Okay, this is a clear trend: scared (mainly old, always comfortable) people shying away from electoral debates presumably because they're worried about the outcomes. Now, Jack Davis, contender in NY-26, is joining a long and not very distinguished list that also includes Shelly Silver, Caesar Trunzo, Joe Robach and Ed Towns.

New Yorkers should make clear to those who'd like to represent them that seeing them argue their case against an opponent is not optional. These people - and mind you, that list includes some very accomplished names of consequence in our affairs - want to get hired by you for a job. The least they can do is give an interview to you, the voters.

But at least Silver, Towns, Robach and Trunzo aren't - yet or that we know of - publicly freaking out at their opponents. That's worth something, I suppose.

Hahaha!

In a stinging rebuke to immigrant-bashing Lou-Dobbs-wannabe ex-republican Jack Davis, 2004 Presidential nominee and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry came out hard for Jon Powers today.

Via Daily Kos:

It will be three years ago this fall that I met Jon Powers and there isn’t a more impressive young man getting involved in public life today. [...]

I first met Jon at a screening I attended of the documentary Gunner’s Palace. When I heard his story, and I talked to him, I was blown away. I then asked him to give the introduction to the speech I gave on dissent and patriotism at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Jon later told me that he remembers that day because it helped inspire him to run for Congress, a fact that I’m very proud of.[...]

His primary opponent is a self-funded millionaire who is responsible for the gutting of the Millionaire’s Amendment – and who has launched a slew of misleading attacks – so please do what you can to help.[...]

Why is this personal to me? Because I believe in the courage and character of a young man who was a platoon leader in the First Armored Division in Baghdad during the early years of the Iraq war. His commanding officer described Jon as, “one of the most talented officers I have known in twenty-two years of service in the Army.”

Support Jon Powers - click here. This isn't just a fight about who's going to run in NY-26 in November; it goes to the root of the question of what kind of party we want to be. Me, I'd prefer not to nominate the ultra-rich former Cheney crony - until he was removed from a Cheney event for being annoyingly disruptive, that is - who went all the way to the Supreme Court to gut the millionaires amendment.

As we originally reported, millionaire immigrant-basher Jack Davis has created a site that violates the copyright of Red to Blue candidate Jon Powers in the Twenty-Sixth District.

It doesn't really take a lot of ingenuity to rip off someone's web site. It takes a special level of ignorance, however, to enact the following sequence.

First, a screenshot from Davis' spoof site.

Okay, so we're all eagerly awaiting the REAL War Kids Relief story (War Kids Relief is a charity started by Powers in 2005 to help Iraqi children orphaned by the war). Well, it showed up today, as a blogspot blog, available here (h/t Phil Anderson).

You know what's really stupendous?

The new blog, already announced on a site directly claimed by the Davis campaign, complete with a disclaimer and a phone number that reaches his corporate office, claims to have no affiliation with the Davis campaign.

Right now the race is centered on the Democratic primary, which takes place on September 9th. The primary is between Jack Davis, the three time professional Congressional candidate, cooky millionaire; Jon Powers, the substitute teacher, Iraqi war hero who returned from service to start a non-profit that has a lot of questions; and Alice Kryzan, the non-existent third wheel who is irrelevant. [...]

But the real purpose of this blog is to get to the bottom or the real story about War Kids Relief out there. This isn't a pro- or anti- Jon Powers website, it's the opportunity for both sides to get information out there to dispell any questions or rumors ongoing. [Emph. added]

People, when something is announced on one of your sites, playing the "I'm just an interested citizen" card is going to make you look stupid. Whoever does Jack Davis' internet is, it would appear, really, really dumb.

Or maybe the Davis campaign feels a slight sense of shame over attacking their opponent for starting a charity that helps war orphans, who knows? Be that as it may, their fingerprints are all over this - because they announced it, with the same language used on both announcement and finished product. Really, really dumb.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently conducted a poll that should make candidates and campaign people sit up and take notice: a staggering 46% of Americans got information about the 2008 campaign via the internet. This is worth quoting at length, so bear with me.

Furthermore, three online activities have become especially prominent as the presidential primary campaigns have progressed: First, 35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos--a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.

Second, 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. This is particularly popular with younger voters: Two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.

Third, 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

A significant number of voters are also using the internet to gain access to campaign events and primary documents. Some 39% of online Americans have used the internet to access "unfiltered" campaign materials, which includes video of candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.

In May 2008, 135 million Americans used the search engine Google to search for information on the internet. And here's where Daily Gotham rules the roost in New York: if you're a candidate for office, odds are, our pages are one of the first results for your race.

For example, Ed Towns: the first result after his Congressional page and his Wikipedia entry is, you guessed, a piece on Daily Gotham.

Jon Powers (NY-26): Campaign site, Wikipedia entry, ActBlue, Daily Kos, Daily Gotham, in that order.

Eric Massa (NY-29): Campaign site, Wikipedia, ActBlue, Daily Gotham.

Brian Foley (SD-3): government site, unrelated site, Daily Gotham.

So is it worth engaging blogs, specifically, this blog? If you care about what your voters will see if they type your name into the world's biggest search engine, I'd suggest the answer is yes.

It's a Powersfest today - the man is everywhere. Now, he's on the front page of Daily Kos, being announced as the newest Orange to Blue candidate - that is, as a candidate for whom Daily Kos, known informally as the Great Orange Satan, will raise money from its huge community of readers.

Jon Powers has earned a spot on Orange To Blue because he's the model of of a modern patriot. He's a soldier who fought in Iraq, saw the flaws of the war up close, and resolved to make it better by helping out the kids who were most affected. He's a guy who stuck with his hometown through the bad times, and who gets excited when talking about the potential for building it into something great again. He's an optimist who believes that government can be a real force for good, both at home and in the world -- and he believes that the key is empowering regular Americans to get involved. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the Powers campaign is his "call to service" -- a plan that would address the critical shortages in the nursing and teaching professions, and which would foster service and volunteerism in all walks of life. It's the product of a candidate who spends a lot of time thinking about how we can make our country work better -- not just about getting elected.

That said, Jon does need our help getting elected. Not only is he running in a Republican-leaning district that was home to the odious Tom Reynolds, but he's got a tough primary coming up on September 9 -- in less than two months -- against Jack Davis, a self-funding millionaire ex-Republican obsessed with self-aggrandizement and beating up on immigrants. (Davis is also responsible for the worst campaign song of the cycle.) NY-26 is a very winnable seat -- but there's no point in winning it if Jack Davis is the "Democratic" candidate. Jon needs our support if he's going to end Jack Davis's ego trip, free the Republican hold on NY-26, and bring his strong, progressive optimism to Washington.

It's a tough proposition, and a lot of candidates would be scared to take it on. But not Jon Powers. He's a breed apart, and that's why he's our newest Orange to Blue candidate.

You can contribute to Jon's campaign right here.

What we're seeing is the party consolidating around one candidate; Powers already has the endorsements of all county committees in his district, and was recently added to the DCCC's Red to Blue program.

As we wrote yesterday, when we broke this story, billionaire Congressional candidate Jack Davis, NY-26, has a scam web site, a direct one to one rip-off of the web site of his principal opponent, Jon Powers. The scam web site spreads disinformation and innuendo about Powers.

Jack Davis, in case you forgot, is the guy who went all the way to the Bush Supreme Court to overturn the millionaires amendment, which before he filed suit allowed people running against self-funding millionaires to raise more money from every donor.

Now he's using his undoubted financial advantage to steal the web site of a netroots candidate and, on that stolen web site, lie about him. To make sure people notice it, he's now bought Google ads on Daily Kos, TPM, MyDD, and other sites across Progressive blogdom, in clear violation of Google's Terms of Service, which forbid the advertising of spoof sites.

Support Jon Powers. He's running against a guy who's not just a millionaire, but obviously a scumbag as well. Self-funded scumbags, unfortunately, are the worst kind.

[Update]: Well, finally: two days after we broke the story, Albany Project chimes in; Buffalo Pundit was quicker, here.

There's a very compelling candidate running for the open seat in NY-26. You may have heard of him; Jon Powers is widely seen, certainly among the netroots, as the type of candidate that we want to send to Washington. Some highlights of Jon's bio include his military service in Iraq, his career as a teacher, and his founding of a charity to bring relief to Iraqi orphans of the war our country started there.

Here's a screenshot of his web site.

And here's a screenshot of a spoof web site put up by one of his opponents in the Democratic primary, one Jack Davis.

That latter site is presently being advertised on Daily Kos. It's the kind of thing put up by people who want to steal your credit card information.

Via brownsox on Daily Kos comes word of Jack Davis, officially disfavored contender in NY-26, and his newest foible.

Words fail to describe it, so please check it out, here.

And when you're done, and have calmed down somewhat, check out a real Democrat - Jon Powers for Congress.

Go here now.

Now that General Petraeus is nominated to oversee the entire Middle East and Central Asia, there are questions that he must address in his confirmation hearing which he refused to answer in his prior hearing. As the head of CentCom for the Middle East and Central Asia, General Petraeus will leave his mark on U.S. foreign policy and military readiness for generations to come and in one of the most hostile areas in the world.

Michael Hayden, the Director of the CIA, is on the record as saying that the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region is "a clear and present danger" to the West and specifically to the United States. Director Hayden went on to say that if the U.S. is going to suffer another terrorist attack on American soil, it will almost certainly originate in this area. That said, I have a few questions for General Petraeus.