Eric Kleefeld / TPM Election Central:
Franken Camp's Claim: We're Now Ahead!  —  In a briefing going on right now with reporters, Al Franken's lead recount lawyer Marc Elias made a stunning announcement: According to the campaign's methodology of tracking the recount results, they believe Al Franken now leads Norm Coleman by a margin of 22 votes.

(Image above by keerthi). Today marks one week since the attacks in Mumbai that killed and injured hundreds (BB post #1, BB post #2). Skimming headlines this morning in the Times of India, the post-attack narrative has now turned to the possibility of punitive strikes on Pakistan by India, with some Indian media implying US support -- things could get a lot scarier, fast, given that both nations have nukes. US Secretary of State Rice just arrived, and on this same day, they've found bombs in the Mumbai train station that was an attack site. One of the other aftermath stories I've been following: what tech devices the attackers used to orient themselves and coordinate communications before, during, and after the attacks. VOIP phones, SIM cards, and Garmin GPS units, among them. Some of this information is apparently the result of interrogation with the one known surviving attacker, and is being printed in Indian tabloids, so I'm not sure of how reliable all of this is. Anyway, snip from one more reputable account: [T]he terrorists who carried out the rampage in Mumbai procured with ease five cell phone SIM cards -- three of which were being purchased from Delhi's Karol Bagh area while the rest from West Bengal's 24 Parganas district, interrogation records of the only arrested ultra have revealed. Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir remained very much in touch with them, frequently calling their mobile phones via a voice-over-Internet service. The government last year imposed strict rules on the issuance of SIM cards by cellular services operators following the Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad in May, where terrorists had copiously used cell phones to trigger improvised explosive devises and send text messages to their handlers in Pakistan. Here's another account: Each man was equipped with a Kalashnikov rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition and grenades. The group also had at least one state-of-the art Garmin global positioning system set, and several mobile phones fitted with SIM cards, which have now been determined to have been purchased in Kolkata and New Delhi. Three men had larger bags, packed with five timer-controlled Improvised Explosive Devices. More about the attackers, who were apparently men in their early twenties, from Pakistan: They apparently took large amounts of cocaine and LSD before and during the attacks to stay awake, in an altered state of consciousness. And, a random, weird thing: one attacker captured alive by the Indian authorities is shown below in a CCTV camera still. Remember how Indian TV news was reporting that his shirt read "CRSA," speculating that this was some new terror organization, when the attacks were taking place? Well, take a closer look. That's "VERSA", with the rest of the word cut off -- "VERSACE." Loren Coleman has more. Previously: Suketu "Maximum City" Mehta on the Mumbai attacks - Boing Boing India: Mumbai Attacks, Day Two; tech speculation - Boing Boing Maximum City: exhausting and beautiful love-note to Mumbai - Boing ... Blasts kill hundreds in Mumbai: local bloggers react - Boing Boing Boing Boing tv Update: Econopocalypse, Julie Amero, Holiday Gifts ... India: 80+ Reported Dead, 200+ injured in Bombay Terror Attacks ......br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=camp;i=f1e36eac4e9c1902f70be8d3ce4c3581amp;p=1"img style="border:0;" src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=vamp;i=f1e36eac4e9c1902f70be8d3ce4c3581amp;p=1" border="0" //a

Whatchu talkin' about Gary? Probably that $100 fine you were ordered to pay.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/50871?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Georgia+run-off+denies+Obama+total+control+of+Senatech=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Obama+White+House+%28News%29%2CDemocrats%2CUS+news%2CBarack+Obama+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CRepublicansc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CUS+Electionsc6=Ewen+MacAskillc7=2008_12_03c8=1127899c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Obama+White+Housec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FObama+White+House" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Republicans have won a crucial election to deny president-elect Barack Obama and the Democrats the chance of a 60-seat "super-majority" in the Senate./ppThe Republican incumbent, Saxby Chambliss, held on to his seat in Georgia in an election run-off held because the November 4 vote failed to produce an outright winner./ppChambliss had called on the electorate to back him in order to build a "firewall" against total control by Obama of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives./ppThe Republican victory means the Democrats have 58 of the 100 senate seats. A majority of 60 would have allowed them to override Republican delaying tactics such as filibusters that could play havoc with Obama's ambitious legislative programme. Instead, the Democrats will have to rely on moderate Republicans to see their bills through./ppAnother senate contest, in Minnesota, is being recounted and remains in the balance but the Georgia defeat makes that outcome less important./ppWith 96% of the vote counted, Chambliss took 57% to Democratic candidate Jim Martin's 43%. Martin benefited on November 4 from the big African-American turnout in the southern state for Obama. Turnout on Tuesday, by contrast, was low./ppBoth sides saturated Georgia with adverts and visits by prominent politicians, including the failed vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, on Monday. Obama, possibly wanting to avoid association with a defeat, did not go to Georgia to campaign for Martin./ppIn Minnesota, the Democratic candidate, Al Franken, is trailing the Republican Norm Coleman in a recount that has to be completed by December 16. Franken is cutting into Coleman's lead. By last night, with 93% of the total vote recounted, Coleman was only 303 ahead./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-white-house"Obama White House/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/democrats"Democrats/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barackobama"Barack Obama/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/republicans"Republicans/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/SFGvZC8YITySS35Mw_IaWciNPJc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/SFGvZC8YITySS35Mw_IaWciNPJc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

On the December 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity asserted that in the Minnesota Senate recount, challenger Al Franken (D) "has been trying to challenge ballots that are clearly for [incumbent Sen.] Norm Coleman [R]," adding, "That is stealing an election." Subsequently, Hannity aired several examples of ballots that the Franken campaign has contested and said to former Rep. John Kasich (R-OH): "I'm gonna put up on the screen -- and I want Al Franken to sue me, because for him to challenge these ballots that are so clearly, you know, for Norm Coleman, I think it shows that he's trying to steal the election." However, Hannity did not display any of the published examples of ballots that the Coleman campaign has challenged that appear to be marked for Franken or another candidate besides Coleman.

Later, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser Kiki McLean said to Hannity: "Sean, I'd like to know that you actually spent the time looking at the ballots that Norm Coleman has tried to have dismissed. Have you?" She also said: "My question to you is have you reviewed all the ballots that Norm Coleman has tried to throw out?" Hannity replied: "I've reviewed a number of them, but I don't see any that are this obvious." But Hannity again did not show his viewers any of the ballots Coleman has challenged.

As Media Matters for America has noted, a Minnesota Public Radio article, originally published November 19, provided some examples of ballots that the Coleman campaign has challenged along with reporting on the reason for the challenge:

The Coleman campaign challenged this ballot [on November 19], arguing the voter didn't intend to vote for Franken, because of the small dot inside the bubble next to Dean Barkley's name.