Republicans Up 55 to 41 Over Dems in Latest Gallup Generic Ballot

That margin is for the "low turnout scenario," but still.

See, "Republicans Remain in Control of Race for House."

And from Charlie Cook, "Democratic House Losses Likely to be Enormous, but Senate is Hard to Read."

Rubber Stamp Man

The new ad from Christine O'Donnell (via Greta):

RELATED: "In new interview, O’Donnell: ‘God is the reason that I’m running’." And at The Hill, "O'Donnell: Prayer contributed to a bump in polls."

Picture of the Day, 10-25-10

Via Theo Spark:

Daniel Ellsberg Works to Give Radical Imprimatur to Latest WikiLeaks Disclosures

I've been following the latest WikiLeaks document dump, but haven't had a chance to comment. Certainly the truth about the morally bankrupt Julian Assange is starting to go mainstream, "WikiLeaks Founder on the Run, Trailed by Notoriety." And it's no surprise that when under some real journalistic questioning the dude can't take the heat:

But the latest buzz over WikiLeaks has mostly bypassed the criminal corruption of the top leadership. And of course most MFM reporting, as well as leftist blog commentary, has gleefully focused on the charges that Iraq forces used torture and the allegedly "grim portrait of civilian deaths." Of course what was most astonishing, and by far much more important, was the latest evidence of massive Iranian intervention in the war, and not to mention the evidence that WMD --- long alleged by the left to have been a Bush administration lie --- were being used by insurgents as recently as 2008. And on top of all this, in one more interesting relationship, the New York Times featured a story on the Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, "WikiLeaks Founder Gets Support in Rebuking U.S. on Whistle-Blowers." Given how dramatically the MFM has been all over the Wikileaks agenda since we first were lied to with the doctored Apache video early this year, this latest report on the communist Daniel Ellsberg (shown here at an ANSWER protest in March) should be getting more attention than it has:

LONDON — Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, lashed out together on Saturday at the Obama administration’s aggressive pursuit of whistle-blowers, including those responsible for the release of secret documents on the Iraq war.

Mr. Assange also said that WikiLeaks, which released the trove of almost 400,000 Iraq war documents on Friday, would shortly be posting an additional 15,000 remaining secret documents on the Afghan war.

Mr. Assange, speaking at a news conference in a London hotel a stone’s throw from the headquarters of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, was joined by Mr. Ellsberg, 79, the former military analyst who leaked a 1,000-page secret history of the Vietnam War in 1971 that became known as the Pentagon Papers.

Mr. Ellsberg, who said he had flown overnight from California to attend, described Mr. Assange admiringly as “the most dangerous man in the world” for challenging governments, particularly the United States. He said the WikiLeaks founder had been “pursued across three continents” by Western intelligence services and compared the Obama administration’s threat to prosecute Mr. Assange to his own treatment under President Richard M. Nixon.

Both men hit out at what they described as the Obama administration’s aggressive pursuit of whistle-blowers, which Mr. Ellsberg said put the United States on a path to the kind of repressive legal framework that Britain has under its broad Official Secrets Act. He said the criminal investigations under President Obama of three Americans accused of leaking government secrets represented a new low.

The three men he was referring to were Pfc. Bradley Manning, a former military intelligence analyst suspected of providing the documents on Afghanistan and Iraq to WikiLeaks; Thomas Drake, an official with the National Security Agency who was indicted this year; and Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, an F.B.I. linguist who pleaded guilty to leaking five classified documents in late 2009.

Mr. Ellsberg said the Pentagon’s demand that Mr. Assange “return” any classified materials in his possession was carefully couched in language similar to that used in the aftermath of the Pentagon Papers release, when he was threatened with criminal prosecution for espionage. “Secrecy,” Mr. Ellsberg said, “is essential to empire.”

Nazis? Really? Leftist Academics Totally Wiggin' Over Tea Parties, Suggest Crushing Them Like the 'Wobblies'

Folks are making hay of Rob Reiner stupid freakin' comments, slurring tea partiers as Nazis:

But seriously, the real National Socialists were meeting up in the East Bay this weekend, "Lefty academics convene in Berkeley to try to make sense of the Tea Party movement." This is the elite of the elite, scholars and political scientists who feel simply violated that regular folks are more in tune with the country's founding than they are. And frankly, some of them are suggesting that's just not acceptable.

"I wonder if we're likely to see a Timothy McVeigh situation," says Nicholas Robert, an attendee originally from Australia, who basically wonders if any Tea Partiers can be arrested. "It seems to be that we're being very polite. I wonder if there are any legal mechanisms—one that comes to mind are the provisions used to crush the Wobblies."

The Wobblies. It was a Democrat administration that crushed them, and the ideological crises in Germany following shortly thereafter --- exacerbated by the Wilson administration's failed peace at Versailles --- helped give rise to the far right-wing extremism that elevated the Nazis to power in the 1930s. And here we have National Socialists in Berkeley calling for the exact same kind of repression. The difference is that the Wobblies were real communists and subversives. Today' tea partiers --- not so much.

Enthusiasm Gap Favors GOP in Early-Voter Data

At Politico "The Early Vote: Signs of GOP Passion" (via Memeorandum):

Just over a week before Election Day, signs of widespread Republican enthusiasm are apparent in the early-voter data, including in some places with highly competitive statewide races. Yet at the same time, for Democrats there are promising data in numerous states suggesting that the idea of a devastating turnout gap may be overblown.

POLITICO surveyed early voting through Saturday in 20 states, and in 14 of the 15 that have voter registration by party, the GOP's early turnout percentage is running ahead of the party's share of statewide voter registration — whether measured against 2006 or 2008, when President Barack Obama's campaign led to a surge in Democratic voter registration. As a result, Republicans say they're turning the tables on the Democratic dominance of early voting that paved the way for Obama's victory in 2008 — and that independents' lean toward the GOP this year will do the rest.

And here's this:

California provides an illustrative example of the complexities of interpreting early returns. According to data gathered by the Atlas Project, a private Democratic consulting firm, 43 percent of California early voters have been Democrats, while 39 percent have been Republicans. Considering the Democrats' current 44-31 registration advantage in the state, the GOP appears to be outpacing its share of the electorate, while Democrats appear to be staying home. Then again, in the 2006 early vote — a great year for Democratic candidates — each party drew 41 percent, a performance that was below Democratic registration and well above the Republican share.

Like all recent articles on early voting, the Politico report cites Michael McDonald, an expert on the topic at Brookings. See, "Web Chat: Voter Enthusiasm, Early Voting and the Midterm Elections." He suggests there that neither party necessarily enjoys a clear advantage in early voting, and that other factors come into play. Dems historically do better with GOTV, athough in California I'm seeing an extremely motivated conservative grassroots, so let's hope the numbers cited above in Politico hold up for election day.

RELATED: "New Los Angeles Times Poll is Outlier: Democrats Oversampled in Survey From Left-Leaning Greenberg Quinlan Rosner."

CARTOON CREDIT: Reaganite Republican.

New Los Angeles Times Poll is Outlier: Democrats Oversampled in Survey From Left-Leaning Greenberg Quinlan Rosner

The headlines for the new Los Angeles Times poll are falsely indicating a November blowout for the Democrats in California. My hardcopy newspaper headline reads: "Brown's Lead Doubles in One Month." And at LAT's homepage, "Brown's lead over Whitman widens to 52%-39%; Fiorina not gaining ground." And the killer is the New York Times' blog post, "Brown and Boxer Have Significant Leads, New Poll Shows."

Note first that other recent surveys find the governor's race no better than "lean Democrat" (see Rasmussen's survey out yesterday, with Brown holding a four-point edge with a +/-4 percentage point margin of error). And Survey USA, which routinely tilts left, has a poll out this week with Brown at 47% and Whitman 40%. That same survey throws some particularly interesting light on the CA Senate race. The survey is leaning Democrat in all the statewide races, but is a toss-up for Boxer-Fiorina, Boxer 46%, Fiorina 44%. (This needs more investigation, but there's some interesting speculation that support for marijuana decriminalization among highly-motivated voters is lifting Boxer's numbers. I'm predicting a defeat of Prop. 19 at the polls, so perhaps Survey USA's numbers hold even worse implications for Boxer's chances.) And Rasmussen's poll out yesterday had "Boxer picking up 48% of the vote, while Fiorina draws support from 46%."

I don't want to overstate the point, since it's always uphill for Republicans in California. But there's something suspicious with the methodology at the Times, as indicated at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, who conducted the poll:

These findings are based on a random sample survey of 1,501 registered voters in the state of California conducted from October 13-20, 2010. These findings are also based on 922 likely 2010 voters. Likely voters are defined as registered voters that meet certain conditions based on previous vote history as determined from a voter file, likelihood of voting in 2010, and enthusiasm in the election. This includes respondents who have already voted, voted in both the previous two general elections who indicate they are “almost certain” or “probably” will vote in 2010 and those who have registered since the 2008 election due to ineligibility who are “almost certain,” all of whom must respond as a 5 or higher on a 0-10 enthusiasm scale.

And:

An oversample of 400 Latino registered voters were interviewed by telephone. All interviews from the Latino sample were carried out by bilingual Latino interviewers, and conducted in the preferred language of the survey respondent, English or Spanish. Overall, 41 percent of interviews with the Latino sample were conducted in Spanish and 59 percent in English. The technique of using fully bilingual interviewers is greatly preferred because it does not terminate calls with Spanish-language households and require a callback, which can be difficult to schedule with language barriers ... Upon completion of all interviewing, the results were weighted to bring the Latino oversample population into line with the racial and ethnic composition of registered voters in California. The data were weighted to reflect the total population of registered voters throughout the state, balancing on regional and demographic characteristics for gender, age, race and education according to known census estimates and voter file projections.

Folks can check other analysts (Nate Silver, for example), but given the huge Democrat advantage in California registration (see 2008 totals here at Page 4), and the tremendous Democrat enthusiasm in previous elections, it's pretty clear that the Times survey has oversampled Democrats. Likely voters are tilting toward the Dems at the Times, and Latinos are supporting Democrats this year by a roughly 2-to-1 factor: "Boxer has opened up a whopping 64% to 28% lead among Latinos."

The Los Angeles Times is pressing its fingers on the scales to favor the Democrat Party. There's widedly varied results across polls (the Field Poll had the governor's race tied at 41% last month), and Whitman may indeed be washed up, but I'd hardly count out Fiorina. Additional influences include the ground game over the next week, GOTV efforts on election day, and any last minute bombshell surprises.

ADDED: The Other McCain links: "Disinformation is the new objectivity."

Sunday Cartoons

More cartoons at Flopping Aces and Theo Spark's.

Palin Rallies Base in Florida

At Fox News.

I'm already feeling nostalgic for last Saturday!

RELATED: At CNN, "Sarah Palin says Americans are afraid of Obama's economic policies" (via Memeorandum).

2081

A twenty-five minute film from Chandler Tuttle. A review is here. Tammy Bruce stars:

The Pornification of American Culture

There's a bit of "GLEE" controversy kicking up, and it's reaching into the conservative 'sphere. See, "GLEE-Fully Pornifying the Family Hour." I don't watch the show, but since I keep up with the celebrity hotsy-totsy news, I did catch the Dianna Agron backlash over the racy new cover at GQ, "'Glee' Gone Wild":

How the hell did a show about high school theater geeks come to be the biggest TV show in America? Well, T&A helps. (That's talent and ambition, you pervs.) But so does a generous helping of pot-laced brownies, girl-on-girl subtext, and choreographed dry-humping.

Dry humping? I can see why some parents might be upset, and that cover shot's not going over well either, since the stars play teens on the show. Diana Agron's even issued an apology, "I’d like to start by saying that ...":

... these are solely my thoughts on the November issue of GQ and the controversy that has surrounded its release. I am not a representative of the three of us, the show, or Fox, only myself.

In the land of Madonna, Britney, Miley, Gossip Girl, other public figures and shows that have pushed the envelope and challenged the levels of comfort in their viewers and fans…we are not the first. Now, in perpetuating the type of images that evoke these kind of emotions, I am sorry. If you are hurt or these photos make you uncomfortable, it was never our intention. And if your eight-year-old has a copy of our GQ cover in hand, again I am sorry. But I would have to ask, how on earth did it get there?

I was a very sheltered child, and was not aware of anything provocative or risque in the media while I was navigating through my formative years. When I was finally allowed to watch a movie like Grease, I did not even understand what on earth Rizzo was talking about!? I understand that in today’s world of advanced technology, the internet, our kids can be subject to very adult material at the click of a button. But there are parental locks, and ways to get around this. I am twenty-four years old. I have been a pretty tame and easy-going girl my whole life. Nobody is perfect, and these photos do not represent who I am. I am also not the girl who rolls out of bed with flawless makeup and couture clothing. I am most comfortable with my hair thrown on top of my head, in sweats, laughing with my friends. Glee is a show that represents the underdogs, which is a feeling I have embraced much of my own life, and to those viewers, the photos in GQ don’t give them that same feeling. I understand completely.

There's more the link, but that apology's fail by the start of the third paragraph. Either say you're sorry, say you were wrong, or not. Don't blame parents for overreacting. GQ got exactly what it wanted and you went right along with it. If playing up sex isn't your thing, why star in a racy primetime teen soap in the first place? That's one reason I can appreciate Lady Gaga. She's pretty much no apologies. Indeed, she'll fly the middle-fingered salute if you get in her face.

Passionately Pissed at Obama Socialists

Don't you just love Twitter:

Cliff Kincaid Confronts Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers

And that's Medea Benjamin speaking with Bernadine Dohrn at the start of the clip. These people are terrorists who take pride in helping "the other side."

Meg Whitman at Jewish Community Town Hall

I'm so proud of my former student and wonderful friend Barbara Efraim. Now at UCLA, she keeps in close touch and sends me all kinds of great tips on upcoming political events in the Los Angeles Jewish community. Barbara gave me the heads up on the recent David Horowitz event and she also notified me of the last week's Meg Whitman town hall, but I was unable to attend. Looks like it was a very intimate evening with the candidate, and Barbara makes an appearance with a brief interview at the clip:

Charles Krauthammer Hammers Nina Totenberg on NPR's Hypocrisy on 'Inside Washington'

It's a double-standard, pure and simple. Nina Totenberg's got no defense. If Juan Williams should go, so should she. Charles Krauthammer rightly and relentlessly pounds the point: "Where did Juan go over the line?" He didn't, and amazingly the other panelist assert that Totenberg shouldn't have to answer the question. And God bless Charles Krauthammer:

Red — An Action Flick for the Whole Family!

Seriously.

My wife had so much fun seeing "Red" last night we're going again this afternoon — this time with our two boys! She's especially tripping on the special effects, for example, the chase scene with Bruce Willis hopping out of the car with bullets flying 1:40 minutes below. I'm just glad the family gets to spend some time together. We all work so hard and our schedules are all over the place. So, we're off to the multiplex. More blogging tonight:

BONUS: Left Coast Rebel has more.

Taking Back America — One Pledge of Allegiance at a Time

And jeez, what if the audience wanted to recite a spiritual invocation? No doubt the commissars at the League of Women Voters would have pulled out machetes to hack the patriots into submission. At Gateway Pundit and Memeorandum. One more reason why Democrats are facing world class repudiation on November 2nd.

More here: "The crowd breaks into the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of Wednesday night's candidates forum with 8th Congressional District candidates Joe Walsh, Melissa Bean and Bill Scheurer at Grayslake Central High School."

Alana Blanchard Rule 5

I think Bob Belvedere and Irish Cicero have been keeping up the pace, and good thing too --- I need some linkage boys!! Plus, American Perspective goes with an all-time Rule 5 favorite: "Anne Hathaway, pretty as a picture."

So, keeping with the spirit, enjoy some Alana Blanchard:

As always, Linkmaster Smith will be highlighting the week's hotness for Sunday Rule 5.

**********

And be sure to visit some of the other friends of American Power:

* Another Black Conservative.

* Astute Bloggers (Honorary).

* Blazing Cat Fur.

* The Blog Prof.

* Bob Belvedere.

* Classical Liberal.

* Daley Gator.

* Kathy Shaidle.

* Left Coast Rebel.

* Maggie's Notebook.

* Mind Numbed Robot.

* Not a Sheep.

* Pirate's Cove.

* POWIP.

* The Other McCain.

* Reaganite Republican (Honorary).

* Right Klik (Honorary).

* Saberpoint (Honorary).

* Serr8d (Honorary).

* Snooper's Report (Honorary).

* Stormbringer.

* Theo Spark.

* Washington Rebel.

* WyBlog.

BONUS: Don't forget Instapundit.

And drop your link in the comments to be added to the weekly bikini roundups!

Decision Points by George W. Bush

Available on November 9th:

Fiorina Within Two in Rasmussen's New California Senate Poll

It's neck-and-neck, "Election 2010: California Senate":

California’s U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina remains a virtual tie with less than two weeks to go until Election Day.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Boxer picking up 48% of the vote, while Fiorina draws support from 46%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The race remains a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings.

Last week, Boxer led Fiorina 49% to 46%. Boxer was reeelected with 58% of the vote in 2004, but despite California's strong Democratic tendencies, this race has been close all year. The incumbent, who is seeking her fourth six-year term, has held a small lead in every survey but one since February with 42% to 49% of the vote. Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, has earned 38% to 47% support in those same surveys.