Naomi Klein, duly lauded for The Shock Doctrine, has an article in Rolling Stone about China, the Olympics, and the new police state. It's fairly long, so I'm going to excerpt a paragraph or two and strongly encourage you to read the whole thing.

Sorry this is short, but I wanted to get the word out. I did a search on this, but didn't see any diaries. Let me know if I'm duplicating someone.

If you're furious at Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who seem determined to pass the Protect AT&T Act, the Blue America PAC is providing a way to hold them accountable.

They've set up a special ActBlue page  for just that purpose. As they say (emphasis mine):

I left this as a comment in C&J, and was encouraged to diary it as, if nothing else, a bit of Plame-related trivia - not, mind you, that this story is at all trivial to those directly involved.  [See update at bottom]

In Monterey, California, attorney Paul Sanford has died in what police have ruled a suicide.

In what police describe as a "probable" suicide leap, a prominent Monterey Bay Area attorney fell at least nine floors to his death at the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay in Seaside the morning before Christmas.

Further details and the Plame connection below the fold.

Why would Senator Russ Feingold refuse to take a position supporting Net Neutrality?

(This is short, because I couldn't find any diaries on this, and I wanted to get it out there.  If I've missed one, please let me know.)

I like Russ Feingold a lot, and I respect the stands he's taken on a lot of important issues - which makes his wimpiness on Net Neutrality all the more disappointing. This ought to be a no-brainer for him, but he's refusing to take a stand.  Details below.

I've been aware for a long time that our nation does a piss-poor job of taking care of its veterans.  My dad was a 20-year veteran of the Navy who served in WWII and Korea, and who had all sorts of difficulties trying to get his disability benefits.  I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say the government didn't do right by him in a number of ways.  I'm sure many of you can tell similar stories.  And of course we're all aware of the numerous  ways the Bush administration and the Pentagon have failed to do right by the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, both while they're on active duty and after they return.

But I read an op-ed today in the Washington Post that opened my eyes to an ongoing injustice being done to our troops that I had never been aware of.  And it's one that is likely to be a serious, and wholly unnecessary, impediment to returning troops getting the veterans' benefits they deserve.

The good news is there's something we can do about it.  Follow me below the fold for details.

Hey, California Kosians:

Did you know that you can now become a Permanent Absentee Voter for any reason?  You can send your vote in by mail, avoid any nasty Diebold machines, and also be free to work at your polling place on election day--or skip the election-day hassle, if working the polls isn't an option.

Applications for absentee ballots are being accepted now; the deadline to submit your application is October 26.  And if you have any friends who aren't registered (or, heaven forfend, you aren't yourself), the deadline to register to vote is October 18.

Information on California's absentee voting process can be found here.

There's still time to register voters!  Check with your local Democratic headquarters to see if any precinct-walking is going on in your neighborhood, and do what you can.

A friend sent me an email which contained the inaugural, and thus far only, post from a new site, Is Bush Wired?.

As its name would suggest, its aim is to focus media attention on the question of whether Bush uses an earpiece and covert prompting to get through his public appearances, and they cite quite a bit of suggestive, if not conclusive, evidence to say that he does.

More below the fold . . .

I just got an email from MoveOn.  SB 1438, requiring verifiable paper ballots, is on Schwarzenegger's desk, for his signature or veto before September 30.

We need to get as many calls in as possible to let him know that this is important, and we are watching him.  So California Kosians, read on . . .

My search function currently doesn't, so apologies if this has already been posted; I went back several pages in the diaries and didn't find it.

For the second time in a week, Dick Cheney has made a public statement that wasn't in line with the administration's policies, official or otherwise.  This time, it's Kerry's war record:

The things we can do these days:

According to the story, this is the first time the procedure has been done on a human.  So how'd they do it?

Sweet.

According to this, Judge Allen Edwards has ruled that the ballot for the LA-5 Congressional election be reopened because of Rodney Alexander's last-minute switch from Democrat to Republican.

At least one craven attempt to subvert the democratic process has been nipped in its rotten little bud.  But it gets even better:

Thanks to RandyMI, who posted it in the Open Thread, I know about this article in Wired News.  

If you read it, you know that Sequoia Voting Systems tried to demonstrate its "infallible" e-voting system to California state Senate staffers, only to have it malfunction by failing to count some of the votes cast.  The company insists that such a thing would "never happen" in a real election.  Right.

Even worse is the news, in that same article, that the state Senate allowed a bill requiring a paper trail for all e-voting machines to die without coming to a vote.  If you're a California voter, read on:

The sea change continues.

Hundreds of supporters showed up at a motel where John Edwards spent the night in Missouri, creating a spur-of-the-moment rally.  He came out, hopped in the back of a truck, and gave them a quick speech before heading out to meet Kerry.

Read on for details and some choice quotes:

I watched an interview this morning on Free Speech TV with a guy named Randy Glass.  He had posed as an arms dealer during an FBI counterterrorism operation, in which guise he had contact with Islamic terrorist groups in the two years before 9/11.  He said some interesting things, including the following:  

If you haven't seen it, check it out (Real Player link).

I think it's terrific; it positions Kerry in a very positive way while still subtly criticizing Bush's failures.

I just got paid, so I sent the campaign a few bucks and an encouraging email, following the dictum to reward good behavior.  (And I tried to include a contribution link here, but for some reason it wouldn't work, though it was formatted exactly the same as the one above, and as I've done countless times without trouble.  Weird.)

Ralph Nader's meeting with John Kerry seems to be bearing fruit.  According to the New York Times, Nader has officially called for George W. Bush's impeachment:

I saw this posted over at the Village Gate and wanted to share it with the dKos community.  Here's the description from the Lights for Human Dignity website:

This is a tangible, visible gesture to the rest of the world that we do not condone Abu Ghraib and what has been done in our name.  Pass the word . . . and leave a light on.

Ryan Lizza of The New Republic has an article about the ongoing changes in Kerry's campaign staff.  It's available by subscription only, but a person who shall remain nameless sent it to me in an email.  I hereby risk the wrath of the copyright gods by posting large chunks of it for you.  Take the poll when you're done . . .