OBAMA'S MIDAS TOUCH: President Obama made a high-profile visit in May 2010 to Solyndra Inc., a solar-panel manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif. The company received $535 million in loans from the Energy Department and was a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus effort. On Wednesday, Solyndra closed its corporate headquarters, announced that it’s filing for bankruptcy and laying off 1,100 workers.

YOU BETCHA: Does the Government have Alaska in a regulatory stranglehold?

DR. MILTON WOLF: Prosperity starts with Americans, not Uncle Sam.

Martha’s Vineyard is a great place to avoid reality, but our president is well-rested now and ready to try his luck once more with a big-government stimulus program. This from the man who famously said, “We’ve got a big hole that we’re digging ourselves out of.” Please, just stop digging. Instead, give Americans themselves a chance to stimulate our economy.

I didn't know you could dig your way out of a hole -- unless, of course, he's planning on punching his way all the way through to somewhere southwest of Australia.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP: D.C. Government Claims Nonprofit Used Grant Money to Open Strip Club. "The mission of Miracle Hands, according to its website, is to 'implement strategies and programs designed to meet the needs of the city's most under-privileged and neglected communities'."

Which ones are the 'underprivileged and neglected' -- the strippers or the patrons?

SCHOOL CHOICE IS OKAY as long as it is our choice.

CHARLES BOLDEN, the head of NASA, says he predicts that humans will walk on another planet in his lifetime. He may be right, but it won't be on a U.S. government-sponsored spacecraft.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER sung properly.

KEEP YOUR HEALTH CARE PLAN? It's not the way to bet.

MICHAEL BARONE on the price of success.

THOMAS SOWELL: It's not the economy, stupid -- it's the government.

YES, THANK YOU, I AM FEELING A BIT VIOLENT RIGHT NOW. Read this, and then tell me you don't feel like kicking ass and taking names.

TOWNHALL AUGUST STRAW POLL: Last month Rick Perry jumped ahead almost 11 points, this month he did it again. The newest entrant into the GOP presidential field amassed almost 30% of the Straw Poll votes in August, clearly outpacing his opponents. Congratulations Governor Rick Perry!

Ron Paul's support finished relatively unchanged from last month, albeit this time in 2nd place. His support has remained steady without witnessing major fluctuations throughout the polling.

Sarah Palin supporters may be giving up on their hopes that she will enter the race as she took the biggest hit this month losing 5.3 points. Herman Cain continues to drop but only by 1.7 points this time. Jon Huntsman climbed up from obscurity by finally registering 1% but that result was only good enough to beat out Thaddeus McCotter who continues to garner little support. After steadily gaining for 5 straight months Michele Bachmann finally regressed a bit by losing 3.2 points.


From my email.

SOCIALIST REALISM ON THE MALL. I noticed the 'grimness' myself.

GUY BENSON: "It’s just remarkable to witness a prominent leftist discover his newfound conviction that a candidate’s background, church, friends, and even endorsers are totally fair game for a political campaign — and not the vindictive, irrelevant, 'distracting' (and quite possibly racist) 'smears' they were treated as during the last cycle.”

TALKING POINTS MEMO on Republican candidate Jon Huntsman. So why doesn't Huntsman run against Obama in the Democratic primaries?

FROM MY EMAIL:

WHO WOULD YOU PREFER FOR PRESIDENT? Obama or a sack of hammers? The sack of hammers looks pretty good right now....

CLASSY: Obama To Give Jobs Speech as GOP Contenders Debate. I like Krauthammer's suggestion -- move the debate back 1 hour to 9 pm and then let the contenders shred Obama's proposals (assuming of course that they're not more hot air).

In any event, you can safely assume the one I'll not be watching is Obama.

I KNEW IT!

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals.

We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese.

However, less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens), an Exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls.

Now consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?

Believe it or not ... a Congress!

I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington.

From my email.

BACK FROM ALASKA: here are some photos.


Anchorage from the hotel room. About 10 pm Alaska time.


A view from the water's edge about 8 blocks from the hotel. The Alaska railroad runs along the water at the bottom of the photo.


Mt. Whitney taken from Highway 3 just north of Wasilla.


Taking off from Fish Lake on a floatplane tour of Mt. Whitney and the Denali National Forest.


Path carved by a long ago glacier. We could see occasional pools of bright blue glacier water in the ice beneath us. This photo was taken at about 6,500 ft.


Mt. Whitney at our peak altitude of 8,000 ft. We flew among the peaks, occasionally only a few hundred feet from sheer rock walls.


Seward Harbor as we prepared for a marine tour of Renaissance and Aialik Bays. The weather was perfect, and we got lucky, seeing otter, seals, whales, salmon, and puffins (a bird that lives solely in the water).


Holgate Glacier in Aialik Bay. The ship you can (maybe) see at the base of the glacier is the same size as our own tour boat.