Okay, it looks like things may start happening fast in the next few days, and maybe last until past the end of the last debate in a week or so.

The Edwards-Cheney debate is due to start in about seven hours. A lot of people have been painting Edwards as a “silver-tongued” trial attorney, fast on his feet and experienced at zapping corporate heads before juries–but Cheney, while being the curmudgeon he is, exudes a great deal of confidence and authority; in short, he’s no pushover. This will be a challenge, for both of them.

Bush is poised to steal the limelight should Edwards score points: he has scheduled a “significant” speech at the last minute that is to focus on terrorism and the economy. There have been a few whispers about this being the “October Surprise,” but others feel that it’s just being pumped up in order to trick the networks into giving Bush live air time so he can speak without Kerry there to whup his ass.

It may be Bush taking preemptive action against Kerry before the next presidential debate, as there are reports that the White House is spreading rumors of a “revision” to jobs numbers from March 2003 to March 2004, adding as many as 288,000 jobs to that time period, adding 40% more jobs created. Have your BS Detectors on full-charge, though–economists say that the revision would be more like 140,000 jobs, which could be subtracted from the total as well as possibly being added.

Wall Street expects about 150,000 new jobs to have been created in September, which would be about the number needed to keep up with population growth–no real job growth, in other words. But that number may not be reached–there were huge layoffs this September, 107,863 to be exact, 41% more than this time last year. Layoffs were mostly in computer, transportation, telecommunications and consumer products industries–mostly high-paying markets.

In the meantime, a notable Republican has just endorsed Kerry: Marshall Wittmann, until recently an aide to Senator John McCain, is putting his weight firmly and fully behind Kerry and Edwards; give his announcement a read.

And an incentive to vote Kerry if you’re pro-choice and undecided: thirty states are poised to outlaw abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court. If Bush gets into office again–lest we forget–he will likely have a shot at at least one and perhaps as many as four appointments to the SC. Meaning that the court could be stacked solidly with conservatives who will likely be in lockstep with radical conservatives on a wide range of issues, abortion being only one. Others will concern constitutional rights and antiterrorism laws, separation of church and state, gun control, and a host of other issues of vital importance to many. That alone is good reason to vote Bush out.

There is good news in the polls: Rasmussen, one of the more honest polls, had Bush ahead of Kerry 49% to 45% just three days ago. Over each of those last two days, however, Kerry has gained one point per day, and Bush has lost the same, putting both at 47%.

Oh, and hey, remember Florida? More suspicious activity. The Republican, strongly pro-Bush secretary of state Glenda Hood is now pressuring counties to disqualify large numbers of voters based upon a technicality, namely “skipping the citizenship box if they affirmed elsewhere with their signatures that they are U.S. citizens.” In other words, they affirmed they were citizens, but if they didn’t do it twice, then they are denied the right to vote. Miami-Dade, Leon and Orange counties are defying the order, and will not deny citizens the right to vote over such a trivial oversight. Broward county, however, is gung-ho in following the order. If you recall, Broward was one of two counties in 2000 which allowed Republican operatives unlimited and illegal access to absentee ballot requests that had been filled out wrongly, essentially allowing the local GOP reps to erase all the mistakes made by Republican applicants. That was one of the several independent incidents of election fraud of which any one gave the election to Bush.

There’s a lot more, but it’s late and I’m tired… I have to wake up in time to catch the debate! Stay tuned–it’s only going to get busier.