From Clear Capital:

Clear Capital (www.clearcapital.com), is issuing this special alert on a dramatic change observed in U.S. home prices.

“Clear Capital’s latest data shows even more pronounced price declines than our most recent HDI market report released two weeks ago,” said Dr. Alex Villacorta, senior statistician, Clear Capital. “At the national level, home prices are clearly experiencing a dramatic drop from the tax credit-induced highs, effectively wiping out all of the gains obtained during the flurry of activity just preceding the tax credit expiration.”

This special Clear Capital Home Data Index (HDI) alert shows that national home prices have declined 5.9% in just two months and are now at the same level as in mid April 2010…

As we all – and I really think it was “all” conservatives making this point – said back when the tax credit was enacted and then extended, all it was going to do is advance home sales a bit, provide a short boost to prices and then move in to a big drop in home prices. Here’s something a little bit new, I guess: we’re not going to say, “I don’t want to say ‘I told you so'” because, well, we really, really want to say, “I told you so”. Because we did. Because anyone who believed the tax credit would actually help the housing market was a fool.

So, there!

Now, what do we need to do? We need to essentially have our housing market go through a bankruptcy reorganization. Early on, I strongly favored a “cram down” of home mortgages to fit market value, but now that values have dropped so much (and I bet there’s at least a 20% further drop coming), it is likely too late for any such action to be effective. The reason I advocated that was as a means of keeping houses off the market and thus sustaining over all housing prices. The crash (or re-crash, if you prefer) is here and I don’t think we can stop it. So, now I’m of the opinion that we should just let things fall where they may and look to other means to clear out the vast supply of housing which is going to not only continue to drive down prices, but prevent any rebound.

As I explained over at Noonan for Nevada, my preferred solution for lowering supply is to set up mechanisms which will induce people – investors and former home owners – to enter in to long term leases of the foreclosed properties (long term is at least 2 years, but I’d really prefer it to be 5). This gets people in to a home (or keeps them in it if we simply allow the banks to lease the house back to the foreclosed home owner, if he can afford it, at all) and gets that home off the market for 2 to 5 years – supply is greatly lessened, downward pressure on prices drops and there is a chance for recovery of value (though we’ll never, in our life times, see home prices back to their 2005-07 level in real terms).

Whatever we do, it can’t be another subsidy for a failed system. You can blame whomever you wish for the mess (me? Banksters and Bureaucrats working on human greed at all levels caused the problem), but assigning blame doesn’t fix the mess. We need to think anew and act anew to get out of this – we need real change, not “please save the idiot banks” band-aids.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Latino conservatives:

As this article over at Pajamas Media points out, just in 2010 Obama’s support among Latinos has dropped from 69% to 55%…and this is just the beginning. Eventually, a majority of Latinos will be voting conservative. Why? Because that is what they are – you’re trolling for votes among illegals, we’re working for votes among Americans, and that means all Americans. I like our chances a lot better than yours.

From CNA:

The possible innocence of an executed Texas man has renewed the debate on the death penalty in the state with the most executions in the United States.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 after being convicted of the murder of his three toddler daughters by setting his house on fire…

…Dave Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and author of the book “Detour to Death Row,” spoke to CNA about the case and the death penalty debate.

Willingham “may be innocent,” he said, noting that his coalition has not taken a definite position on the case. However, it is supporting the court inquiry and the investigation of the Texas Forensic Science Commission…

As long time readers know, I am opposed to the death penalty. My view on this is comes about because…

1. Always err on the side of mercy.

2. You can’t un-do an execution.

3. No one can see all ends – even the worst murderer might have some good he can do before he dies.

Supposing that we’ve got here the one in a million event: an actually innocent man being executed. Given that, does his death mean we end the death penalty? No. It merely means the death penalty will be tied up in courts and death row inmates will spend even longer amounts of time waiting to be executed. The reason for this is the reason we have a death penalty , at all: because it is just.

One must remember why the public back in the 1980’s became so supportive of the death penalty. This surge in support came about because of the unjust way criminals were treated in the 60’s and 70’s – they weren’t being sufficiently punished for their crimes. Year after year the public heard endless stories of perfectly hideous criminals being let out of jail by liberal judges on various technicalities…and the criminals then went out and did even worse deeds. It is good to remember that “unjust” doesn’t mean just unfair treatment to the accused…it also means when the guilty don’t pay their proper price.

The chances that an actual innocent man was executed are vanishingly small. As the justice system is run by human beings, it is always possible for error for slip in…but between arrest and death there are so many barriers erected by law that the chances of a completely innocent person going all the way to death are very small. But, it can happen – and suppose it did in this case?

It won’t change a thing. The people will still be in favor of the death penalty because it is right that if you take a life, you should lose your life. Right, but not necessary – and, indeed, not as right, in my view, as allowing the criminal to live in hopes of his eventual repentance. The only way to end the death penalty is to set the punishment system for murder and rape to be so hard that it is seen as every bit as just as taking the criminals life.

Over the years, I’ve put my views out on this. The basic concept is that if you commit one of the most horrid crimes, you are to be deprived of all comfort. You’ll work long hours at boring, back breaking labor; you wont’ have any luxuries, at all; life will be reduced to the bare minimum. As the murder took all earthly comforts from the victim, so he looses them in his turn. The ultimate hope is that by this regime the criminal will eventually reflect and understand – and beg forgiveness for his crime.

As long as anti-death penalty advocates keep working the justice system angle in their actions (always trying to poke holes in the prosecutor’s case rather than addressing the moral aspect of crime and punishment), so they will fail in their efforts. Justice must be done – and if anti-death penalty people won’t give just alternative to death, then death will continued to be dealt out with popular approval.

From NRO’s Campaign Spot:

One of my readers, Charlie, takes a look at the early voting numbers from 2008 and compares them to the early voting numbers in 2010, or at least so far.

He finds, “in every state where there is partisan split data for both years, the Republicans have gained in early voting.” The shift in partisan turnout has ranged from Republicans gaining 4.2 percentage points from the 2008 numbers (West Virginia) to 27.4 percentage points in the 2008 numbers (Florida).

(The stunning figure is that 52.8 percent of the more than 778,000 early votes in Florida this year come from registered Republicans.)…

That Florida number is a shocker – and shows that a GOP tidal wave is heading towards the Sunshine State. If you read the linked article, there is a whole list of States with excellent numbers for the GOP. This is just a continuation of what we saw through the primaries as GOP turnout was massive while Democrat turnout was anemic.

And this, in turn, is why Obama and the Democrats are spending the last 10 days in Democrat strong holds: they are trying to fire up the base to show up on election day, hoping that a huge November 2nd turnout will at least partially counter the massive GOP gains in the early vote. It may work, but I doubt it – I think that on election day the pattern will hold and the GOP turnout on that day will also be higher than expected, while Democrat turnout is low.

Nothing is over until its over, of course – the victory can’t be won, if it is to be won, until November 2nd. Lots of things can happen, but the events all year have shown an increasing rejection of all things liberal and Democrat in the United States. Don’t pay too much attention to polling data from now until November 2nd – partially because turn out models may be way off, partially because the Democrats will try to cook up at least some polls to give a false sense of momentum to their dispirited base.

Work for victory, don’t forget to vote, drag a friend to the polls with you…and then we’ll leave the rest of it in the hands of God and see what comes.

ABC has the news on just what, so far, has been found in the latest batch of documents to be released by Wikileaks.

What is most astounding here is the way the Wikileaks people simply don’t understand what they are doing. In service of a false narrative about our campaign in Iraq, these fools are releasing documents which they think “prove” their worldview when all they are really doing is putting the lives of people at risk. This isn’t a game, this is reality – the people we deal with in the enemy ranks are cruel murderers…they will take revenge, as far as they can, against anyone who crosses them. Along come these twits to give the terrorists the names and addresses of the people they’ll want to kill.

The irresponsibility there is just beyond belief – and the people who have done this will pay the price; there is justice in this world, and those who betray are always paid out here or hereafter. But, meanwhile, people will die because of this.

No surprise – from the Wall Street Journal:

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections, thanks to an 11th-hour effort to boost Democrats that has vaulted the public-sector union ahead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and a flock of new Republican groups in campaign spending…

$87.5 million dollars, some of it borrowed (once again showing how desperate they are). Here’s the kicker – as these are union dues paying the freight, it is really your tax dollars at work…especially that $160 billion Obama and his Democrats showered on the States to keep unionized government employees on the job…and paying the dues which winds up being the money Democrats campaign on so they can win and then spend some more on the unions, ad nauseum…

So, my fellow Americans, whom do you want to have the largest outside influence on politics? The Chamber of Commerce which advocates for less spending and taxes, or the public-sector unions who always demand more spending and taxes? Name your poison – but don’t try to tell me, liberals, that there is something wrong with the Chamber and something right with the unions getting in to politics.

My goodness, they are absolutely falling apart out there – from Politico:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has taken out a $17 million line of credit for use in the final weeks of the campaign, signaling the party leadership’s commitment to having the money to counter an onslaught of millions of dollars in pro-Republican TV ads.

The new line of credit was disclosed in a DCCC report filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission…

While they claim $25 million cash on hand, the fact that they feel forced to borrow indicates two things:

1. Fund raising has been off.

2. They are in desperation mode.

From what I can sense by reading this and seeing that, the Democrats have written off the House and are hoping to keep to at least 50 Senators (Biden then being the tie-breaker). Obama’s campaign activities indicate this – heading to blue States to campaign for the “fire wall” Senators.

Over at Election Projection, the current tally is 49/49 with the two Democrat-leaning Independents safe or not running this year. If Democrats can hold to that, then they keep their majority. Here is the bad news for Democrats – the GOP only has to win two out of the following to get to 51: California, Washington, Delaware, West Virginia and Connecticut (presuming as I – and Election Projection – do that Reid is gone in Nevada). We need 40% of the final battle to win…and so the Democrats are going full court press to stop us.

At the end of the day, I have to rate their chances of success in this matter high. While I believe we can win in four of the five (Delaware is not entirely out of the question, but is clearly the weakest chance we’ve got), a massive end-of-the-race effort by Democrats may stir up enough of the base to save four of the five.

But it is clearly within the realm of possibility that the GOP could win – so, work with a will for victory, conservatives…we’ve got them on the run.

The home stretch is here – trying hard not to get too hopeful about November 2nd. Take nothing for granted!

Democrats are using voter fraud, as usual.

Obama is getting even more unpopular.

Harry Reid is getting more insane.

Geithner continues to bankrupt the United States.

And Sharron Angle comes up with the most devastating ad of the year:

Then here’s your chance:

Go here to help out. This is the highest hill we can climb in 2010 – it is a D+27 district and the corrupt Democrat incumbent usually wins so easy she doesn’t even have to campaign. She has to, this year, and that is astounding in and of itself…and we can beat her.