I would like to ignore this but I cannot, as it comes from Rasmussen, and there have been other polls suggesting this. Currently 45-42. That's winning -- even winning kinda big -- but that is not winning huge. Not even close.

Is that bad? Eh, there are still good polls for us, but I am now shifting to the idea this Democratic rally is for real. Real, but not enough (still losing), but enough to put the fear of Ewok into you.

Jim Geraghty's political guru "Obi Wan" actually said he expected this (before it happened) and was getting concerned that it wasn't happening. That is, I think, this sort of counter-movement is natural and inevitable and its existence confirms the general trend:

Obi-Wan: ...

I thought things were finally starting to make sense when I saw the bad news in the Boxer and Rand Paul polls, Boxer going up 8 and Rand PaulÂ’s lead shrinking to 2.

Jim: That made sense to you?

Obi-Wan: I was waiting for the oscillation. Polling trajectories are like the Dow – nothing linear. We go up. We go down. The oscillations have to happen. So some downside, some voter pullback, some temporary buyer remorse makes you feel at home, you think you know what’s happening.

I mean, the Senate numbers arenÂ’t supposed to keep breaking towards the GOP. WeÂ’re not even out of September. And Ohio, Pennsylvania and even Wisconsin look like they are gone for the Democrats? And Washington, West Virginia and Connecticut are already toss-ups? In a normal wave year, that could happen, but you wouldnÂ’t see it for a while. Not till mid or late October.

So I was thinking all the trajectories are just advanced this year and so those polls were possible – it would make sense to see some of the general pullback that in an ordinary year would happen closer to the election.

But this is also a reminder that waves don't just happen; activists, citizens, and patriots make them happen. The wave isn't coming; we are the wave. Either we do this or we don't.

Which makes this a good time to mention the Call 40 people initiative the GOP has going on, which, seriously, I'll be doing. In fact, I'm trying to get together some blogger GOTV project going, walking the precincts, stuff like that. And I'm supposed to do radio, which I sort of hate.

But it's important. It really is. Consider being part of the wave, not just some flotsam borne upon it.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (92)
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I don't get how this guy has a job. Seriously. He's an idiot.

Oh right he's a hardcore liberal spinner, so of course he gets to have a job despite having no apparent talent and no intellect to speak of.

So here's some stupid stuff he's getting paid to write type.

On that score, much has been made of the fact that labor unions chartered buses for thousands of their members, versus “Restoring Honor” attendees who “paid their own way.” This seeming contrast ignores the fact that unions are funded by their members, so by definition, the union members on those chartered buses did pay their own way. You couldn’t really ask for a more textbook example of grassroots action.

Right, Tommy, you couldn't. Textbook.

I'm going to call him Textbook Tommy. Oh wait, I never read him and never pay him no mind, so I guess I won't be calling him that at all.

Thanks to Monty. I think Monty had in mind some big rant about how dumb this is. I don't know. What can you say about it? He's a fucking idiot. I could spin better for the liberals than he does and I don't even believe that shit. But I guess being liberal means never having to worry about qualifications or ability.

Oh Dear: On Twitter, a bit of drama.

Tommy Christopher objects to my assertion that I don't read him, insisting that I actually do.

To which I replied: It's pretty obvious you don't read me or else you'd know I don't read you (else, where are the links, fisking, arguments, etc.?).

It's nuts. He just can't seem to accept that he doesn't rate for me. I have no problem accepting that I don't rate for him -- why would I? But he's all angry about it. Calling me a liar for saying I don't read him.

I fucking hate the Internet and I fucking hate "Internet People." This stuff is why.

Let's have a little perspective here, guys. The "online elite"... are not.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (133)
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This is curious and I don't know what to think of it yet.

The directors of the Energy Department’s offices of nuclear power and fossil energy – which includes programs to trap carbon emissions from coal plants – are leaving the agency, signaling a major change in DOE's upper ranks.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in an email to DOE staff Friday, announced the early November departures of Jim Markowsky, the assistant secretary for fossil energy, and Pete Miller, the assistant secretary for nuclear energy.

News of the changes comes two weeks after DOE announced the departures of Undersecretary for Energy Kristina Johnson and Matt Rogers, who advises Chu on implementing the massive energy programs in the 2009 stimulus law...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 11:26 AM | Comments (63)
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His explanation? Jeb Bush has changed over the past year, becoming radical or something.

Posted by: Ace at 11:24 AM | Comments (39)
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At Hot Air.

Congressman Jim Oberstar is obviously a well-known and popular figure in the 8th Congressional district, having held the seat since 1974. However, this survey indicates that this year, voters are ready to make a change. More voters prefer a new person (48%) than think Oberstar deserves re-election (40%). This sentiment is more pronounced among the voters who are up-for-grabs in November. Independents prefer a new person by 49%-35%, and among those who are undecided in the Congressional race want a new person by 50%-19%.

Further, when voters are informed that Oberstar is 76 years old and has worked in Congress for nearly 50 years as a Representative and a staffer, the preference for a new person climbs to 52%.

Cravaack -- or as I call him, Johnny Heartbreaker -- is behind by just three, well within the MOE, 45-42, and Olberstarr is obviously a dead man's walk from 50%.

He's a Navy pilot instructor. He writes me hot love letters like this:

Dear Patriots,

I am not a politician. My entrance into this race, if nothing else, was unexpected. After retiring from the Navy and as a commercial airline pilot, I planned to spend my time with my wife and two young sons. Running for Congress was the last thing on my mind.

Then I watched Congress ignore and abandon the Constitution. Unemployment continued to rise as Congress is adding billions of dollars to the national debt that will become the burden of future generations. I knew it was time for me to stand up, and now I ask you to do so with me.

The consequences of inaction are clear: if our country continues on its current path, we will not be giving our children and grandchildren the same freedoms, the same opportunities, or the same country that our parents and grandparents gave us. The choice before us is not what kind of America we will have in the next two, or even four, years, but what kind of America we will have in the next forty.

It is with great humility that I ask for the opportunity to earn your trust, confidence, and support. Now is time to call on all of our friends to join us. Whether we are Republican, Independent or Democrat we must take back Congress from entrenched Washington politicians, take back our country, and return to Constitutional principles so that our children and grandchildren can also grow up in the freest and most prosperous nation in history. Together, we will.

I have served our country in the United States Navy and now I am ready to serve you in the United States Congress.

Sincerely,

Captain Chip Cravaack
USNR - Retired

Read between the lines. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife. Like this one. It talks to me, and tells me who's a Sinner. Its name is "Cuttie."

Posted by: Ace at 10:41 AM | Comments (106)
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To be honest there's not a lot of hard data on this, except for the Bielat internal poll (which you already heard about) showing him but ten points away from dethroning the Clown Prince Frank.

Here's why Lollar could win:

Lollar is a Marine who served in combat in Kosovo and is also currently a major in the Marine Corps Reserves. He burst onto the scene as a charismatic speaker at Tea Party rallies in Maryland and across the nation. The 39-year-old businessman decided to take on Hoyer because of his leadership role in advancing a radical liberal agenda under President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Lollar believes Rep. Hoyer has betrayed the values of a significant portion of MarylandÂ’s 5th Congressional District and no longer views himself as accountable to them.

Hoyer’s strength is in the most populous county in the district, which is predominantly black. But Lollar, a black conservative with an engaging personality, has appealed directly and personally to people who Republicans have not typically approached, asking them for their vote — and they are responding.

National political pundit Dick Morris last week declared the race “winnable” for Lollar, and his campaign has seen a surge of national attention since then, including the endorsement of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. . . .

Stace McCain has some inside dope and hears Lollar's fundraising is spiking. A little more could help.

And so too for Bielat.

By the Way: I met Sean Duffy on like Thursday, and his smokin'-hot wife, and their newest baby (the sixth), who is as cute as they are, only smaller and with poop in her pants. (More pictures at Rightwing News. Including this one of Sean Duffy and baby Victoria.)

They were both super-gracious and sweet. The baby too. She pooped at me.

Neither one knew who the hell I was, but Sean Duffy thought he did. But I think he was confusing me with another blogger. Still, super-generous about praising me for this other blogger's work.

Not sure, maybe it was on the site: He specifically praised me for calling out that his next ad, after the ax ad, would be a logrolling one. I don't think I said that, but maybe a commenter or coblogger did.

At any rate, now that I know these guys have no idea I do the crazy Ewok stalking pictures, I feel liberated to do more of them. I had worried that it was upsetting people, because I forgot the first rule of blogging: No one knows who the hell bloggers are or what the hell they're writing.

Except you guys, of course, but you're morons.

Did You Know Star Parker Was Running For CA-37? I didn't know that. And yet it is undeniably true.

Press release below.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:31 AM | Comments (140)
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[In which Monty, long away from the neighborhood, returns to save the local mom-n-pop bank from a hostile takeover through a stylish melange of breakdancing, infectious urban beats, and the rap music that all the youngsters seem to be so fond of. Thrill to the parachute pants, Jheri curls, and mirrored wraparound sunglasses! (The soundtrack, "Monty Raps! Funky Accordion and Theremin Music For These Troubled Modern Times", now available in fine discout outlets nationwide!)]

NOTE: This won't be an every-day thing (too much work), but I'll try to get a financial post up a few times a week. No stock-market quotes will be given since they don't matter fuck-all in the real world anyway. Throw some dice and write the numbers down; they'll have about as much relevance to the economy as the stock market for the forseeable future. more...

Posted by: Monty at 07:28 AM | Comments (147)
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Monday.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:41 AM | Comments (264)
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OK, I get it now, someone in the RNC has been channeling Lee Atwater and inserted a very highly placed mole in the Democrat party. One so highly placed they're in a position to fake mind numbing tone deafness, weapons grade stupidity, and manufacture havoc by the boatload.

Why else would the Democrats even consider tainting the party brand with the fetid stench "imprimatur" of Obama when they're all running away from him, unless they've been sold on the idea by an influential mole?

...the possibility of naming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs as chairman of the Democratic National Committee...

...The logic for a Chairman Gibbs, according to one official: It would “put the Obama imprimatur on the DNC, once and for all,” and install a “great partisan fighter” as the face of the national party for the reelection campaign. “It’s a brilliant idea if he ends up deciding he wants to do it,” said one official who has been consulted...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:07 PM | Comments (152)
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Do Political Mixed Marriages Work?

Here Neo-neocon reflects on a recent New York Times article on liberal-conservative marriages and notes that pretty much the only ones that work out are the liberal wife-conservative husbands ones. And even then only if the husband is respectful of his wife's beliefs as well as fairly immune to her liberal condescension. Luckily many wives view their husbands as barely functional Neanderthals so it's often not a huge stretch for guys.

“It’s his character, his emotions, his appreciation of me that are important. And he is coherent in his own way. He has legitimate reasons for all the repellent ideas he holds.”

And based on the marriages of friends and my parent's friends I'd say the lefty wife-righty husband is pretty much the only mixed combination that can succeed. And even then it's very hard to maintain a level of mutual respect and civility and keep contempt, the marriage killer, from creeping in.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:28 PM | Comments (681)
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