Today at 3pm ET/Noon PT, I'll be holding my third live online video town hall, and I want you to join me!

I've already had two live online town hall meetings, and they have been really successful. I've been able to reach out to voters from Idaho and friends like you from across the country and answer their questions -- face to face. I hope you'll stick around and join the conversation!  Just ask your questions in the chat room below.

Update: Thanks to everybody who participated in today's 3rd online town hall meeting!  You can watch video from today's event below.  I look forward to chatting more with you online very soon!

We all know to hate Joe Lieberman.  Since his nomination to be Vice-President, it seems like Lieberman has done everything possible to alienate his former base and those who wanted him so much to be a first.  The litany is too much to mention, but the highlights of course includes his vehement and illogical support for both Bush's idiotic war, but also his incompetent appointees and his ugly attacks against fellow party members well before this election cycle.

There has been a lot of chatter in Washington over how earmarks have muddied the process.  Legislators put in requests for millions of dollars and there is no debate, accountability or transparency.  Well it is time to expose those legislators like Pat Roberts and Ted Stevens for all the money - - that would be all of your money they have wasted on pet projects.

Here is a diary that is cross-posted over at the Slattery blog, a Blog for Kansas.  The campaign has come up with a creative way to address the out of control earmark system in Washington and the members of Congress slip them into bills only to later have landmarks named for themselves.  

Do you have a camera?  You will want to get the batteries charged if you do.

Here is the post that went out as an email today from Slattery's campaign manager, Julie Merz.

This diary is in reaction to the diary about former Democrat Joe Lieberman giving more money to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) than most Democratic Senators. It's also a try to get another "use it or lose it" campaign going.

All numbers below the fold.

UPDATE 8/13/2008:

When I looked through all the numbers I was surprised that several Senators did not have a PAC. I now learned that Sen. Schumer does have a PAC (Impact). For some reason it's not listed on Open Secret's Chuck Schumer page. His PAC has contributed to the DSCC and individual Senate candidates. I've updated the numbers below.

Yup. He's given $230,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee this cycle ($200,000 from his campaign fund, and $30,000 from his leadership PAC.

Now, obviously, as mentioned in the Politico article, he's doing this to try to buy himself some love:

"Basically, he doesn’t want everybody to hate him," one Lieberman-friendly Democrat said. "Plus he wants to keep his committee."

Of course, that's not good enough. Despite the fact that Tom Carper (next most senior member) is not a great Democrat, we will make sure he becomes chairman. If Lieberman wants to make peace, he can do so by using his time at the Republican Convention to castigate McCain and endorse Barack Obama (think of the media you'd get, Joe! That's what matters to you above all, isn't it?). Otherwise, he's out.

My real point is this.

A non-Democratic member of the Senate has put more money ($257,000) towards electing Democratic Senators than most Democratic Senators have.

2008 is a major, major opportunity that's not coming again for a while. We've got a legit shot at at least 12 pickups. They need to pony up.

The DSCC has released  its first ad for the Georgia US Senate race.

We got some  poll results that Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright (D) is leading Republican State Rep Jay Love by 10 points. Bright and Love are running to replace retiring Congressman Terry Everett in AL-02

This is exciting for all of us as it shows that in a R+12 district where the RNCC has committed money, we have a strong chance at winning. It can really also shift a lot of RNCC resources if they have to throw a lot of money in R+ double digit seats.

Earlier this week, fmr. Vice President and chapion of fighting climate change Al Gore sent a letter out in support of Jim Slattery.  I wanted to share that with you here:

Dear Friend,
This year's election is one of the most important in our country's history, and I am proud to support my great friend Jim Slattery's campaign in Kansas.
There is no more important agenda than electing men and women to the Senate who will help solve the climate crisis. I believe Jim Slattery is such a candidate. He has taken a strong position on the urgency to limit carbon emissions, and on advancing renewable energy like wind, where Kansas can make an enormous contribution toward the goal of replacing dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.

Jim’s credentials for the job are impressive:

Mike Glover of the Associated Press bureau in Des Moines wrote a piece this week on the huge money advantage that Senator Tom Harkin and Iowa's five U.S. House incumbents have over their opponents.

I'll have more to say on this topic in future posts, but for now I want to note one thing: although nearly all incumbents are able to outspend their opponents, that is not always enough to overcome a national tidal wave toward the other party.

It's great to be back blogging with you all here at DailyKos!

Last week, Markos released the results of a new poll that show us running strong in Idaho's U.S. Senate race.  I blogged here about the new poll numbers last Friday.  But for those of you who haven't seen them, here they are:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/28-30. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)

 Risch (R) 42
 LaRocco (D) 32
 Rammell (I) 5
 Undecided 17

There's something happening here in Idaho.  I see it everywhere I travel, including at each of the 32 "Working for Idaho" jobs that I've taken where I'm working shoulder-to-shoulder with working Idaho families, and these numbers are telling the tale.

More over the flip.

We had a great diary earlier by Odinseye2k calledGA-Sen: It Looks Like Martin Is It!

Well he is it and Chuck Schumer just added Georgia to list of races we can win.

Schumer made this statement

"Georgians chose an impressive candidate today who has the experience and vision to change the direction of our nation. As a public servant under both a Democratic and a Republican Governor, Jim has a proven record of working across party lines, and he will be an effective and independent voice for Georgia families. This is a winnable race," Schumer's statement said.

That's right.  It is primary election day in Kansas today so if you are living in the Sunflower State, please don't forget to go to the polls.  

And even if you aren't living in Kansas, you can check out Jim Slattery's new ad that went up today called "Priorities."

Maybe I missed the memo at some point in the past couple of weeks that this race wasn't on anyone's radar. Maybe it was a hard news cycle to crack last week considering that Ted Stevens was indicted and McCain started the attack ads.

Did anybody even notice that John Cornyn for the second straight month
was under 50%?

On Saturday a fundraising solicitation arrived in the mail from Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. It asked me to confirm delivery of the enclosed "supporter card" within ten days, and also to "help keep my 2008 re-election campaign on the road to victory" with a special contribution.

Funny, I wasn't aware that Harkin needed any extra help. Everyone in the election forecasting business has labeled this seat safe for him. The available polling shows Harkin with a comfortable lead.

According to Open Secrets, Harkin had $4.1 million cash on hand at the end of the second quarter. His little-known Republican opponent, Christopher Reed, has raised a total of $11,765 for his Senate campaign and had $292 (two hundred and ninety-two dollars) on hand as of June 30.

Harkin's letter got me thinking that we need a "Use It Or Lose It" campaign for 2008.

Yesterday, Markos released the results of a new poll that show us running strong in Idaho's U.S. Senate race.  Here are the latest numbers:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/28-30. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)

  Risch (R) 42
  LaRocco (D) 32
  Rammell (I) 5
  Undecided 17

When I ran into Markos at Netroots Nation last month, I challenged him to poll our race, and I'm so glad that he took me up on that challenge.  Our own internal poll in June showed the gap at 15 points -- so yesterday's poll results certainly show us with the momentum.  What's more, our internal poll showed that once voters get to know about me, get to know about my stands on the issues, and get to know more about my Republican opponent, Jim Risch, poll respondents shift and choose me over Risch.  Clearly, looking at Markos' poll, that's starting to happen.

More over the flip.

The Slattery for Senate campaign is up with another spot on T.V.  "Young" began airing this week as well across Kansas and its a lot of fun with the flipping cube.

New numbers coming in:

With Obama now firmly in charge of the DNC, and directing his big-dollar donors in its direction, the DNC is finally competitive with the RNC. Combined, the Obama/DNC combo is now near parity with the McCain/RNC pairing. That didn't take long to close the gap. This month, the GOP gets left in the dust, and given that their current heavy spending isn't making much of a difference, that truly is a whiff of desperation you're smelling from the McCain camp.

Meanwhile, our two party committees are crushing their counterparts. The NRCC, in particular, is in woeful straits, and won't be in any position to provide its members or candidates any help whatsoever. Remember -- this is the month that included their big annual Bush fundraiser. They ain't got any more of those on tap.

The NRSC on the other hand has got enough money to play some respectable defense, though little more. The NRCC can't even offer that. But across the board, Democrats will be on the attack this November, with little Republicans can do except fill up some sandbags and hope the rising waters don't crest.

I am a little late to the game with posting this, but I wanted to make sure everyone caught Jim Slattery's new ad that he went up with today called "Apollo."