Short Diary, but it looks like the DNC and 2 out of the 3 front runners for the democratic nomination for president will completely lockout Michigan from the selection process.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards both filed paperwork to have their names withdrawn minutes ago with the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson sent a letter yesterday, also asking to be taken off the list.

Today is the deadline for candidates to have their names removed.

Michigan Democrats were under pressure from the national party to disavow the state’s recent move to push the primary ahead of both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in violation of party rules.

The big question now is whether Sen. Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner among Democrats, will join the others and remove her name from the ballot

Lou Dobbs in his weekly commentary slams the elitists and the supposed moderate Mort Kondracke from "Roll Call" for their free trade at all costs in America stance.

http://us.cnn.com/...

While we wait anxiously for election results to come in from across the country, plan our victory parades and get the warm feeling of saying "Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi", there was a light-hearted article in the Washington Post about a school in Arlington, VA using electronic voting for their school elections for the first time. Participation was high and the kids ENJOYED voting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Heck, even in my home state of Michigan, we still use optical scanning and other states still use the slot machine lever (so 1950's) to vote. The kids were really engaged in the process and actually told to truth in their campaign speeches. Hopefully these kids will never have to endure: poll watchers, lawyers, hanging chads, poll workers choking voters, missing Diebold smart cards (hopefully they will be bankrupt or in jail by then), Robo-calls, voter intimidation, fraudulent flyers, campaign staffers assaulting free speech, voting machines flip flopping parties, Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell (well at least we got two of them out of the way)

The Detroit Free Press had a very good article on the fighting dems here in Michigan in house races and their lack of support from the DCCC in this campaign cycle.

http://www.freep.com/...

 

EPIC/MRA of Lansing 8/21-22 MoE 4% (8/14,15 results)

Granholm (D) 49 (50)
DeVos (R) 42 (47)

Personally, I get sick of all the polling that is posted, but this one confirms that the tides have turned in favor of Granholm. I think the "Honda" ads will eventually backfire on Amway Devos. His ads have had no substance and people are starting to see through the BS. Gov Granholm still needs to mount a better offensive than gas price gouging ads

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060823/UPDATE/608230437