Wednesday, October 29, 2008

SPB News for Wednesday.


New report: 2,600+ Iraq/Afghanistan soldiers showed sexual trauma.





SWAT teams on standby if McCain wins US election US police fear riots could break out if John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, wiins the election next month. Law enforcement officials say the intense public interest and historic nature of the vote could lead to violent outbreaks if people are unhappy with the results, encounter problems casting their ballots or suspect voting irregularities. Police departments say they cannot rule out disorder and are mobilising extra forces and putting SWAT teams on standby. In Oakland, near San Francisco, police will have tactical squads, SWAT teams and officers trained in riot control on standby.

Ballots picked up, then disappear --The disappearance of some absentee ballots, picked up under unusual circumstances, has raised some serious questions. Three Hialeah voters say they had an unusual visitor at their homes last week: a man who called himself Juan, offering to help them fill out their absentee ballots and deliver them to the elections office. The voters, all supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Raul Martinez, said they gave their ballots to the man after he told them he worked for Martinez. But the Martinez campaign said he doesn't work for them... He and two other voters told The Miami Herald that the man was dispatched by a woman caller who also said she worked for Martinez. But the phone number cited by the voters traces back to a consultant working for Martinez's rival, Republican congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

More than 50,000 registered Georgia voters "flagged" by computer mismatch Kyla Berry is one of more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been "flagged" because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote. Experts say lists of people with mismatches are often systematically cut, or "purged," from voter rolls. It's a scenario that's being repeated all across the country, with cases like Berry's raising fears of potential vote suppression in crucial swing states. "What most people don't know is that every year, elections officials strike millions of names from the voter rolls using processes that are secret, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation," said Wendy Weiser, an elections expert with New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.
30 Florida counties won't follow state's voter ID suggestion Florida's Broward and Miami-Dade counties have announced that they will buck the state's recommendations for handling voters flagged by the controversial Florida Voter Verification Law on election day, streamlining the process to require less paperwork from challenged voters. The state's final unverified list, released Monday, leaves the voting status of more than 12,000 newly registered voters in limbo unless they can clear up identification mismatches in driver's license and Social Security databases.

Judge rules Ohio homeless voters may list park benches as addresses A federal judge in Ohio has ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other locations that aren't buildings as their addresses. U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus also ruled that provisional ballots can't be invalidated because of poll worker errors.

Obama has firm leads in Colo., Pa. Barack Obama is firmly ahead of John McCain in both Colorado and Pennsylvania, a new Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll shows. In the swing state of Colorado, Obama posts an 8-point lead over McCain, besting him 53 percent to 45 percent. He holds a similar advantage in Pennsylvania, where he tops McCain by 9 percentage points, 51 percent to 42 percent.

Poll: 81 percent of Penn students prefer Obama If Barack Obama were running against John McCain for the undergraduate assembly, Obama would win in a landslide. On Penn's campus, 81 percent of students said they support Obama, compared to 17 percent who said they support McCain, according to a CBS News/Chronicle of Higher Education/UWire poll released today.

Syria warns US: an eye for an eye Syria has warned the United States of retaliatory measures if Washington launches another incursion into the country's territories. "We would defend our territories" if the US repeats such a "criminal and terrorist aggression" against Syria, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Monday, a day after US commandoes launched a cross-border attack on a small Syrian border town. During the raid, the commandoes onboard four helicopters killed at least eight people, including four children in the village of al-Sukkiraya.

British troops to leave Iraq early next year British Defence Secretary, John Hutton, has hinted at a withdrawal of around 4,000 troops from Iraq by early next year. Mr Hutton has told British MPs: "We've got two very finite and clear missions in Iraq. They are progressing well and we hope in the early part of next year we can make some very significant decisions about UK force levels in Iraq."

Campaign trail for Wednesday:

Obama-Biden team

10/29 Barack in Raleigh, NC (LIVE) @ 11am EST

10/29 Barack and Joe in Sunrise, FL (LIVE) @ 7:30pm EST

10/29 Barack in Kissimmee, FL (LIVE) @ 11pm EST

10/29 Joe in Jupiter, FL (LIVE) @ 11am EST

McCain-Palin team

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