In March, Bill O'Reilly used footage of "union thugs" in Wisconsin shoving people. The clip used to illustrate his assessment had some suspicious looking palm trees in the background. Suspicious because there are no palm trees in Wisconsin. Yes, the family-friendly polite mid-western saunter around the Capitol Building was being reported as violent by right-wingers on Fox News. Those who couldn't get enough of all those wonderful tea partiers showing up with Glocks talking about watering the tree of liberty with BLOOD - denounced the teachers' union supporters as being ready to bust heads if their demands were not met. They doctored footage for it.

In Madison, there had been palm trees - blow up palm trees carried as an homage to the uprising in Egypt. Then O'Reilly tried to paint them all as psychopaths. Then the number of blow up palm trees increased, the meaning then changed. After the Factor clip above those palm tress were a big middle figure to Billo's BS. And they were still peaceful.

Mayor Bloomberg has allowed the NYPD to arrest the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. They were again pepper sprayed Wednesday. On the other side of the country, a horrible law passed during the midterms called Measure L, criminalized sleeping on the streets of San Fransisco. So the OccupySF group had a run in with SFPD last night too.

Those who oppose people who work for a living are figuring out how to kill this movement. They're going to throw whatever they can at it until something sticks.

We've grown so used to the extremist right-wing being smitten with protests and demonstrations because it's been their billionaire-funded buses bringing the outraged to photo ops. It'd be easy to assume they just enjoy the First Amendment in their venerated Constitution on display. The airing of ideas in the public square. They don't.

This is the brilliance of OccupyTogether. It disseminates the storyline. How can it be said that the Occupy Wall Street crowd are anarchists who want to eat your children for Satan / Soros / Mao / Hitler / Moveon / Unions / BlackPanthers / ACORN / Muslims / BigGovernment / Czars / Socialism / Illegal Immigrants / Obama / DeathPanels / ShariaLaw if the solidarity demonstrations are all peaceful? If it's your neighbors in your neighborhood locally being out there voicing their frustrations with a rigged system fixed for the 1 percent - it's impossible to slime all of them. The OccupyTogether movement is a Spartacus moment: "We are the 99 percent."

We are still doling out pizzas to the demonstrators. This is what I knew I could do to support locally-owned businesses and the protestors: buy pizzas across America. I had no IDEA how big it would get. Amato tells me over 440 of you have donated over $13,000 now. We've given out pizzas in seven or eight cities and it's only growing. Thank you guys for participating!

Bless her heart Michele Bachmann just can't win the song war. Maybe she should just give up and have someone make her own campaign song like Herman Cain did.

Tuesday, Bachmann greeted the crowd giving a nod to The King on the day of his birth after coming out on stage to "Promised Land." Only…. it wasn't his birthday. Fans of Elvis gathered in Graceland to celebrate his death instead.

As I'm sure you remember, Bachmann had some issues when she chose "American Girl" by Tom Petty to usher her out onto stages across Iowa. Petty wasn't too happy about it and asked Bachmann to stop or .. I suppose that would be the last dance with the Mary Jane of the Midwest.

But now Bachmann is using the Elvis Presley song "Promised Land." At least we say it was an Elvis song because he was the one who made it famous. And his is the version that Bachmann uses. The interesting thing is that it wasn't actually written by Elvis - it was actually written by Chuck Berry …. while he was in in a mid-western prison serving a sentence for armed robbery after hijacking a car at gunpoint, after sticking up a gas station and a convenience store.

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In the wake of Citizens United, ad spending has been ridiculously lopsided during this election cycle.

In Senate races, Republican-leaning interest groups outspent Democratic-leaning ones on television $10.9 million to $1.3 million, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 8, according to Campaign Media Analysis Group, a company that tracks political advertising.

In the House, Republican-leaning groups outspent Democratic-leaning ones, $3.1 million to $1.5 million.

Right in the middle of all of this spending is American Crossroads, the Karl Rove organization created post-Citizens United to collect big donations from big money donors for the sole purpose of defeating candidates with ugly, negative, expensive commercials. Of course, they love to play the innocent game...

“The groups that perfected this were on the Democratic side,” said Steven Law, president and chief executive of American Crossroads, a Republican-oriented advocacy group, and its sister organization, Crossroads GPS. Crossroads GPS has been the biggest third-party player on television by far since early August.

Well, progressives aren't sitting still for it, and I'm glad to see it. That "wanted poster" image is the real deal. It offers a $100,000 reward for:

"information leading to the arrest and conviction of Karl Rove or any principal of American Crossroads for money laundering, election rigging, or felony campaign finance violations."

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McCain campaign manager Rick Davis took to FOX News this morning to defend the dangerous, out of control vitriol coming from McCain's rallies. His argument? John McCain was a POW!

"Look, Chris, I think we have to take this very seriously. The kind of comments made by Congressman Lewis, a big Obama supporter, are reprehensible. The idea that you're going to compare John McCain to the kinds of hate spread in the '60s by somebody like George Wallace is outrageous. Where was John McCain when George Wallace was spreading his hate and segregationist policies at that time? He was in a Vietnam prison camp serving his country with his civil rights also denied.

"Nobody knows sacrifice like John McCain does, and the idea that Barack Obama didn't address this issue directly, had his campaign walk out there with a half-baked statement that didn't even address the comments made by Lewis as related to John McCain. Barack Obama should apologize to John McCain directly for the kinds of comments made by John Lewis yesterday and that should be the end of this sordid affair."

What a WATB. The McCain campaign's central message is that Barack Obama is a an un-American terrorist sympathizer. Who the hell are they to complain when a civil rights pioneer rightly condemns them for creating a hateful atmosphere not seen since the tense days of forty years ago. McCain was right when he told Rick Warren that John Lewis was one of the wisest men he knows. It's just a shame that he now won't heed his advice.

AP:

The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said that health care professionals should not face retaliation from employers or from medical societies because they object to abortion.

Abortion foes called it a victory for the First Amendment, but abortion rights supporters said they feared the rule could stretch the definition of abortion to include birth control, and served notice that they intend to challenge the administration.

The ACLU released this statement:

"It's deeply troubling and unfortunate that President Bush should fire this parting shot at women's access to basic health care in the waning days of his administration," said Vania Leveille, ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Time and time again, he has put political and ideological concerns above the best interests of the American people, and this is yet another example.

"We continue to be very concerned about the scope and impact of this proposed rule. It leaves open the possibility that institutions and individuals can deny access to birth control and permits individuals to refuse to provide even counseling about basic heath care services."

I'm sure the timing of this has nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming election. It's surely just a coincidence that this wedge issue rears its ugly head just in time to fire up the right-wing lunatics who otherwise would have no reason to come out and vote. It's not like Republicans use the issue of abortion for political gain every four years or anything.

The Left Coaster: The days of BUSHCO dictating to the Iraqis are over.

Halfway There: Why polling is volatile even if voter's aren't

Beggars Can Be Choosers: No president in history has ever handed off a bigger mess to his successor

The Strange Death of Liberal America: 'Hillary Trojans' are McCain people masking themselves as disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton. They are the new Swift Boaters.

The Brad Blog: A Missouri voter refused an illegal demand to show a photo ID at the polls and got thrown in jail. November should be interesting.

No More Mr. Nice Blog: Get the smelling salts...Obama said America is not always great!!!

While entities as disparate as Alaska Democrats and the National Review are calling for Ted Stevens to resign following his indictment yesterday, Marc Ambinder asks who else may be touched by this scandal.

Stevens himself promises to barrel on continue with his re-election campaign

"Senator Stevens' campaign for re-election is continuing to move full steam ahead. Our office has been flooded today with calls and emails from supporters urging the Senator to press on. The message from them is clear: Alaska needs Ted Stevens in the U.S. Senate."

Riiiigggghhhhttt. Meanwhile Rep Gordon Smith (R-OR) reported donated money to Stevens' campaign even after the investigation became known, and got some from Stevens in return. Jeff Merkley challenged Smith to return the funds to Stevens, something Smith initially agreed to do. But not so fast...It appears that Smith has decided to merely donate some ($10K) of the $39,000 he's received from Stevens, unlike his fellow Republicans Elizabeth Dole and John Sununu.

Could we see some further tainting of the Republican brand during this election? Mark Begich is running for Stevens' seat, he could sure use your support.

God, I love being a San Franciscan... I can't think of a more appropriate dedication for this administration.

Some presidents get carved into Mt Rushmore; others have airports, motorways, and even entire cities named in their honour. But when George Bush leaves office, his most visible memorial may be a mouldering patch of human effluent.

In November, alongside casting their ballot for the next president, the people of San Francisco will also vote on a measure to rename one of the city's largest sewage works the George W Bush Sewage Plant, to provide a "fitting monument" to the outgoing commander-in-chief's achievements.

Activists from the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, a mischievously-named group behind the move, will ask supporters to participate in a "synchroni(z)ed flush".

It may sound like a student prank, but the proposal is almost certain to be passed. Democrats usually secure between 70 and 80 per cent of the vote in San Francisco - and in 2006 passed a proposition to impeach Mr Bush and his Vice-President Dick Cheney by a majority of almost two to one.

"In 50 years from now, we want people to see George Bush's name on that plant, and ask each other what went wrong," said Brian McConnell, the Memorial Commission's organi(z)er. "We want them to be reminded of the Iraq war, and his other dramatic mistakes, and this is the perfect way to do it."

The Health Care For America Now initiative formally kicked off at the National Press Club today, and it sounds like a group with its eyes on the prize.

A consortium of progressive groups, think tanks, trade unions and activists are set to launch a $40 million health care campaign to prepare the ground for the next president to sign expanded care early in 2009.

The work of Health Care For America Now was first made public late last week. But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as a figurehead, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million — $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (national TV, print, and online) — the group will be sending organizers to 52 cities, blasting out emails to 5 million households, airing spots on MSNBC and CNN and submitting op-eds to major papers (officials hinted at the New York Times piece to come).

In addition, the campaign is going to take advantage of Moveon.org’s massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Democratic and Republican districts alike.

Here's the group's first ad:

You may have seen the ads on the site in the last week, but a new group of activists under the banner of Health Care Now is launching a $40 Million campaign today at the National Press Club with the single minded focus of getting comprehensive health care legislation passed by 2009. Huffington Post:

The work of Health Care For America Now was first made public late last week. But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as a figurehead, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million -- $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (national TV, print, and online) -- the group will be sending organizers to 52 cities, blasting out emails to 5 million households, airing spots on MSNBC and CNN and submitting op-eds to major papers (officials hinted at the New York Times piece to come).

In addition, the campaign is going to take advantage of Moveon.org's massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Democratic and Republican districts alike.

"We'll have an organizer in the district of every Blue Dog Democrat," said HCAN campaign manager Richard Kirsch of the conservative Democrats.