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.

Not the action of a man allegedly cruising to victory over the hapless, screwball O’Donnell – from ABC News:

Chris Coons changed his previous position on the Bush era tax cuts this morning telling me that he would support extending all of the tax cuts for everyone for “several years.”

“I am committed to extending the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans for everybody making up to $250,000, but I would extend them for everyone,” the Democratic candidate for Delaware’s Senate seat told me on “GMA.”…

He’s still got the inside track to victory as Delaware is a very blue State – but having Obama come out to rouse the base and now calling for an extension of all the Bush tax cuts shows that O’Donnell has a path to victory, and Coons is trying to cut her off at the conservative pass.

Work with a will for victory, fellow conservatives – there are no safe Democrats out there.

From Rush – a GOP Senator makes squishy sounds about compromising on ObamaCare:

…Well, now it’s official. The elites in the GOP want to compromise with the Democrats, and they think that’s what you want. It’s all over the news today, and there’s a bunch of lessons here. Here’s how to blow the greatest election opportunity you’ve ever had since 1894, here’s how to blow it two weeks out, and at the same time here is how you form a third party, how you create the circumstances a third party would form.

This is the problem. The elites inside Washington, I don’t care what party, Republican, Democrat, cocktail, doesn’t matter what party, it’s the elites, we need to break the back of the elites out there. They have nothing to do with this grassroots movement that’s the Tea Party, nothing whatsoever. They have nothing to do with any victories in this election. This is going to be very key. All of these big time wins that are on tap two weeks from today, the elites will have had nothing to do with it. The elites have, in fact, stood in the way. The elites have decried and pummeled all of the Tea Party people and the candidates that have arisen from this effervescent grassroots movement. It’s the elites in both parties who paved the way for Obama. It’s the elites in both parties who gave us Senator McCain. The elites in both parties spent like liberals; they paved the way for McCain, they paved the way for Pelosi, for Harry Reid, and Obama. And now they’re sitting in Washington hoping to benefit from the results of an election that is in part in response to their malfeasance…

Never forget that the Ruling Class includes a sizable minority of the Republican Party. These are the Republicans who live for a glowing write-up in the Washington Post; for invitations to the socially important parties; who crave the approval of the liberal part of the Ruling Class. All of the Ruling Class wishes to remain in power – while Republican parts of it are willing to get to committee chairmanships via TEA Party votes, don’t for a moment think they won’t cut us off at the knees if they think they can get away with it.

After November 2nd, we’ll be down to about 10 of this sort of GOPers left in the Senate, maybe a couple dozen in the House. They’ll be eagerly scouting out their chance to become “mavericks” and darlings of the MSM by throwing us over and going along with Obama. They’ll hope to do it in a manner which doesn’t jeopardize themselves in 2012 and beyond, but they will try.

This is why our real task begins on November 3rd. We must keep up the pressure to the point where the RINOs become simply afraid to cross us. We’ve already thrown three of them over here in 2010 and that is a good lesson for them – but I think it will take a bit more convincing before they realize that they stay in office only with our permission, which will be withdrawn the moment they compromise with the liberalism which has bankrupted America.

And if they prove intractable? If they manage to get over on us and get in to bed with Obama to thwart us? Well, then that will be the time to consider forming a new party to replace the GOP. Mark my words: we’ll do it. I’m as rock-ribbed a Republican as they come, but no party is more important than the United States. If the Republicans fail us, then the Christian Democrat or Constitutional Republican party waits only to be called in to existence.

American Papist notes that Boxer is bringing out the big guns of the Culture of Death, hoping that there is one more victory to be wrung out of the corpses of children:

Boxer is relying on the abortion industry’s money to help finance her final campaign expenditures, as Kathryn Lopez at National Review reports:

Barbara Boxer, fighting for her Senate seat, is making the closing argument about abortion. During an event which could easily become poster fodder, Senator Boxer flanked herself with Hollywood — Amy Brenneman and David Eigenberg (Steve from Sex and the City), among others — and the abortion political establishment. At the event, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, described Boxer as “the brightest star in the galaxy of pro-choice leaders in our country.”

My prayer for the election has been that on November 2nd those who defend life, justice and mercy triumph – no mention of party or platforms, just that plea that we get leaders worthy of a great and good nation. Barbara Boxer is antithesis of all that – a stalwart for the unjust, merciless taking of innocent human life.

I do believe her days in politics are numbered: polling has shown Boxer pretty consistently ahead, but has also shown her just as consistently below 50%. For an incumbent, that is usually the kiss of political death. People know her; she’s been around for ages…people who are undecided at this late stage don’t tend to break heavily for the incumbent. Boxer knows this – and this thus hoping an appeal to Death will motivate the liberal base in Los Angeles and San Francisco to save her bacon. My bet is that on election day, Boxer will come up short as a surge of GOPers outlasts whatever dregs of liberalism Boxer can still get to the polls.

But, nothing is certain – if you live in California, be sure to vote; volunteer, if you can. In California or out, pray – pray that the cause of life will gain an ally and lose an enemy on November 2nd.