While crossing the street and violating urban etiquette, watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, or prepping to go out and play cricket—whatever time zone you’re in—here are a few stories that caught my eye today that might be of interest to you.

To wrest control of the Senate from the Democrats, the Republicans thus need a net gain of 10 seats. Three are in the bag, as the Republicans will easily pick up the open Democratic seats in Indiana and North Dakota, and Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln is a goner, trailing her Republican opponent by more than 20%. Unless some tidal wave happens, in 22 other seats, 15 held by Republicans (Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah) and 7 held by Democrats (Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New York [2], Oregon, Vermont), control should stay with the current party.

Thus, at that point the Democrats hold a 47-41 advantage, with 12 seats up for grabs—what I’ll call the “Decisive Dozen”—9 Democratic- and 3 Republican-held seats. Thus, to get to 51 (Joe Biden would break any tie), the Republicans nearly have to run the table, winning 10 of the 12 races.

Will the Republicans do it? The short answer is no.

To round up my series on campaign attacks ads for the 2010 midterms, we travel down to the Sunshine State, where one of the most watched and bitter gubernatorial contests in the country is taking place. The battle to replace Republican-turned-Independent Charlie Crist is being waged by Republican Tea Party darling Rick Scott, who beat the Republican front-runner and longtime politician Bill McCollum in August’s primary in what the Orlando Sentinel called the “most-expensive primary—and one of the ugliest—in Florida history,” and Democrat Alex Sink, Florida’s chief financial officer. Where lying and texting meets a shady CEO.

As the 2010 midterm elections approach, most pundits and political scientists are predicting massive Democratic losses of at least 50 seats in the House of Representatives—more than enough to secure a majority for the Republican party. The combination of a bad economy, a relatively unpopular president, an energized Republican party, and numerous well-funded Republican challengers suggests that this is simply not a good year to be a Democrat. Some prognosticators have hedged their bets a bit due to the large number of toss-up seats as well as potential difficulties with reaching voters who are cell-phone only.

However, an overlooked factor that may work in the Democrat’s favor this year is the type of ballot employed. In fact, recent changes in state ballot laws could provide most incumbents with a 2-4% boost on election day.

In April 2009 Texas Governor Rick Perry was talking possible secession, while establishment Texan Republicans were plotting his replacement in the form of popular U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Eleven months later, Perry had easily dispatched of Hutchinson, dubbing her Kay “Bailout” and the “Earmark Queen.” On the Democratic side, Bill White, the former mayor of Houston, crushed six challengers, winning more than 75% of the vote.

With election 2010 winding down and the House seemingly a foregone conclusion to change over to the Republicans, the Senate is where attention has been focused, and the Colorado Senate race between appointed Democrat Michael Bennet (he took the seat after Ken Salazar was appointed secretary of the interior in Barack Obama’s administration) vs. Republican Tea Partier Ken Buck is shaping up as among the closest contests.

With just over a week before voters cast their ballots on Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in California, the result hangs in the balance, though the polls have shown a small but perceptible shift away from legalization. To help voters in California make their final evaluations and to help those outside the state make sense of the debate, we at Britannica have brought to together both scientists as well as those on both sides of the debate to make their closing arguments and debunk some myths.

America did suffer from reefer madness in the 1930s. The first victims of reefer madness were the legislators who let themselves be panicked into enacting repressive laws based on mean-spirited hostility to Mexicans, blacks, and young people. The continuing victims of reefer madness are the millions of decent Americans who have been punished as criminals because of the laws enacted by the legislative dupes of Henry Anslinger and his fellow bigots.

Proposition 19 is a poorly written and highly flawed initiative that will fail to reap all the rewards people claim it will bring for the state of California. Prop 19 specifically does not authorize the state government to impose any marijuana specific tax or fee. Prop 19 only authorizes local governments to impose taxes and fees on recreational marijuana-related activities. Therefore, the only tax benefit would come from local taxes meant to “recoup” costs associated with the newly legalized activities. Furthermore, individuals would be free to grow as much marijuana as they can in a 5�5 plot and keep and store as much of it as they want-indefinitely and tax-free, which means there is no tax benefit to either the state or localities.

My colleague here at the Hoover Institution, the late Milton Friedman, once asked me how, in a democracy, a senseless policy of using criminal law in an attempt to suppress the use of marijuana, a comparatively harmless drug, could continue for so long. Milton, an economic Nobel Laureate, once wrote that he had never tried the drug, and doubted that he would, but reserved the right to do so.

Milton Friedman was a strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln’s idea that “We are a government of the people, for the people and by the people.”

Washington would do well to recognize that we are not a government of Washington, D.C., controlling the vote of Californians. If a majority of voters in California think it’s silly to continue a losing crusade against marijuana, the federal government should not attempt to stifle the voice of the people. I’d love to see the voters win one for Milton Friedman on election day.