Franken Takes Lead in Minnesota Senate Race

Up by 266 votes as of 3:20 p.m. EST.

You can watch live streaming video of the Minnesota State Canvassing Board on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune website. Whoops, as I type this Franken's lead went to 267.

Al's a real liberal. I will celebrate when he is sworn in.

Good News in Minnesota

From an email from the Franken campaign:

The state canvassing board has soundly rejected the Coleman campaign's attempt to disenfranchise 133 voters in Minneapolis whose ballots were lost during the recount, unanimously deciding to count those votes. In addition, they urged Minnesota's 87 counties to identify, open, and count absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected.

This is a huge win for us, because our position has always been the simple principle that every lawful vote should be counted.

TPM: Franken Gets Big Win At Canvass Board

Al Franken's chances of winning the Minnesota recount may have just gone up astronomically.

The state canvassing board just voted unanimously that absentee ballots that were initially rejected because of clerical errors -- and the current estimate from the hearing is that there could be nearly 1,600 of them, based on some extrapolation -- should be counted, probably the single biggest issue that the Franken campaign has been hammering ever since this recount began, and which really seemed up in the air going into this hearing.

The board can't directly order the county officials to do the counting, only making a formal request to go back and count the votes and then submit amended totals. But many counties have already begun or finished the process of sorting the rejected absentees at the board's request, and board members did castigate any election officials who wouldn't do so, with some of them even leaving open the option of seeking a court order if necessary.

Because of all that, it seems very likely that the vast majority of these ballots will be counted before this is over -- and it could possibly seal the deal for Franken.

Count Every Vote in Minnesota

Great video from the Al Franken campaign:

In the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, every vote should be counted fairly.

But there are Minnesotans who had their votes thrown out, even though they did nothing wrong.

They voted absentee, but their ballots were improperly rejected because of someone elses mistake.

And in the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, their votes remain uncounted.

Coleman Lead Down to 136 votes

Minnesota Star-Tribune: Day 2: 46 percent of ballots recounted; Coleman’s lead slips
After Thursday's work, there were only 136 separating the candidates, and hundreds more challenged ballots.

There's a video embedded in the article showing the elections officials eyeballing and counting the votes, one by one.

This race will probably come down to the fights over rejected votes, including absentee and provisional ballots.

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: November 20, 2008

Life: Sightseers hanging out of the windows in the crown of the Statue of Liberty w. the NJ shore in the bkgd., 1951, Photographer Margaret Bourke-White

If I were President, I'd reopen the head of the Statue of Liberty to tourists as a symbol of change and a salute to freedom.

David Brauer at the Minnesota Post says Al Franken netted 43 votes yesterday, the first day of the Minnesota Senate race recount. [If you want to play Recount along at home, Minnesota Public Radio has pictures of 11 challenged ballots; you can vote who you think should have gotten the vote (if anyone) and see how others voted on the same ballot. It's interesting.]

In the other outstanding Senate seat, the odious Saxby Chambliss maintains his lead over Democrat Jim Martin. Time for Obama to weigh in; he should be using his email list to fundraise, and voters in Georgia should be told to go to the polls for Martin because "Obama Sent Me".

In one of the last three Congressional races yet to be decided, Republican Steve Stivers lead of 149 votes over Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy could be erased, as a federal judge rules that 27,000 provisional ballots must be counted. (As you can imagine, Democrat Kilroy brought suit, and Republican Stivers was arguing against counting the votes.)

The indefatigable Henry Waxman (CA), has succeeded in his bid to take the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee from 82-year-old John Dingell of Michigan, who has been in Congress longer than I have been alive (since 1955). Waxman is a bulldog who will put the environment ahead of the auto industry, reversing the committee's priorities under Dingell. Who should replace Waxman on the Oversight Committee? Emptywheel recommends Elijah Cummings (MD) or Dennis Kucinich (OH).

John Kerry will become Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the committee he testified to against the Vietnam War in 1971) when Joe Biden resigns from the Senate. Kerry has an ambitious agenda according to the Boston Globe.

Arizona governor Janet Napolitano will be named Secretary of Homeland Security. John McCain must be happy to hear this news, as polls show she would beat him if both run for his Arizona Senate seat in 2010.

The economy sucks roundup: Unemployment claims hit 16-year high; stock markets fell to new lows; home starts the lowest since records started being kept over 50 years ago; Congress is delaying the vote on the auto industry bailout. The Bush Economy continues to implode.

Economic glimmer of hope news: The price of a barrel of oil drops below $50 for the first time since 2005; Congress will extend unemployment benefits, and even dumbfuck Bush will sign the bill.

A federal judge has ordered the release of five Algerian men who have been held unlawfully in Guantanamo Bay for seven (7) years. Bush's illegal torture chamber is the greatest shame of his eight shameful years in office.

Barely political and a huge time-waster: Super Obama World, where a Super Mario-like Obama collects American flag points and has to watch out for lipsticked pigs.

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: November 19, 2008

Life: Yr. End Issue-Sculpture Garden
"Monumental Head," bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti photographed in garden of Hirshhorn estate in Greenwich, Ct., 1973, Photographer Gjon Mili

The morning news shows are leading with today's message from Al Qaida threatening and insulting President-Elect Barack Obama. I am greatly amused to see the corporate media identify "house negro" as a racial insult, as Rush Limbaugh has been calling Obama "Barack the Magic Negro" for over a year and they have ignored his blatant racism.

Obama will appoint Eric Holder as his Attorney General, the first black AG in history. Pros: Holder has come out strongly in favor of the Geneva Conventions and against torture and Guantanamo. Cons: His corporate work, with Scooter Libby to get Marc Rich a pardon, and getting Chiquita Brands a slap on the wrist for hiring death squads to kill union organizers in Columbia. As I always say of defense lawyers, he's the best lawyer money can buy, so hopefully he will bring his prodigious skills over to the light for Obama. Here's a dailykos diary on the value of corporate lawyers.

Much gnashing of teeth from the corporate media about Hillary Clinton as SOS. Must be a good appointment then, if David Broder and David Ignatious and Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd are all wailing "Not Hillary!" They might get their way anyway, as Hillary is said to be unsure whether or not to accept the appointment.

Headline of the day: Texas grand Jury indicts Cheney, Gonzales

Rich, heartless bastard Mittwit Romney says: Let the auto companies go bankrupt. Yeah, let hundreds of thousands of workers eat cake. The progressive policy must be precisely the opposite. Here's a more responsible solution: The Right Way to Bail Out the Auto Industry

The Minnesota Senate recount starts today, with Norm Coleman holding a 215 vote, .008% lead. As Franken's spokesperson said, the score is 0-0 with 2.9 million votes to be counted. And as an aside, Traitor Joe Lieberman wrote an editorial for a Minnesota paper defending his pal Norm Coleman. The Senate Democrats should be ashamed of letting Judas Joe keep his committee chairmanship.

Looks like Missouri is no longer the nation's election bellwether, as McCain will take the Missouri electoral votes with a 4355 vote margin.

Still Some Races To Be Decided

Norm Coleman only leads Al Franken by 221 votes in the Minnesota Senate race. That .01 margin triggers an automatic recount. The recount will be by hand, and an analysis of the undervotes (ballots where a Presidential vote was counted, but no Senate vote was recorded) shows that most come from counties where Obama won. And you know Franken is likely to win a recount as Coleman has already sued to stop votes from being counted; and lost.

Alaska is another state where the Senate race is in doubt. Convicted felon Ted Stevens is leading by about 3200 votes, but the website FiveThirtyEight.com (which had the most accurate prediction of Obama's win) says counting the early and absentee ballots may put Democratic challenger Mark Begich over the top.

In New York's 29th Congressional District, Eric Massa leads Randy Kuhl by 4400 votes with approximately 11,500 absentee and military votes yet to be counted. Kuhl would have to win those votes by a 2 to 1 margin to overtake Massa. The vote count won't take place until November 17th as that is the date military votes must be received by.

Now That's A Powerful Campaign Ad

Norm's Gotta Go, run by the Democratic National Committee.

In The News

Kookaburras
Flickr: Powerhouse Museum Collection

Just as the DFHs said, the Bush Administration is building permanent military bases in Iraq. Bush wants to stay in Iraq 4-eva, no matter what platitudes he mouths.

Not only did Bush and Cheney authorize torture, McClatchy reports that the United States hid tortured prisoners from the International Red Cross. Prosecutors will call that "consciousness of guilt" when these murdering psychopaths are finally put on trial for war crimes at the Hague.

You won't hear this on gasbag TV, but polls show Obama leading in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Haven't they been telling us all year that Obama was doomed in Florida because the Dem primary there didn't count? Not. Even pundits who acknowledge Obama's lead see danger up ahead for Obama. Or maybe that song was playing in the background while Jake Tapper was reporting typing.

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson (another groundbreaking white male addition to the white-male-dominated WaPo opinion pages) calls Al Franken "vulgar" in his column today. You heard that right, the man who dressed up the Psychopath-in-Chief in pretty words, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents around the world, that man calls Al Franken vulgar. Atrios knocks Gerson's phony argument out with two photos.

Speaking of the Psychopath-In-Chief, that MF who hasn't ever gone to the funeral of one of the men and women he sent to their deaths by lying us into Iraq, he went to the funeral of Saint Timmeh of Punditry. Some deaths count, and some are shoved under the rug.

How old is John McCain? He's older than carbon dating.

The will.i.am video putting Obama's New Hampshire primary speech to music, "Yes We Can", won an Emmy. (Watch it here)