Late Friday afternoon, the Pentagon announced that President Bush's military records are no longer lost. It was just a clerical error. So what? The new records don't show Bush wasn't awol:

Some of President Bush's missing Air National Guard records during the Vietnam War years, previously said to be destroyed, turned up on Friday but offered no new evidence to dispel charges by Democrats that he was absent without leave. ...The documents released on Friday by the Pentagon included two faded computerized payroll sheets showing Bush was not paid during the latter part of 1972 and offer no evidence to place Bush in Alabama during the latter part of 1972.

Democratic National Committee spokespersons respond:

The Democratic National Committee called the "supposed discovery" of Bush's payroll records late on Friday -- on the eve of the Democratic National Convention -- "highly questionable." "If the Bush administration continues to search, maybe they'll find answers to the long list of unanswered questions that remain about George W. Bush's time in the Air National Guard. Bush's military records seem to show up as randomly as he did for duty," said DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera.

John Kerry and John Edwards will be appearing at a rally in Colorado today. It was scheduled outdoors at Fitzsimmons in Aurora. We just received word that due to rain, it has just been moved to The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. (1510 Clarkson Street). Gates open at 10 a.m.

Say hello to Bush v. Choice, a site dedicated to getting pro-choice voters educated, registered, and ready to defeat Bush and elect John Kerry in November. It is a project of NARAL Pro Choice America.

The right to choose is one of our most precious liberties. Help protect it and spread the word. Check out these two great flashes, Any George and Move Over Stepford...Here come the "Crawford Wives".

A new poll by The Washington Post, Univision and the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute show John Kerry with a commanding lead over George Bush among Latino voters. Those polled were critical of Bush's handling of the economy and the war in Iraq.

The findings suggest that, at this point in the campaign, Bush is falling short of his goal of notably improving on the 35 percent share of the Hispanic vote he received four years ago, although his advisers said they believe he is still on track to do so. Kerry advisers, in contrast, said they are determined to keep Bush from winning as much of the Hispanic vote as he did in 2000.

....Competition for Hispanic voters remains fierce. Latinos now outnumber blacks, rank as the fastest-growing minority group in the country and are less solidly attached to the Democratic Party than are blacks. The 2000 census counted more than 35 million Hispanics in the United States, a 50 percent increase in one decade.

Latino voters who were surveyed were sharply critical of the war in Iraq. More than six in 10 -- 63 percent -- said the war was not worth fighting, a view shared by slightly more than half of all voters nationally. Fewer than a third of all Latinos and fewer than half of all voters believe the war justified its costs. Latinos also are more pessimistic about the war on terrorism than the overall population is, with 37 percent saying the United States is winning and 40 percent saying it is losing.

New citizens have complained of being tricked into registering as Republicans. Sounds like a desperation move to us -- if your candidate can't win, just cheat.

by TChris

Anyone concerned (as everyone should be) about the practice of disenfranchising reformed felons can learn more about the topic by visiting this section of a new website devoted to election law. The felon disenfranchisement section of the website is monitored by law professor Douglas Berman, famed for his extremely helpful sentencing blog, Sentencing Law and Policy.

by TChris

The struggle to obtain the complete records of President Bush's military service continues.

The Associated Press asked a federal judge Friday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record. The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with the news service's Freedom of Information Act request for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.

The records released to date came from federal clearinghouses. AP is seeking separate records that Texas law required the state to keep. According to the suit, those records may help the public decide whether Bush performed his required service between May and October 1972. The AP also wants to investigate "allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for reelection as Texas governor."

Be prepared to laugh! This is quite a funny and well produced, bi-partisan spoof on the making of a president.

Update: This link says the servers are jammed. The site says check back later.

Why isn't anyone covering this? Accenture, the company that made Florida's felony voter list has contributed over $200,000 to Republicans since 2002. (hat tip to Brown Watch.)

In fact, the company's resume is littered with connections to drama that the nation's Republican leadership would rather forget: Enron, Abu Ghraib and mysterious Saudi businessmen.....Last month, some members of Congress expressed concern about the Department of Homeland Security's giving a $10 billion contract to Accenture. They cited Accenture's Bermuda address, which they said was an attempt to dodge U.S. taxes.

Accenture eventually won the contract to design a system to track foreign visitors entering or leaving the United States. Accenture will work on the venture with Titan Corporation, one of the companies whose employees were caught up in the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq.

Political Wire reports:

With Mike Ditka telling Illinois Republicans he will not run for Senate, WMAQ notes the Republican Party "will now focus on two potential candidates: Jim Oberwies, who finished second in the primary for this nomination, and John Cox, who ran a couple of years ago. Both have the distinction of being multimillionaires."

"But another name surfacing is that of rocker, outspoken conservative and gun-rights activist Ted Nugent." Says Cook County Republican Chair Gary Skoien: "He grew up in Arlington Heights. He went to St. Viator High School. He has more connection to Illinois than Hillary Clinton had to New York, and he's been a very articulate spokesperson on constitutional issues. He would be a very interesting candidate."

Oliver Willis doesn't think much of the idea. We think he's too tied to Michigan to win--Hillary moved to New York and began campaigning way longer than four months before the election. He probably would win if he ran for the House from Northern Michigan. Word of cauthion: be careful if you badmouth him, he may file a defamation suit against you.

Update to TChris's post on whether Bush will try to delay the elections in the event it determines a terror emergency exists-- the San Francisco Chronicle says "Don't even think about it."

This nation, which already ceded far too many liberties in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, needs to demonstrate its resolve and fearlessness. America's message to the world should be: We're prepared to vote on Nov. 2, no matter what.

Say hello to the New Voters Project, an online campaign, co-sponsored by Rock the Vote to protect the rights of student voters. From their press release:

To address persistent student disenfranchisement, the New Voters Project (NVP), along with Rock the Vote, has launched an online petition campaign that calls on election officials to protect the rights of young people to vote where they go to school. The petition can be found on the New Voters Project’s newly updated website, along with a variety of other tools and resources for young voters.

The rights of college and university students nationwide are often infringed upon in the districts of the schools they attend. Local election officials have been known to harass students about registering to vote with temporary addresses at dorms on campus or provide limited polling places on large campuses.

The Petition for Students’ Voting Rights aims to empower students to take back their right to vote and make politicians wake up and pay attention to this historically marginalized constituency. We call on our Secretaries of State to protect the rights of young voters, including the right to register to vote at school, the right to vote on or near campus, and the right to be free from harassment and intimidation by election officials.