Republicans are having a heck of a time finding someone to run for the NY-25 House seat being vacated by the retiring Jim Walsh.

Walsh, who narrowly beat Dan Maffei  in 2006 and later told the Syracuse press that he was "disappointed in the people of Syracuse," announced he was retiring earlier this year.

The GOP was counting on former State Fair Dirctor Peter Cappuccelli to run for the seat, but he unexpexpectedly withdrew this week.

Take a break from politics for an hour or so, and check out the total eclipse of the moon tonight, starting at about 8:40 eastern time.

It will be visible from the Rocky Mountains to the east coast.

This is truly one of the more exciting things that you can do that doesn't involve sex or politics. Human beings for tens of thousands of years..unless you're Mike Huckabee and his followers..have used the overhead sky as a way of understanding and connecting with life beyond them. Lunar eclipses like tonight's will give you pause.

Find a dark place.  Look UP.

It looks like the only way to stop Senator Ted Stevens's backdoor sneak attack on the Refuge is through a filibuster by Senate Democrats and a few allied Republicans who care about the environment.

The prospect of a close vote has so scared the White House that NPR and the New York Times are reporting that Dick "Dick" Cheney is cutting short his trip to Pakistan and returning to Washington tonight. His vote would break a tie in the Senate on procedural votes leading up to a filibuster vote.

Please look at the Alert from the Alaska Wilderness League after the flip, and use the links to call your Senator.

More on the flip:

He's kinda special here.

Yes, this is almost a one-line diary, but a lot of us are wondering how he and his family are.

Anyone know?

Arthur Finkelstein, whose claim to fame includes promoting the careers of former Senator Alphonse "You Say" D'Amato, New York governor George Pataki, and anti-gay bigot Senator Jesse Helms, felt no remorse for taking advantage of a law his own clients rabidly oppose.

(more below the fold)

Late today Bush issued a statement saying that the U.S. would commit $350 million to the relief effort.

Sorry I don't have a link. (no pun intended)

He said he got calls since the election from Sen Majority Leader Bill Frist and Majorty Whip Mitch McConnell  and that they promised him "a voice" in the party.

A reporter asked him if that ruled out a switch to the Dems indefinitely and he said it would as long as the Republican Party was bringing benefits into Rhode Island.

This isn't that much of a surprise, since there would be almost nothing for Chafee to gain by switching, since his vote would not determine which party controls the Senate. And as long as he feels free to vote against the party on issues of conscience (like appointment of federal judges) I suspect Chafee wll stick with the Rs.

(At least until he feels the hot breath of a Democrat challenging for the Seante in 2006.)

The President of Florida Gulf Coast University, William Merwin, asked Williams to clear the text of her speech with him ahead of time. Williams refused.

"I, in good conscience, cannot permit an unbalanced political commentary ... on a public campus," Merwin told trustees. "We need to do things that are balanced. We cannot use public funds to pay for something that is so blatantly political."

Palm Beach County Democrats are suing to get Stork off the ballot so that he can be replaced by retiring Representative Peter Deutsch or another Democrat.

Looks like that may not succeed.

The Miami Herald is carrying the story below.

"Too much and for too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product now is over $800 billlion a year. But that Gross National Product---if we judge the United States of America by that---that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.

It counts special locks for our doors, and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm, and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate, nor the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage. Neither our wisdom nor our learning. Neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country.

It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America, except why we are proud that we are Americans"

"Now, secondly, I want to answer something -- you didn't ask it, but I'm going to ask it myself. (Laughter.) Are you going to keep the all-volunteer army volunteer? And the answer is absolutely. (Applause.) That is why we increased pay to make the all-volunteer army work. That's why we increased housing benefits. That's why we're making sure these troops are skilled.

Secondly, in order to win the war on terror, we need specialized forces. This is specialty work. If you draft, you don't get the specialized force you need. We don't need a draft. We will not have a draft so long as I'm the President of the United States."

Link

http://www.newvotersproject.org/sign_up_to_volunteer

Voter registration and get-out-the-vote in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Wisconsin

Leave No Voter Behind:

http://www.moveonpac.org/lnvb/

MoveOnPac
Leave No Voter Behind
Get Out the Vote in 17 battleground states

League of Conservation Voters:

http://www.envirovictory.org/ 
League of Conservation Voters.
Get out the Vote drive.

Focus on Florida, Oregon, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

Also looking for letter writers to undecided voters

Sierra Club:

http://www.sierraclubvotes.org/roadtosomewhere/

Sierra Club get-out-the vote drive in key states/cities. Starts THIS weekend, September 18. Also a full week of Get Out the Vote the starting Oct 29.

Albuquerque/Santa Fe, New Mexico
Columbus, Ohio
Las Vegas, Nevada
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
New Hampshire
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Portland, Oregon
Reno, Nevada
Tampa Bay, Florida

You can also volunteer to make phone calls from your own home.

Southwest Voter Registration Education Project

http://www.svrep.org/latino_vote/2004/volunteers.html

looking for volunteers to register and mobilize Latino voters in

Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, and Texas

I think we all get a lot of energy and reinforcement out of DailyKos. I wouldn't dream of suggesting we stop talking to each other. But we need to do more. We all should set some specific, measurable goals for ourselves...ones that we know when we've accomplished them.

Here are some concrete suggestions:

*Identify 10 people who aren't registered to vote and get them to register. Call your county Board of Elections and find out the deadline for registering.

*Find 10 people who didn't vote last election and convince them to vote this time.

*Find 5 people who voted for Bush and get them to vote for Kerry. Otherwise convince them that election day is Nov. 20th.

*Write an email to all your friends and tell them who you are voting for and why. Be a noodge. These people are your friends for a reason. They'll pay attention to your opinion.

*Find one local candidate you support and volunteer 5 hours a week.

*Write letters to the editor of your local paper, telling them how you plan to vote and why. You'll reach thousands of voters. Even if your letter isn't published, you will let the editors know that there are people like you out there. This may affect their own editorials about the election.

* Put out a lawn sign or a bumper sticker. Be proud of who you support and make sure people know it.

These are easy things we all can do. I am sure there are similar things others can suggest. Let's hear them.