From Salon.com:

A proposed amendment to California's constitution would give 16-year-olds a half-vote and 14-year-olds a quarter-vote in state elections. State Sen. John Vasconcellos, among four lawmakers to propose the idea on Monday, said the Internet, cellular phones, multichannel television and a diverse society makes today's teens better informed than their predecessors. The idea requires two-thirds approval by the Legislature to appear on the November ballot.

John Kerry, a fairly staunch opponent of capital punishment, reiterates his stand today: Only for terrorists. While we'd prefer the death penalty be abolished and a moratorium put in place until then, Kerry is light years ahead of Bush on this issue.

Of course, most executions are done by the states, not the feds, so many will say his stand isn't likely to have a huge impact. Still, it's important to us that the leader of the free world oppose the death penalty, and we think it will be a position that foreign governments, most of whom have abolished the death penalty, will champion.

Kerry has some more good news this week in the polling department:

Kerry's momentum toward the Democratic nomination, meanwhile, has fueled increased belief among Democratic voters in Illinois that he can defeat Bush in November, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

The poll, conducted March 3-6 among 602 likely Democratic primary voters, found that 76 percent believe Kerry has a good-to-excellent chance of beating Bush in the general election, up 5 percentage points from a similar poll three weeks ago

TomPaine.com today has an interesting article by political psychologist Martha Burk about how important the "Sex and the City" crowd vote will be this fall--single women voters.

Sorry, NASCAR dads, your 15 minutes are up. Single women are the new flavor of the month for the political punditocracy. Inspired by a survey conducted by Democratic pollsters Stan Greenberg and Celinda Lake showing an untapped gold mine of votes among women sans men, the buzz is all about how these babes can swing the election. With 16 million unmarried women now unregistered and 22 million unmarried women who are registered but didn't vote in the last election, this could be a formidable bloc.

According to Burk, 65% of the single women in this country think we are headed in the wrong direction.

Bush will be a tough sell this go-round for moderate women who believed him when he said he was a compassionate conservative. Women know he gave them a bait and switch. He tried to bench those soccer-daughters with an initiative to weaken Title IX. He has dismantled international family planning, even in countries with AIDS epidemics, closed the White House Office on Women's Issues and opened one on faith-based initiatives. That translates into federal dollars going to churches that work against women's rights, most notably in the fundamental right to control their own bodies. The War President is widely expected to tout advances for women in Afghanistan and Iraq as evidence that women should help him get re-elected. Putting aside the debate over whether women in those countries really are better off, the last time I looked, neither group could vote in the USA.

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News to cheer about! Colorado Governor Bill Owens will not run for U.S. Senate. Congressman Mark Udall will.

Rep. Udall is one of my favorite elected officials. He is accessible, interested and responsive to constituents. He's liberal. He's personally against the death penalty. He was a champion for civil asset forfeiture reform. The only bad news is I always end up contributing more than I can afford to his campaigns. Nonetheless, he is the best Colorado has to offer and he's electable.

The Repubs can kiss this seat goodbye.

Check this out - a new poll shows 57% of Americans don't support Bush and want a president who will steer us in a different direction.

A new USA Today/Gallup/CNN poll has Kerry ahead of Bush and Democratic voters preferring Edwards for Kerry's VP slot.

Edwards, the North Carolina senator who dropped out of the presidential race last week, was the choice of 30 percent of voters who are Democrats or lean Democratic, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll.

Nader comes in stronger than we would have thought--at 5%--taking votes away from Kerry:

In a matchup of the presidential candidates, Kerry and President Bush were about even, Kerry at 47 percent and Bush at 45 percent with independent candidate Ralph Nader at 5 percent among registered voters. Kerry was slightly ahead 50-45 percent when only he and Bush were included in the question.

We want a Kerry-Edwards ticket. It will be unbeatable. We hope Kerry sees the light.

Update: Political Wire reports the electoral map favors Kerry as well. And Daily Kos has the 2004 Veep Cattle Call.

We send our get well wishes to presidential contender Congressman Dennis Kucinich who was hospitalized today with an intestinal ailment. Apparently, it's the stomach flu, but tests are being performed.

In related news, Attorney General John Ashcroft remains in the intensive care unit. While we don't like his policies, we wish him a speedy recovery as well.

This is interesting. We hope it's true. John Ramsey, father of slain JonBenet, may run for the Michigan legislature. He's a Republican, but we bet after his own relentless hounding by law enforcement and the media, he has an appreciation for the rights of those suspected and accused of crime. Run, John, Run.

by TChris

Opposition to the Bush campaign's use of 9/11 footage in advertising to promote the President's reelection is becoming more organized. The ads began broadcasting yesterday.

A group representing 120 families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks called on President George W. Bush's re-election campaign to withdraw political advertising using images of the attack's aftermath.

The group, Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, held a press conference to denounce the use of 9/11 victims for political purposes. In addition,

Mary Fetchet, co-founder of the victims' advocacy group Voices of September 11, said in an interview yesterday that she also is concerned about politicians using the World Trade Center site as a backdrop during the August 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

by TChris

Now that Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell has created the opportunity for a competitive race in Colorado by deciding not to run for reelection, Roger Ailes (no, not that one) has conceived a brilliant plan: Draft Jeralyn Merritt.

For those who have never clicked About TalkLeft in the upper right corner of this site, Jeralyn is the voice of TalkLeft. She is also a respected, creative and committed criminal defense lawyer, a frequent lecturer at legal education seminars, and a legal analyst who guests on a variety of national news broadcasts, always doing her best to keep the government honest. Colorado would be fortunate to have her in the Senate.

by TChris

The President's use of 9/11 images in his reelection campaign advertising is upsetting to some who lost family members in the terrorist attack.

Until Bush cooperates with the federal commission that is investigating the nation's preparedness before the attacks and its response "by testifying in public under oath ... he should not be using 9-11 as political propaganda," said Kristen Breitweiser, of Middletown Township, N.J., whose husband, Ronald Breitweiser, 39, died in the World Trade Center.

The White House has been reluctant to provide the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks with the access it desires to the President, the Vice President, or intelligence briefings that would reveal what the administration knew about the possibility of attacks before they occurred.

Others are upset at the use of tragic imagery for a political purpose, regardless of the President's cooperation (or lack thereof) with the investigation.

"It's as sick as people who stole things out of the place," said Firefighter Tommy Fee of Queens Rescue Squad 270. "The image of firefighters at ground zero should not be used for this stuff, for politics."

While the ads are designed to improve the President's image, they may backfire.

"I would be less offended if he showed a picture of himself in front of the Statue of Liberty," said Tom Roger, whose daughter perished on American Airlines Flight 11.

"But to show the horror of 9/11 in the background, that's just some advertising agency's attempt to grab people by the throat."

John Edwards is out, John Kerry is in. It will be Kerry vs. Bush this fall.