Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick...

Per Charlie Cook (link), time to change the political dynamic before the mid-terms is almost out:

Two of the most common clichés in American political circles are "all politics is local" and "a few months is a lifetime in politics." Each contains a kernel of truth, but both have become all-too-handy excuses for pols seeking to explain away unpleasant realities.

...

In this election year, the circumstances and dynamics have not materially improved for Democrats since Labor Day. With a little more than four months to go before the November election, the chances of this contest's trajectory fundamentally changing decline with every passing week.

Great poll interpretation in the rest of the article.  If you think the GOP has already peaked this cycle, you may want to change your assessment.

Gulf Spill Pictures

Some great spill pictures at Boston.com (link).

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Do you mind if I take a copy of that?

Perhaps breaking copyright law is a good thing.  Here's Matthew Yglesias (link) quoting from the abstract of research studying the impact of file-sharing (Felix Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard and Koleman Strumpf of the University of Kansas wrote the paper, here):

The advent of file sharing has considerably weakened effective copyright protection. Today, more than 60% of internet traffic consists of consumers sharing music, movies, books and games. Yet, despite the popularity of the new technology, file sharing has not undermined the incentives of authors to produce new works. We argue that the effect of file sharing has been muted for three reasons. (1) The cannibalization of sales that is due to file sharing is more modest than many observers assume. Empirical work suggests that in music, no more than 20% of the recent decline in sales is due to sharing. (2) File sharing increases the demand for complements to protected works, raising, for instance, the demand for concerts and concert prices. The sale of more expensive complements has added to artists’ incomes. (3) In many creative industries, monetary incentives play a reduced role in motivating authors to remain creative. Data on the supply of new works are consistent with the argument that file sharing did not discourage authors and publishers. Since the advent of file sharing, the production of music, books, and movies has increased sharply.

See, grabbing content from pirate bay is actually good for society.  I knew it.