Sympathy For Rand Paul  —  The ugliest, most illiberal political ad of the year may be this one, from Kentucky Democrat Jack Conway:  —  I actually don't doubt the implication of the ad, namely that Rand Paul harbors a private contempt for Christianity.  He's a devotee of Ayn Rand, who is a fundamentally anti-Christian thinker.

Miller security guards handcuff editor  —  The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was arrested by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller on camera at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.

ABC News Exclusive: Tea Party Candidate in Nevada Senate May Tip the Scales in Reid's Favor  —  ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:  —  Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for U.S. Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid …

Angle to Hispanic children: “Some of you look a little more Asian to me”  —  As more of the video surfaces from GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle's meeting last week with Rancho High School's Hispanic kids, the more bizarre it gets.  Elsewhere on this blog, I have posted the video of her claiming …

The Ludicrous Lies of Robert Spencer  —  If you've read anything by Robert Spencer, you already know that he will blatantly lie when cornered.  —  Today he responds to my piece for the Guardian, with a ridiculous article that calls Pamela Geller a defamed freedom fighter.

Guy gets revenge on ex-girlfriend on CSPAN2  —  When the audience gathered for a Book TV discussion of Jonah Goldberg's new book, “Proud to be Right,” they got more than your average CSPAN fare.  —  It turns out panelists Todd Seavey and Helen Rittelmeyer, both contributors to Goldberg's collection …

Epitaph For An Administration … Surely this can serve as a generic statement: … Stimulus, bank rescue, China, foreclosure; it applies all along.  At each point there were arguments for not acting; but the cumulative effect has been drift, and a looming catastrophe in the midterms.

In Climate Denial, Again  —  Former Vice President Dick Cheney has to be smiling.  With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate — including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning — accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming.

Tales of the Tea Party  —  A month ago, a U.C.L.A. graduate student named Emily Elkins spent hours roaming a Tea Party rally on the Washington Mall, photographing every sign she saw.  —  Elkins, a former CATO Institute intern, was examining the liberal conceit that Tea Party marches are rife with racism and conspiracy theorizing.

Dennis Menaced?  —  Is Kucinich in trouble?  —  THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained the results of a private poll conducted last night in Ohio-10, the Cleveland-area district held for seven terms by Democrat Dennis Kucinich.  Kucinich has been widely viewed as safe—even though he fell short …

URGENT: VFW DISSOLVES PAC BOARD!  —  This, from last week, is just now making it to my in-box.  THIS IS WHAT WAS NEEDED ALL ALONG- Download Memo to council - new ballot Oct 10 … This, after the Ladies Auxilery withdrew all funding support for the PAC (which, I'm told, is a good chunk of it) …

Facebook in Privacy Breach  —  Top-Ranked Applications Transmit Personal IDs, a Journal Investigation Finds  —  Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the F8 developer conference this spring.  —  Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc …

Obama to Appear on “Mythbusters”  —  For a president under siege, maybe this could help.  —  In an episode of “Mythbusters” on the Discovery Channel to be shown on Dec. 8, President Obama will help determine whether the Greek scientist Archimedes really set fire to an invading Roman fleet using …

Dems take in twice as much “foreign” money as Republicans  —  Over the weekend, some Democrats began questioning the White House strategy of demonizing third-party groups for potentially using foreign-raised money in political messaging.  Now we know why.  Apparently, the shrieking …

Islamic court: OK to beat wife if no marks left  —  Man in United Arab Emirates was initially fined $136 for hitting spouse, daughter  —  A man can beat his wife and kids as long as he leaves no physical marks, the United Arab Emirates' highest court has found.

AZ-03: Shocking Democratic pickup opportunity  —  Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos. 10/16-17.  Likely voters.  MoE 3.8% (No trend lines)  —  Ben Quayle (R) 44  —  Jon Hulburd (D) 46  —  Yeah, that was a real WTF moment for us in this open seat being vacated by conservative icon John Shadegg.

NATO official: Bin Laden, deputy hiding in northwest Pakistan  —  Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together, a senior NATO official said.

The High Price of Short Buildings  —  Dion Haynes writes for the Post that office rents in downtown Washington, DC are now higher than in Manhattan.  Normally what happens when you get high rents is that people respond with bigger buildings.  Which is why Manhattan has such big office buildings.

How GOP could win the 10 seats needed to take back Senate  —  Since 1930, party control of the House has flipped seven times.  And each time, Senate control has also switched.  —  The reason is simple: Wave elections are, well, wave-y.  If the voting public wants to send a message to the majority party …

MERS-y, Mercy Me: The Sewer Drain at the Bottom of the Housing Market  —  If you still think, like Shaun Donovan, that the crisis in the mortgage markets merely concerns foreclosure paperwork, you need to take a look at these two Law Review papers from Professor Christopher Lewis Peterson of the University of Utah (via).