Cutting off a deer's antlers to make a political point? There are some very sick people in America.

Police in Colorado Springs are looking for the person who threw the head of a deer into the parking lot of a Barack Obama campaign office. The head was found late Saturday night. The Humane Society says the buck's antlers had been cut off to make the head resemble a donkey, the symbol of the Democratic Party.

Police will step up their patrols of campaign offices in Colorado Springs through election day.

Michelle Obama is in Colorado Springs to speak at an early voting rally at 6pm MT. Our local news will probably live-stream it. Try 7News (ABC), 9News (NBC) or 4 News (CBS.) Update: Try here at this Colorado Springs station.

Dean Barnett, a conservative blogger, has passed away. Barnett was an antagonist of the left blogs, especially Daily Kos, when I was posting there. On a personal level, it appears he was a very fine man. Our thoughts go out to his family.

This is an Open Thread.

Steven Calabresi can't believe readers will take this Wall Street Journal opinion piece seriously ... can he?

One of the great unappreciated stories of the past eight years is how thoroughly Senate Democrats thwarted efforts by President Bush to appoint judges to the lower federal courts.

If only. Did Democrats block the nomination of William Pryor or Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown? Spare me.

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Greg Mitchell asks:

I think that at least the groundwork has been established for powerful, even possibly semi-radical, reform to get a fair hearing from the media, and the public, in the years ahead. What happens after that hearing--who knows?

Not if actual progressive ideas are not championed by Democratic (as opposed to progressive) bloggers. For example, in extolling this Las Vegas newspaper column, Markos misses the Progressive forest for the Democratic trees. Even his mild criticism of the article misses the point in some respects:

PPP's NC poll has Obama leading by 1, 49-48. Obama could win this one in a squeaker. PPP's demographic results are fairly conservative. McCain leads among whites 60-36 (with whites comprising 76% of the vote) and Obama leading among African Americans 92-6 (comprising 21% of the vote). Obama leads among "Other" (comprising 3% of the vote), 67-25. There is some controversy about the size of the A-A turnout and the accuracy of exit polling in 2004. Since North Carolina is a state subject to the Voting Rights Act, it provides actual numbers by race. That said, African American turnout in the primary easily exceeded pollster's expectations of 20% of the total vote. In fact it was 33% of the vote in the Dem NC primary.

Obama can, indeed maybe, should, win in North Carolina.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

In the wake of the Ted Stevens guilty (times seven) verdict, John McCain bravely called for Stevens to step down. With the election just a week away, Alaska voters may relieve Stevens of the burden of making that choice.

McCain, of course, wasn't really all that brave to speak out at long last against his corrupt Republican colleague. Now that McCain has decided to attack Obama as "soft on crime," he can't very well ignore the latest glaring example of criminality within the Republican Party.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, proclaimed yesterday "a sad day for Alaska and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family" and promised to "carefully now monitor the situation and I’ll take any appropriate action as needed." She did not ask Stevens to resign. Instead, she complained about "the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state." What she did about that problem during her short service as governor went unmentioned.

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Pew provides a ridiculous result:

Barack Obama leads John McCain by a 52% to 36% margin in Pew’s latest nationwide survey of 1,325 registered voters. This is the fourth consecutive survey that has found support for the Republican candidate edging down. In contrast, since early October weekly Pew surveys have shown about the same number of respondents saying they back Obama. When the sample is narrowed to those most likely to vote, Obama leads by 53% to 38%.

Pew is a real and respectable pollster. But this result is not to be believed. Zogby must be pissed - Pew is gonna grab the publicity. Zogby may go all in and predict a McCain win. h/t to Atrios for the phrase "poll pron."

*Misspell intentional for the filters.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The SUSA Ohio poll, which has Obama up 4, 49-45, gives us another chance to do a demographic analysis.

SUSA has Obama winning African Americans (projected to be 11% of the electorate, up 1% from 2004) by 84-12. As usual, SUSA seems to understate Obama's A-A support. At worst, Obama will win 90% of the A-A vote. (Yes, I know Bush is said to have won 16% of the A-A vote in 2004, that is meaningless imo.) More . . .

A week to go. DKos/R2000 has Obama by 7, 50-43. The last two days of tracking has Obama at +5 and +6. Expect a 6 point race in that poll tomorrow. Ras has it a steady 5 point lead for Obama, 51-46. Hotline still has Obama +8, 50-42. ABC/WaPo has Obama + 7, 52-45. Gallup Expanded has Obama by 10, 52-42.

Only 2 polls (I do not consider Zogby a pollster) have Obama below 50 - Battleground (the problem with Battleground is it has data from a 6 day period), which has Obama winning 49-46, and IBD/TIPP, which has Obama winning 47-44, signalling a high undecided, not likely a week out.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Sure, as I've been saying for a few months, the election is now about turnout. Even so, ABC News boils down the electoral map in such a way that it seems impossible John McCain can win:

If McCain doesn't win Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes, he would have to run the table and win all eight of the competitive states that were held by President Bush in 2004, including Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, and Nevada.

...If you take all four of these states that will be decided relatively early on Election Night next Tuesday -- Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida -- McCain has to win three out of four of those states to even have a chance of getting to 270 electoral votes.

It gets worse for McCain: Even Montana is no longer a sure thing and McCain has begun advertising there this week. [More...]

One week from tomorrow, Michelle Obama may be the First Lady-Elect of the United States. Here she is on the Tonight Show this evening with Jay Leno. (Part 2 is here.) She'll be in Colorado Springs tomorrow afternoon for an early voting rally.

Early voting in Colorado may not be meeting Democrats' expectations. Don't get complacent and don't trust the polls. Mail your ballot in tomorrow if you havent' already. We need every vote. [More...]

A judge in Missouri has blocked rules requiring sex offenders to stay home on Halloween and refrain from Halloween-related activity with children

The judge, Carol E. Jackson, of United States District Court in St. Louis, said the law was unclear, questioning language that prohibits “all Halloween-related contact with children” and allows sexual offenders to leave their homes from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. only if they have “just cause.”

Two issues raised by the case were whether sexual offenders could celebrate the holiday with their own children or grandchildren, for example by hanging decorations or carving pumpkins, and on what grounds they could leave home during the curfew.

The judge upheld two other provisions. One requires sex offenders to post a sign that says "no candy or treats at this residence." The other requires them to keep the porch lights turned off.

[More...]