Wonkette

* Iraq Study Group to recommend removal of virtually all combat troops by early 2008, if circumstances permit, everyone feels like it, etc. President Bush denies. [WP, NYT]
* Ken Mehlman addresses Republican Governors Annual Meeting/cry-fest, tells them to get busy getting more conservative and come up with some new policy ideas. [WP]
* Never-been-a-Governor John McCain was there too, stealing Mitt Romney’s ‘08 thunder and plying the guv’nahs with booze. [NYT]
* Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is the first to actually declare for 2008. [WP, NYT]
* But it’s no biggie as Democratic candidates for 2008 are beginning to appear in droves. [WSJ]
* National Institute of Standards and Technology says paperless electronic voting machines, “cannot be made secure.” [WP]
* White House considers abandoning outreach programs to Iraqi Sunnis, which basically everyone else thinks is a terrible idea. [WP]
* TSA to begin using x-ray photo machines that have been called “a virtual strip search.” [USAT]
* Does CSI imitate Russian assassins or do they imitate it? [USAT]

* Iraq Study Group leaks its non-binding recommendations: they want to withdraw American troops, offer no timetable. [WP, NYT, LAT]
* President Bush also ignored by Iraqis, as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ducks him at their so-called summit. [NYT]
* Bill Frist won’t run for president in 2008, cites influential Pete Seeger lyrics in announcement of decision. [WP, NYT, LAT]
* Majority of Americans think: Iraq is in civil war, Donald Rumsfeld’s ouster was needed, and that Robert Gates probably won’t be able to really change anything over there. [WSJ]
* One of “the most difficult and important” recommendations of the 9/11 Commission will be largely ignored by the Democratic Congress. [WP]
* Supreme Court hears first case on Greenhouse gas emissions. Antonin Scalia says, “I don’t want to have to deal with global warming.” [WP, NYT]
* States will try to bolster the public’s “fragile trust” in electronic voting machines before 2008. [WSJ]

* Nancy Pelosi holds by her “cleaner government” promise, won’t extend term limits for Jane Harman or forget about Alcee Hastings’s impeachment in selection of chairman for House Intelligence Committee. [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ]
* Jim Webb: not afraid to diss the president, or top Senate Democrats. [WP]
* Increasing blame for the situation in Iraq is going to Iraqis — cause hey, why not? [WP, NYT]
* Robert Gates uses kid gloves to hit the administration’s pre-war planning, is in agreement with them on everything else. [WP, NYT]
* Either 18,000 Floridians don’t care who their congressman is, or there really is a ghost in the voting machines. [WP]
* Pentagon will ask for $127 billion in funding for next year, mostly for new equipment as $2 billion a month is worn out or destroyed. [LAT, USAT]
* New report claims 11 European countries were “intentional or grossly negligent” in allowing the CIA to bring terror suspects to secret prisons on the continent. [WP, NYT]

• “Push Poll” mastermind laughs the evil sardonic laugh you’d expect him too, raps bony fingers. [TPM Muckraker]

• The United States is the paragon of tolerance and diversity for all — all but “the shifty horde on our Southern border.” [Hot Johnny And All of His Pants]
• Air America was killed by Al Franken, in the studio, with the advertiser blackball! [Media Matters]
• It’s better if the electronic voting machines are hackable — any “teenager in Finland” is gonna choose better leaders than the “autofellating corporate shitbags” who do it now. [The Dilbert Blog]
• Sean Hannity is more beast than man. [Comedy Central Insider]
• Don’t call it a comeback, Rick Santorum’s been here for years, knocking out sweaty, shirtless men; putting suckas in tears. [Rick Santorum via Power Line Blog]
• Charlie Rangel has lived in Harlem for 76 years, and has yet to shoot anyone in the face. [Gawker]

• White House leans on the “terrorists will win if Democrats win” line as President Bush campaigns in Texas. [WP, NYT]

• Virginia Senate race hinges on turnout, Webb’s staff is “totally geeked out to get things done.” [WP]
• Possible Democratic control of statehouses could mean re-redrawing congressional districts and creating a “Permanent Democratic Majority.” [NYT]
• Rick Santorum continues to levy accusations against Bob Casey, whose response is, “scoreboard.” [NYT]
• Congressional “power ranking” rates members from potent to pointless. [WP]
• As a result of the Help America Disenfranchise the Vote Act, 24 states now require some form of photo ID before a ballot can be cast. [WSJ]
• Republicans touting robust early voting as a sign of success, cite Florida’s 16th (Mark Foley’s) district as example. [WSJ]
• It’s hard work making voting machines: Smartmatic Corp. is accused of being under the influence of Venezuela high-talker Hugo Chavez. [WP]
• Sexless Washington busy-bodies use government funds to advance their misery nationwide. [USAT]

• Iraq is a “serious concern” for President Bush and he is “unsatisfied,” but we’re still totally winning, obv. [WP, LAT]

• In many Congressional races Iraq has become the central issue. “For Republicans it is a problem to be navigated and for Democrats a stick to be brandished.” [WP]
• New Jersey’s highest court affirms equal benefits for same-sex couples. Gary Bauer thinks it’s great. [NYT, USAT]
• Can’t wait for Democrats to sweep into Congress next month, comrade? These Democrats may be a bit more conservative than you’re used to. [LAT, USAT]
• There are ghosts in the voting machines and the old ass poll workers can’t get them out. [WSJ]
• Apparently all the crazy shit candidates are saying is because they’re “strained” by the tough campaign season, and not because they’re actually crazy. [NYT]
• Kid who first put the Foley emails on the web was fired from Human Rights Campaign, but is still anonymous. [NYT]

• North Korean bomb was mad ghetto, their “nuclear scientists are now officially the worst ever.” [Defense Tech]

• Yup, it’s definitely gonna happen: Stewart-Colbert ‘08. [Comedy Central Insider]
• They’ve got our vote, even if Jon refuses to admit how much he really, really loves us. [Above The Law]
• Voting machines nationwide will have the election results pre-entered by the Secretaries of State, so might as well learn their names. [Hullabaloo]
• Grassroots get-out-the-vote tactics using celebrities from the B,C, and D lists. [Democratic Party Blog]
• Ray Nagin endorses William Jefferson, calls him a “black Clyde Barrow dude.” [KATC News via MoJo Blog]
• Washington state: where all the state representatives wear sombreros, and “puke ‘n rally” is a given. [Shakespeare's Sister, The Stranger]
• Ah, the mushroom cloud photoshop gags — funny until they’re not. [Sanctuary]
• Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! It’s like 9/11 and Halloween all rolled into one. NEVER FORGET

If you’re like us, you’re not even registered here and you can’t remember which candidate is which. One of them has the ad about walking down every street in the district, right? That guy’s a liar. But whatever. Our extremely late Wonkette Endorsement goes to Clinton Portis. Write him in! It doesn’t matter anyway, because of MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD! According to some email we just got, anyway:

As if the GOP couldn’t make their desperation to grab office MORE obvious, this morning in Friendship Heights (surely a bastion of Republican voters), none of the electronic voting machines worked. Apparently the state election office delivered the machines, but not any of the swipe cards necessary to activate them. So all of the voters were voting provisional ballots. Now the more interesting part: since the MD provisional ballots require you to check a box marking why you’re voting provisionally, and since there was no box to check labeled “Elections Board Screwed Up,” it’s a pretty safe bet that none of those ballots will be counted.

Yeah, the GOP — we’re sure they’re planning on picking up some DC council seats by any means necessary. Including fraud in the primaries. Because controlling the federal government doesn’t give them enough power over this pissant city that they’re scared of and hate.

UPDATE: MORE MARYLAND FRAUD! VOTERS DISENFRANCHISED! STILL WAITING FOR DISTRICT FRAUD BUT WE’RE VERY SURE IT’S HAPPENING.

UPDATE2: EVEN MORE MARYLAND FRAUD AFTER THE JUMP!

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