PORKBUSTERS IS POLLING VERY WELL:

Three of every four Americans support paying for Hurricane Katrina and Wilma recovery by transferring “items from the recent highway funding bill not directly related to road construction,” according to the latest George Washington University Battleground 2006 Survey.

Transferring the pork from the highway bill was chosen by 73 percent of 1,000 registered likely voters interviewed Oct. 9-12, with a margin of error of 3.1 percent. The Battleground 2006 survey is a joint effort on behalf of the university by The Tarrance Group and Lake, Snell, Perry, Mermin, and Associates. The former is a Republican firm and the latter is a Democrat firm.

Can’t say I’m surprised.

UPDATE: On the other hand, Tim Chapman has published an internal Senate email that illustrates what we’re up against.

CANADIAN SCANDAL UPDATE: The Gomery Report is now online. Here’s a post on it by a Canadian blogger. Chretien comes off badly.

SOME POSITIVE NEWS in the Christian Science Monitor:

Last January, Baquba was symbol of everything going wrong in Iraq – and its neighborhood of Buhritz was a symbol for everything going wrong in Baquba. . . .

But today, US commanders are pointing to Baquba as a symbol of what might go right. Every polling place stayed open all day for the Oct. 15 referendum that approved Iraq’s new constitution earlier this month. Violence was light, while voter turnout was high.

While Sunnis, Shiites, and ethnic Kurds of the city all have different visions of Iraq’s future, and bombs like the one that killed at least 30 civilians Saturday in a town near here are still common, Baquba is a reminder that at least short-term security gains are being made in many Iraqi cities, particularly ones outside volatile Anbar Province.

Asked why, Lt. Col. Rob Risberg, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Army’s 10th Field Artillery Regiment, scratches his head, then says it hasn’t been rocket science. “The Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police have really come along – they can handle most of what comes their way now,” says Colonel Risberg, from DeLeon Springs, Fla. “We’re here to back them up, but I think we’re seeing the benefits of getting cops on almost every street corner.”

Read the whole thing.

CANADIAN SCANDAL UPDATE: The Gomery Report comes out today. Here’s the Gomery Commission website. I expect we’ll see updates on NewsBeat1.

LYNNE KIESLING: “U.S. auto manufacturers, sit up and pay attention: the long-run effect of these high gasoline prices may be a change in the preferences of customers.” That’s what markets are for.

Read this post on oil prices, too.

JOHN HINDERAKER takes umbrage at an alarming statistic. I say it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!

JIM HOFT EXHUMES a Joe Wilson speech that a lot of people would probably prefer he hadn’t. He has audio.

ALTHOUSE ON ALITO in the New York Times:

Well, quite aside from the tedium of cliché, we might want to consider whether Judge Alito really is all that much like Justice Scalia. If you’re old enough, you might remember how savvy it once seemed to respond to the nomination of Harry Blackmun by lumping him with Warren Burger and calling them “the Minnesota Twins.” . . .

Those Democrats who are already insisting that Judge Alito’s record on the bench makes him unacceptable should keep in mind that someday they, too, will have a president with a Supreme Court seat to fill, and it would serve the country well if that president wasn’t forced to choose only among candidates with no paper trail. To oppose Judge Alito because his record is conservative is to condemn us to a succession of bland nominees and to deprive future presidents of the opportunity to choose from the men and women who have dedicated long years to judicial work.

Read the whole thing.

MICKEY KAUS detects a Tim Russert lobbying campaign.

MORE ENHANCEMENTS to the PorkBusters site, including links to blog posts on the topic. Add yours!

THE NEW YORK TIMES has a rather positive profile of Judge Alito in tomorrow’s edition. “Judge Alito’s jurisprudence has been methodical, cautious, respectful of precedent and solidly conservative, legal scholars said. In cases involving the great issues of the day – abortion, the death penalty and the separation of church and state – Judge Alito has typically taken the conservative side. Yet he has not flaunted his political views inside or outside the courthouse. Friends say Judge Alito seems to have inherited a distaste for shows of ideology from his father, an Italian immigrant who became research director for the New Jersey Legislature and had to rigorously avoid partisanship.”

On the other hand, there’s this smoking gun: “As for Judge Alito’s trumpet skills, the former band leader said, ‘he certainly was no virtuoso.'”

HERE’S AN INTERESTING PROFILE of anti-debt crusader Dave Ramsey, who I recently discovered once lived in Maryville, Tennessee, where I went to high school. We may even have been students at UT at the same time, though I never knew him. But I’ve enjoyed his show, which provides a lot of interesting insights into how people get in trouble with money. And the piece notes something I’ve noticed: His debt counseling is often marriage counseling, too. Another thing we have in common: We both hate the new bankruptcy bill.

LOADS MORE LIBBYGATE STUFF over at Tom Maguire’s.

GREG DJEREJIAN OFFERS advice for President Bush.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Sissy Willis is working the phones.

JOHN FUND:

As President Bush prepares to make a new appointment to the Supreme Court, the lessons of the failed Miers nomination are still being absorbed.

One that deserves study is how a lightning-fast news cycle, a flat-footed defense and the growth of new media such as talk radio and blogs sank Ms. Miers’s chances even before the megabuck special-interest groups could unload their first TV ad. Ms. Miers herself has told friends that she was astonished at how the Internet became a conveyor belt for skeptical mainstream media reports on her in addition to helping drive the debate.

It seems like the GOP is catching on. Ken Mehlman, who waited a week and a half to talk to bloggers last time around, had a conference call with Republican bloggers this afternoon. I wasn’t there, but Michelle Malkin has links to posts from people who were.

HYBRIDBLOGGING: So, I went ahead and bought the Toyota Highlander hybrid SUV this weekend. So far I’m quite happy.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the mileage depends a lot on driving style. Yesterday I drove into campus and it got (based on the trip computer) 22.6 miles per gallon — not bad for an SUV in town, but nothing huge.

Today I drove in, late enough that there was no more traffic than on Sunday morning, and made a point of watching the little indicator that tells you whether you’re running on gas or electric power. Still driving about the same speed as yesterday (typically around 40-45) and taking the same route, but driving so as to maximize the amount I was on electric power, I got 37.7 miles per gallon. Coming home at rush hour, with stop and go traffic, I didn’t do as well, finishing up at 30. One problem with the Highlander is that it’s so peppy that you tend to drive it harder unless you think about it. Okay, that’s not really a problem.

Somebody told me the other day that a hybrid car was a good “branding” thing for me, because I’m a “political hybrid” blogger. I’m not sure what that means, exactly, but it ‘s kind of cool. What I really am is a gadget-head, which made the hybrid more appealing — in fact, I realized that I now don’t own a normal car at all: The Mazda has a rotary engine. Maybe I’m just odd. But at least I get good mileage!

The other interesting thing is that despite the Libbygate affair this weekend, and the Alito nomination, I’ve gotten more SUV-mail than I’ve gotten email on any other topic. I guess people care about this stuff.

UPDATE: Reader John Henry emails:

I have an Escape Hybrid and love it. It takes a bit to get used to driving a car without the engine running though…

I have been asked, by everyone that found out I bought a hybrid, if I thought it would pay off (gas savings vs extra initial cost) in the long run. I did the math and at $3 a gallon, it will take about 60-70k miles to pay off the initial cost with the gas savings. I drove over 100k on my last car and over 200k on the car before that, so it is likely to pay off in that respect. Personally I chose it because it is much cleaner than the conventional version. I have several requirements on my 4 wheeled vehicle, including the abilty to carry 4 adults comfortably and a large volume of carrying capacity covered. The choice between the Ford and the Toyota was actually a matter of the dealerships I have available. I have an exceptionally good Ford dealer available and have an exellent relationship with the entire staff (sales, sevice, management, and even the detailer), and I have not been impressed with the other dealerships (including the other Ford dealers) in my area.

I would be interested to hear (or more precisely, read on your blog) your thoughts on the subject.

I feel pretty much the same way. I hope, for the sake of the country, that gas prices don’t reach the point where my hybrid pays off quickly via fuel economy. I’m glad to hear good things about the Ford Escape. My local Ford dealer, alas, isn’t up to that level — some years ago we walked after agreeing to a price on a Ford Focus and returning a couple of hours later to pick up the car, only to have the salesman “apologize” and tell us that due to a “mistake” it would cost us $1500 more than we agreed to. I’d never patronize them again, after that. That’s one reason why I didn’t bother trying the Escape. The Explorer, however, is a pretty good SUV if you don’t mind the terrible mileage. (More on that here).

MIKE KREMPASKY has a must-read item on Internet free speech.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM being rolled out via the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Read this, too.

CATHY SEIPP writes on her lung cancer. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: A response.

MORE RACE RIOTS IN PARIS.

MARK LEVIN: “On ABC’s ‘Good Morning America,’ Linda Douglass reported that Sam Alito ‘is another white male.’ Actually, as I think about it, he’s less white than the show’s anchor, Charles Gibson. Alito’s skin tone appears to me to be more olive.”

Actually, in the New York Times it appears to be more of a lime green.

UPDATE: SCOTUSBlog has a roundup of Alito decisions, and here’s a roundup by Shannon Duffy, reported to be the inventor of the “Scalito” nickname.

ERIN CHAPIN VIDEOBLOGS beer-related difficulties in Knoxville.

ALITO UPDATE: Orin Kerr looks at an Alito abortion decision that’s getting less attention. I spoke to a colleague in the hallway a few minutes ago who has argued before Alito and likes him. He said Alito was way too conservative for his taste (not surprising), but that Alito is fair and smart. He thinks Alito is a lot like John Roberts as a pick. Ann Althouse, meanwhile, thinks he’s a stronger choice than John Roberts. More here from Julian Sanchez.

UPDATE: David Hardy looks at Alito and the Second Amendment.

KATRINA RELIEF MONEY being diverted to Alaska?