So, as you heard if you follow Melissa on Twitter, she's keeping her voice very low this morning. Mostly, because we here on the #nerdland staff are begging her to.

Shortly after yesterday's show, there were signs that Melissa's head cold began stealing her voice, reducing it to little more than a whisper. In the hopes of preventing one of our guests, "The Cycle" co-host Steve Kornacki, from becoming "MHP" impromptu guest host Steve Kornacki, we've asked her to save her voice for the show. Despite the whispers, the beat indeed goes on. (Ahem.)

Topics Melissa will broach today through her (perhaps) amplified mike today include one of the third rails of American politics: affirmative action. We'll have a bonus edition of This Week in Voter Suppression!™, Ohio edition -- and take a look at the first-generation Americans running this fall to serve America in Congress and elsewhere. Melissa also has a preview of this week's vice-presidential debate in store.

In addition to potential substitute host Kornacki, our guests include:

• Debo Adegbile, acting president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
• Chloe Angyal, an editor at Feministing -- and contributor to The Atlantic, Jezebel, The Guardian, among others.
• Sayu Bhojwani, founding director of the New American Leaders Project.
• Grace Meng, Democratic candidate for Congress from New York.
• Christopher Smitherman, Cincinnati councilman and head of the Cincinnati NAACP.
• Robert Traynham, MSNBC contributor and former communications director for Rick Santorum.
• Kenji Yoshino, NYU law professor.

As always, folks -- be sure to interact with us during the show here in the comments of this post, on Facebook, and on Twitter, using the hashtag #nerdland. We look forward to having you join us at 10am ET on msnbc!

One of those You'll Only See It On "MHP" segments aired last weekend, and in light of a recent event, it makes for a particularly salient Good Look this week. That event is the death this week in Canada of one of North America's most notorious academic racists, Jean Phillippe Rushton.

Aside from funding projects around the world for "scientists" like himself, Rushton was notable for his genetic similarity theory -- which posited, essentially, that you're likely to be kinder and more altruistic towards people who more similar genetically to you -- and another whopper about the correlation between genital size and intelligence (we can see where that's going).

More on that from the Southern Poverty Law Center, via Salon:

Rushton’s infamous theory about race and intelligence can be summed up in two words: size matters.

He postulated that brain and genital size are inversely related, implying that whites are more intelligent than blacks and that Asians are the smartest of all.

It was clear that Rushton, for science or his own motivations, believed race to be a genetic, physical construct. But perhaps we should thank bozos like Rushton for strengthening another theory: that race is a social construct.

That's the discussion Melissa opened up last week, spurred on by the Native American identification which Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has claimed from family anecdotes, and which her opponent -- incumbent GOP Sen. Scott Brown -- has tried to make into a thing. Much like "fetch" in "Mean Girls," he's failing; and his staff isn't helping, whooping mock Native war chants and doing the asinine "tomahawk chop" gesture.

See below the incredibly compelling conversation which resulted from all that foolishness. The second part of the three-segment discussion is an interview with National Museum of the American Indian director Kevin Gover, of the Pawnee tribe. You can find the first segment above the jump; the rest, below. Join us today at 10am ET for more news analysis you won't see anywhere else, only on msnbc.

Today's show had plenty of highlights. Perhaps tops among them was Melissa's open letter to Washington Post George Will, whose October 1 column posited that President Obama's good fortune in the polls to this point was due less to white guilt over giving up on America's first black president. I have another take on this of my own which I may offer later, but I doubt I'll do better than the response Melissa offered today.

She offered another explanation, other than melanin, for the President's poll advantage:

It could it be that Democrats have effectively linked Romney with candidates, elected officials, and policies that represent the extreme anti-reproductive rights initiatives in the Republican party. That big gender gap could be because of transvaginal [Virginia Governor Bob] McDonnell, "legitimate rape" [Missouri Congressman and Senate candidate Todd] Akin, and no-pills [former presidential candidate Rick] Santorum.

Could be, right? Check out the entire segment below; those who are unable to play the video can find a transcript after the jump.

The entire political media, since Wednesday night's presidential debate, has been doing plenty of reading. Mostly of President Obama's twitches, pauses, umms, ahhs, looks down, looks up, all in an effort to understand every single one of his missed opportunities in his first encounter with his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney. But for all the Thursday morning quarterbacking, perhaps the best evaluation of the debate was written before it even took place.

Alec MacGillis, writing about Romney's biggest strength and weakness on Wednesday morning in The New Republic:

It is no secret that Romney does not do well mixing with the hoi polloi—the 47 percent, the 99 percent, however you want to define the great unwashed. He tells women they don't have their makeup on yet (3:00 mark), he startles moribund elderly people in cafes, he lets the dawgs out, he insults local bakeries’ products, he declaims about cheesy grits (0:55 mark), he makes fun of people’s rain ponchos (2:15 mark), he pretends to understand their economic anxiety. Most of all, he condescends. ...

In debates, Romney loses this affect. He snaps to attention and he’s firing on all cylinders, because he feels challenged: put simply, he is amongst his fellow 1 percenters, where he feels most comfortable, and he wants to show his wits and win the exchange.

it is arguable that Romney considers himself not simply equal to the President, but quite superior. It doesn't take a lot of reading to understand that. Obama is no mere hoi polloi, mind you; he did make a point of speaking directly to him. But what is key is that the President didn't exploit Romney's biggest flaw, according to MacGillis: the etch-a-sketchitude of his positions. And as a result, President Obama made his biggest mistake -- he made the alternative more palatable to America.

To start off today's show, Melissa will offer her read of the debate, and yesterday's positive jobs news. Other topics we'll get to today include Romney targeting Big Bird, the third grade (yes, literally), and what education researchers call the "Matthew Effect." Melissa will also kick off another edition of This Week in Voter Suppression!™, one which will carry particular import for out-of-state college students looking to vote nearby their campuses. Oh, and Melissa will offer her response to this nonsense George Will wrote, and delve into the "angry black man" stereotype which the Drudge/Carlson/Hannity triumverate tried to bait America into buying about the President the day before the debate.

Guests will include:

• Ari Berman, contributing writer for The Nation and author of "Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics."
• U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, Democrat from Maryland.
• Dan Dicker, CNBC contributor and principal partner at MercBlog.
• Annie Murphy Paul, Time magazine contributor and author of "Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives."
• Raul Reyes, attorney and NBC Latino contributor.
• Matthew Segal, president of OurTime.org, a non-partisan youth empowerment organization.
• Maya Wiley, founder and president of the Center of Social Inclusion.

As always, folks -- be sure to interact with us during the show here in the comments of this post, on Facebook, and on Twitter, using the hashtag #nerdland. We look forward to having you join us at 10am ET on msnbc!

Office of the Ohio Secretary of State

A federal judge has ruled that Ohio must restore full early voting hours for all voters—the latest high-profile win for voting-rights supporters.

Judge Joseph Hood of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled (pdf) in support of a lawsuit filed by the Obama campaign, arguing that Ohio was violating the constitution by allowing military service-members, but not civilians, to vote on the last three days before the election. 

After coming to power in 2010, state Republicans scrapped early voting for all but the military, raising an uproar among voting-rights supporters and Democrats. Many African-Americans traditionally vote on the Sunday before the election, after attending church—a ritual known as "souls to the polls." Around 93,000 people are estimated to have used those three days to vote in 2008, when  Obama won the state.

Lean Forward reported last month that the coalition of military groups supporting the law in court was organized by national Republican operatives.

Secretary of State Jon Husted (pictured) gave no indication of whether he planned to appeal, saying in a statement his office is reviewing the decision.

On Tuesday, in another win for voting rights, a Pennsylvania judge blocked a state law requiring voters to present photo ID.

Marty Lederhandler / AP

Jobs numbers released on Friday showed unemployment dropped to 7.8%—the lowest it has been since January 2009. After an awful debate performance Wednesday night, the numbers were a boost for President Obama.

That prompted some conservatives to suggest there must be something fishy going on. Less than hour after the news broke Friday morning, Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE and a Romney backer, sparked an uproar over Twitter by suggesting the Labor Department was cooking the books to make Obama look good.

Fox News's Stuart Varney got into the act too. "There is widespread mistrust of this report and these numbers because there are clear contradictions," he said. "Oh how convenient the rate dropped below 8% for the first time in 43 months, five weeks before the election."

And conservative columnist Conn Caroll tweeted:

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis called Welch’s comments “ludicrous” on CNBC Friday morning. “I have the highest regard for our professionals who do the calculations,” she said.

by Robert Reich

The White House is breathing easier this morning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, the first time it’s been under 8 percent in 43 months.

In political terms, headlines are everything— and most major media are leading with the drop in the unemployment rate.

Look more closely, though, and the picture is murkier. According to the separate payroll survey undertaken by the BLS, just 114,000 new jobs were in September. At least 125,000 are needed per month just to keep up with population growth. Yet August’s job number was revised upward to 142,000, and July’s to 181,000.

In other words, we’re still crawling out of the deep crater we fell into in 2008 and 2009. The percent of the working-age population now working or actively looking for work is higher than it was, but still near a thirty-year low.

But at least we’re crawling out.

Romney says we’re not doing well enough, and he’s right. But the prescriptions he’s offering – more tax cuts for the rich and for big companies— won’t do anything except enlarge the budget deficit. And the cuts he proposes in public investments like education and infrastructure, and safety nets like Medicare and Medicaid, will take money out of the pockets of people who not only desperately need it but whose spending is necessary to keep the tepid recovery going.

After repeatedly defending his secretly taped description of 47 percent of Americans as “victims, dependent on government,” who don’t take responsibility for their lives, Mitt Romney appeared on Fox News Thursday evening and changed his tune, saying his comments were “completely wrong.”

Sean Hannity asked Romney what he would have said if Obama had brought up the damaging comments during the first presidential debate on Wednesday. 

“Clearly, in a campaign with hundreds, if not thousands, of speeches and question and answer sessions, now and then you’re going to say something that doesn’t come out right. In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong," Romney replied. "And I absolutely believe that my life has shown that I care about the 100 percent. That’s been demonstrated throughout my life and this whole campaign is about the 100 percent.”

COMMENTARY

By Yvette Miley, executive editor and VP, MSNBC

The end of the first debate night in the presidential election gives me the perfect opportunity to talk about one of my favorite sports: boxing.

The pre-debate buildup echoed many “fight cards” for the Duel in Denver. Many watching the debate, on the right and left, applauded former Governor Romney for being the aggressor, for taking the fight to the president. Meanwhile, the president seemed to be following the Muhammad Ali strategy from the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” fight. He didn’t come out swinging, and it didn't appear he was interested in taking advantage of opportunities to jab or counter Romney’s verbal fist-a-cuffs.

Watching the debate and following Twitter was a fascinating exercise. Those on the left were demanding the president challenge Romney more and to raise the “47%.” However, the president—criticized often for not fighting—was on the ropes, apparently by design. This was a presidential version of rope-a-dope.

Connecticut Post

Richard Fourtin, Jr. will walk free after the State Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has thrown out the sexual assault conviction of a man found guilty of attacking a severely handicapped woman because there was no evidence that the woman communicated her refusal.

The man, Richard Fourtin Jr., was accused of sexual assault in 2005, and was found guilty in 2008 of attempted second-degree and fourth-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

But now Fourtin will go free because, in a 4-3 decision, the Court ruled that there was no evidence that the alleged victim communicated to her attacker that she did not want to have sex:

"(W)e, like the Appellate Court, 'are not persuaded that the state produced any credible evidence that the [victim] was either unconscious or so uncommunicative that she was physically incapable of manifesting to the defendant her lack of consent to sexual intercourse at the time of the alleged sexual assault.'"

The alleged victim has severe cerebral palsy and, according to court documents, is not able to verbally communicate. During her initial court appearance, the woman testified by pointing at a board printed with the words "yes" and "no." 

But defense lawyers argued that the woman could have communicated nonverbally by kicking, biting or groaning.

"We are incredibly disappointed with the State Supreme Court's decision in the Fourtin case," Anna Doroghazi, director of public policy and communication at the Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, said in a statement. "The court's interpretation of what it means to be 'physically helpless' jeopardizes the safety of people with disabilities."

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), states individually define who has the mental and legal capacity to consent. RAINN also adds, "Just because you didn't resist physically doesn't mean it wasn't rape," and lack of consent "can be implied from the circumstances"—such as a mental defect.

By overturning this conviction, it sends a message that those with disabilities must work extra hard to fight back in cases where simply saying "no" is not an option. Fourtin's freedom is a sign that more people buy into the "legitimate rape" theory than we'd like to hope, and it's a shame that he will be a free man while the woman continues to live in her own prison of silence.

AP Photo/David Goldman

Stand-ins for the real Mitt Romney and Barack Obama take the stage earlier today.

There aren't too many events outside of the Super Bowl which get the level of pre-event publicity, analysis, and hype. This is not to dis that analysis; there's a lot of good stuff being written about an event that may not change a thing. In that specific respect, the correlation to sports falls apart, since no one is keeping a standardized score: President Obama will not score five points for an effective answer on Libya, nor will Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney rack up 10 for one of those witty "zingers" he's been practicing.

But still, score or no score, the focus will be on who "won." This needs to stop.

There has been plenty of sports metaphor employed in the course of previewing what's happening in less than two hours. The definitive one I read, by James Fallows in The Atlantic, is headlined "Slugfest" and features a convincing, if unflattering, mock-up of the two combatants in a boxing ring. Having come from the sports media world, I get the allure of a good catchphrase or allusion to one of the more definitive things in our culture (outside of the BCS): winners, and losers. We want to see something decided; we want a result. We want this to be over.

Maybe it will be tonight. Perhaps, as Obama deputy campaign director Stephanie Cutter joked, one of them will literally fall off the stage (respect, Bob Dole). Perhaps one of them will do so figuratively, as in "8 Mile," pulling B-Rabbit to the other man's Papa Doc (who, like Romney, went to Cranbrook).

It actually would be a real service to the nation if they did just what Eminem's character does here: spout out all of the canned criticisms that each candidate has about the other, and get to the real problems of the nation. True, some of those canned criticisms matter to Americans more than others.

But more than anything, I hope we don't see two children bickering tonight. I want to see grown-ups, talking to us like we're grown-ups, about grown-up problems. Forget "want" -- I need that. We all do.

Join MSNBC for the analysis worth watching, starting at 8pm ET tonight. Follow the live-blog, featuring MSNBC contributor Joy Reid and newly-named MSNBC.com executive editor Richard Wolffe, on the Lean Forward site. I'll be live-tweeting the debate at @JamilSmith.

Two months ago, Missouri Congressman Todd Akin made headlines for insisting that women who are victims of "legitimate rape" can't get pregnant. That instance outed the Republican Senate candidate as dangerously uninformed at best, and sexist at worst. 

It's enough to expect that such incendiary bombast occurs once in a person's political tenure. But Amanda Marcotte over at Slate unearthed a video from 2008 of Akin on the house floor making yet an even more outlandishly mendacious remark (emphasis mine):

"You find that along with the culture of death go all kinds of other law-breaking: Not following good sanitary procedure, giving abortions to women who are not actually pregnant, cheating on taxes, all these kinds of things."

"All of these things are common practice," Akin continued, "but all of that information is available for America."

Also available to America is YouTube, on which comments of Akin's from a town hall last Thursday can be found. The man seeking to unseat Democrat Claire McCaskill was probed about not supporting the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. His response invokes the most dangerous and careless brand of libertarianism (again, emphasis mine):

"Well, first of all, the premise of your question is that I'm making that particular distinction. I believe in free enterprise. I don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay. I think it's about freedom.  If someone what’s to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble."

According to two polls, Rasmussen and Public Policy Polling, McCaskill is up by six points in their face-off. That's feeling too close for comfort.

On Monday, our friends at "The Rachel Maddow Show" took a fresh look at Akin's comment on the Ledbetter Act. See it below.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) continued its campaign against Mitt Romney’s presidential bid by holding a pre-debate rally in Denver October 2.

Mitt Romney and President Obama will take part in their first one-on-one presidential debate Wednesday, October 3, in Denver.

The organization, which has been advertising in the state in the lead up to the debate, hosted the rally at the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver with local officials, such as Senator Michael Bennet and Rep. Diana DeGette, university students, and PPAF president Cecile Richards.

About 200 attended the rally, according to a PPAF spokesman.

Local Wisconsin news anchor Jennifer Livingston spoke out against bullying on air after receiving a harsh email concerning her appearance.

Livingston, a reporter and anchor at News 8 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin since the late '90s, took a few minutes on Tuesday morning to respond to an email from Kenneth W. Krause, a male viewer, that criticized her weight. The email was posted on Facebook by her husband, News 8 anchor Mike Thompson:

Hi Jennifer,

It's unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn't improved for many years. Surely you don't consider yourself a suitable example for this community's young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping you'll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Livingston read the letter on air, and said she initially tried to laugh off the letter, but after reading the overwhelming response on her husband's Facebook page, she decided to address the issue.

"The truth is: I am overweight," Livingston said. "You can call me fat, and yes, even obese on a doctor's chart. But to the person who wrote me that letter, do you think I don’t know that? That your cruel words are pointing out something that I don’t see? You don't know me...so you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside, and I am much more than a number on a scale."

The video of Livingston's response went viral Tuesday morning. Thousands online responded in comment sections on the News 8 website, YouTube, and other sites where the video was posted in support of Livingston, and even Ellen DeGeneres tweeted: "What a powerful message against bullying. @News8Jennifer, I would love to meet you in person."

News 8 invited Krause on air to respond, but he declined and instead sent a statement to the station:

"Given this country's present epidemic of obesity and the many truly horrible diseases related thereto, and considering Jennifer Livingston's fortuitous position in the community, I hope she will finally take advantage of a rare and golden opportunity to influence the health and psychological well-being of Coulee Region children by transforming herself for all of her viewers to see over the next year, and, to that end, I would be absolutely pleased to offer Jennifer any advice or support she would be willing to accept."

Livingston ended her editorial comment with a reminder to the public that October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and encouraged her viewers to stand up to bullies: "To all of the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with your weight, with the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability, even the acne on your face—listen to me right now: do not let your self-worth be defined by bullies. Learn from my experience—that the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many."