Good morning! Today is the International Day of the Nacho — you know what you have to do.
Hey, are you registered to vote? Do you know where your polling place is located, and what you need to bring with you? If you’ve got questions, check out Vote411.org, a project of the non-partisan League of Women Voters.
Corrupt –> Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, a powerhouse in the state’s Republican Party, was arrested Monday on felony ethics charges after his indictment by a grand jury “on 23 charges accusing him of misusing his office as speaker and his previous post as chairman of the Alabama Republican Party,” according to the AP (Via: Politico). (For background, see our August 8 post, “Another Conservative Group Gets Entangled in an Indian Casino Money-Laundering Scandal.”)
The most expensive Senate race ever? –> Jim Morrill at The Charlotte Observer: “From the Koch brothers and Art Pope to George Soros and Michael Bloomberg, wealthy donors are making North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race one of America’s first $100 million contests.”
“Early predictions of dismally low turnout might be too pessimistic” –> Reid Wilson reports for the WaPo that “early voting has become the latest partisan battleground in state legislatures nationwide.” Both parties have poured millions into getting their voters to cast early ballots, and it’s still unclear which one has the edge. AND Bill Scher writes at Real Clear Politics that the GOP could blow an election in which they enjoy significant advantages by not playing hard defense in three normally reliable red states — Georgia, Kansas and South Dakota.
The Empire Strikes Back –> Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig’s Mayday PAC — the “Super PAC to end all Super PACs” — has targeted Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Silicon Valley. Now Ryan Grim reports for HuffPo that tech donors to Lessig’s PAC are getting “angry calls from a top aide” to Upton, as well as from Upton himself.
The Wall Street Journal urges inaction on climate –> Five heavy-hitting climatologists write a letter debunking the conservative newspaper’s latest misleading op-ed. Via: Ecowatch. ALSO: A new study finds that replacing coal with natural gas may be a “revolution” in some respects, but it won’t decrease greenhouse gas emissions and is not a “substitute for climate change mitigation policy.” Via: Nature.
Wrong address –> Jamie Dettmer reports for The Daily Beast that US humanitarian aid — mostly food and medical supplies — is falling into the hands of Islamic State fighters, but officials fear that cutting off the flow of aid will help the group’s propaganda efforts. ALSO: At the Brookings Institution’s Tech Tank, Joshua Bleiberg and Darrell West look at the US government’s efforts to fight a propaganda war with IS using Twitter and other social media platforms. Perhaps the most interesting revelation: the militant group employs cute cat videos to advance its cause. We’re not making this up.
Compassionate conservatism –> Maureen Groppe reports for The Indianapolis Star that “Indiana will begin cutting off food stamp benefits next year to tens of thousands of people who fail to get a job or train for work.” (See our recent piece on the challenges long-term unemployed face trying to re-enter the workforce.) AND: Laura Gottesdiener reports for AJA that UN officials were “shocked” to learn of mass water shutoffs in poor Detroit neighborhoods.
Man with a fake mustache –> Democratic campaign officials in Colorado say that agitprop filmmaker James O’Keefe disguised himself as a college professor and tried to get several staffers to sign off on his plan to submit fraudulent absentee ballots. The campaign workers told him that it was illegal to do so, according to MoJo’s Andy Kroll.
The case against Hillary –> Doug Henwood’s lengthy case against Hillary Clinton’s nomination in 2016 is behind a pay-wall at Harpers, but at HuffPo, Sam Levine offers “five take-aways” from the magazine’s November cover story.
“The Worst Campaign Ad That Human Beings Actually Paid for This Year” — It’s the silly season, and the title of Dave Weigel’s latest for Bloomberg says it all.
But will it continue to grow? –> Harvard entomologist Piotr Naskrecki “recently recounted coming across a puppy-sized, foot-long” tarantula, which would be the biggest spider ever recorded. But there’s no reason to call Ed Kemmer — NatGeo’s Christine Dell’Amore says Theraphosa blondi‘s bite rarely requires medical attention.
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