The petition demanding that Hillary Clinton release her tax returns has reached 500 signatures!  We need a lot more signatures to get noticed by the press and convince Senator Clinton that she needs to release those returns.  Please email everyone you know and ask them to sign the petition.

Despite Senator Obama releasing his tax returns for some reason Senator Clinton hasn't released hers which scares me.  It scares me because if she is our nominee whatever she's hiding may sink her candidacy in November and we can't have eight more years of Bush policies pushed by McCain.  I saw last night that Beertap wrote:

Well, well, well...we're hearing the Republicans again talking about fiscal responsibility.  Now they're against earmarks.  Beertap has a great post titled Earmarks and GOP Hypocrisy.

I was shocked when I woke up this morning and read this article from Reuters.  

Dear Abby,

My husband has a long record of money problems. He runs up huge credit card bills. At the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says pay the minimum and let our kids worry about the rest, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest.

I just had the strangest thing happen.  I was participating in an online poll at

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

I voted and when the results came up they favored Kerry.  There were over 1700 votes.  I went back a few minutes later and found the votes were reduced to 1599 and that the poll strongly favored Bush.  How can a "legitimate" newspaper do that to their online polls?  How many other online polls are being adjusted because the people in charge don't like the results?

Wouldn't that be a great headline?  Send a letter to the FCC asking for Limbaugh and Hannity to be fined for their indecent remarks.  A copy of my email letter is below:

Is George Bush collecting over $2000 from individual donors?  Doesn't this violate the campaign finance law he signed?  How many more people does he have donating over $2000 to his campaign?  Let me know what you think.

I live in the Atlanta metro area.  I set my alarm every morning to 99x for the "Don Miller Show."  I woke up to a screaming rant against Bush and the FCC.  Toucher, one of the DJs, was yelling about Howard Stern being taken off the air on the Clear Channel stations (99x isn't a Clear Channel station), complaining about John Ashcroft and Bush, and telling the listening audience that we have to vote against Bush and get him out of office.  This show normally doesn't talk about politics to a large degree though it sometimes comes up.  Toucher, however, wouldn't stop and this kept up all morning.

Has this been happening on other morning shows?  Is this a common theme across the country?  Has Bush picked on the wrong people (entertainers that reach millions of people every day) and is there going to be a backlash against Bush because of this?  Please post and let me know.

The race is going to be so tight that if this causes even a small percentage to vote for the Democratic candidate in an effort to remove Bush from office that may be all we need.

Also, there isn't a radio station that plays Howard Stern in the Atlanta metro area (come on Howard - get picked up in Atlanta!).  I used to listen to him when I lived in the NY metro area.  What's he saying today?

During his floor speech endorsing a constitutional amendment "limiting marriage to between a man and woman", Senator Zell Miller spent a few minutes blasting the now infamous Super Bowl half-time show.  His official on-record statement reads in part:

''I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it...''

Mr. Miller has not clarified which part of a woman's breast he perceives as a "pull-tab" nor his proposed action when confronted with one but, clearly, your nipples may be in danger.

We urge you to exercise EXTREME CAUTION when in the vicinity of Senator Miller, particularly if you are a woman.  Additionally, we advise both genders against nudity within 500 feet of Mr. Miller.

Field Notes: John Kerry
Reports from the campaign trail

By Ed O'Keefe

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/DailyNews/fieldkerry-1.html

Excerpts:

"At the Senator's first press availability in five days en route from Manchester to Laconia, NH, the Senator spoke for six minutes with his traveling press corps before remarking, "I feel so cob-webby today."

"In Laconia, 400 people filled the Elks Lodge with an overflow crowd. Kerry, who arrived nearly a half hour late for his first and only event of the day, abbreviated his stump to a twelve minute presentation..."

"Kerry stormed onto the "Real Deal Express", ripped off his Timberland Barn Coat, and tossed it into the gray and red striped seat by his side.  "Don't they get it?," Kerry bellowed to no one in particular. "I can't have this," he continued, referring to the media horde now watching his every move. David Wade, traveling press secretary, entered the bus and immediately faced the Senator's wrath. Thrashing his arms, Kerry asked several times, "Where are my boots?" Once located, the previously nervous Kerry seemed a bit more serene."

Is Kerry losing it?

Also see "Kerry: Push Polls & Dirty Tricks?"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/1/23/17736/6589

This guy CAN'T be our nominee.

Did Kerry win Iowa like Bush won his nomination against McCain?  With push polls?

Stealth Negativity?  Recording Reveals Kerry Operative Dissing Dean in Campaign Call

By Jake Tapper
ABCNEWS.com

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/ThisWeek/Kerry_Dean_calls_040117.html

Excerpts:

But two nights ago, Cornell College psychology professor Suzette Astley, a Dean volunteer in Lisbon, Iowa, received a phone call from a Kerry's Cedar Rapids headquarters -- in which, she says, a Kerry volunteer had some less than kind things to say about Dean regarding his foreign policy experience, being from a largely
white state, and so-called "environmental racism."

Since a documentary filmmaker was staying with Astley, the exchange, which has been confirmed by the Kerry campaign, was caught on videotape.

"Does your candidate know that you're saying these kinds of things, unsubstantiated claims on the phone representing Sen. Kerry?" Astley asked 19-year-old volunteer, Jacob Thomas, on the
tape, a copy of which was obtained by ABCNEWS.

Soon, she asked to speak with Kerry's regional field supervisor, with whom she launched a complaint.

"I am just really offended by the call I got tonight," she said.  "The person who was talking to me was taking things out of context, repeating unsubstantiated reports to me, and I find that really offensive."

"The person who made the call is a young volunteer whose remarks were not authorized or condoned by this campaign," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.  

But the Dean campaign said it was under the impression that the call did not represent just one over-zealous volunteer speaking extemporaneously. Rather, the campaign said in the last day it had heard of Kerry campaign calls to at least five other Iowans reading from what it said sounded like a very similar script.

Dean campaign spokesman Jay Carson slammed Kerry for claiming to run a positive campaign while letting others do his dirty work.

ABCNEWS has spoken to another Iowa Dean supporter, Susan Alexander, who said she received a phone call on the same night as Astley, which sounded like it came from the same script.

Push Poll?

A third Iowan, Dick Alexander, told ABCNEWS he received a phone call about two weeks ago from an organization claiming to be a polling firm unaffiliated with any candidate, in which pro-Kerry and anti-Dean information was conveyed.

The Alexander call, should it have happened, would meet the definition of a "push poll" -- a call purportedly from an objective polling firm that actually seeks to "push" voters away
from candidates by spreading negative information about them.

During the 2000 GOP primaries, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., charged then-Gov. George W. Bush with making "push call" phone calls against him. His campaign soon retaliated with recorded anti-Bush calls to Michigan voters that did not disclose their affiliation.