Well, your email paid off! As much, perhaps, as we could hope given that we're dealing with the Republican behemoth that is the Fox "News" Channel. So all in all, a job well done, guys! It pays to make noise and fight for your Democracy.

As originally reported here, the Hannity & Colmes show had announced on Friday that tonight's guests would be:

ON THE RIGHT: Karl Rove, Dick Morris, William Weld
ON THE LEFT: Bill Richardson

By the time tonight's show aired, Morris and Weld on the Right were dumped, and Terry McAuliffe added on the Left. Unfortunately, Jeb Bush (obviously on the Right) was added as well. Yet, on it's face, it appeared to be more "Fair and Balanced" as such:

ON THE RIGHT: Karl Rove, Jeb Bush
ON THE LEFT: Bill Richardson, Terry McAuliffe

Well, that looks more "Fair & Balanced", doesn't it? But here was the actual show breakdown (Right leaning segments bold)

SEGMENT 1: Jeb Bush
SEGMENT 2: Jeb Bush
SEGMENT 3: Bill Richardson
SEGMENT 4: Karl Rove
(Seg 4 Rove interview by Hannity only! Colmes not allowed!)
SEGMENT 5: Terry McAuliffe

Final tally was 3 segments with the Right (one that Hannity had all to himself) and only 2 segments with the Left.

As I've mentioned in the past, my source inside H&C tells me that they have a very difficult time getting the DNC and Kerry campaign to cooperate and give them guests for the show. The theory --- a mostly plausible one --- is that Fox is so far to the Right, the Dems feel they won't get a fair shake when they go on.

I share my sources belief, however, that it's foolish for the Dems to simply write off Fox "News" in the bargain.

Yes, of course they won't get a fair shake on Fox, but it's better to show up and represent as best they can than to allow Fox to overweight with Republicans, or worse, stick someone like Pat Cadell on there and call him a "Democratic Consultant" when he hasn't worked or supported any Democrats since, I believe, Jimmy Carter! Or have Susan Estrich on there --- who worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger! --- and call her a "Democratic Consultant".

Like it or not, more Americans watch Fox these days for political news than anybody else --- and it's not all hard right wingnuts. There are a lot of reasonable, normal, Left-leaning Americans that watch FNC as well! I'm certainly one of them! Frankly because it's not quite as dull as it's competition (who are only slightly less slanted to the Right these days). So it's imperative that Dems show up and at least fight on that turf to try anyway to partially balance Fox's constant imbalance.

If I hear from my source any plausible explanation as to why H&C still managed to skew things to the Right tonight, on Election Eve of all nights --- even though they had a seemingly even number of Democrats to interview --- I'll update this item.

Other than that, I'm without ammunition to defend it. So instead, I'll just leave you with this exchange from the end of the segment tonight with McAuliffe:

I guess it is.

Last night, wingnut blog "Little Green Footballs" posted about the "missing 12 minutes" from the Osama bin Laden tapes and quoted from a NY Post story about it. Here's some of what they quoted as being in the "missing 12 minutes":

Unfortunately for them (and frankly for everyone in America) the full transcript of the tape has now been posted by Al Jazeera. It says nothing of the kind.

Still, if these guys can make the argument that "bin Laden endorses Kerry!" they'll be happy to use this terrorist to support their own desperate campaign to pull victory from the jaws of imminent defeat.

Many of the Rightwing blogs have been posting the same, and of course, not bothering to update their posts with the corrected info --- showing that they were wrong --- once the full transcript came out.

These online polls are read on the air! Their emotional effect on the electorate is NOT TO BE DISCOUNTED! Balance the lack of balance in their viewership/listenership by voting NOW!

Hannity's poll (bottom left on page):
Who do you think Bin Laden was endorsing in his recent tape?
BUSH or Kerry?

O'Reilly's poll:
Who do you think will win the election?
Bush or KERRY?

UPDATE: This MSNBC Poll also needs help!

It's now all in the PsyOps folks! As I'm sure Karl Rove would be happy to tell you!

No, not Iraq. Voting in California!

The California Voter's Guide mailed to us is 165 pages! And the supplemental is another 21 pages!

At least 16 State Propositions and about 5 local ones...Yeesh. What the hell do we bother to elect a state legislature for anyway?!

This is getting ridiculous! And as California goes...so goes the country. Beware!

ABC producers tested the T-shirt experiment of wearing Kerry shirts to a Bush event, and Bush shirts to a Kerry event. At the Bush events they were either not allowed in or tossed out. The worst treatment received at the Kerry event was folks who danced around them with big signs in order to obstruct the view of the Bush shirts by TV cameras. (emphasis mine)

Hannity & Colmes now announcing that Jeb Bush is added to tonight's show!!!

See this article if you haven't already on the stacked deck they're getting ready to present tonight! (So far, 4 from the Right --- now including Rove, Morris and Jeb Bush --- and 1 from the Left!)

colmes@foxnews.com, Comments@foxnews.com, mm-tips@mediamatters.org, mm-actions@mediamatters.org, Write">TheBradBlog@cville.com\">Write those letters!!! Just a few hours left before airtime! Get the word out!

GOOD NEWS UPDATE: Just heard from my source: Terry McAullife now added to show for balance! Your letters are working! Keep it up! You are making a difference!!!

FINAL UPDATE: Victory (mostly)! Final lineup: 2 guests from the Right, 2 from the Left. But H&C managed incredibly to skew it to the right anyway. Click here to read how.

Josh Marshall reports on a group calling themselves the "Florida Leadership Council" circulating a flyer now down there. Here's the actual flyer. Here's Josh's summary:

Perhaps even more troubling, however, is that when clicking on the link to the "Florida Leadership Council" there are continuing gunshots heard when looking at the front page. Three rifle shots, every 10 seconds or so.

It seems to be tied to an ad against U.S. Senate candidate Betty Castor (who is in a tight race down there), which is right next to pictures of Democrat/Liberal figureheads with the text "It's time to fight back - before it's too late."

Kos documents nearly a dozen late on-going voter suppression schemes now in play. Old tactics back in the game. Apparently, big time.

That looks to be the strategy from here on out. Suppression. Along with their already telegraphed tactic of continually suggesting that Democrats are doing precisely what it is the GOP intends to do.

By any means necessary. Anything to win.

UPDATE: Here's a perfect example of charging Dems with precisely what the GOP is doing!

"NEWS CORP.'S Fox News was incorrectly described in a page-one article Monday as being sympathetic to the Bush cause."
-- A "correction" posted Wednesday by Wall Street Journal. (Hat tip BeliefNet's Jesse Kornbluth.)

Is there no end to the twists and turns in the warped and log-rolled corridors of Bizarro World?

...And now that that's done, here's the news they received today:

It's all in the timing.

The unpolled get polled:

Those numbers can make all the difference in the polls you've been seeing up until now.

Related News...AMERICABlog reports this just in:

To that end, please make a few calls.

If you haven't seen my item from yesterday on this, please read it!

My very highly placed source indicates that your letters are helping to encourage Fox to offer more balance on H&C's Monday night (Election Eve) show!

If you haven't already sent a polite note expressing your concern about "Fair and Balance" on their show Monday night, please colmes@foxnews.com, Comments@foxnews.com, mm-tips@mediamatters.org, mm-actions@mediamatters.org, click">TheBradBlog@cville.com\">click here to do so now!

We've received many comments from Rightwingers expressing that they are quite pleased with their guest line-up, thank you, as it was announced on Friday.

We've also received many from Liberals suggesting that since Fox is so far to the Right, what's the point in trying to get them to level their playing field at all?

I will remind you that, no matter what you may feel about Fox "News", more Americans watch them now for Election "News" than any other news outlet! Those are not all Republican zombies! But many of those viewers are highly influenced by the hard-right slant that FNC offers in every facet of their broadcast day. With a race (possibly) this close, levelling the playing field in any way on FNC can only be a plus!

CNN and MSNBC, unfortunately leaning to the Right as well these days, do not offer balance to FNC!

You Democrats, Liberals and Progressives who are foolish enough to simply write-off Fox "News" as a lost and/or useless cause are doing an enormous disservice to yourself and your cause and are behaving precisely as Bush supporters would like you to!

UPDATE 11/1/04: H&C now announcing that Jeb Bush now added to tonight's show!!! colmes@foxnews.com, Comments@foxnews.com, mm-tips@mediamatters.org, mm-actions@mediamatters.org, Write">TheBradBlog@cville.com\">Write those letters!!!

GOOD NEWS UPDATE 11/1/04: Just heard from my source: Terry McAullife now added to show for balance! Your letters are working! Keep it up! You are making a difference!!!

FINAL UPDATE: Victory (mostly)! Final lineup: 2 guests from the Right, 2 from the Left! But H&C managed, incredibly, to skew it to the Right anyway. Click here to read how.

Since 1933, the results of the Washington Redskins final home game has determined the winner of the Presidential Election. If the Redskins won, the encumbent won. Every time.

Final Score of just finished Redskins home game:
Packers: 28 Redskins: 14

Then again, the Boston Redsox hadn't been able to win a World Series since 1918. So I guess we shouldn't get too excited just yet. Nonetheless, I'll take the Skins loss today happily over a Skins win

Surely they must be kidding:

For the record, the John & Ken Show (local here in CA) is ardently rightwing, and they have been highly critical of Drier (and the Republicans) for giving lip-service to immigration policies.

Nonetheless, we agree with the National Republican Campaign Committee! Radio hosts who use the public air waves to support one candidate over another should immediately be censured, fined, and have their licenses revoked! Where do we sign up?