Looks like progressives can still crank out the contributions when it's someone who consistently supports our causes. To help keep Russ Feingold in the Senate, please contribute. Here's his Blue America page:

Progressive groups are making a strong push to try and save Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold from defeat in his reelection fight against Republican challenger Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.MoveOn.org, Democracy for America and FireDogLake are all taking part in the electoral rescue mission for the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act.

The Hotline reports:

Feingold needs the money. He has $3M in his campaign account, but Johnson has been raising money at a fast clip and has shown he is willing to dip into his own personal fortune. Fundraising is ongoing, so the donations are still coming in. MoveOn.org has raised $485K in 24 hours, while FireDogLake has raised at least $30K and Democracy For America has brought in about $120K.

Heading into the midterm election season, Feingold seemed to have a relatively easy shot at another term. With election day just weeks away, however, polls show him consistently trailing his Republican challenger.

One of the latest polls, a Time/CNN survey released last week, has Feingold running six points behind Johnson, 45 to 51 percent.

Hi, there, a quick introduction. I'm Carl, better known at Crooks and Liars as Actor212 (Props to my homies, like TPM). I have a humble little blog called Simply Left Behind, which Mike has been kind enough to link to from time to time, as have many of the guest bloggers in the Round Up. I also co-blog at My Left Wing, Lydia Cornell (yes, the sitcom actress), and The Reaction.

So either I've annoyed people enough or I post some pretty good stuff, because like C&L, I'm a finalist in the 2007 Weblog Awards (votes encouraged...beats a tip jar, eh?).

Mike, you'll be pleased to know, is traipsing around central Europe, enjoying the delicacies of the Czech Republic, including I'm sure, the original Budweiser beer. I hate him!

But enough about me. Let's talk blogs. It's Sunday. And that means, the funnies...

- Looking for an alternative candidate? Frustrated that Al Gore isn't going to declare? Don't want to see Hillary win, but can't find someone who really represents your views? MissCellania has the answer.

- A right-winger wakes up and begins to realize what a miserable failure his life has been. Naturally, he blames liberal Hollywood.

- Are you a Young Republican who supports the invasion of Iraq, but can't lift a rifle and stand a post for all the Cheeto dust on your fingers? Now you can serve your country and not worry about accidental discharge! Except maybe propulsive diarrhea...

- With all these Republicans being outted, when will it stop being cool to be gay? Or a Catholic priest?

- And lest we forget, November Blowvember starts off with a bang on Tuesday, and I don't mean the off-year election, where politicians sneak bond issues and other bizarre little initiatives past an unsuspecting public!

You can nudge me at Actor212 care of yahoo spot com, if you have a story you'd like to share. Or even just a fortune from an African principality that needs expatriating. Really. I could use the mail! I'm so desperately lonely...I call the Butterball turkey hotline in July!

Democrats.org:

With the Sweet Sixteen set to tip off today, the Democratic National Committee announced the brackets for it's annual Republican "Unsweet Sixteen," featuring this years contenders for the potentially most corrupt, least accountable and least competent members of the Bush Administration. The 2007 Unsweet Sixteen pits the top eight Administration officials whose incompetence, corruption or cronyism have already cost them their jobs against the eight current Administration officials who most deserve to be fired.

Vote now!

As the Hotline noted: The DNC is releasing their "GOP Unsweet Sixteen" today. Of "last year's Unsweet Sixteen, 13 are in jail, out of a job, or lost their election."

Now this would be just a little justice. via email: Pat Leahy at a hearing on voter fraud all but demanded that the Justice Department investigate and even prosecute Laura Ingraham for her election-day call to her listeners to jam the phone lines Democrats set up for reporting voter machine problems and the like.

Download | play -MP3

Media Matters explains:

As the weblog Firedoglake first noted, during the November 7 edition of her nationally syndicated talk radio show, Laura Ingraham urged listeners to jam the phone lines of 1-888-DEM-VOTE, a voter assistance hotline sponsored by the Democratic Party. Ingraham stated: "I want you to call it and I want you tell us what you get when you call 1-888-DEM-VOTE. They're on top of all of the shenanigans at the polling stations. One problem: you can't get through." Minutes later, while talking with a listener who called the hotline, Ingraham said: "Let's keep 'dem' lines ringing."

I just got back from voting and we suffered from a "glitch". As I was voting, my ballot started off with governor and then worked down through the list. After voting for all the politicians, up next were the issues. My first issue was State issue 1, an issue dealing with Ohio's Worker Compensation. I was expecting to see this, but knew my vote didn't count on it:

In most elections, ''State Issue 1'' is something highly significant and its outcome closely watched. However, in Ohio today, Issue 1 doesn't count, literally.

That's because the issue, a referendum on changes in Ohio's Workers Compensation law, died in a legal challenge that determined the measure lacked sufficient valid signatures on petitions to put it before the voters. But that ruling didn't come until it was too late to remove Issue 1 from the ballot, both absentee and electronic.

So today, when you go into the voting booth, you will see Issue 1 on your ballot, even though it isn't a valid ballot issue anymore.

So after my voting experience went smoothly, the person I went down with had her turn to cast her ballot. She had the same ballot, the same ballot (iso) card, and the same machine, but her ballot did not appear the same. Instead her ballot started out with a blank blue screen and then went onto the candidates and the state issues, but issue 1 was not on her ballot. She called the poll worker over who said that "this has been happening on some machines". Well our polling place only has three machines and she was on the same machine as I just got done voting on, and this problem did not happen for me.

After we got done we did immediately call the Democrat hotline (1-888-DEM-VOTE) to report the problem. They connected us with a local person, who was very interested in the problem.

The most interesting thing I kept thinking of was Ken Blackwell on CNN this past weekend saying the machines do not have any problems, it was the poll workers. Well this poll worker did everything the same as she did with me (programmed the card for ballot 84), yet our ballots appeared differently. This machine was a Diebold touch screen machine, and as a programmer I can tell you that it is a definite software glitch. The poll worker did the exact same thing she did for me and all the end user variables were the same.

While this might not seem like a major problem, it is a problem all the less. Everyone must be vigilant today and make sure that any glitch, no matter how small it may seem, gets reported. While Ohio Issue 1 has been invalidated in the courts, it was still suppose to be on the ballot. Why was it removed from the ballot (on some machines) after telling people in Ohio that it would still be on the ballot, but your vote just won't count on it? Sounds like another way to add to voter confusion.

On a more positive note, I have voted in this precinct for four years now and this was the busiest I have ever seen it. 10:00 on a rainy Tuesday morning and there was a line in this rural area.

UPDATE:

Christy has this:

UPDATE: Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline — and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers. Please call Laura and tell her what you think about this: 800.876.4123. You can e-mail her here. Apparently, voter intimidation and fraud are a joke to Laura Ingraham. Let's let her know that it is no joke.

UPDATE #2: More on Laura Ingraham: "caller indicated she is running a tape of Bill Clinton over and over saying "call 1-888 Dem Vote to report problems" — and then making fun of him, thus producing a spike in crank calls to the number" Protecting voter integrity is no joke. And I am not laughing. If anyone has audio of this, I'd love it.

If anyone can get a clip of this, please do and send it to me at intoxination [at] gmail.com.

_____________________________________

Now that polling places are open throughout the country, use this thread to share your voting experiences today (good or bad). Don't forget to try and encourage family, friends and co-workers to get out and vote today (offer rides if they need it). The problems being reported can not be a discouragement to anyone. If you encounter problems, be sure to report them to 1-888-DEM-VOTE.

There is still time to help "Get Out The Vote" today.

A quick note about the site.

As with all elections, we are expecting a heavy server load today. I am putting safeguards in to limit any problems. This afternoon, I will be disabling the category and archive pages for the site (they will be restored tomorrow). This feature adds a lot to the server load and if a search engine decides to crawl us at that time, it will really hurt. We will be monitoring everything closely and recently did some upgrades, so we are hoping that problems are kept to a minimum. We do have other measures we will take if things look like they are starting to peak out.

National Journal's The Hotline calls it "hard to beat" but I just find it hard to stomach...

The Left Coaster: More bad apples, or the natural fruit of an outlaw regime?

Bring it On! American Legion condemns Chickenhawks

A Liberal Dose: You gotta see this...A 100 Year History of Oil

Hotline On Call: Some things G-Dub finds "interesting." And some things he doesn't.

Rolling Stone: Robert F Kennedy Jr. writes that Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted...
Petition Spot: Demand a retraction and an apology from Bill O'Reilly for his outrageous lies about the Malmedy Massacre.

liberal catnip: It's confirmed, the UK accepted US torture planes.

Bad Attitudes: Woodward & Bernstein on Larry King. Bernstein pretty much calls the Bush administration a pack of liars....which is what we do here every day!

Hotline On Call: Doolittle does a lot of talking

The Road To Surfdom: A Hamas victory in Palestine, an emboldened Iran and an increasingly radicalised government in Iraq. This is all helping keep us safe....how?

outraged moderates: DOD staffer's notes from 9/11 obtained under FOIA
outraged moderates: DOD staffer's notes from 9/11 obtained under FOIA

Ed Henry is reporting on CNN that Dennis Hastert is in talks to push out Bob Ney from his position as the Chairman of the Committee on House Administration. He's the second casualty from the Scorpion Jack Abramoff scandal.

Update: Hotline has the story: "House Speaker Dennis Hastert has asked Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) to step down from his post as chairman of the House Administration Committee, three sources with knowledge of the request said today...read on"