POLITICS – All We Have to Fear is the Next 68 Days

Return of Jim Crow? Studies suggest somewhere between 4 and 6 million qualified voters were denied the right to vote in the 2000 election because of clerical errors or computer glitches. A couple of civil rights groups claim there’s a concerted effort to keep some people off the voter rolls. (WashPost)

Another Direct Hit. Task Force 115 – Senator John Kerry’s task force in Vietnam – backs up his story over the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The force’s March 18, 1969, weekly report states that Kerry’s boat and others came under fire. The Swifties have run ads that claim Kerry was never shot at when he pulled a crewman from the water back onto his boat. (Miami Herald)

Abandoning Ship. The Swift Boat ads lead to a second Bush casualty. Bush lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg was also advising the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He resigned from the Bush campaign after the link came up. He’s the second Bush campaign person to do that. He claims Democrats are doing the same thing. So far, neither campaign has shown the other is actually coordinating activities with outside groups. Such coordination is illegal. (AP)

Swift Sales for the Swift Boat Book. Depending on which bookstore you ask, the book that accompanies the ads sells pretty well around DC. But one bookstore reports no one’s bought any of their 39 copies of Unfit for Command – including the 10 people who ordered them. (WashTimes)

Score One for Tricky Dick. One of the authors of the swift boat book has been caught in a potential lie about the facts -- by none other than Richard Nixon. John O’Neill claims Kerry was lying about being in Cambodia. O’Neill says he was never in Cambodia either. But Nixon’s secret taping system caught O’Neill talking about a mission to Cambodia with the former President. (AP)

When the World Hands You Lemons…Throw Them at Your Enemies. The Swift Boat ads have resulted in favorable coverage for John Kerry. His campaign is even bragging about it in a news release. (US Newswire)

Giving 116%. Interesting Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post about Swift Boats. Former National Geographic Editor Bill Garrett writes about an article on the boats he shot and wrote over the course of six months in 1968, in the Mekong Delta. The admiral in charge of the boats mentioned then a 116% rate of Purple Hearts. In other words, multiple Purple Hearts were the norm for the Swifties. (WashPost)

Ad Alert #1: FactCheck.org analyzes the latest Swift Boat ad on their site. (factcheck.org)

Ad Alert #2: Both sides have gone nuclear – but both missed their targets. FactCheck.org also looks at misleading ads from both left and right on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. (factcheck.org)

“Satan Lives in George Soros.” The St. Petersburg Times has an interesting profile of the money man behind the Democrat-leaning 527s. Billionaire George Soros – or as conservatives call him – “The Democrats’ Daddy Warbucks of drugs and death." (St Pete Times)

The More Things Change… The US Supreme Court upheld campaign finance reform – but money still talks as sure as BS still walks the campaign trail. The Christian Science Monitor has an analysis of how political contributions changed, but the big picture stayed the same. (CSM)

Partying Sure Gets in the Way of, Like, Voting! Barbara and Jenna Bush are campaigning for their dad. They say young people don’t vote because they are so busy, like, you know, with like parties and stuff. Oh yeah, studying and extracurricular activities (they had to point out that last one – the President has a tough time with words like ‘ex-ter-cir-cu-lar’). Yeah, I remember those "all-day-the-first-Tuesday-after-the-first-Monday-in November" parties. (Miami Herald)