If anyone thinks that last week's crushing, humiliating defeat might have launched a process of self-examination among the defeated and rejected, think again. This is what's on the front page of The New York Times right now.

Democrats Seek Help for Automakers

Lobbyists Swarm the Treasury for Piece of Bailout Pie

Democrats in Congress are saving the collapsing auto industry; republicans at Treasury are throwing your money out the windows for the benefit of lobbyists. It doesn't get clearer than that.

The Jewish morning prayer service ends with the Psalm of the day. Psalm 82 concludes the service on Tuesdays, which is also Election Day in this Country. I find it an interesting coincidence that the Psalm, written more than two millennia ago and admonishes hypocritical leaders who favor the powerful over the poor, is read on Election Day. When I read it, I always imagine a biblical era prophet chastising contemporary Republicans.

The Birnbaum Siddur or Prayerbook reads right to left with the odd pages written in Hebrew while the even pages contain translations of the Hebrew text in archaic King James style English. I choose to pray with Birnbaum when it's an available option, over books with easier to understand English, because I'm used to its liturgical translation. Although I know how to read Hebrew and recite some prayers in that ancient tongue, I understand little of the language and pray mostly in English. Using other English translations throws me off.

Containing just 8 sentences, Psalm 82 is among the Bible's shortest chapters. Below is the Birnbaum version of the Psalm.

Securing the votes in Congress to pass real immigration solutions into law isn’t going to be easy. The next President – no matter who wins – will need to lead his own party first to get it done.

Senator Obama would surely have an uphill climb, even with a Party Platform that favors comprehensive reform. But, given an enforcement-only Party Platform and the policy positions of most Republicans in Congress, Senator McCain may need to scale a brick wall to bring his party on board!

Nevertheless, both candidates continue to talk about reform (at least in Spanish).

Yesterday I had a bit of fun at the expense of the Republican noise machines and their efforts to paint themselves already as a loud and marginalized minority in Capitol Hill. I was so caught up on the moment that I didn't blog about it until this morning but Kenneth Quinnell described it as a "Twitter Bomb" and has happy to spread the word :

Twitter Bomb

This wasn't my idea (although I came up with the cool name), I think Liza Sabater was the one who started it, but it's too brilliant to pass up.

Those of you who are on Twitter, send as many tweets as you can over the next few days with #dontgo in them. The conservatives are using this hash mark (like a tag) to spread misinformation about offshore drilling and their latest publicity stunt. What Liza and a few others started doing was to flood that hash with counter-commentary or irrelevant posts. Sort of like a google bomb, this can either disrupt what they're doing or, at the very least, annoy the crap out of them. We can all do this.

Whatever you're posting on twitter, try to fit #dontgo into it. And make sure you include the # sign, which is key.

If you aren't on Twitter, this might be the type of thing to get you into it.

And before I even start to explain, let me break down the lingo for you.

The Democratic Senators unanimously support a new GI Bill to help returning Veterans, providing them with full tuition, room and board to give them more education opportunities.

George Bush, John McCain, and all but 9 Republican Senators are oppsing this support for Veterans, going so far as to threaten a fillibuster to prevent a vote on this.

General Wesley Clark, Robert Greenwald, and Captain Jon Soltz are joining together to demand Republicans support our Veterans:

I think it is useless to try and get McCain behind this. Ironically McCain, along with most Republican Senators, get very poor ratings from Veterans and Solder advocacy groups. From Project Vote Smart, here are John McCain's ratings on Veterans' Issues from 2004 on:

The Republican Party is a nervous coalition of three right-wing groups. They are the religious right wing, the fiscal right wing, and the military-industrial complex right wing. The religious right wingers want to ban abortion, throw gays and lesbians out of society, and institute an evangelical Christian theocracy. The fiscal right wingers want to eliminate taxes on the wealthy and spend our way to bankruptcy. The military-industrial complex right wingers want to keep us in wars, sending poor kids to fight and die, and give huge, lucrative government contracts to member companies.

In 1980 they hit the jackpot. Ronald Reagan appealed to all three groups. It was brilliant politicking. He cozied up to Jerry Falwell and Ralph Reed for the religious RW vote, talked tax cuts all over the place for the fiscal RW folks, and evoked the "evil empire" for the MI-complex RWers.

[UPDATED: Added Vito Fossella, found guilty by House Ethics Committee...addition is bolded and added to totals. Any other additions?]

[UPDATED: Title altered to satisfy the nit pickers]

At the risk of belaboring a point, corruption in government is a major problem that came to the forefront of people's consciousness during the 2006 election. Next to the Iraq war, corruption in government was possibly the top issue that determined voters' decisions in 2006...and may again in 2008.

Here on Daily Gotham we discuss corruption and alleged corruption among Democrats (and alleged Democrats) in Brooklyn quite often...particularly when members of the local machine place nasty little comments on our site. But I always try to put it into perspective. And, in light of the spectacular investigative journalism of Liza and Bouldin uncovering alleged misdeeds of the long-time apparent sleazebag Roger Stone, I think some perspective is in order. Simply put, although there are pockets of seeming corruption among Democrats in places like Brooklyn and Louisiana, corruption is at all levels predominantly a Republican past time. Want proof? Well, here goes.

Frigging finally: CapCon notes that there are pro-Spitzer emails countering the virtual armada of republican web sites and associated email campaigns.

Now, the Dems are firing back with their own e-blasts that contain links and editorials in support of the governor. They come courtesy of Jonathan Rosen, at Berlin Rosen Public Affairs, which is working for the govenor state Democratic Committee.

Not too shabby, considering that there are now, it appears, three separate Bruno front groups - let's give that baby a name, because that's what they are - out spamming Dicker's curdled wisdom to influentials. There's NYFacts.net, SpitzerFiles.com and a third one, if I'm not confusing them, that goes automatically to my spam folder.

Of course, despite the NYSDC's vaunted blogger outreach, there hasn't even been a single email from them, or any other contact, to coordinate the Progressive response to Bruno's oily attempts to cripple the governor. Hard to see how the look-Ma-no-hands approach is effective, but I'm sure they'll get around to it one of these days.

They're eating each other. We reported yesterday on the video put out by firefighters who don't want to be a stepping-stone in Rudy's march to the White House; and today, Fred Thompson took that knife and buried it firmly in Rudy's back.

The Murdoch Post has the autopsy:

Likely Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson hit Rudy Giuliani's turf yesterday, talking with the city firefighters-union chief who's going all out to derail the former mayor's 2008 candidacy.

Thompson had breakfast with Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy and former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato hours before he met with Conservative Party leader Mike Long.

Now, Al D'Amato's distaste for Rudy is not exactly a secret. But this isn't his doing.

[Cassidy] said Team Thompson asked for the meeting, adding, "I think our endorsement's important."

So this is actually quite funny: in yesterday's City Section, here, is a report on the efforts by republicans to stave off the imminent death of their party.

It looked like an exam room for an S.A.T. A week ago Saturday, in a small conference room in a hotel in Bayside, Queens, rows of tables stood covered with neatly laid-out papers. The type of people filing into the room, however — mostly middle-aged and older — suggested otherwise.

This was, in fact, the first Candidates’ School of the Queens County Republican Party, where Republican hopefuls, in a city and state dominated by Democrats, had gathered for a crash course from campaign experts and party leaders on how to become better candidates.

You can have the best candidates imaginable - virginal Nobel Prize winners cum war heroes cum volunteers at the local homeless shelter - but they will founder on the deeply unpopular message which they must of necessity represent; brand GOP is dead in New York.