The McSame campaign is scratching and flailing around like a cat in a swimming pool, desperate to claw out of the hole they put themselves in. My friends, it's time to toss them an anchor.
This evening's Rescue Rangers are Avila, ybruti, a synthetic cubist, HansScholl, ezdidit, and vcmvo2, with watercarrier4diogenes at the wheel of the Editmobile, the Robes of Objectivity flapping wildly behind him.
You've read a common line here about a diarist listening to Limburgher or watching O'Loofah so you won't have to, right? Well, today a truly great Ranger crew has sifted and sorted through 655 diaries to bring you these 16 great examples of the excellent writing and breadth of subjects that Teh Orange has become known for. Please join me in giving them a big hand, and in celebrating a very important 20th anniversary:
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker gives her perspective on how the world has changed since she first came out in National Coming Out Day: 20 years. (HansScholl)
mem from somerville tells us why LGBT equality matters in Gay small business coming out while Killer of Sacred Cows takes us along on his own unusual journey in How I Came Out. (vcmvo2)
We can hope that some day all parents are as accepting as InfinityLincoln's funny and warm family, described in Coming out to my mom. (HansScholl)
In The State of the Union or the Plight of Humpty Dumpty, first time diarist Blue Dog Buckeye Dem gives us a 10 paragraph introduction to the bad news--derivatives, the current meltdown, and parallels to the Great Depression; and the good news--how this mess may sweep in a new era of progressive politics. (HansScholl)
pinkbunny explains how a renewed emphasis on math education should be part of a larger attack on the right's love affair with ignorance in What can we do for our Children's Future? (HanScholl)
Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread (even if you're the author! Here's where that's actually appreciated). And, of course, since it's an open thread, PLAY NICE, OK? 8^)
Listen to Dan Seals thank us for the Hell to Pay program:
And to get the full rundown on how his rival Mark Kirk disputed the Daily Kos/Research2000 polling numbers--and called our site "anti-semitic" in the process, read here.
And to get an idea of how deceptive the Kirk campaign is, get a load of the email they were circulating to lobbyists after our poll came out:
Subject: Mark Kirk campaign update
Just wanted to touch base about the Kirk race.
Pro-Kirk ads are running 2:1 to Dan Seals just this week alone. Kirk/allies are spending $500k this week on TV and Seals/allies are spending $200k. We outraised Dan Seals again this quarter, raising $850k, Dan Seals raised $700k. Team Kirk has now raised over $4.7m.
Earlier this week, Daily Kos came out with a poll with Kirk leading Seals 6 points....44% Kirk to 38% Seals. The following day Roll Call in DC came out with a poll with Kirk down 8 points to Seals.....Seals 52% to Kirk 44%. Our poll 48 hours later showed us with a 10-point lead. Our polling shows Seals has never moved into the 40s, like Daily Kos.
The Roll Call poll was conducted by Survey USA. Politico, Realcelarpolitics and the MSM won't publish any of their stuff (SurveyUSA got 17 races wrong last time). I am not sure how much you know about the pollster but they do automated computer calls and do not distinguish between kids/adults, voters/non-voters, citizens/non-citizens. You have to wonder how they remain in business but hey, they are cheap - get what you pay for. As for the Daily Kos, they have us leading by 6 but over-sampled Democrats and young voters. Also, it was conducted on Rosh HaShanah, excluding observant Jews who heavily support and fund the pro-Israel Kirk.
We are in the final stretch with 25 days to go. To keep pace, we need your help. If you have any last minute contributions, please send our way. We can take them online at www.kirkforcongress.com or mailed to: Kirk for Congress, PO Box 8, Winnetka, IL 60093. For those of you who are maxed, thank you for everything you have done to be helpful!
I am headed out to the district next week. I will keep you updated as events occur and most importantly, I will send election results.
We're here tonight to let Mark Kirk know that our community doesn't put up with labeling and bullshit, and that we're proud to support such a tremendous progressive candidate for IL-10 as Dan Seals. We need to give Kirk the boot.
Research 2000's poll for Daily Kos shows Republican incumbent Thelma Drake ahead of her Democratic challenger, Glenn Nye, by a healthy margin.
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 10/7-8. Likely voters. MoE 5% (No trend lines)
Drake (R) 51 Nye (D) 37
Glenn Nye is a highly attractive candidate in many ways, but if this poll is to be believed, Drake has a comfortable lead in her bid for reelection this fall. While she faced a nailbiter of a race against Democrat Phil Kellam in 2006, frequently trailing in polls, she's had a consistent lead over Nye this time out.
Nye is actually underperforming Obama by a few points - Obama trails 51% to 42% in VA-02. Democratic internal polling has shown Nye within striking distance of Drake - just five points back - so all is not lost in this district, but Nye looks to have an awfully hard road ahead.
It's especially unfortunate to see this in the wake of a heinous smear campaign from Drake. We'll be pulling for Nye to pull this one out.
