Michelle Malkin Slams Shameless Lying Liar Stepanie Cutter's 'War on Women' Lies

Michelle's on fire, as usual:

Sarah Shahi

Via Maxim:

GOP Bid for Senate Control Fading?

I don't know actually if the GOP's lost all hope on regaining the Senate, but this piece at the Los Angeles Times is reasonable: "Democrats gain favor in battle for Senate."

One thing noted there (and elsewhere recently) is that there's a noticeable uptick in voter optimism on the economy, which should dampen prospects for Republicans a bit. I'm reminded of 2008 and the financial crash of late October. McCain was still running strong in the race and I thought he might still win. But his campaign imploded and got all off track --- with the candidate suspending his campaign to return to the Senate to work on a bailout package that ended up not being the final bailout package --- and economic issues sealed the election for Obama and the Democrats. This year unemployment rates and presidential approval ratings were trending against Obama's reelection, but O's been seeing his approval ratings spike up around 50 percent in most recent polls. While there's some debate on the accuracy of the polls, it's clear that we're not in as deep a trough of pessimism that would elevate the GOP ticket to an easy win. There's still pessimism --- Americans still think the country's on the wrong track --- but that pessimism isn't as pronounced as it's been in earlier months.

More on all of this as we go along...

Joe Compton, 11, Struck by Lightning in Swindon, England

I imagine this is everyone's worst nightmare, and it's happened to an 11-year-old boy in Britain.

See Telegraph UK, "Weather: boy, 11, struck by lightning in front of classmates leaving school." He'd be dead if it weren't for the paramedics, who, on the scene quickly, were able to revive him. And yet he's still fighting for his life. I'll be saying prayers for him.

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Schoolboy, 11, left fighting for his life after being struck by lightning outside his school."

Skewed and Unskewed Polls

I mentioned this morning that I'm not going to engage in conspiracies about how all the polling is biased toward Obama and the Democrats. Some polls are biased because any poll will have a systematic error as a feature of the methodology. Whether there's an actual demonstrable left-wing tilt to a survey will depend on a lot of factors. Polling organizations will adjust their poll samples to reflect larger census data for various demographic groups, for example. A survey can adjust samples to reflect partisan identification trends for some earlier time period, like the last election. A lot of conservatives, Ed Morrissey comes to mind, likes to compare polling samples to the level of partisan turnout in previous elections. That makes sense but such analyses rely on conjecture and estimation. The factors that contributed to turnout in a prior election may or may not recur in the upcoming election, so estimating polling bias against present trends such as voter enthusiasm is basically unscientific. There's some excellent learned guesswork going on, but conclusions are unsystematic.

So again I'm interested in all this right-wing angst at the current polling trends. My recent piece at PJ Media piqued my interest especially, since the comments there were decidedly unhappy with the suggestion that Romney was imploding, an argument based on actual campaign flubs as well as a growing gap in most of the recent polls. The fact is, President Obama's bump after the conventions has been significant and sustained. That should be non-controversial. That said, any poll putting Obama up by 9 or 10 points over Romney in the swing states is likely an extreme outlier, as Reliapundit argued today, "MORE BS POLLS FROM THE LEGACY MEDIA: NYTIMES HAS OBAMA NEARLY 10% UP IN OHIO AND FLORIDA." Other polls show those states as closely fought, within the margin of error. I expect at this point Obama is up in both those states by just a couple of points, and if so, GOP voter enthusiasm could indeed put Romney ahead on election day. So it ain't over until its over, no doubt.

That said, let's check in with Jay Cost, at the Weekly Standard, "Are the Polls Tilted Toward Obama?"

I can't get a pullout quote from that, so read it all. Cost first touches on some of the points I've raised above about weighting and estimation of previous voter coalitions. But the more interesting thing is Cost's historical analysis of partisan retention. The GOP has a stronger record of keeping partisans in its column on election day. If those trends hold for 2012, then as we get closer to election day, the Obama convention bounce should largely evaporate and Romney should hold a slight advantage if partisan defection rates are factored in. All of this assumes that survey samples are not biased towards Democrats, and that "true partisanship" is teased out with follow up questions for those who first identify as independents. The Monkey Cage has a worthwhile post on that, "Polling Biases and Their Potential Impacts."

So basically, all this big hubbub about 10-point Obama margins in Ohio and Florida is indeed bullshit. But those polls showing Obama with a slight edge are probably accurate, especially when compared to polling trends over the last few months and when compared to contemporaneous surveys. As I said this morning, I'll be more excited when I see some polls with Romney holding a slight edge rather than Obama. So far Romney hasn't been able to pull up neck-and-neck in the horse race. That's what should be worrying conservatives --- Romney's year-long failure to secure an edge in the polls --- not the so-called huge left-wing bias to the entire polling universe. I just don't think there's that big a leftist bias, and I'm surprised to see some on the right entertaining conspiracies. On that point I don't normally refer to Erick Erickson, who I personally think is an asshole, but on this he's right, "On Polls and Polling":

I do not believe the polls are all wrong. I do not believe there is some intentional, orchestrated campaign to suppress the GOP vote by showing Mitt Romney losing. I actually believe that Mitt Romney trails Barack Obama. I think Republicans putting their hopes in the polls all being wrong is foolish. But I also believe the polls are reflecting a bigger Democratic strength than is really there.

More at the link.

And check Allahpundit at Hot Air for the backlash he's getting for posting polls critical of the GOP ticket, "Which polls are, or aren’t, legitimate?" Allah's describing the kind of harsh response I got at PJ Media last week.

No doubt there'll be more to this story, but I'll close with some red meat for the hyper-partisans looking to utterly destroy the Dems on November 6. It's Dick Morris with an extremely bullish take on the race, which has even Sean Hannity saying, nah (via Nice Deb):

Latest New York Times Poll Shows Obama Pulling Out Huge Lead in Ohio and Florida

I'm expecting the race to tighten, especially in the swing states, but NYT indicates that O's pulling out a commanding lead.

What's up with that?

Astute Bloggers has the lowdown, "MORE BS POLLS FROM THE LEGACY MEDIA: NYTIMES HAS OBAMA NEARLY 10% UP IN OHIO AND FLORIDA":

THE SAMPLE DOESN'T REFLECT THE LIKELY TURNOUT AT ALL.

THE SAMPLE HAS 9% MORE DEMS THAN REPUBLICANS, AND GIVES OBAMA A 9% LEAD.

IF THE DEMS TURNOUT LIKE THEY DID IN THE LAST ELECTION, THEN OBAMA LOSES.

OBAMA'S WEAK FUNDRAISING AND SMALL CROWDS OFFERS INCONTROVERTIBLE PROOF THAT HE IS NOT AS POPULAR NOW AS HE WAS IN 2008.

THE 2010 ELECTION PROVES THE GOP IS MORE ENERGIZED - AS DO ROMNEY RYAN CROWDS AND FUNDRAISING.

That's solid, although I'm interested to see some comparative polling data. The Florida Times Union has this, for example, "President Obama holds slight lead over Mitt Romney in Times-Union Florida poll" (via Memeorandum):

Overwhelming majorities with black and Hispanic voters have helped President Barack Obama to a slim lead in the Times-Union’s Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research Florida Presidential Poll released Tuesday.

Among likely voters, 49 percent favor Obama for November’s election and 46 percent like Mitt Romney.

One percent backed other candidates and 4 percent were undecided.

The poll of 540 Floridians has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

A Washington Post poll, also released Tuesday, shows Obama leading Romney, 51 percent to 47 percent among likely Florida voters. Among all registered voters in the state, the poll shows Obama up by 9 points.

Well now, that's not quite so dramatic.

That said, I'm not going to freak out with those right-wing polling conspiracies that have been making the rounds in the conservative fever swamps. Romney's trailing. He's been trailing for a long time. We need to see some swing states polling with Obama trailing before I'll be real confident about the GOP's prospects.

More at Memeorandum.

Elizabeth Warren Not Licensed to Practice Law in Massachusetts

William Jacobson has been on fire with his huge scoop on Elizabeth Warren's likely criminal misrepresentations while holding her teaching position at Harvard.

See, "Elizabeth Warren’s law license problem."

And the story's getting national coverage, which is great! See, "Elizabeth Warren’s law license problem on Fox News today."

BONUS: Idiot faux-libertarian Mark Thompson tried to smack down William, at the laughable League of Ordinary Gentlemen, "No, Elizabeth Warren Did Not Engage in the Unauthorized Practice of Law."

And in response, William made mincemeat of that idiot Thompson, "No, Mass. Board of Bar Overseers has not exonerated Elizabeth Warren."

EXTRA: IBD weighs in, "Elizabeth Warren Busted Defending Big Corporations Without Law License":

Warren is a proven liar, hypocrite and fraud, and ought not darken the halls of the U.S. Senate as an expert witness let alone a member of that august body.

Ouch.

The 10% President

Be sure to read this phenomenal editorial at the Wall Street Journal: "The annotated Obama: How 90% of the deficit becomes somebody else's fault."

Mona Eltahawy Defaces Pamela Geller's 'Savages' Ad at New York's Times Square Station

The New York Post reports, "EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Woman defaces 'anti-jihad' ad in Times Square station."

And there's more at Pamela's, "Mona Eltahawy Arrested for Assaulting Pro-Freedom Blogger While Defacing AFDI Pro-Freedom Ad." (Via Memeorandum.)


Eltahawy said she had a right to deface the advertisement, claiming that her actions were protected as "free speech." The police were obviously not pleased.

NFL's Substitute Officials Are a Joke

According to Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "NFL losing credibility with each blown call by replacement refs":

Hail Mary. Holy hell.

On the final play of the final game of one of the most shameful weekends in NFL history, a last-gasp pass from the Seattle Seahawks fell from the sky into the arms of the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.

Touchdown, Seattle. Chaos, NFL.

Three weeks of gross incompetence by unqualified replacement officials crystallized in two moments Monday night that pushed the league's integrity to the brink.

In one moment, Packers safety M.D. Jennings clearly intercepted a final-play pass while falling upon Seahawks receiver Golden Tate in the end zone, preserving an apparent 12-7 Green Bay win.

In the next moment, the replacement officials ruled that Tate had made the catch, and upheld that ruling after replay review, giving the Seahawks a 14-12 victory.

Said Packers Coach Mike McCarthy: "I've never seen anything like that in all my years in football."

Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman tweeted: "These games are a joke."

It's finally happened. After three weeks of forgetting the rules, losing track of the ball, and haphazardly administering this country's national pastime as if they were salesmen on vacation from Foot Locker, the replacement officials have finally done serious, irrevocable damage. The arrogant NFL's middle-school and small-college substitutes for the locked-out regular officials have finally, actually, literally made one wrong call that decided the outcome of a game.

It was one of the worst calls in the history of the league, yet it might turn out to be one of the best calls if humiliated Commissioner Roger Goodell was listening to the message it sent.

Give it up. Settle this labor dispute. Settle it now. Your power play didn't work.

That's a great piece. RTWT.

Plus, I guess it's no surprise, but the despicable progressives are trying to score political points on this, and over unions too. Amazing. See the consistently dishonest Steve Benen at Maddow's blog, "Scott Walker discovers the value of union workers." And at the anti-Israel, Soros-backed hate-site Think Progress, "Paul Ryan Demands Return of Unionized NFL Referees: ‘It Is Time to Get the Real Refs’." (At Memeorandum.)

For some reason I don't think there's an accurate comparison between the NFL officials' union and, say, public sector teachers unions. But then again, folks like Steve Benen and the Think Progress anti-Semites probably back public teacher sexual predators over abused children and their parents. Because that's what's happened to the public unions these days. They've been horribly denuded of any basic decency from the constituency they ostensibly serve. They're completely unaccountable, and they're literally harming children. It's the other way around with the NFL's temporary referees. They're harming the game and they're on the way out.

But the idiot progs don't care about excellence. They only care about union power. Screw 'em.

The Democrats' Ronald Reagan

You can't beat this, at Weasel Zippers, "Newsweek: Trig Truther Andrew Sullivan Declares Obama “The Democrats’ Ronald Reagan”…":

Another Newsweek slobber-fest courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. Nice to see Newsweek embracing a paranoid conspiracy theorist as its favorite columnist...

A slobber-fest, no doubt. From the article:

If Obama wins, to put it bluntly, he will become the Democrats’ Reagan. The narrative writes itself. He will emerge as an iconic figure who struggled through a recession and a terrorized world, reshaping the economy within it, passing universal health care, strafing the ranks of al -Qaeda, presiding over a civil-rights revolution, and then enjoying the fruits of the recovery. To be sure, the Obama recovery isn’t likely to have the same oomph as the one associated with Reagan—who benefited from a once-in-a-century cut of top income tax rates (from 70 percent to, at first, 50 percent, and then to 28 percent) as well as a huge jump in defense spending at a time when the national debt was much, much less of a burden. But Obama’s potential for Reagan status (maybe minus the airport-naming) is real. Yes, Bill Clinton won two terms and is a brilliant pol bar none, as he showed in Charlotte in the best speech of both conventions. But the crisis Obama faced on his first day—like the one Reagan faced—was far deeper than anything Clinton confronted, and the future upside therefore is much greater. And unlike Clinton’s constant triangulating improvisation, Obama has been playing a long, strategic game from the very start—a long game that will only truly pay off if he gets eight full years to see it through. That game is not only changing America. It may also bring his opposition, the GOP, back to the center, just as Reagan indelibly moved the Democrats away from the far left.

I read the whole thing.

This kind of story would have never been published back when I started out in college. It's a partisan puff piece. RAWMUSCLEGLUTE is creaming all over Obama. It's perverse. And it's riddled with errors, naturally, but we won't see a full-court press to get an apology and retraction, as was the case with Niall Ferguson's recent cover story slamming Obama. The left went batshit crazy over that one, Paul Krugman especially. But Ferguson had the facts down cold, literally unassailable, which further enraged the netroots buttfreaks. They're literally a mob.

Million-Dollar View? Try $90 Million

This is something else, at the New York Times, "Rising Tower Emerges as a Billionaires' Haven'":

One57, a 1,004-foot tower under construction in Midtown Manhattan, will soon hold the title of New York’s tallest building with residences. But without fanfare from its ultraprivate future residents, it is cementing a new title: the global billionaires’ club.

The buyers of the nine full-floor apartments near the top that have sold so far — among them two duplexes under contract for more than $90 million each — are all billionaires, Gary Barnett, the president of the Extell Development Company, the building’s developer, said this week. The other seven apartments ranged in price from $45 million to $50 million.

The billionaires’ club includes several Americans, at least two buyers from China, a Canadian, a Nigerian and a Briton, according to Mr. Barnett and brokers who have sold apartments in the building, at 157 West 57th Street. Mr. Barnett said that at least a few buyers were “significant Forbes billionaires.”

Since late last year, the “trophy” end of New York’s real estate market has been recording eye-popping sales that seem to have little basis in reality. The signed contract for the nearly-11,000-square-foot duplex on the 89th and 90th floors of One57 that sold for about $95 million topped the record sale in March of a penthouse at 15 Central Park West to a Russian billionaire’s daughter for $88 million. In June, Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas casino magnate, paid $70 million for a duplex penthouse apartment above the Ritz-Carlton.

Individual sales aside, it is the sheer concentration of wealth in One57, a $1.5 billion development, that is raising the eyebrows of some longtime market watchers.

More at that top link.

Plus, "Two Billionaire Buyers Revealed at One57."

Iran Says Israel 'Threatening' U.S. With Allegations of Iranian Nuclear Weapons

At the Washington Post:

NEW YORK — Israel is bullying the United States over the alleged threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon, using the prospect of an Israeli military attack on Iran to force the hand of its much larger ally, Iran’s president said Monday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the idea that Israel might attack on its own, over the objections of the United States, and said Israel is an inconsequential interloper with no rightful place in the Middle East.

“I look at it from the outside, and I see that a few occupying Zionists are threatening the government of the United States,” Ahmadinejad said during an interview with American editors and reporters.

“Is it the Zionists who must tell the United States government what to do, such as form a red line on Iran’s nuclear issues, and the United States government must make such vital decisions under the influence of the Zionists?” Ahmadinejad said, using the Iranian regime’s term for Israel. He spoke through an interpreter.

Americans should be insulted if their government takes marching orders from Israel, Ahmadinejad added.

The two-term Iranian leader spoke on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. The gathering this year is colored by the politics of the U.S. presidential election and by the possibility of an Israeli military strike on Iran.

The Obama administration is chafing under increasingly direct pressure from Israel to declare “red lines” in Iran’s nuclear development that would trigger a U.S. attack. President Obama, who is scheduled to address the United Nations on Tuesday, has said he would not tolerate an Iranian nuclear bomb. He has threatened a military strike if there is no other option to prevent Iran from getting a bomb, but he has not publicly set a deadline for diplomacy to run its course.

Also at Weasel Zippers, "Ahmadinejad: Zionists Control The U.S. Government…"

More at CSM, "Iran's Ahmadinejad says that Israel will be 'eliminated'."

Who Knows?

She's a vile woman.

I'm surprised she's even competitive, she's such a liar.

At Legal Insurrection, "Scott Brown launches first ad on Elizabeth Warren Cherokee claim."

The Blasphemous Michael Coren

At Blazing Cat Fur.

Pamela Geller's Anti-Jihad Ads Go Up in New York's Subways

At National Post, "Support Israel against 'the savage': Blogger's controversial anti-jihad ads hit NYC subways."

And at the clip, I guess AP couldn't find anyone who thought that Muslim beheadings of innocent civilians is savagery. The first women interviewed nails it, however. You have the right to free speech, even if some folks find that speech offensive.

Christina Hendricks Rocks Post-Emmys Governors Ball

Robert Stacy McCain has long pumped up Christina Hendricks as the ultimate Rule 5 babe. I just haven't posted on her that much. She sure is lovely.

See London's Daily Mail, "That's how you get over a loss: Christina Hendricks lets her hair down at Governors Ball after Mad Men Emmys snub."

'F-ck Off' and 'Have a Nice Life'

Now this is interesting, at BuzzFeed, "Hillary Clinton Aide Tells Reporter to “F**k Off” And “Have a Nice Life”."

It turns out Hillary Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines got a bit bothered by the press inquiries. Ann Althouse has an outstanding post on this, at Instapundit, "DON’T GET DISTRACTED BY FACT THAT A STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN SAID “F*ck Off” and “Have a good life” to that BuzzFeed reporter..."

Follow that link. It's good.

The World Needs American Strength, Not Apologies

Via Bob Belvedere:

Ex-Pittsburgh Pirates Owner Kevin McClatchy Comes Out

It's hard out there for a sexual deviant.

See Towleroad, "Kevin McClatchy, Newspaper Scion And Former Pittsburgh Pirates Owner, Comes Out."