A new Wall St. Journal/ NBC Poll finds support for Republicans in Congress has dropped to 16%, its lowest level in the 12 years they've been in power.

Public support for Republicans' control of the U.S. Congress has eroded to its lowest point since the party took over 12 years ago. And with just 19 days until the midterm elections, both President George W. Bush and his party are in worse shape with voters than Democrats were in the October before they lost their House and Senate majorities in 1994.

A big factor is scandals, both corruption and sex.

By 52% to 37%, voters say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress after the Nov. 7 election. That wide 15-point Democratic advantage is another record in the history of the Journal/NBC poll.

What does it mean? I'd say watch for Republicans to pull all the dirty tricks they can in the next two weeks.

Professor Cass Sunstein tries to forward this Obama bipartisan silliness, and rewrites history in the process. He now pretends that FDR and Abraham Lincoln were NOT politicians. Just silly:

At crucial moments, [FDR] offered large and contentious claims, attacking the beliefs of (for example) those who were committed to laissez-faire and to isolationism. On the other hand, FDR was also committed to a principle of mutual respect. And consider these words from Lincoln's Second Inaugural: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right...."

This is so ahistorical as to be incredible that a brilliant man like Sunstein could have even written those words. FDR was always at loggerheads with the Republicans, demonizing and being demonized. As for Lincoln, sure in 1865 after having won the election and the Civil War (or shortly to), he was all magnaminity. During the election? And of course, his Cooper Union address, which I have written about at length, is the very epitome of negative branding. Sunstein simply is writing nonsense.

"Terrorist" Released:

At the crux of Mr. Maliki’s problem lies Mr. Sadr . . . American commanders have been pressing Iraqi officials to launch an all-out assault against the Mahdi Army’s strongholds, but Mr. Maliki, who relies on Mr. Sadr for political backing, has resisted.

These tensions played out today when the Maliki government demanded that the American military command release a senior aide to Mr. Sadr who had been captured on Tuesday on suspicion of attacking American forces and of directing kidnappings, killings and torture of Sunni Arabs and Shiites.

The American military command provided no explanation for the release of the aide, Sheik Mazin al-Saedi, except to say it was in response to a request by the Iraqi government.

"I think I'd just commit suicide." -- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quote by Radio Iowa, on what he would do if Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate.

Bipartisanship McCain/Lieberman style, Republicans tell Dems what to do.

H/T Political Wire.

Remember the case of the 14 year old girl who was raped and murdered by U.S. troops?

8 of them will face courts-martial proceedings on rape and murder charges.

Eight soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division will be court-martialed on murder charges stemming from their service in Iraq, including two who face a death sentence for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl and killing her and her family, the military ordered Wednesday.

The Fort Campbell soldiers facing the death penalty are Sgt. Paul E. Cortez and Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman. Both are accused of raping Abeer Qassim al-Janabi in her family's home in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, then killing her along with her parents and younger sister.

Another soldier, Steven Green, is being tried in federal court in the U.S., since he was discharged before charges were filed. You can read the affidavit for Green's arrest here. Page 6 lays out the events and players.

As Jeralyn writes, our current Congress is the worst in a long time. A bad combination with the worst President and worst Media. This, it is quite strange that Kevin Drum would pooh pooh the importance of a Democratic Congress:

So what happens if Democrats win control of Congress in November? Conservative Bruce Bartlett says, nothing much. At the Washington Post, liberal Harold Meyerson mostly agrees. He says the Democratic agenda will be pretty much what you'd expect:

It includes raising the minimum wage, repealing the Medicare legislation that forbids the government from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices, replenishing student loan programs, funding stem cell research and implementing those recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission that have thus far languished.

That ain't chopped liver. Moreover, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of this:

Democrats will have considerably more oversight power, even if Republicans did gut the oversight staff when they took over a decade ago. And not a moment too soon.

This is by far the most important result of a Democratic Congress and for Kevin to note it in passing as "nothing much" is, well, not sharp.

Matt Taibi writes on The Worst Congress Ever in Rolling Stone. The tag line says it all:

How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts -- in five easy steps.

Here's RS's list of the 10 worst Congressmen.

NORML's Paul Armentano has an op-ed in today's Examiner pointing out that the U.S. is spending $1 billion dollars a year to incarcerate people for marijuana offenses. The figure comes from the latest report released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The new report is noteworthy because it undermines the common claim from law enforcement officers and bureaucrats, specifically White House drug czar John Walters, that few, if any, Americans are incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses. In reality, nearly 1 out of 8 U.S. drug prisoners are locked up for pot.

Another $8 billion is spent on arresting them.

This is the first open thread since the new site launched Monday.  All topics are welcome.

For those of you who want to see the comment you are responding to in the same window as the one you are writing in, if your comments are set to "nested" or "threaded" there will be a "reply to this" button in each comment.  Click on the "reply to this" for the comment you want to respond to and that comment will be there when the commenting screen opens.  

So you can view and cut and paste from the individual comment you are replying to and view both in the same window.

Update: I deleted this post by accident (I'm learning Scoop too for the first time).  Let's start again.

The NY Times reports tonight that the closely watched Long Island case of the DWI death of 7 year old wedding flower girl Katie Flynn prosecuted as second degree murder for "depraved indifference" for the accused driving on the wrong side of the road at three times the legal limit resulted in a guilty verdict after a five week trial.

Martin R. Heidgen, of Valley Stream, NY, was found guilty on Tuesday after five days of deliberation, with the jurors having twice reported being deadlocked. Jurors wept as the verdict was read.

The case became a cause celebre for the D.A.'s election and advocates of stronger DWI prosecutors.  It "is one of only a few murder convictions won in fatal drunken driving cases anywhere."

A new issue: How far may a police officer go in searching an arrestee's personal GPS device for where he has been?  The first apparent first case is now working its way through the courts.

From the Journal Times of Racine, WI, by Janine Anderson: Sheriff's department uses Google Earth to pinpoint marijuana fields.

The Racine County Sheriff's Department used Google Earth -- an online mapping program -- last week to pinpoint marijuana fields in Mount Pleasant and bust a Racine man for harvesting pot.

We've corrected most of the bugs (including those posted in the comments we thought warranted fixing) and the RSS feed.

I'm very happy with the move, and hope you are too.   Change is never easy, try it out, see if you don't get used to it.

Before I let the developers off the hook, here's your last chance to tell us what isn't working or what you wish we would change.