smell the democracy

* fp:

winners: Conspiracy theorists: With partisan rancor at a new high and fears of chaos on election day, expect any surprising results to be met with angry shouts of "FRAUD."

* howie:

"A few months ago, the rearview mirror prognosticators were claiming only 20 (House) seats were in play…tops. Now even these guys are agreeing that there are between 80 and 90 Republican seats worth contesting."

* AP:

"The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.

* n0madic has the details of Hastert's double dealing re indian casions. i hadn't ever really appreciated why Hastert was the number one beneficiary of Abramoff's cash. great work n0madic. more on hastert at The Real Denny.


* dowd (thnx Jen):

"At the heart of every administration, there is one relationship above all others that shapes history. Ron and Nancy. Poppy Bush and James Baker. Billary. Cheney & Rummy.

W. is the hood ornament, but Cheney & Rummy are the chitty chitty bang bang engine of this administration. Their four-decade friendship stretches from Nixon to Bush II, from Vietnam to Vietnam II.
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Like some out-of-control manbot, Vice says they will continue “full speed ahead” in Iraq, no matter what voters say. “We’re not running for office,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “We’re doing what we think is right.” Damn the democracy — full speed ahead.

W. ratified the Cheney-Rummy mésalliance this week, saying they were doing “fantastic” jobs and vowing to stick with them. He said “the good thing about Vice President Cheney’s advice is, you don’t read about it in the newspaper after he gives it.” (How would he know?) Being discreet when you give disastrous advice: priceless."

* cepr:

"Imagine Osama bin Laden visiting the United States ten or 15 years from now, telling Americans who to vote for if they want to avoid getting hurt. It would never happen, but in Nicaragua something very similar is happening in the run-up to their election on November 5.

Former US Lt. Col. Oliver North, who helped organize and raise funds for a terrorist organization that decimated Nicaragua in the 1980s, returned to that country’s ground zero in late October to warn the citizens there against re-electing Daniel Ortega.
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The heinous nature of these crimes and the direct involvement of the Reagan Administration disgusted millions of Americans, even more so after Ortega was democratically elected in 1984. Led by activists in the religious community, some hundreds of thousands of US citizens organized against US funding for the contras and convinced Congress to cut it off. That’s where Ollie North came in: on behalf of the Reagan Administration, he illegally sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund the contras. This became the infamous “Iran-Contra” scandal of twenty years ago.
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But whatever the electoral result in Nicaragua, Washington’s intervention in this election remains – as it was in the 1980s – an international disgrace for the United States."

* emptywheel appears to be hearing some rumours about some version of Rove being indicted, or half-indicted or some such. i can't quite work it out. someone who appears to be sockpuppeting is making an ass out of himself, and calling for some humility from emptywheel, which is probably funny.

update from EW in the comments:

Just to clarify, what I have heard is that the GJ supported an indictment but Fitz didn't file it because his witnesses were shot. Apparently Matt Cooper was on a radio show in DC saying that "I wouldn't have remembered the conversation if I were Karl Rove either," which kind of ruins your best witness for a perjury trial. It's a second hand source from an excellent primary, but only one source, so take it as you will (which is not that far).

ouch.