HALLOWEEN, Obama style!



Happy Halloween, One-Percenters!

ZOMBIE: The Decline and Fall of Western Culture in One Photo.

ROMNEY SLAMMED by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell for collecting storm supplies; Obama issues 'dog whistle' to MSNBC supporters.

MICHELLE MALKIN: Obama layoffs loom.

THE POWER of a uniquely American song.

REMEMBER the Obama campaign's 'your first time should be with Obama' video ad? The mockers are out in force with parodies.

LET'S HOPE THERE ARE NO TRICK-OR-TREATERS: ISS Astronauts Expected To Have Candy For Halloween.

THOMAS SOWELL: 'Cooling out' the voters' interest in Benghazi. Nothing to see here, America. Move along now. And vote for me.

'CIVIL RIGHTS' LEADER: NBA team 'too white'. Hmm. Since the black population in the United States is only 13.1%, isn't the entire NBA 'too black'?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: If Obama wins, brace for a suicide dive off fiscal cliff.

EMBARRASSED? I doubt it.

JOURNALIST TWIT tweets his bias. Facts? We don't need no stinkin' facts.

HE EXPECTING TO LOSE CLOSE: Obama dispatches election lawyers 'all across the country'. Too bad for him it won't be close.

CAL THOMAS: "Where's the racist detector and who gets to operate it?"

HURRICANE SANDY hadn’t even made landfall when President Obama’s political allies began trying to use the tragedy for political gain.

Unexpectedly.

MICHAEL BARONE: "[I]f you listen to both Romney and Obama on the stump, you will hear concern about the nation's poor from one candidate and virtually nothing from the other."

OUR PERPETUALLY OFFENDED PRESIDENT: I’m offended that people would accuse me of not being forthcoming about Benghazi.

He's offended? I'm not; I'm thoroughly pissed.

GOODBYE, SANDY, we hardly knew ya. It's over; light rain, winds calm, and Sandy has gone her way. It's still dark outside, but as best I can tell with a flashlight, we lost one large tree, which in turn took out two smaller ones. There may be another small tree (or large branch) in the front. It's hard to tell without light, but something seems amiss. Leaves are everywhere -- what would have fallen naturally over days and weeks were taken down forcibly. I am somewhat surprised by what appears to be a lack of debris (small branches, etc.) in the yard, but that may just be because it's still dark.

UPDATE & BUMP (with pictures).

Here's the first post-Sandy picture of the house taken from the front yard. You can compare it to the pre-Sandy picture posted here.
The change is dramatic in that the leaves have been pounded into the ground.

Here are the downed trees. The one on the far left started the fall. It's a big one, roughly 18" in diameter at the base and about 70' tall. It took out the one immediately to its right, which is about 12" diameter at its base. I'd guess it was about 50' tall. The third one, also a 12-incher, is only partially uprooted and still partially supporting the other two. The next one in line is still vertical, but was snapped off about 20 feet up (at the very top of the photo). I suspect it's the major reason the trees didn't fall completely to the ground.

Here's the base of the first downed tree. From ground level to the top of the root system is about 6 feet (above my head). The interesting thing about this picture is that the soil is pretty much dry, meaning that the tree was taken down by wind and not soil erosion.

Last picture, taken from the northeast side of the house. The vertical tree is the one that was snapped in two about 20' above ground level. The tree that is caught is the smaller of the two that came down. The big one that started the whole collapse is in the top right corner of the photo.

I'm still suprised that the tarps that cover the two firewood piles never blew off.

OOPS! Obama Proposes to Add a ‘Secretary of Business’ to Cabinet.

LIBERALS: Pay us for controlling your kids -- but you're responsible if anything we do goes wrong.

AT LEAST THE NEXT FOUR YEARS: Obama to Change Washington by Spending More Time Away.

JOHN RANSOM disses the New York Times: "I suspect that the Times resents the free market where readers get to decide on their own that they’d rather watch Fox News than read the New York Times."

IT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA to mess with a Warthog pilot.

HURRICANE SANDY VISITS MANASSAS:

The rain is dying off (less that 4" accumulation). Winds are steady at about 30-35 kts, with some gusts into the high 50 kts. Landfall in NJ in about an hour. No power outages or trees down in Manassas that I know of.

UPDATE & BUMP: We almost made it through Hurricane Sandy. Still raining lightly, with high winds and gusts. At 9:45 PM we had one big tree come down, taking two smaller others with it. No damage to the house or property. The tree was in the side yard on the north side of the house; it fell in the 'forest' that surrounds the house. On the bright side, we'll have plenty of firewood for next winter.

Also a short power outage that lasted only 30 seconds or so.

CARDIOLOGIST FUNERAL

A very prestigious cardiologist died, and was given a very elaborate
funeral by the hospital he worked for most of his life.

A huge heart ... covered in flowers ... stood behind the casket during the
service as all the doctors from the hospital sat in awe. Following the
eulogy, the heart opened, and the casket rolled inside. The heart then
closed, sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever.

At that point, one of the mourners burst into laughter. When all
eyes stared at him, he said, "I'm so sorry.... I was just thinking of my
own funeral ... I'm a gynecologist!"

From my email.

THE CIA DOESN’T LIKE taking the fall for mistakes by the president and his top aides, and they get even quickly, quietly, and with fatal consequences.

IS IT YOUR 'CIVIC DUTY' TO VOTE? No. It's your right, but not your duty. And frankly, I think there a lot of mis-informed, ill-informed, and uninformed voters who have a duty to not vote.

WELCOME TO TEXAS; now go home. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott responds to the UN election monitors:

October 25, 2012

The Honorable
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Madam Secretary:

Yesterday you received a letter from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) asking that the U.S. Department of State take steps to ensure the OSCE's election observers are not "restrained in their activities" while in the State of Texas. It appears that OSCE is under the misimpression that the State Department can somehow help its representatives circumvent the Texas Election Code.

Texas law prohibits unauthorized persons from entering a polling place-or loitering within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance-on Election Day. OSCE monitors are expected to follow that law like everyone else.

As you know, Texas election laws govern anyone who participates in Texas elections. The fact that representatives of the United States joined the U.S.S.R, Yugoslavia, Romania, and other OSCE member-nations in signing a document at a 1989 conference in Copenhagen has absolutely no bearing on the administration of elections or laws governing elections in the State of Texas. Yet the OSCE invokes the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document to seek your help ensuring that its representatives are not "restrained" by Texas law.

If the OSCE wishes to visit Texas during election season, we welcome the opportunity to educate its representatives about the State's electoral process. But OSCE is not above the law and its representatives must at all times comply with Texas law when they are present in this state.

While the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document cited in the OSCE letter is legally irrelevant and will have no impact on the State's administration of the November elections, for the sake of accuracy you should know that the letter misconstrues OSCE's own governing documents. Indeed, the OSCE claims that requiring its representatives to comply with Texas law somehow contravenes paragraph 8 of the Copenhagen document. That is false.

In fact, paragraph 8 specifically stipulates that OSCE representatives may only observe elections "to the extent allowed by law." As you know, in the United States that means both state and federal law. The OSCE's letter states only that its observers are committed to compliance "with all national laws and regulations."

This statement may simply reveal that the OSCE is unfamiliar with our nation's federalist system. On the other hand, it may reveal that the OSCE does not consider itself restrained by state law. Texas needs OSCE's assurance that its representatives will abide by Texas law when they are present in this state. We have not received that assurance.

In addition to my desire to defend and enforce Texas election laws, I am also concerned that an unnecessary political agenda may have infected OSCE's election monitoring activities. The OSCE has published policy recommendations and other reports that raise objections to state laws that prohibit convicted felons from voting, prevent voter registration fraud, and require voters to present a photo identification at the polling place. The OSCE may object to photo identification laws and prohibitions on felons voting-but our nation's Supreme Court has upheld both laws as entirely consistent with the U.S. Constitution.

And perhaps ironically, the OSCE representative leading the mission to the United States hails from the Netherlands, which has a photo identification law for voters. According to the Dutch government's official website: "checking identity documents helps fight fraud." Why the OSCE appears to now question voter identification laws in the United States is beyond reason. Perhaps it is just politics. Regardless, the OSCE's perspective on Voter ID is legally irrelevant in the United States.

Indeed, contrary to the principles of "political pluralism" articulated in the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, the OSCE has recently coordinated with a number of plainly partisan organizations in the United States. This appears to reflect a concerted effort to politicize an initiative that was previously perceived as an international information exchange program.

While Texas may welcome visitors from any nation or international organization who wish to learn more about the steps the State has taken to protect the integrity of state elections, we need not open our doors and accommodate an international effort affiliated with partisan organizations in the United States that wish to suppress electoral integrity.

The case in point is OSCE's coordination with Project Vote, an overtly partisan organization that was founded by and closely affiliated with ACORN. As you know, ACORN collapsed in the wake of a national voter registration fraud scandal that resulted in multiple criminal prosecutions for violations of state and federal election laws. Just this week, Project Vote boasted that it was advising OSCE on which issues to study-and which states to monitor-this election cycle.

In light of Project Vote's history of voter registration fraud and its more recent failed attempt to enjoin Texas election laws that were enacted to prevent fraud, no legitimate international body would affiliate with Project Vote. Consequently, OSCE's affiliation with this dubious organization necessarily undermines its credibility and the independence of its election monitors.

Rather than work closely with domestic partisan organizations to advance their shared political agenda, the OSCE should consult the report that President Jimmy Carter and Secretary of State James Baker issued as co-chairmen of the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform. As you know, President Carter is one of the world's most well-known election monitors. Given President Carter's experience in this area, it is noteworthy that the report he authored found: "The electoral system cannot inspire confidence if no safeguards exist to deter and detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters."

Apparently the Netherlands agrees with that assessment, which is why the Dutch government similarly requires voters to present a photo identification before casting their ballots.

The United States Constitution authorizes the States to regulate the conduct of state and federal elections within their borders. In Texas, the Legislature has exercised its prerogative to implement laws that preclude felons from voting, prevent groups like Project Vote from questionable voter registration activities, and instill confidence in the electoral system by requiring voters to present a photo identification.

While we welcome international visitors who wish to engage in a legitimate information exchange, we have no interest in being lectured by the OSCE about how best to conduct the State of Texas' business.

Unlike the unelected bureaucrats at the OSCE, our State's leaders and decision-makers were duly elected by Texas voters. Elected members of the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Election Code to ensure our State's elections are free, fair, open, and reliable. The Election Code does not authorize OSCE's representatives to enter the polling place and nothing in a document that may govern the OSCE's conduct has any impact-legal or otherwise-on the conduct of elections in the State of Texas.

If the OSCE does not wish to follow the laws that govern everyone else present in the State of Texas, including the voters who elect our State's leaders, then perhaps it should dispatch its representatives to another state.

In closing, I have a simple request: Please work with the OSCE to ensure they agree to comply with Texas law. If they refuse to do so, OSCE's representatives may be subject to legal consequences associated with any violations of state law.

Sincerely,
Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas

Don't Mess With Texas.

NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE: Bill Clinton Politicizes Hurricane Sandy.

MAXINE on the 2012 election.

OBAMA'S WAR ON WOMEN: "a weirdly paternalistic form of social liberalism, in which women are forever single girls and the president is their father, lover, fiancé and paladin all rolled into one."

MICHAEL BARONE: Changing Demographics Won't Mean the End of Republican Party.

PARAPROSDOKIAN: a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation." "Where there's a will, I want to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

Okay, so now enjoy!

1. Do not argue with an idiot; he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify_________, I put 'DOCTOR.'

13. I didn't say it was your fault; I said I was blaming you.

14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

18. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

19. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

20. There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.

21. I used to be indecisive; now I'm not so sure.

22. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

23. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and then call whatever you hit the "target".

24. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

25. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

26. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

27. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.

28. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even when you wish they were.

29. I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.

30. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the professionals, the Fire Department, usually uses water.

31. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

A little levity to lighten the wait until Armegeddon eases up and we can return to normal life.

(BUMPED)

HURRICANE SANDY has finally made her presence known at my house about 8:30 this evening. The rain has increased from none to mist; and the winds from calm to perceptible. I sense a bit of frustration on the part of the media and weather forecasters as neither Sandy or the local citizens are living up to their hysterical pre-disaster hype.

UPDATE (1:OO AM Monday). Light rain; no wind; disaster still imminent. Late night TV terrible.

UPDATE 2(8:00 AM Monday). Light rain continues, 1 inch accumulation; light wind; vicious leaf assault continues.

UPDATE 3 (2:00 PM Monday). The rain is still light but steady (2-1/2 inch accumulation); winds are steady at about 30 mph with gusts into the 50 mph range. No local power outages that I've heard about.

There's no TV to watch that doesn't have constant interruptions about the hurricane and the imminent danger to 50 now 60 million Americans.

The worst part is having to watch now-Safety-Nanny-in-Chief Obama warn me that if I open my door I'll be endangering one of the thousands of first responders already out prowling the streets in search of someone to save.

SHOULD GOVERNMENTS be allowed to steal your property? Well, they've stolen nearly everything else.

HURRICANE SANDY shutters D.C. area. At 10:30 AM this morning, the winds are beginning to pick up a bit -- light & steady with occasional gusts, rain continuing. We've been out twice this morning, and most commercial businesses are open. Unless is gets much worse, it'll be just another blustery government holiday....

WHERE YOUR TAX MONEY GOES: School Staffing Growing Significantly Faster Than Enrollment.

THE 2012 ERECTION: "To democrats it seems women are nothing more than hyper-fertile vaginas on a constant quest for sex, contraception and abortions."

Barefoot and not pregnant.

THESE PEOPLE have no honor (at 1:15).

RETURN OF THE DRAGON. The unmanned freighter carrying a stash of precious medical samples from the International Space Station parachuted into the Pacific Ocean, completing the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.

VANDAL KEYS ‘OBAMA’ into 2 cars in Alta Loma (CA). Funny, but I can't offhand think of any news reports of Romney supporters keying others' cars....

The average emotional age of an Obama supporter is about ... two (as in the 'terrible twos').

E. J. DIONNE: The Tea Party's over.

On Nov. 7th, when President-Elect Romney prepares to take office in January, will Dionne man up and and admit he was wrong? Or will he continue to deny-and-whine? My money's on the latter.

DEMOCRATS 2012: Not All Men and Women Are Created Equal.

RISK FACTOR: This week in cybercrime.

FIVE YEARS AGO. It's hard to believe it's been five years.

ONLY IN AMERICA

Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000.00 a plate campaign fund-raising event.

Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black while only 12% of the population is black.

Only in America could the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

Only in America can terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

Only in America would people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just 'magically' become American citizens.

Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists."

Only in America could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike).

Only in America , could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year , and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.

Only in America could the rich people - who pay 86% of all income taxes - be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

From my email

X-51A WAVERIDER TEST FAILURE likely caused by early fin release. A fourth flight is scheduled in 2013. The goal of the research program is to get in-flight data of an operating scramjet to further understand the technology and its potential applications.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Are the TV Anchor People Rooting for President Obama?

PUNCH BACK: "It's time for all small businesses to file a class-action lawsuit against President Obama and the federal government for creating a 'Hostile Work Environment that terrorizes us and prevents us from earning a living."

MCCAIN: Pentagon of being unprepared to respond to Libya attack. Color me unconvinced. I think the Pentagon was fully prepared, but directed by the White House (i.e., Obama) not to respond. My sense is that Obama is so invested in his 'there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism' beliefs that he is willing to sacrifice his own people to avoid a military response.

OH, SHIT.

LEAF FALL 2012: Second in a series.

Taken October 26th. The earlier picture is here.

I KNOW, I KNOW. The sky is falling, hurricane Sandy is coming, and Armegeddon is only a few days away, so I'm keeping the radio/TV off as much as possible. I'm well aware that the average liberal/progressive can't find his ass without both hands and an instruction manual, but I see no reason to subject myself to the nanny-state buffoonery that has infected the media and political class.

NO SURPRISES: the Washington Post's 2012 election endorsements are out; all Democrats with the exception of one Republican. The one Republican, unfortunately, is my congressman, Frank Wolf. I voted against him in the primary -- and lost -- so I'll have to hold my nose and vote for him as the better of two bad choices.

'TWISTED LIGHT' for 2.5 Tb/s communications. At that speed, you could damn near download every book in the Library of Congress before you could release the mouse button.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY: Al Gore’s ‘Current TV’ to be put up for sale. Viewers not included (not that it would make any difference).

MASS FIRINGS soar at fastest pace since 2010. Curious, isn't it, that the media isn't covering these layoffs?

SPEECHLESS: encouraging twits to vote for a twit.

MORE: Team Obama appears to have borrowed the idea from Team Putin (second video).

ARE WELFARE, FREE PHONES SLAVERY? No, slaves had to work.

IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE THE EARTH: Manned Mars missions could threaten Red Planet life.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: A Brief History of Obama.

A VOTE FOR ELECTION DAY. Agreed. There should be a single election day, with voters required to cast their ballots in person (with ID). Exceptions granted only to those who cannot physically show up.

HEALTH CARE RATIONING: the shift from sanctity-of-life to quality-of-life. I'd prefer to make the decisions myself, thank-you-very-much. If I can't trust the government with my money, why should I trust them with my life?

PERHAPS THIS IS WHY Obama’s crony rich friends are willing to agree to higher taxes for millionaires and billionaires — they have their “tax attributes” in their net operating losses (NOLs) paid for by the average, middle-class taxpayer.

ANDREW SULLIVAN warns that Romney will launch 'a new global war'. He's also warning that Mitt Romney attended a white supremacist church for 31 years.

Sullivan's lucky that we no longer instutionalize the mentally deranged.

WHY I LOVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT: 12-Year-Old Defends Herself with Gun.

A SQUIRREL A DAY: Obama's election strategy. Today's squirrel is former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

VOTE EARLY: it's easier than thinking.

WASHINGTON POST: Government crusade against mortgage lenders. Well, of course. It couldn't possibly be the Government's fault that so many sub-prime mortgages were written....

A TWO-FER: Nepotism and fraud. Rep. Moron Moran is not in my district, so I'm not too embarrassed.

LOOKING FOR A SCAPEGOAT: How Bill Clinton May Have Hurt the Obama Campaign.

WASN'T THAT OBVIOUS? Obama can't do 7th grade math.

ANN COULTER: "Democrats do nothing for black Americans except mine them for votes...."

EMAIL COMMENT OF THE DAY:

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What The Debates Taught Us.

That Obama is a loser....

THE FINAL DEBATE: Who's Living in the Real World?

OBAMACARE DISCOURAGES FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT; part-time employment surges.

FLY EARLY, FLY OFTEN: Houston airport system starts aviation club for students.

THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama's plan for hunting terrorists.

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list called the “disposition matrix.” The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations. U.S. officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the “disposition” of suspects beyond the reach of American drones.

That way he won't have to live up to his promise to try them in U.S. courts.

'BIGOT' IS TOO WEAK A TERM to encompass MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Follow the links.

THEY’RE NOT FLIP-FLOPS, they’re merely promises that have met their expiration date.

ZOMBIE: The larger the sample size, the more likely the poll is to favor Romney over Obama. Hmm. Could the smaller sample sizes reflect the culling of Romney responses from the full data set?

WELL, he's certainly less respected.

CLINT EASTWOOD FOR ROMNEY:



Personally, I would have preferred something along the lines of "Go ahead, make my day" but I'm convinced that Mitt Romney's strategic vision is much better that my innate desire to kick some ass.

WHAT?? Michael Mann won the Nobel Peace Prize?

GALLUP: Romney leads Obama, 51%-46%. My personal mini-predictor is running about 56%-44%.

ERIC CANTOR: The Imperial Presidency.

2008 CALLED. It wants to know what happened to Barack Obama. Nothing; you got what you paid for.

ENDEAVOUR'S LAST JOURNEY.

PUBLIC NUDITY IS NOT A CRIME.

I suggest it is, for visual assault....

NEW YORK TIMES: Romney & Ryan didn't win a single debate. Uh, then why are they rising in the polls?

MEDIA: There was no Obama 'apology tour'. That's not what I remember.

ONLY LIBERALS are allowed to be 'fashionable'.

WELL WE DID elect a foreign (to American values) President.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER on the Presidential debate.

THE DOWNSIDE of electronic medical records. The WSJ article is behind a paywall, but read the comments for more thoughts.

BYRON YORK: "Obama's greatest success has been in concealing the extraordinary emptiness at the heart of his own campaign."

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE between a Romney supporter and an Obama supporter?

The Romney supporter signs checks on the front; the Obama supporter signs on the back.

WHY SUBSIDIES DON'T WORK ... the best cartoon I've seen describing the problem with Obama's green energy programs.

Linked from Townhall.

THOMAS SOWELL on the Obama administration's Libya response: "[Y]ou don't need to eat a whole egg to know that it is rotten."

HEH: "I think we saw two candidates who were thinking not only about the campaign but also about the transition period which will occur if Romney is elected and Obama is denied a second term.”

AMERICA, we hardly know you.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN having a 'Going Out Of Business' sale? Well, the campaign is bankrupt....

QUOTE OF THE THIRD DEBATE:

Linked from here.

HEH. THE EDJUMAKATED RULING CLASS stil kan't spel.

PLAYING THE RACE CARD AGAIN: Post-debate, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews claims Romney supporters fueled by racial hatred of Obama.

Get over it, Chris. The race card only plays to your base. We still dislike your programs, and just because you chose a half-black spokesman from your plantation doesn't change that.

SHOCKER: Bureaucrat-Dominated Panel Claims Bureaucrats Are Underpaid. More importantly, they're overstaffed and undercompetent.

POST-DEBATE THOUGHTS ... Part 2 from Elizabeth Price Foley.

POST-DEBATE THOUGHTS ... Part 1 from Ed Driscoll.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF GOVERNMENT STUPIDITY: FAA to establish Center of Excellence for Environment and Energy next year. It's easier to study a problem than solve it, and study provides a never-ending stream of taxpayer funding.

REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE:

(click to enlarge)

GEORGE WILL:

“There’s good reason to fear that if the economy builds a 5 percent levee the polity will just come up with a 6 percent flood. We humans adroitly use scant and equivocal evidence to convince ourselves that the most congenial interpretation of events is also the most plausible and durable.”

Read it all.

THE SINGLE REASON for not reelecting Barack Obama.

SO WHICH IS IT?

Mr. Obama’s hazy agenda for a second term.

Obama’s not-so-hidden second-term agenda.

In either case, we know his path is on the road to socialism.

ROGUE WARRIORS.

PERSONALLY I BELIEVE the 'rogue scientists' were those implicated by ClimateGate.

IF ONLY he would resign:

Only a man with a leftover undergraduate ambivalence about Western civilization would have dealt with the Benghazi catastrophe in such a fashion in the first place. Barack Obama responded to the terrorism like a Columbia junior stoned on a reefer, particularly one from his era. He took another toke and moved on. And then when he was told he couldn’t do that, he got angry at the people telling him.

Truer words ....

CAPTAIN OBAMA of the Titanic.

TONIGHT’S FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE is supposed to be about foreign policy, an issue that at best comes in 8th on Gallup’s list of voter concerns. The top three issues according to Gallup? The economy, unemployment, and the federal budget deficit. Look for Romney to tie all three of these issues to national security tonight. It is an easy case to make.

FLYING SAUCERS are are were real.

OREGON TEACHERS' UNION sues district for limiting dancing and heckling of substitute teachers on school property during strike. Watch.

WHICH BIRD is worth saving?

BREAKING NEWS: A few mainstream journalists commit actual journalism.

OCTOBER SURPRISE: Obama endorsed by Iran, the UN, and Russell Crowe (among others).

UPDATE: Now we know why Iran endorsed Obama.

ASPHALT ASSHOLE JUNGLE: Modern life is a rich, fertile environment for louts, jerks and boors.

TEA PARTY -- 10; Sandra Flake Fluke -- 0.

JEFF JACOBY: Can a conscientious liberal back Obama? Of course not, but conscientious liberals are scarcer than unicorns.

ASPHALT ASSHOLE JUNGLE: Modern life is a rich, fertile environment for louts, jerks and boors.

VODKAPUNDIT'S week in review.

.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: Counting All the U.S. Government's Regulations. What's truly depressing is that this regulatory outburst is bipartisan.

CLASS ACT: How many know that George W. Laura Bush host a few Wounded Warrior weekends at their ranch every year?

From my email.

BREAKING NEWS: according to liberal twits, 'Nick' Romney is running for President. Twits should not be allowed to register to vote.

EVEN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA is backing away from Obama. Could this be the reason why?

DON'T MESS WITH SHADOW ECONOMIES. They may be keeping you afloat.

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: Optimal Binders Full of Fail. Also the best comment: "Progressives seem to think women can be bought off like a puppy, with free birth control pills as milk bones. The mentality that all you need to do is feed women a can of contraception kibble and they’ll be loyal is the real war on women."

PODCAST: What's wrong with common sense.



Duncan Watts appears to confuse common sense with conventional wisdom. They are not interchangeable.

IN THE TIME OF CAESAR, all roads led to Rome. In the time of ObamaCare, seemingly every path heads straight for a cliff. Unfortunatelyfor this post, the math isn't always obvious, expecially toward the end, but the cliffs are.

“NOT ONLY would I crawl over broken glass to vote for Mitt Romney, I’ll show ID if I have to.”

PREDICTING AN OBAMA WIN? The ghost of Christmas future.

THE OBAMAPHILES do have a god.

GREAT IDEA! Man attempts cannonball into frozen swimming pool.

LIBERAL ORLANDO SENTINEL endorses Romney... so does the progressive Nashville Tennessean. Can the Washington Post be far behind?

PAUL KRUGMAN: Mitt Romney wants to let people die.

MINNESOTA SCHOOLS CLOSE so teachers can play with dolls.

THE REAL PROBLEM with our governmental system:

The folks, who are getting free stuff, don’t like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the people, who are paying for the free stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

And, the folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop. And the folks, who are getting the free stuff, want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they’re getting already.

Now the people who are forcing people to pay for the free stuff, have told the people who are receiving the free stuff that the people who are paying for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So the people getting the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff because they are selfish. And they are promised more free stuff if they will vote for the people who force the people who pay for the free stuff to give them more free stuff. And that’s the straight stuff.

George Carlin via this link.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I say that a nice glass of Milk of Romnesia is just the thing to take care of that bad case of Obamarrhea we’ve been suffering the last 4 years."

Linked from this post.

TECH TALK: A new idea for green energy.

TAX DEDUCTION REFORM, cafeteria style.

ELDERLY WIDOW told not to pray in public housing complex.

Hmm. Does that mean you can't pray if you receive any government assistance, like unemployment, welfare, or food stamps? (But you can play Monopoly on the government dime....)

IT'S 'UNCONSTITUTIONAL to challenge the emperor. What are you supposed to do -- bow?

THE REAL MITT ROMNEY:



Linked from here.

CHICAGO’S NEW PLAN: tax guns out of existence.

I NEED MORE COFFEE, JOE.

I'LL TAKE TAGG IN A HEARTBEAT: Major network host challenges candidate’s son to a fistfight. It would do my soul good if Tagg would take O'Donnell up on his challenge.

IF BY 'US' YOU MEAN OBAMAPHILE, you're absolutely correct.

WILLFUL MEDIA MYOPIA: Obama invents his own history. Here's the 'tell' as they say in gambling: Col. Allard is a former NBC News military analyst.

IF SHE WERE OF THE LEFT, she'd be a free-speech heroine.

PAUL GREENBERG: Show vs. Substance.

SPELLING IS BAD -- stop 'privet' education.

RUNNING SCARED?

WHAT A SURPRISE (to the Obama administration, at least): Aircraft are too safe to apply draconian new safety rules.

A FEW QUESTIONS for President Obama to answer.

MICHAEL BARONE: Is the Obama 'firewall' in ruins? Yes. Yes, it is.

FACT CHECK: Top Ten Worst Lies of the Second Presidential Debate.

BARACK OBAMA: President of the 'hubby state'?

A NEW PONY? Or manure?

Found here.

ENTERING STRETCH, Obama campaign running on empty. And the Democrats keep saying the Romney campaign is short on specifics.

REST IN PEACE, BIG TEX.

ORIONIDS METEOR SHOWER to be visible this weekend. The yearly shower "ould produce as many as 60 falling stars an hour as the Earth passes through the trail of Halley's comet."

SO NOW IT'S INTIMIDATION to tell your employees the truth?

ELECTION PREDICTION

Here's what my little predictor says today. The data is from July 1st through today.

BE A GOOD SAMARITAN:

Slip this note under the wiper blade of the next car you see in this situation.

RYAN SAYS the Obama administration has no space plan. That may have the one good thing the Obama administration has done in the last 4 years, because commercial spaceflight is exploding.

PRESIDENT OF FRANCE wants to ban homework because it's "not fair" to disadvantaged.

DEBATE ANALYSIS: Did regulation quadruple under Obama? The numbers say "yes."

LAURA HOLLIS: Random thoughts about the second Presidential debate.

WHEN THE RACE CARD DOESN'T WORK, play the liar card.


More playing of the liar card.

Can we now finally admit that race is no longer an issue in America?

THE PRESIDENT WITHOUT A PLAN. Waiting just offstage is a plan with a future President holding it.

DYNAMIC PRICING: “How Much” Is Not a Simple Question.



A transcript is at the link.

CERTIFIABLY INSANE: Obama ready to veto a bill blocking ‘fiscal cliff’ without tax hike for rich. The 'Won' has been told time after time after time again that he isn't going to get a tax hike on the rich without demonstrably cutting spending first, and he still persists. He'll still be screaming "tax hikes for the rich!" when he's forcibly removed from the podium on Inauguration Day.

SPECIAL REPORT: 3.4% of U.S. Adults Identify as LGBT. So why are gay issues in the media, on college campuses, on television, and in the movies nearly 100% of the time?

NOW THIS is a man's midlife crisis car.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: Poverty Nonsense.

JOHN RANSOM: The Worst President Ever.

The Fire Eaters in the pre-civil war era South ... argued for slavery as a positive good, because the slave was never in want.

So, too, today the Democrats argue that keeping everyone on the government plantation is the great freedom that we have all been waiting for, because someday soon the government will be so powerful that no one individual will ever be burdened by having to make decisions for themselves.

We are the ones, they argue, that we have been waiting for.

Of course, the “we” they mention doesn’t include “you” or “me.”

And they care not a whit about liberty.

In ObamaUSA, slavery is freedom.

HEH. In full-page newspaper ad, 13 Iowa voters apologize for supporting Obama in 2008.

'EXPERTS'(?): Dogs, Bathtubs Scarier than al Qaeda. Except that dogs and bathtubs aren't trying to kill me.

YES. Is Obama Losing the War For Women?

I CERTAINLY HOPE these people aren't registered to vote. Who won ‘last night’s’ debate?

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP: Democrat Congressional Candidate Once Arrested at Plymouth Rock Protesting Thanksgiving.

LANGUAGE ALERT: 'Binders full of women' is sexist.

SARAH HOYT: "The one thing I’m sure of is that the man making way too many executive decisions for our economy has the same understanding of economics as my cat. At that, my cat might be better. He understands he can’t eat food that’s not in his dish."

This is only a sample. Read it all.

I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY -- unless there are consequences.

GET PREPARED!

This morning the Muslim Brotherhood warned the United States that if the United States continued meddling in Egypt, Libya, and other potential hot spots in the middle east, they intend to cut off America's supply of 7-11 and Motel 6 managers.

If this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell, AT&T and AOL customer service reps.

Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened not to send us any more presidents.

Folks, it's gonna get ugly.

From my email.

MORNING EXAMINER: Obama won on Libya, Romney won on jobs. And jobs appear to be more important to voters.

THE TRUTH about tax fairness. Watch the video.

OBAMANOMICS: Tax-raisers lack compassion.

MICHELLE MALKIN: Vote with your lady smarts.

NEW ELEMENT added to the periodic table. It would be better if the author could spell.

WE THE PEOPLE:

JUVENILES are in charge at the DNC.

Linked from Ann Althouse.

WHO LOST THE DEBATE? Some links courtesy of Instapundit.

A TALE of two very different recoveries. By comparison, Obama isn't looking very good.

Here's another.

BOW TO NO ONE:

LEAF FALL 2012: First in a series.

Taken October 16th.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. You can tell a man is retired by the shoes he wears.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from Thomas Sowell: "If there is ever a Hall of Fame for confidence men, Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff will have to take a back seat to Barack Obama. Obama is the gold standard -- or, perhaps more appropriately, the brass standard."

Read the rest.

DEATH PANELS: another British healthcare horror story. Not coming to the U.S. -- yet.

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Think with your lady parts; not with your head.

GET READY TO RUMBLE: it's 8:45 pm and the second Presidential debate begins in 15 minutes.

SOME DEBATE PREDICTIONS.

UNITED SPACE ALLIANCE to cut more jobs in Houston. Notice the extremely low profile of the WARN Act notifications? If this were a Republican administration ....

NO COMMENT NECESSARY:

From the Washington Times editorial page.

MOVING DAY: Here's one picture I hope we see next January.

From my email.

U.S. COAL INDUSTRY would face decline even without Obama’s policies. So wouldn't it be better to let it die a natural death that killing it through regulation?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Gas prices soar for lack of new refineries and pipelines. Three guesses where the fault lies. Two aren't needed.

STILL, YOU HAVE TO WONDER if the U.S. is training Taliban/Al Qaeda fighters.

RANDOM THOUGHTS the retirement lane. There's news, and then there's JournoLism (telling Americans what they should think). I'd rather have news.

"I’M SEEING A LOT FROM BOTH PARTIES about 'strengthening' spending, 'protecting' big government, and 'championing' some groups of Americans over others. What about voters who want their leaders to strengthen individual rights, protect equality under the law, and champion the United States Constitution?"

A LESSON in call forwarding.

OBAMANOPOLY:

MOTHER NATURE likes to mess with environmentalists. As I recall, global cooling (the next Ice Age) stopped about the time environmentalists discovered it in the 1970's.

TWILIGHT ZONE: How Biden could become Romney's VP. Also read the comments.

DEMOCRATS: Let's go over the fiscal cliff (second item).

FIGHTING BACK: Another CEO threatens to fire employees if Obama wins. Read the email; it isn't a threat, it's the private sector equivalent of a WARN Act notice. (Now you know why Obama doesn't want defense contractors to issue legally required WARN Act notices before the election.)

TYPICAL OF THE 'REALITY-BASED' COMMUNITY. Washington Post reporter calls Paul Ryan 'Law & Order: SVU' 'perp of the week'. My wife and I both enjoy watching Law & Order, but neither of us is stupid naive enough to believe television resembles the real world in any way, shape, or form. This 'JournoList' clearly believes it does.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: "[I]t is becoming OK to vote 'No, you can’t!'”

This post is a must-read.

I GUESS CIVICS is now part of the 'social justice' curriculum. If it's taught at all.

LET'S GET FISCAL: Goodbye, Obama girl.

FEDERAL REGULATIONS cost small businesses $1.7 trillion per year.

Right now, I spend more than 40 cents of every dollar the company takes in on complying with regulations. You heard that right: more than forty cents. When I first started using that figure, people would say, ‘wait, you’re talking about taxes too, right’? Nope, that is just what we spend on regulations.

Read it all.

JOBS AND UNEMPLOYMENT: some things to remember.

SENIOR CHOICES:

Dawson asked his Grandfather, “At your ripe age, what would you prefer to get, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer's?”

“Definitely Parkinson’s,” said Grandfather. “Better to spill half an ounce of Jack Daniel’s than to forget where you keep the bottle!!”

From my email.

BIASED BUT ACCURATE. Larry Kudlow on the Vice Presidential debate: Ryan's Benghazi Surprise.

AMERICAN HERO 2012.

TRICKLE-DOWN GOVERNMENT IS ALL WET ... and it's the ones at the bottom who drown.

NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY: Mother of All Boondoggles?

NOT DIVERSE ENOUGH.

RED BULL STRATOS at 88,000 feet; live video here.

UPDATE: safe landing from 24 miles high.

KINDA MAKES YOU YEARN for the days when autos were mechanical, not electronic.

HUGE IRISH WIND PROJECT would send 3000 MW to the United Kingdom.

AMBASSADOR JOHN BOLTON on the Obama administration's reaction to Benghazi. For the first time, Bolton says publicly what I've long believed -- that the 'blame America first' mentality is so strong in Obama and his appointees that any evidence to the contrary simply cannot be believed. It must, therefore, be a lie or distortion of that existential truth that America must be at fault.

Watch the video. The Bolton interview begins about 4:20.

UPDATE (bumped): When it rains, it pours. Newt Gingrich makes the same point on Huckabee Saturday (10/13).

CONNECTING THE DOTS: lots and lots of dots.

MARK STEYN: Who's 'Politicizing' Benghazi?

JOE BIDEN DELIVERS ... but I didn't order a truckload of manure.

THE OBAMA TEAM prepares for the second Presidential debate....

From the Los Angeles Times.

HALFTIME IN AMERICA:



It's a parody of Eastwood's Super Bowl commercial, but a brilliant one.

PICKING A FIGHT with someone who drove a “warthog” for a living isn't a terribly bright thing to do.

LUCKILY I LIVE just beyond the event horizon.

WHY FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS are becoming slow-food restaurants.

INSTAPUNDIT: The buck stops ... under the bus.

AMERICA (as we used to know it) won't survive another four years of Obama.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Driving home past the local cemetary this morning, it came to me that I haven't (yet) seen a grave marker with an Obama sign. I suspect the 'cemetary vote' will be weaker than usual this year.

WILL THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN throw Hillary under the bus? Only if they don't fear Bill Clinton stumping for Mitt Romney.

COMMERCIAL SPACE worries government dependents should be the headline of this hit piece in the Washington Examiner. They're worried about losing control.

IF OBAMACARE IS SO POPULAR, why are employers looking to skip out?

FAUX IDEOLOGY EFFECT: Liberals can pretend to be liberals all they wish to friends, family, employers, and co-workers, but more and more of them will privately vote conservative.

I think the number who vote for Romney/Ryan and then tell no one (at least in the short run) will be significant, so significant that this election may explode and be closer to a blowout than anyone, save a few, had expected.

I hope it's true, for if not, the U.S. is destined to be just another third-world nation.

THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN is brought to you by the letters U-N-S-E-R-I-O-U-S and the number 46(%). Sesame Street is concerned, but some muppets have joined Team Obama.

THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA can't manage it's way out of a paper bag; so why does it want to take over private pensions?

DICK MORRIS: Biden needs to grow up before he grows older. Too late.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Have you noticed that the Democrats are very good at identifying a problem, demanding that others solve the problem, and then rejecting any proposed solution? The thought came to me while watching the vice-presidential debate last night.

NEXT GENERATION of spaceflight taking shape in Mojave. I lived near Mojave from 1995 through 2000, and at that time it looked pretty much like it was -- an abandoned airport used mostly for storage of aircraft uneconomical to fly. The idea that it could become a major spaceport was too preposterous to to even consider.

TAMING THE DRAGON: SpaceX Dragon Capsule Links With Space Station. All this despite a faulty first stage engine.

DEBATE SUMMARY: "Ride right through them, they’re demoralized as hell."

VOLUME CONTROL NEEDED: Day by Day on the Vice Presidential debate.

THE WALTER DURANTY PRIZE for Journalistic Mendacity is awarded to Vanity Fair magazine. Personally, I would have given it to the second runner-up.

BIDEN: Stop smirking already.

BIDEN is either acting like the village idiot or a bar heckler. I vote for both.

BRAVO, MR. ROMNEY. Romney calls Samantha Pawlucy, girl at center of T-shirt dust up. Liberals know no other way than to bully. Romney responds with dignity.

OH, YES: the tolerant Left.

BILL WHITTLE: Bewitched, (un)bothered, and bewildered.

CAPITALISM: Thanks to his investment in government subsidized green technology industries, Al Gore is now worth more than $100 million.

Crony capitalism, that is.

OBAMANOMICS: "... interest-group payoffs and compromised by concessions to powerful insiders, from big pharma (which stands to profit handsomely from the health care bill) to the biggest banks (which were mostly protected by the Dodd-Frank financial reform)."

FORWARD! ... to the fiscal cliff.

AND IT'S JUST WEEK TWO.

BLIND LEADING THE BLIND: the photo says it all.

THE JOY OF DISCOVERY: If you feed laxatives to seagulls, they'll shit on you.