We're just about into the middle of October, and so far, no surprise. There will be one, of course, Karl Rove leaves nothing to chance.

Here's my current best guess: Osama will turn up dead. There's too many problems if he turns up alive....debate over where he gets held, does he get a trial and by who, yada yada.

If he turns up dead, it will be as if Bush killed the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz...people will be chanting, "Ding, Dong, the witch is dead" as if all our battles with terrorists will be over.

Bush needs Osama gone, not captured. Now here's the question: If he turns up dead, will an independent pathologist or medical examiner be allowed to examine his remains to determine how long he's been dead? Wouldn't you want to know if he died a few days ago or has been in storage for six months or more, in preparation for an October unveiling?

Just a thought.

A big round of applause for our nation's labor unions...they are making their own Vote for Change tour, only they are using electricians, rather than musicians. On a mass scale, union members are hitting the road to get out the vote and beat Bush.

Union leaders are running a massive on-the-ground effort to defeat President Bush in swing states — a push that could prove crucial as the race for the White House boils down to competing drives to turn out voters.

Longshore workers, who tangled with the Bush administration during the 2002 West Coast port lockout, are walking precincts in landlocked Las Vegas. Members of the United Auto Workers (news - web sites), whose organizing tactics are being challenged by Bush appointees on the National Labor Relations Board, are stirring up fellow union members in depressed Midwestern factory towns.

Janitors with the aggressive Service Employees International Union are riding buses from Los Angeles to Arizona and from New York to Florida, targeting Latino voters. Meanwhile, the political bellwether state of Ohio is teeming with union electricians, steelworkers, phone technicians and other volunteers from neighboring states.

These union members, and admittedly, there are union members and even unions that feel differently, really, really dislike Bush.

Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning is in hot water with critics for admitting he used a teleprompter during a debate with his opponent this week.

I thought it was obvious Bush used a teleprompter during his closing statement at the first debate (September 30) and said so at the time. From my live-blogging post:

Closing: Bush has to be reading from a teleprompter for his closing. He's fluent for the first time all night. And his facial expressions are practiced and nuanced to fit the cadence of his speech. What a difference. He can't do it without a script.

Kerry's closing also seemed much more pat than his debate answers. I just assumed the rules allow use of teleprompters for closing arguments. Does anyone know the answer?

Here's how Bush and Kerry's stands differ on domestic issues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Bush supports tax cuts for all Americans; Kerry favors cuts for those earning less than $200,000 a year. Kerry favors government subsidies and tax breaks to bring down the cost of health care; Bush favors a market-based approach. Kerry favors importation of prescription drugs from Canada; Bush does not.

Bush opposes legal abortion and federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage; Kerry supports abortion rights and federal spending on embryonic stem cell research and a state-by-state approach to same-sex marriage.

Bush supports the death penalty; Kerry opposes it.

Kerry's advisors apparently are telling him to rachet up the use of statistics during tonight's debate. [link corrected]

I think that's a very poor move. Statistics lose viewers. Cable news producers roll their eyes when guests start spouting them off. They even ask guests not to use them. Viewers want to hear ideas, not numbers.

Does anyone think the death penalty will come up as an issue tonight? Given the Supreme Court's oral arguments today on the juvenile death penalty, I would like to hear Bush explain his support for a punishment that has been rejected by almost every civilized nation in the world and puts us in the company of Iran, Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia.

Or how about asking Bush to explain why abortion is murder but the death penalty isn't? If he truly supports life, and all life is valuable, shouldn't he oppose state-sanctioned murder?

This is an important debate...particularly if Bush flubs it again like he did during the first debate.

The third and final Kerry-Bush debate takes place tonight in Arizona. Here's what topics are on the agenda :

"What I'm going to tell the people tomorrow night is we're not going to go back to the days of tax and spend," Bush told supporters in Arizona, criticising Kerry as a big-spending liberal whose health care plan would amount to a government takeover.

Kerry's plan:

A scandal is brewing in Nevada:

Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations. Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.

[Link via Norwegian Chef at Daily Kos.]

Update: Josh Marshall adds:

And here's a careerbuilder.com listing for the same company looking for door-to-door canvassers. Paid for by the GOP. And here it seems that the same outfit was doing work for Nader in Arizona.

Colorado's voter registration problems seem to be getting a lot of media attention--probably because it's a swing state this year. In any event, officials say problems are being blown out of proportion.

A few days ago it was disclosed that up to 6,000 felons are among the registered voters. Their names had not been checked to see if they were eligible to vote. In Colorado,

Felons cannot vote if they are in prison or on parole, but felons on probation can vote....Worried about possible lawsuits challenging her rules, [Secretary of State] Davidson said she won't just purge the rolls of felons but will allow people who show up and might be flagged as felons to vote with a provisional ballot.

Their names will be checked after the election. If they are eligible to vote, their votes will count.

Next issue: Registration drive workers were paid by the number of people they registered to vote.

Democrats reportedly have decided on a legal strategy to block the Sinclair Broadcasting company from airing an anti-Kerry film in the days prior to the election.

The Democratic National Committee is to petition the Federal Election Committee to classify the film an "illegal in-kind contribution" to the Republican campaign. In a letter to the Federal Communication Commission, 18 Democratic senators branded the documentary "blatantly partisan".

The article adds,

The Democrats are not thought likely to obtain a ruling in time to stop the broadcast.

If an election lawyer is reading, can you explain why they can't seek a temporary restraining order preventing Sinclair from airing the film until the petition can be heard on its merits?

Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall have good ideas about what regular folks can be doing to stop the airing--particularly those who live in places that carry Sinclair stations.

John Edwards is holding an 11:30 am town hall meeting in Commerce City, CO, today, before flying off to Burbank, CA to tape the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno and then make an 11pm fundraiser in San Francisco. Let's hope he leaves the crack-down on meth labs talk in Iowa.

Edwards said he and presidential nominee John Kerry would propose legislation to limit consumers to two standard packages per day of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used in Sudafed and other drugs. Bulk sales of cold medicines would be more closely monitored to track suspicious sales.

They also would propose spending $30 million annually for 10 years to fund law enforcement efforts and help farmers buy better locks to secure ammonia tanks where drug dealers steal the ammonia they need to make meth.

Can his advisors please tell him to stick to Iraq, where's Osama, health care, social security and our droopy economy? For once we have a national election where being tough on crime is not a major issue for voters. Let's keep it that way.

Blogs are abuzz with how to stop Sinclair Broadcasting from directing its stations to preempt regular programming and run an anti-Kerry film on the eve of the election. What can be done legally to stop them? If any election lawyers are reading and have any ideas, this thread at Daily Kos is a good place to post them. Or this one .

At a minimum, everyone should sign this petition. Here's more about Democrats' objections to the Sinclair plan. Hesiod at Counterspin has links to online voting polls on Sinclair.

Update: The Democratic party asks you to call Sinclair's affiliates. Click here for a list of phone numbers for Sinclair stations. Call them to let them know what you think about their decision to air untrue smears about John Kerry just before Election Day. Go here to sign their petition.

Don't miss Bubbie vs. the GOP. Brilliant. Even god-zella can't save them.