Time/CNN just released a new poll:

Senator Barack Obama has held or increased his lead in four key states won by President George W. Bush in 2004 — Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia—while losing ground to Senator John McCain in West Virginia.

Obama gained the most ground in North Carolina, where he now leads McCain among likely voters by 51% to 47%, up four percentage points from earlier this month when a similar poll showed the two tied at 49%. [More...]

Following up on last night's Sarah Palin clothing expenditure post, The Atlantic today reveals that Sarah Palin's personal shopper is Jeff Larson.

Larson is the Karl Rove protégé who’s a principal in the robocalling firm of FLS Connect (the “FLS” stands for Tony Feather, Jeff Larson, and Tom Syndhorst, all veteran Republican political operatives). Larson’s firm is the same one that launched the scurrilous robocalls against John McCain in 2000, and that McCain has now hired to make robocalls connecting Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. He’s also well known in Minnesota for leasing his basement apartment at a steeply discounted rate to embattled Republican Senator Norm Coleman. Evidently, Larson also has quite the eye for women’s fashion.

Here's the actual schedule showing the payments the RNC made for Sarah Palin and her family during September. The form that's required to be filed is a Schedule F. The forms for all candidates and parties are available at the FEC website. [More...]

Update: (TL)No verdict today after four hours of deliberations.

Ted Stevens' fate is now in the hands of the jury.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan instructed the jury for about 70 minutes on Wednesday, then dismissed the four alternate jurors.

The government's best evidence (apart from a recorded conversation in which Stevens mentions "a little jail time" as the worst outcome of the government's investigation) may have come from Senator Stevens' mouth during his cross-examination. [more ...]

Websites that support al-Qaeda view John McCain as the better presidential candidate, according to a story in the Washington Post.

Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents. And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.

"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.

[more ...]

You might expect a convention of mortgage bankers to be a dull affair. Not this year.

[Karl] Rove, the Republican strategist and former adviser to President Bush, was accosted onstage during a convention panel here on Tuesday morning by a protester who tried to handcuff and arrest him “for treason.” Mr. Rove tried to elbow her away before she was taken offstage.

The protester unfortunately lacked any actual arrest authority.

To be fair, it seems that mortgage bankers could party with the best of them in years past. [more ...]

10 is the magic number today. DKos/R2000 has Obama by 10, 51-41. NBC/WSJ has Obama up 10, 52-42. Gallup has Obama up 10, 52-42. Now Zogby has decided that the best way to get some coverage is to say Obama plus 10, 52-42.

WaPo has Obama up 9, 53-44. Ipsos McClatchey has Obama up 8, 50-42. Ras has Obama up 6, 51-45. Hotline has Obama up 5, 47-42. IBD/TIPP has Obama up 6, 47-41. McCain hopes Battleground has it right and it is a 2 point race. Seems unlikely.

13 days to go, and it appears to be over in the Presidential race.

By Big Tent Democrat,speaking for me only

Ehren Watada refused to deploy to Iraq after he "gradually came to the conclusion that the Bush administration had lied about the basis for war and had betrayed the trust of the American people." Watada stipulated that he did not deploy with his unit as ordered. The judge at Watada's courts martial decided that Watada did not understand the legal significance of that stipulation and told the jury to disregard it. The prosecution had already rested its case. The judge granted the prosecution's request for a mistrial.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled today that Watada cannot be tried on those charges again. The government rested without proving its case, and Watada did not request or provoke the mistrial. Under those circumstances, the protection against double jeopardy bars a second prosecution. [More...]

Prisoners buy cellphones from guards or smuggle them into the prison during visits with friends and family. Some phones are discovered during shakedowns, but inmates find creative hiding places, particularly in larger, older prisons that don't have Supermax technology.

To counter a perceived security risk, South Carolina prison officials are exploring the possibility of jamming cellphone signals inside prison walls. Would you want to live within a mile of a large institution that jams cellphone transmissions?

Critics say it's impossible to contain the jamming technology to one or two buildings, and that using it runs the risk of affecting people using phones nearby.

[more ...]

Update: Via Ambinder, Republicans are "disgusted" by the expenditures.

Since September, right after John McCain nominated Sarah Palin for Vice-President, RNC expenditure reports show more than $150,000 in payments to Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave, and other retail establishments, apparently to clothe Gov. Palin and her family:

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

[More...]

I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately. And you know, I couldn't agree with them more.

I couldn't disagree with you. I couldn't agree with you more than the fact that western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most God loving, most, most patriotic part of America, and this is a great part of the country.

Thank you for making your position clear, Senator McCain.

Joe Biden's impulsive prediction that Barack Obama's presidency would quickly be "tested" by a foreign power gave John McCain an opening to incite fear about Obama's ability to respond to an international crisis. McCain handled this opportunity with the same skill he has displayed throughout the campaign: he blew it.

“We don’t want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars,” McCain said Tuesday at a rally here. Then McCain veered off script to elaborate.

[more, my friends ...]

The Wall St Journal/NBC Poll released today has Sen. Barack Obama with a ten point lead over John McCain, his biggest yet. The poll results are here (pdf.

Sen. Barack Obama has opened up a double-digit lead in the presidential race, with a growing number of voters saying they're now comfortable with the Democratic nominee's values, background and ability to serve as commander in chief,

...Though most voters polled said that Sen. McCain is better prepared for the White House than the first-term senator from Illinois, there are increasing concerns about the readiness of Sen. McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Obama is leading among groups that earlier were expected to go for McCain. Obama now leads among Independents by 12 points. Same for suburban voters. Also, [More...]