New job numbers are out this morning, and they’re more bad news for a president who has already received a truckload of it this week. The economy added about 96,000 new jobs in September. That’s fewer than analysts expected, fewer than what’s needed to keep up with population growth in the job market, and way fewer than what Bush’s own Council of Economic Advisors projected in December.

I read a good summary of the Vice Presidential debate on Salon.com. I agree that mainly Cheney managed to continue throwing out information he knows to be inaccurate, but Edwards seemed more concerned with making his talking points that responding to those false statements. Neither hurt each other’s campaign, but Edwards missed some chances to hit some home runs.

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry squared off in Miami last night for the first presidential debate. The result was a solid hit for Kerry. This morning’s papers describe the scene: Bush is described as coming off as “petulant,” “tight-mouthed,” and “frustrated.” Meanwhile, Kerry was “presidential,” “in control,” “serious and substantive.”

As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration?s decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

Reports, including one in The Nation Magazine by Kathy Pollitt, point an incident at the University of Arizona in Tuscon where Fox News reporters attempted to intimidate and threaten students conducting a voter registration drive on the UA Mall.

During a speech in Hamilton, NJ, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was handcuffed, lead away and charged with trespassing after she began shouting questions to First Lady Laura Bush.

As I’m sure you know, I can’t let the Bush speech at the RNC go without mention here. While George claimed it was going to be “43 minutes of sheer wisdom,” (a pretty arrogant thing to say about yourself) it was nothing more than a bunch of happy talk (including that smartassed smirk of his), and a bunch of warmed-over and still ill-conceived initiatives.

As the Republican National Convention kicks off this week in New York City, the GOP is doing everything it can to hide the far-right conservatism that has gripped the party over the last four years.

the White House has denied a recent Freedom of Information Act request for records “detailing White House contacts with individuals connected to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT).