Cronyism: Brown is a Fraud

"Now, an investigation by TIME has found discrepancies in his online legal profile and official bio, including a description of Brown released by the White House at the time of his nomination in 2001 to the job as deputy chief of FEMA. (Brown became Director of FEMA, succeeding Allbaugh, in 2003.)...read on"

The problem with this type of cronyism is that many human lives have been lost at the cost of his appointment. Brown should be arrested on the spot for fraud. Allbaugh can pass him shanks from the adjoining cell.

(Update): Kevin Drum has much more on Brown and the rest of his cronies."The story also notes a "brain drain" of experienced disaster professionals at FEMA's lower levels, "hastened in part by the appointment of leaders without backgrounds in emergency management." Wonderful....read on"

Adama Bah - Outrage in New York

via All Spin Zone

...It began with two 16-year-old immigrant girls arrested at dawn, detained far from home, and, in a chilling government assertion, called would-be suicide bombers who posed “an imminent threat to the security of the United States.”

But now, after holding the girls for six weeks in a Pennsylvania detention center, the government has quietly released one of the girls and is allowing the other to leave the country with her family...

My daughter turns 18 on Monday. As a parent, I inherently know how it would have affected her (and me) for life to have something similar happen to her at 16. Six weeks in detention, five minutes each week speaking with her mother on the phone, the rest in the hands of the government that brought you Abu Ghraib.

Yes, this is outrageous beyond words - but it begs the question - how many more 16 year old girls are being currently held on U.S. soil under similar circumstances?

Red Sox partner says CIA chartered his jet

By Gordon Edes

Phillip Morse, a minority partner of the Boston Red Sox, said Sunday that his private jet has been chartered to the CIA and confirmed that it had been flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 terrorism suspects are held, as well as other overseas destinations.

But Morse said he was "stunned" by a report in Sunday's Chicago Tribune suggesting that the plane might have been used for "renditions," the controversial practice in which terrorism suspects arrested abroad have been forcibly returned to their native countries for interrogation...read on

It was rather sickening to listen to the high-and-mighty posturing of our 'representatives' browbeat ball players on the steroids matter while we are at war, the treasury is being bankrupted and unprecedented government corruption is happening right before their eyes. Listening to them sanctimoniously lecture baseball about its ethics and practices is especially ironic when one considers that their own ethics process has been de-fanged by the Tom Delay-led GOP.

Journalist arrested outside Florida voting office

The Republican Party has a huge problem on their hands. They are quickly being taken over by the most extreme, paranoid, fringe elements in our society and this case is just another glaring example of the path they are on:

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho Republican Party leader who helped oust the state GOP chairman in 2008 faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an altercation escalated while he photographed a home with a delinquent mortgage.

Challis McAffee, 33, the GOP chairman from the Boise suburb of Garden City and one of 231 voting members of the Idaho Republican Central Committee, was in Ada County jail after being accused of pointing a gun at the homeowner.

McAffee, a backer of libertarian-leaning former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and an activist in this year's anti-big-government "Tea Party" protests, helped organize Paul backers who aligned at last June's Idaho State Republican Convention in Sandpoint with other foes of then-state GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan. Sullivan was voted from office in favor of Norm Semanko.

According to police in the Boise suburb of Meridian, resident Robert Lutes called officers just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to report McAffee had pointed a .357 Magnum handgun at him during a verbal confrontation. McAffee acknowledged he pointed the gun at Lutes, according to the police account.

"I'm unarmed, I'm an old man," Lutes, 51, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I'm trying to find out why he's taking pictures of my house. I said, 'Knock on my door, let me know what you want.' Then, I think he's reaching for his business card and he pulls out a concealed weapon and I think he's going to blow my head off." Read on...

A group calling itself Idahoans for Liberty is trying to raise bond money for McAffee, but their version doesn't line up with the police account.

David Seaton's News Links: October Surprise

Anchorage Press: True Lies

his vorpal sword: Into the West

cab drollery: Brain Freeze

The American Prospect: Wingnut explanation for the subprime crisis: Libruls made us give loans to the colored people

HOLY CRAP: Muslim children gassed after "Obsession" DVD hits Ohio...Three more Texas polygamists indicted...Donohue defends Palin because witchcraft is real...They need this miraculous spray...Lying hypocrite to teach religion at Yale...Evangelist arrested in child porn case...Continuing cynical manipulation of religious voters, but ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday' looks like a dud...Pastor Badass...Creationists left out of Vatican evolution conference...Short takes...Being Religulous...Distinguishing between Religion and Fundamentalism...Evangelicals for Obama car magnets...

Another day and another sex scandal.

Evangelist Tony Alamo was arrested Thursday in Flagstaff, Arizona, on charges related to a child porn investigation, an FBI spokesman said.

The 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was arrested without incident at 2:45 p.m. (4:45 p.m. ET) as he was departing the Little America Hotel with his wife, said Manuel Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Phoenix, Arizona.

The FBI, the Flagstaff Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety were involved in the arrest, he said.

Alamo was charged under a federal statute with having knowingly transported a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity, Johnson said...read on