Andrew Malcolm Amused Over Polls On GOP Takeover That Hasn't Happened Yet

Ok, this is truly amusing and Andrew Malcolm over at LA Times' Top of the Ticket does a spectacular job highlighting the idiocy of polling people on what they think about the GOP takeover of the House and declaring people are not impressed, before the GOP actually has taken control!!!



Teaser:

With Republicans still 20 days away from taking control of one chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, the Washington Post could no longer resist delivering the polling news that Americans are not yet convinced the GOP is the party for them.

The bold headline: "Public is not yet sold on GOP"

Imagine, waiting for the 63 new House Republicans to actually take the oath on Jan. 4 and perhaps find their seats before polling on what dismal failures they are. With Democrats controlling merely the presidency and the Senate, the newly elected Republicans have yet to accomplish a single meaningful thing. And clearly the public knows it.

You simply have to go read the whole thing.

Kudos Andrew!!

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Glenn Reynolds Schools Dana Milbanks About The Constitution

The authority to amend the Constitution of the United States is derived from Article V of the Constitution, which states:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

Dana Milbanks takes to the Washington Post with an op-ed accusing Representative Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and the GOP of trying to "rewrite the Constitution" because Bishop wants to empower states against an overreaching government, by using the amendment process.

"This repeal amendment gives states a weapon, a tool, an arrow in their quiver," he told a group of state legislators assembled at the Hyatt in downtown Washington. Of course, states have fired similar arrows before, and it led to a Civil War and Jim Crow - but Bishop wasn't going to get into that.

"I actually hope to have a series of statutes and amendments -- several amendments and several statutes -- that we can introduce this year," Bishop continued, "with the sole goal of not just cutting down the power of Washington to do things to people, but more importantly, is to empower states."

Several amendments? Would it be easier if they just got some red pens and walked over to the National Archives to do the job?

Lest you think this is a hair-brained scheme by one Republican lawmaker, consider that the Repeal Amendment, as proponents call it, has won the endorsement of the man who will be the next House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

"The Repeal Amendment would provide a check on the ever-expanding federal government, protect against Congressional overreach, and get the government working for the people again, not the other way around," Cantor said in a statement of support. "In order to return America to opportunity, responsibility, and success, we must reverse course and the Repeal Amendment is a step in that direction."

Cantor, Bishop and the other supporters of the amendment believe they are rebalancing the Constitution in a way the Framers would like. But it's strange that the lawmakers would show their reverence for the Founding Fathers by redrafting their work.

Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit schools Milbank in his typical succinct way:

DANA MILBANK THINKS AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION IS A STRANGE WAY TO HONOR THE FOUNDING FATHERS. In doing so, he displays his ignorance. The amendment process, after all, is part of the Constitution. The Framers had no illusions that they were creating perfection, and believed in the sovereignty of the people and in the power of the people to revise the Constitution as needed, through the process they created.

Ironically enough, Milbanks could have found that little tidbit over at The Constitution for kids, grades 4-7.

The Constitution can be changed. The Constitution is changed by an "amendment." Among the amendments is a list of the rights of the people. By listing these rights, they are made special. It is illegal for the government to violate those rights. As of 2006, there are 27 amendments. Not all of them involve rights, but many do. The first ten amendments are special. They are called the Bill of Rights.

There is a whole section on the amendment process, written in a way that even a child can understand. Perhaps someone should email the link to Dana Milbanks.

PS- As to the idea itself to empower states, there are pros and cons, but when a government starts imposing laws that are undeniably opposed by the majority of Americans, then states probably should have more power to protect their citizens from an overreaching runaway government that is abusing it's power.

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Serious Ethical Journalistic Misconduct by Wapo/AP

Patterico's Pontifications has the details, a complete revision of an original story published at WAPO by the AP without any corrections noted.. they just changed the story after publishing lies.

Teaser:

How much did the left show its keister on O’Donnell’s alleged gaffe? So much so that the AP/WaPo story on the subject was almost completely rewritten last night, and without an official correction. After the break I will have screen caps and a cut and paste of the text of the article, but let’s start with just the first paragraph.

The piece at Patterico's Pontifications has complete screen shots of the original story and then the revisionist version, word counts on how much of the story was changed...not corrected, but completely altered without offering explanations or corrections.

Read it in it's entirety to see the documented proven misconduct and direct lies offered by Washington Post/AP.

Then head over to read Ace who gives those "Suckers of Cock" a piece of his mind and adds his take to this scandal in traditional Ace of Spades style.

I keep getting into this fight with readers.

Readers tell me, "The media lies; don't trust them." My response is usually "Well, they spin, they suppress, they distort, but they usually don't lie per se. A reporter who directly lies would be disciplined. Their own reputations mean too much to them to just flat-out lie."

I, the hyperpartisan crazy conservative blogger, keep taking the media's side on this point, of outright lying.

I keep being proved wrong by the Suckers of Cock I am defending.

Language warning but you know, it kinda flows when Ace does it...so what the hell.

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Wapo Skews Sample To Rally Democratic Troops

A new WaPo/ABC poll gives hope to Democrats... or does it?

Democrats have cut in half the GOP's early-September advantage on the question of which party's candidates voters say they will support on Nov. 2. They have also made small gains on the question of which party people trust to handle big issues, such as the economy and health care.

One would think that is good news for Democrats, then again, Hot Air bursts that little bubble by looking at the skewed samples used in comparison with the last poll done.

And how did the Democrats manage this rather remarkable comeback? Well, the WaPo/ABC pollster managed to find their usual sample gap. They went from a 31/25/39 D/R/I split in September in the general sample and 31/26/37 among registered voters, to 33/23/29 in the general sample and 34/25/37 among registered voters. That nine-point advantage to Democrats among RVs is almost twice what it was in the previous sample.

Gallup on the other hand has finally begun listing register voter sample numbers alongside of likely voter projections and the results are great news for Republicans.

The Hill:

Gallup's first generic ballot estimate of likely voters showed Republicans leading Democrats 53-40 percent in a high turnout scenario and 56-38 percent in a low turnout scenario.

Over the last few weeks, Gallup's generic ballot polls of registered voters have shown both parties statistically tied. But the more narrow group of voters likely to cast ballots on Election Day in November shows the GOP with a bigger edge.

Better yet:

Gallup's poll released last week showed Republicans leading Democrats in enthusiastic voters by 20-percent.

There seems to be a general agreement that a likely voter models are more predictive than simply using registered voters.

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