Evidence Supports Officer's Account of Shooting in Ferguson

At the Washington Post.

Via Instapundit, with snark, "IT’S LIKE WE WERE SOLD A FALSE NARRATIVE BY A MEDIA EAGER TO ENABLE DEMOCRATS’ ELECTION-YEAR RACE-BAITING OR SOMETHING."

And at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Source: Darren Wilson says Michael Brown kept charging at him." (Via Memeorandum.)

Kelly Brook 2015 Calendar (PHOTOS)

Freakin' glorious.

At Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook Boobtastic Hotness Seeps Through Her 2015 Calendar."

'Somewhere out there online, Neal Rauhauser must be lurking in the shadows of #GamerGate...'

From Robert Stacy McCain, "A #GamerGate Oddity."

The Hunter Biden Chronicles of Cronyism and Corruption

From Michelle Malkin:

Crony influence-peddling=Hunter Biden’s life story. Where r critics of elitist privilege now? http://t.co/NSUtkRtlhv pic.twitter.com/aKplWWPIE2

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 22, 2014

Everything you need to know about Beltway nepotism, corporate cronyism and corruption can be found in the biography of Robert Hunter Biden. Where are the Occupy Wall Street rabble-rousers and enemies of elitist privilege when you need them? Straining their neck muscles to look the other way.

The youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden made news last week after The Wall Street Journal revealed he had been booted from the Navy Reserve for cocaine use. His drug abuse was certainly no surprise to the Navy, which issued him a waiver for a previous drug offense before commissioning him as a public affairs officer at the age of 43. The Navy also bent over backward a second time with an age waiver so he could secure the cushy part-time job.

Papa Biden loves to tout his middle-class, “Average Joe” credentials. But rest assured, if his son had been “Hunter Smith” or “Hunter Jones” or “Hunter Brown,” the Navy’s extraordinary dispensations would be all but unattainable. Oh, and if he had been “Hunter Palin,” The New York Times would be on its 50th front-page investigative report by now.

Despite the disgraceful ejection from our military, Hunter’s Connecticut law license won’t be subject to automatic review. Because, well, Biden.

Biden’s bennies are not just one-offs. Skating by, flouting rules and extracting favors are the story of Hunter’s life.

Pretty rich, but keep reading, heh.

What We Know About Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, Gunman in Ottawa Terror Attack

At Toronto's National Post, "Alleged Ottawa shooter apparently had criminal past in Quebec, was repeatedly brought in on drug charges."

And at the Blaze, "Here’s Everything We Know About Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the Gunman Identified in the Canada Shooting."



PREVIOUSLY: "Ottawa Terrorist Attack."

Holiday Shopping at Amazon

Get started with some shopping for the kids, at Amazon, 2014 Holiday Toy List.

Bonus: And for mom and dad, Snow Sports.

Texas Democrat Wendy Davis: She's All About 'Dildos, Cripple-Shaming, and Killin' Viable Infants'

Seriously.

Man, it's come to this?!!

At Twitchy, "Keep digging, Wendy! Tapped-out Team Davis reduced to playing the dildo card."

Dildos, cripple-shaming, and killin' viable infants: @WendyDavisTexas is in touch with Texas values.

— Neal Dewing (@Neal_Dewing) October 20, 2014

'Hot Shots' Calendar Under Fire for Photo Shoot on U.S. Military Base

Heh, some of my favorite British hotties.

At Telegraph UK:

'Hot Shots' calendar under fire for photo shoot on US military base http://t.co/REfxvtnHCa (Pic: Hot Shots/Facebook) pic.twitter.com/peeVzH86hy

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 21, 2014

Also at Free Beacon, "PICTURES: Unauthorized Models Infiltrate U.S. Army Compound."

Batgirl, Mr. Incredible Knockdown Fight in Hollywood

Well, that's L.A. for you.

At LAT, "Mr. Incredible, Batgirl brawl in Hollywood; Freddy Krueger keeps peace."

Joni Ernst Brings Back Hogs in New Campaign Spot

Remember from earlier this year, "'I'm Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. So when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork...'"

And now at National Journal, "New Joni Ernst TV Ad Goes Back to Her Hog-Castrating Roots."

First-Person Reporting on Ottawa Terror Attack from Inside Canadian Parliament

It's Josh Wingrove, from Toronto's Globe and Mail, on Twitter.

Still in lockdown. Am safe. Check @globeandmail for video of the attack on Parliament Hill. Ignore any cursing you hear from me.

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

Ottawa Terrorist Attack

A huge story today.

At Toronto's National Post, "CPL. NATHAN CIRILLO IDENTIFIED AS SOLDIER AMBUSHED AND KILLED AT OTTAWA WAR MEMORIAL."

Also, "Ottawa attack timeline: At 9:56 a.m., motionless body seen outside Library of Parliament," and "Firsthand accounts of fatal Ottawa shooting: ‘There was a very real sense that nothing will ever be the same again’."

And at the Globe and Mail, "Potential flaws in parliamentary security pointed out in 2012 report," and the New York Times, "Canadian Soldier Dead After Attack Near Parliament in Ottawa."



Expect updates...

CDC Is Awash in Social-Justice Ideology

So lame.

From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "Infected by Politics":

The public-health establishment has unanimously opposed a travel and visa moratorium from Ebola-plagued West African countries to protect the U.S. population. To evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds, it helps to understand the political character of the public-health field. For the last several decades, the profession has been awash in social-justice ideology. Many of its members view racism, sexism, and economic inequality, rather than individual behavior, as the primary drivers of differential health outcomes in the U.S. According to mainstream public-health thinking, publicizing the behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use, overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Communities Program, for example, focuses on “unfair health differences closely linked with social, economic or environmental disadvantages that adversely affect groups of people.” CDC’s Healthy People 2020 project recognizes that “health inequities are tied to economics, exclusion, and discrimination that prevent groups from accessing resources to live healthy lives,” according to Harvard public-health professor Nancy Krieger. Krieger is herself a magnet for federal funding, which she uses to spread the message about America’s unjust treatment of women, minorities, and the poor. To study the genetic components of health is tantamount to “scientific racism,” in Krieger’s view, since doing so overlooks the “impact of discrimination” on health. And of course the idea of any genetic racial differences is anathema to Krieger and her left-wing colleagues.

Local public-health programs are just as committed to “social justice.” The National Association of County and City Health Officials promoted a seven-part PBS documentary, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick?, to trigger community dialogues about health equity. NACCHO’s Health Equity and Social Justice initiatives seek to “advance the capacity of local health departments to tackle the root causes of health inequities.”

During the height of the AIDS epidemic, the public-health profession abjured any focus on abstinence as a means of stopping the spread of the disease. This silence was contrary to decades of public-health response to venereal disease, which stressed individual responsibility, as well as contact tracing, to prevent further infections.

The American Journal of Public Health recently published a study coauthored by Columbia University professor and longtime police critic Jeffrey Fagan arguing that young black men who have been stopped and questioned by the New York Police Department suffer from stress and anxiety. The more times an individual gets stopped, Fagan claims, the more stress he may feel. The study did not consider whether individuals who have been stopped numerous times by the police may be anxious because they are gang members operating in a world where retaliatory shootings are common. Nor did it compare the stress of stop subjects with the stress once experienced by law-abiding residents of high-crime neighborhoods before the NYPD brought violent crime down 80 percent.

The public-health profession has a clear political orientation, so it’s quite possible that its opposition to a visa and travel moratorium is influenced as much by belief in America’s responsibility for the postcolonial oppression of Africa, and suspicion of American border enforcement, as it is by a commitment to public-health principles of containment and control...

Remember, if the Ebola doesn't kill you, leftism will.

Sill more at that top link.

Jeanne Shaheen Won't Say She Voted for Obama, Audience Erupts in Laughter

From last night's New Hampshire Senate debate:

Renée Zellweger?

I thought she was nice looking. She had a nice face. And she went and did this?

At People, "Renée Zellweger to PEOPLE: 'I'm Glad Folks Think I Look Different'."

Yes, Renee Zellweger looks pretty much unrecognizable these days http://t.co/7PtlHAqFJ5 pic.twitter.com/rv2dOiEUwE

— Page Six (@PageSix) October 21, 2014

British War Brides

An interesting piece, from Duncan Barrett, at the Los Angeles Times, "British war brides faced own battles during 1940s."

GOP Bullish with Two Weeks to Go

I can dig it.

At the Hill.

Also, "Obama political missteps boost GOP midterm chances."

'Democratic Armageddon'

Ah, the left's bunker mentality breaks out into the open.

It's gonna be a bloodbath --- and leftists better run for their lives.

At Twitchy, "No biggie: Lefty site Daily Kos predicts ‘Democratic Armageddon’ in Senate."

(Honestly, though, I think this Kos kook is off his rocker, perhaps a bit too spooked by the bad poll tidings. Republicans should clear the six seats needed to take the majority. I seriously doubt they'll achieve a Senate pickup in the double digits, however.)

Americans' Gloom Marches Into Second Decade

From Elizabeth Williamson, at the Wall Street Journal.

A 'Dark Winter' of Ebola Terrorism?

Coming to America?

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post:

The world is experiencing virulent outbreaks of Ebola and Islamist radicalism.

What if the two threats converge into one?

In June 2001 — a few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — a group of leading Democratic national security experts gathered at Andrews Air Force Base to carry out a national security exercise called Dark Winter. Hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dark Winter simulated a biological attack on the United States in which terrorists release smallpox virus in three shopping malls in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta....

So what about Ebola?

Unlike smallpox, which is hard to come by, the Ebola infection is raging right now in parts of Africa where Islamist extremists could have easy access. As physician Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute points out, with Ebola, “Mother Nature has created the perfect bioweapon in many respects, as long as the attacker has suicidal aspirations.” Ebola has up to a 21-day incubation period — more than enough time for terrorists to infect themselves and then come here with the virus. In a nightmare scenario, suicide bombers infected with Ebola could blow themselves up in a crowded place — say, shopping malls in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta — spreading infected tissue and bodily fluids.

Think it can’t happen? If an Ebola-infected Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, was able to fly to Dallas, what is to stop an Ebola-infected terrorist from doing the same? And if our health-care system was unable to handle a single Ebola patient, imagine what would happen if 50, 100 or more Ebola patients started showing up at U.S. hospitals. Already we have seen schools closed in Dallas and Cleveland and a ship denied entry in Mexico and Belize. It would not require a attack on the level of Dark Winter to cause mass disruptions to our way of life and our economy.

Personally, I'm just not that worried about it.

That said, we'd no doubt be screwed if one of these terrorist war-game nightmares played out with Barack Obola in office. The White House remains multiple steps behind the curve. Americans would dying in mass numbers and all President Contagion would do is appoint some corrupt-o-czar to provide a political fix, public health be damned.

Desperate Democrats Flip-Flop, Now Say They're All About Ebola Travel Bans

Desperate, dirtbag losers.

At NewsMax, "Democrats in About-Face, Now Calling for Ebola Travel Bans."

And at the Weekly Standard, "Hagan Flip-Flops on Ebola Travel Ban."

Also at Twitchy, "‘Whatever wins': Sen. Jeanne Shaheen latest Democrat to flip-flop on Ebola travel ban":

The "always evolving" Democrats doing whatever is politically expedient. Integrity is secondary.

Word.

Republican Senate Chances Keep Rising

From Chris Cillizza, at the Washington Post, "Republicans chances of winning the Senate keep getting better":

The likelihood of a Republican Senate takeover continues to increase with all three major election models giving the GOP at least a six in ten probability of winning the six seats the party needs to win take back control.

Two of the three models have moved in Republicans' direction over the past week.  FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver's model, gives Republicans a 62 percent chance at the majority, which is up from 58 percent last week, while LEO, the New York Times Senate model, now shows a 69 percent probability of a GOP win -- up from 64 percent last week.  (The Washington Post's Election Lab model show Republicans with a 94 percent chance at the majority last Monday and a 93 percent chance today.)

The trend lines in both the LEO and FiveThirtyEight models highlight movement over the past week toward Republicans -- with a slight tick back toward Democrats in the last few days...

All leftist outlets. All of them, which means it's even worse for the Democrats than Cillizza lets on. It's going to be a bloodbath on November 4th. I can't wait!

Shia LaBeouf at Interview

Here, "SHIA LABEOUF":

I found God doing Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a fucking bullshit way—in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on the page. But it was a real thing that really saved me. And you can't identify unless you're really going through it. It's a full-blown exchange of heart, a surrender of control. And while there's beauty to that, acting is all about control. So that was a wild thing to navigate. I had good people around me who helped me. Brad [Pitt] was really instrumental in guiding my head through this. Brad comes from a hyper-religious, very deeply Christian, Bible Belt life, and he rejected it and moved toward an unnamed spirituality. He looked at religion like the people's opium, almost like a Marxist view on religion. Whereas [Fury writer-director] David [Ayers] is a full subscriber to Christianity. But these two diametrically opposed positions both lead to the same spot, and I really looked up to both men. It was nice to have conversations with Brad about the family he came from and what he was using to get through the day. People don't know this about Brad: He's a very thoughtful actor. That's not a motherfucker who just shows up and does the job. He puts a lot in, so you get a lot out. He's hard on himself, very hard. I think every great artist is bipolar to some degree. To be great you have to have self-criticism, which, in that moment, becomes some sort of bipolar thing. You go from "That was fucking great" to "I'm fucking shit." And Brad has a bipolar element to the way he deals with his work. We have a lot of similarities that way.

Hispanics Sour on Obama, May Sit Out Elections

Man, the entire far-left base is just saying screw it to Barack Obola.

At LAT, "Latinos, angry with Obama, may sit out midterm vote, hurting Democrats":

Leaving church on a recent Sunday, Jose Trujillo paused to consider the upcoming midterm election and two of the hottest Senate and gubernatorial races in the country, blazing away right here in Georgia.

Trujillo hasn't paid much attention to either contest, but it's not his flooring business that's kept him too busy to care, or his infant daughter who's taken away his interest. Rather, he cited President Obama and his failure to overhaul the nation's vexing immigration laws.

"Obama promised too much and never delivered," Trujillo, 44, said, gently rocking 1-year-old Dorothy in his arms outside Iglesia Des Dios Vivo church in Gainesville, a center of Georgia's booming Latino population. Why bother voting, Trujillo asked, "when the politicians never listen to what the people say?"

As Democrats struggle to hold the Senate, limit their losses in the House and maybe gain a few governor seats Nov. 4, they are counting on strong support from Latino voters, a rapidly growing part of the electorate and a big reason states like California, Nevada and Colorado have gone from red to blue in their presidential preferences.

But Latino voting tends to drop in midterm elections and, as Trujillo's sentiment suggests, that may prove all the more so next month, given deep frustration with the president.

He drew a record Latino turnout in 2012, but since then has repeatedly deferred action after pledging to push through comprehensive changes in immigration law, acting without Congress if necessary. For many, that failing seems to trump anything positive Obama has accomplished.

"All the air has been let out," said Matt Barreto, a University of Washington political scientist who conducts extensive polling among Latinos nationwide...

The Democrats are screwed, heh.

More at that top link.

New Hampshire Pumpkin Riot

Crazy.

It's a white riot, heh.

At LAT, "Riot breaks out at New Hampshire pumpkin festival."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Mrs. Doubtfire."

More at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark, "Cartoon Round Up..."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Where Is the Anti-War Movement?

One of the themes in my classes is how young people today are at a deep, relative disadvantage in terms of political power, especially compared to the elderly. It's a really complicated topic, actually, worth some serious scholarly introspection. For example, to what extent has technology-increased prosperity, especially for young people, who are so connected to mobile technology, in fact demobilized the youth demographic from consequential political action? Further, Barack Obama's presidency may have in fact set back the prospects for the improvement of life chances for young Americans, because they were used as cogs in the Democrat Party electoral machine. In fact, once the maw of the Obama-Democrats' electoral machine achieved critical mass, it spit out young people as so much spent fuel, as nothing more than human refuse. Look at the student loan debt crisis and you get an idea of how totally screwed are today's youth by Democrat Party indifference to generations of indebted student lumpen-proletarians.

But then again, leftist propaganda of race, gender and social welfare entitlement is a powerful narcotic for young people, who've been made so stupid by their gadgets that they simple don't realize when the leftist powers-that-be are f-king them up the ass.

In any case, that's why I'm fascinated with '60s-era folk and antiwar music, which I love to listen to. I love the idealism, for example, of Peter, Paul and Mary, "'Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly ... Before they're forever banned?'" But where is the comparable social protest movement today? If you look at that playlist the Sound L.A. had going this morning, much of that music is iconic and representative of the revolutionary social change of the times. Peter, Paul and Mary sang at the March on Washington in 1963, but oddly it was their music that activists played in 2003 at the Iraq war protests. I'm not as plugged into pop musical trends nowadays to know --- and sure, folks like Rage Against the Machine, for example, certainly capture the angst of contemporary generations --- but it seems to me that political change is not in fact a driving factor in today's youth culture. At least with punk rock in the '70s and '80s you had intense, even anarchic, anti-government tendencies geared toward mobilization, even if that was basically anti-statism. Today purportedly revolutionary folk rock bands are simply shills for Democrat Party power and corruption. The '60s aren't calling, brother.

In any case, this paradox of increasing youth evisceration and impoverization (amid what's often flippantly referred to as a new age of Democrat progressivism) vis-à-vis the dire absence of a genuine revolutionary, anti-establishment movement will continue to bedevil American politics in the years ahead. Who will once again lead the next generation, screaming "Fight the system. Fight back!"???

And with that, for your reading enjoyment, check out Richard Seymour, at the Guardian UK, "The anti-war movement's dilemma – and how to resolve it," and his really excellent and complicated interview at the New Left Review, "Where Is The Anti-War Movement?"

This desire results from people's anger
Towards the system
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
People die in police custody
Why dont you go see if God can see them
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
We been shit on far too long
London wants is no freedom
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
Stand up fight for freedom
Stand up fight for your rights
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back

'Imagine There's No Global Warming'

Heh, this is good, via iOWNTHEWORD, "John Lennon Re-Imagine-d."

Imagine there's no warming
It's all just been a lie
CO2 is not a pollutant
The Polar Bears aren’t gonna die
Imagine if all the people
Livin' another day

Imagine there's no Kyoto
It isn't hard to do
Gas at 99 cents a gallon
And no carbon taxes too
Imagine all the people
Driving SUVs

You may say I'm a denier
But I'm not the only one
31,000 scientists
Say the world’s climate follows the sun

Imagine no politicians
I wonder if you can
No one to fear monger
No need to eliminate man
Imagine all the people
Drilling all over the world

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be more fun

'Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly ... Before they're forever banned?'

So, I go over to get a cup of coffee this morning, and the Sound L.A. has some folksy antiwar music playing on the radio, Peter, Paul and Mary, "Blowin' in the Wind." (The band released its version, a cover song, just three weeks after Bob Dylan, who wrote it, released his cut on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963).

All Along the Watchtower
Bob Dylan
10:09 AM

If You Really Love Me
Stevie Wonder
10:06 AM

Good Lovin'
Grateful Dead
10:01 AM

Wooly Bully
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
9:59 AM

Going Up the Country
Canned Heat
9:56 AM

Hoedown
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
9:51 AM

Gemini Dream
The Moody Blues
9:47 AM

Baby Blue
Badfinger
9:44 AM

Nobody
The Doobie Brothers
9:40 AM

Ring of Fire [Live]
Johnny Cash
9:37 AM

White Bird
It's a Beautiful Day
9:31 AM

Vehicle
The Ides of March
9:28 AM

Heart of Gold [Live]
Neil Young
9:25 AM

Blowin' In the Wind
Peter, Paul & Mary
9:22 AM

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
9:17 AM

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair)
Scott McKenzie

Bwahaha! Black Americans Are Last Political Lifeline for Desperate Democrats!!

This is so pathetic. Really, it's come to this?

And yes, remember how Obama was supposed to be a president for all Americans, about how there's no black and white America, blah blah? That was all electoral hope-and-change bullshit. When the chips are down you just call in the race-baiting shock troops of the bereft, desperate Democrat (rat) Party.

At the New York Times, "Black Vote Seen as Last Hope for Democrats to Hold Senate":

WASHINGTON — The confidential memo from a former pollster for President Obama contained a blunt warning for Democrats. Written this month with an eye toward Election Day, it predicted “crushing Democratic losses across the country” if the party did not do more to get black voters to the polls.

“African-American surge voters came out in force in 2008 and 2012, but they are not well positioned to do so again in 2014,” Cornell Belcher, the pollster, wrote in the memo, dated Oct. 1. “In fact, over half aren’t even sure when the midterm elections are taking place.”

Mr. Belcher’s assessment points to an urgent imperative for Democrats: To keep Republicans from taking control of the Senate, as many are predicting, they need black voters in at least four key states. Yet the one politician guaranteed to generate enthusiasm among African Americans is the same man many Democratic candidates want to avoid: Mr. Obama.

Now, Democrats are deploying other prominent black elected officials and other surrogates, buttressed by sophisticated voter targeting efforts, to stoke black turnout. At the White House, the president is waging an under-the-radar campaign, recording video advertisements, radio interviews and telephone calls specifically targeting his loyal African-American base.

“Anybody who looks at the data realizes that if the black vote, and the brown vote, doesn’t turn out, we can’t win. It’s just that simple,” said Representative Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, referring to African-American and Latino voters. “If we don’t turn out, we cannot hold the Senate.”

African-Americans could help swing elections in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and possibly Arkansas, a New York Times analysis of voter data shows, but only if they turn out at higher-than-forecast rates. They will also be important in Kentucky, where Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Senate candidate, refuses to say if she voted for President Obama — a stance that black leaders including Ms. Fudge fear will depress turnout.

Republicans, who are expanding outreach to African-Americans in states like North Carolina and Georgia, have their own aggressive get-out-the-vote effort, mindful of the success of the Obama campaign, which turned out voters in record numbers.

Black voters made history in 2012, exit polling and census data show, when they turned out at a rate higher than whites to help re-elect Mr. Obama. But fewer voters go to polls in midterm elections. In 2010, a disastrous year for Democrats, blacks voted at a rate lower than whites, creating a “turnout gap.”

The numbers are significant. Although more than 1.1 million black Georgians went to the polls in 2012, only about 741,000 voted in 2010. In North Carolina, Democrats say there are nearly one million black registered voters who did not vote in 2010.

Mr. Belcher declined to discuss for whom he had written the memo, saying it was private, but the document was circulated by the Democratic National Committee. In the memo, he also argued that the turnout gap, more than any Republican Tea Party wave, was responsible for Democrats’ 2010 defeats. So the challenge for Democrats is to get midterm voters to the polls at presidential election-year rates.

“If you tell me in Georgia that, on the closing of the polls, the electorate is 32 percent African-American, I’m going to tell you we have probably elected a Democratic senator,” he said. “That’s not theory. It’s basic math.”

More.

Well, "big name surrogates" are supposed to be stepping up to the plate for the Dems. Maybe Al Sharpton can give it the old Crown Heights college try. That oughat mobilize the Wall Street-hating Democrat hordes.

Freakin' dirtbag losers. Crush the bastards.

Sylvie Meis

A lovely lady, at Egotastic!, "Sylvie Meis Lingerie Shoot for Hunkemoller Dessous in London."

Late Shifts in the Polls Probably Won't Help Desperate Democrats

Following up on my previous entry, "Democrats Now in Retreat as GOP on Verge of Historic Gains in House of Representatives."

Crush these mofos. Flatten them until they're bleeding out of the eye sockets.

At the Monkey Cage, "Why late shifts in the polls probably won’t help Democrats in Senate races":

All of the major Senate forecasting models, including ours at Election Lab, now rely heavily on averages of public polls.  This raises the question of whether those averages will be correct on Election Day, and whether any misses could affect which party manages to retain control of the Senate.  In particular, there is the question of whether polling misses might mean that the Democrats end up with a slim Senate majority after all.

There are reasons to be skeptical that this will happen.  It’s not just that we can’t easily predict whether the polls will over- or underestimate one party’s vote share, as discussed by Nate Silver and by Mark Blumenthal & Co.  And it’s not just, as Josh Katz and Sean Trende have found, that Senate polls already tend to be pretty accurate at this point in time — especially when candidates have a 3- to 4-point lead, as do Republican candidates in Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana.

The other key point is this: Late movement in Senate polls tends to be in the direction of the underlying fundamentals.  I discussed this movement in the polls in an earlier post, and it’s worth revisiting it now.

The analysis is pretty straightforward.  Estimate a simple model of Senate elections from 1980 to 2012 that relies on only a few factors: economic growth, presidential approval, whether it’s a midterm or presidential year, and how the state voted in the most recent presidential election. Then estimate an out-of-sample forecast for every Senate election between 1992 and 2012. Then compare the polls to that forecast.

Here is the gap between the polls and the forecast for the last 60 days of the campaign...

Continue reading.

Basically, public opinion polls should settle closer and closer to the prediction of the electoral model, hence early predictions of GOP gains are increasingly likely to hold true.

So crush their souls, the Democrat-progressive vermin. Flatten them like corpses in the mud.

Democrats Now in Retreat as GOP on Verge of Historic Gains in House of Representatives

As Markos used to always say, crush them. Crush their spirits and consign them to the margins of American politics for decades. The obscenely grotesque Democrat-progressive ghouls deserve nothing less.

At Politico, "House Democrats in retreat":

Three weeks out from an election that could give Republicans a historic majority, House Democrats are resorting to the painful strategy of retreat.

Faced with a perilous midterm environment and a sudden gush of Republican money, Democrats are shifting cash from blue-chip recruits to prop up teetering incumbents. The goal is to minimize losses and keep Republicans from their most dominant hold on the House since Harry Truman’s presidency — potentially expelling Democrats from the speaker’s chair for years to come.

In recent days, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has scrapped spending on behalf of two prominent candidates in districts the party had high hopes of snatching from the GOP: Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff, a former state House speaker once seen as the party’s best 2014 prospect; and Virginia Democrat John Foust, who is trying to defeat Republican Barbara Comstock, a hard-nosed former operative who played a key role in the investigations of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

The money that had been planned in those districts, where airing TV ads is costly, is being shifted to shore up incumbents and keep once-safe seats in the party’s column. Conservative outside groups in recent days have invested millions of dollars in races, erasing what had been a sizable Democratic financial advantage.

Democratic strategists say they’re trying to determine how much damage they might incur on election night. On Monday, the DCCC announced a $600,000 investment to save a suddenly endangered northeastern Iowa district that President Barack Obama won by 14 percentage points. It was an unmistakable sign of how much the political terrain has shifted against Democrats since the 2012 election.

Other similar moves could be on the way.

“Making these decisions is the hardest part of this job, but the amount of outside Republican money raining down on our incumbents means that we need to fine-tune our reservations,” New York Rep. Steve Israel, the DCCC chairman, wrote in an email. “It hurts to scale back any ad buy, but especially when you have strong candidates like Foust and Romanoff who are polling well, have momentum and could win their races.”

Democrats are now almost exclusively playing defense. Of the 28 districts seen as most seriously in contention, all but seven are held by Democrats. Republicans are virtually assured to expand their current 17-seat majority; strategists have pegged GOP gains at six to eight seats. But if Republicans can reach their goal of netting 11 seats, they will have their largest majority since 1949.

The good news for Democrats is that, at least for now, there’s no indication that Republicans are poised for a double-digit gain. Of the 18 Democratic incumbents in the most challenging races, pollsters from both parties say, there isn’t one who appears certain to lose. While 2014 is shaping up to be a good year for Republicans, they add, it does not yet resemble the wave-like environment of 1994 and 2010 for Republicans, or 2006 and 2008 for Democrats.

Republicans are hopeful that a late push from deep-pocketed conservative groups could yield bigger gains. Over the final three weeks of the campaign, GOP-aligned outside organizations have reserved more than $22 million worth of commercial airtime in competitive districts across the county, nearly double the investment from third-party Democratic groups.

During the final stretch of the election, few Democrats will be targeted with more cash from GOP-friendly outfits than California Rep. Ami Bera, who was first elected two years ago. Conservative groups will spend nearly $3 million against Bera, far outpacing their liberal counterparts.

In that race and others, conservative groups are coordinating their efforts to avoid overlap. On Tuesday, American Action Network began airing a TV commercial attacking Bera for his support of Obamacare. That ad will run through Oct. 20, and the next day, Congressional Leadership Fund, a group with close ties to Speaker John Boehner, will begin a commercial buy in the district that will go on for a week. Finally, the baton will be passed to the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads, which will air ads for the final week leading up to Election Day...

 Crush them just like any threat to American prosperity needs to be crushed and violently destroyed.

The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority

Via Truth Revolt:

Here's Some Kelly Brook to Hold You Over ...

... While I head back out to see "Fury" for a second time.

See the Daily Garlic, "Kelly Brook."

@AmPowerBlog ~> https://t.co/Z9NFdscir8

— Inherent Craigé (@CraigR3521) October 18, 2014

@CraigR3521 indeed. can't get enough of her.

— David Partridge (@beegdave) October 18, 2014

Also at Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook Bouncy Flouncy Fun Time Cleavage Is In the House."

Critics Weigh In on Brad Pitt's 'Fury': A Violent, Visceral Update to the World War II Genre

At the Los Angeles Times, "'Fury': Brad Pitt tank drama carries out its mission, reviews say":

Writer-director David Ayer takes his gritty explorations of masculinity and violence to the battlefields of World War II in "Fury," starring Brad Pitt as the hardened leader of an American tank crew behind German lines.

Movie critics largely agree that "Fury," like the crew it depicts, accomplishes what it set out to do with unflinching violence and skilled execution — though not without its share of casualties.

More.

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'"

"And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'"

From the movie "Fury":



PREVIOUSLY: "World War II Veteran Says 'Fury' Is 'Accurate Portrayal' of Hellish Brutality of the War," and "Fury."

Community Organizer, Barack Obama, Crashed Country After Democrats Gave Him Keys to the Presidency

Heh, this story at the Smoking Gun reminds us of the dangers of giving responsibility to those who are too inexperienced to handle it.

See "Boy, 8, Crashed SUV After Drunk Dad Let Him Drive."

Boy, 8, crashed SUV into tree after drunk dad let him drive... http://t.co/sWZuuZMrTx

— The Smoking Gun (@tsgnews) October 17, 2014

Our community organizer president, after crashing everything, has put off attempting to pass any further priorities until after the elections, according to the Los Angeles Times, "Obama putting key priorities on hold until after midterm election."

Maybe the Democrats will finally sober up after the shellacking they're going to be handed on November 4th.

World War II Veteran Says 'Fury' Is 'Accurate Portrayal' of Hellish Brutality of the War

I can't get this movie off my mind.

And I can't give this movie a greater recommendation. So, don't take it from me. Listen to one of the men who actually fought tank battles against the Nazis in World War II.

Here's Brad Pitt and the crew of "Fury," interviewed by David Muir on World News Tonight:



More at the U.S. Army, "Soldiers, WWII vets honored at 'Fury' movie premiere":

Among those veterans was Ray Stewart, who recalled his days as a tank gunner.

"I served with 2nd Armor, F Company, 66th Armor Regiment. I loved to drive a tank. I drove a tank from Germany down to the Bulge, which is over 100 miles, and I drove it in the rain, and the cold," he said, in reference to the Battle of the Bulge, which began in December 1944.

"By the time we got down to the Bulge, it was 11 degrees below zero," he said....

Stewart attended the premiere with his family, including his wife of 63 years, Dottie.

"She has been a good wife to me, a beautiful wife," he said.

PREVIOUSLY: "Fury."

This Far-Left Whackjob Has a Pet Chicken --- So I Guess You Aren't Allowed to Eat Chicken Anymore, Or Something

A little late in getting to this, but then again, it's hard to keep up with the endless radioactive meltdown of everything the left gets its hands on.

Via Pat Dollard, "WATCH, MUST-SEE, HILARIOUS: Mentally Ill Woman Storms Restaurant, Claims a Chicken Is Her Daughter."

Children May Get Marijuana-Laced Candy on Halloween

Police warning, via the U.K. Independent.

And remember to thank a prog for making your Halloween a real-life nightmare:

US police warn marijuana sweets may end up in children's Halloween trick-or-treat bags http://t.co/fOHFs74v8h pic.twitter.com/NnyxkyOfbv

— The Independent (@Independent) October 18, 2014

'I’ll check my white male privilege right after you check your arrogant liberal [leftist] assumptions...'

From Frau Katze, at Blazing Cat Fur:

This is what I hate about progressivism. It’s such a dry, gray, joyless thing. It leaves no room for anyone to have an actual identity of their own. It doesn’t illuminate. It doesn’t enlighten. It doesn’t encourage open expression. It simply turns the lights off and tells everyone to shut up and play along.

Indeed, it's a sickness. If Ebola doesn't kill us, the left's secular collectivist totalitarianism most surely will.

Obama Freaks Out as His Administration Proves Its Woeful Unreadiness to Combat Ebola

It's all coming off the rails.

A devastating report, at the New York Times, via Ron Fournier:

Finger-pointing, blame-shifting, under-cutting, spinning: #Obama White House, you should be ashamed of this: http://t.co/BCqzkIgoeA #Ebola

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) October 18, 2014

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and its arrival in the United States, is the latest in a cascade of crises that have stretched Mr. Obama’s national security staff thin. As the White House scrambled to stop the spread of Ebola beyond a handful of cases, officials were also grappling with an escalating military campaign against the Islamic State, the specter of a new Cold War with Russia over Ukraine, and the virtual disintegration of Yemen, which has been a seedbed for Al Qaeda.

Senior officials said they pushed Mr. Obama to name an Ebola coordinator as a way of easing pressure on the staff at the National Security Council.

At the meeting on Wednesday, officials said, Mr. Obama placed much of the blame on the C.D.C., which provided shifting information about which threat category patients were in, and did not adequately train doctors and nurses at hospitals with Ebola cases on the proper protective procedures.

On Thursday night, in televised remarks, Mr. Obama sought to reassure the public about the dangers from Ebola. But the sense of crisis that emanated from the White House was in sharp contrast to Sept. 30, when Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who had traveled to Dallas, tested positive for Ebola. Mr. Obama received a telephone briefing from Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., after which the White House issued a sanguine statement that concluded: “We have the infrastructure in place to respond safely and effectively.”

In the days that followed, Mr. Obama carried on as usual while his aides gamely added Ebola to their bulging portfolios. On Oct. 1, Mr. Obama met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and later had dinner with friends at the RPM Steakhouse in Chicago, where he had traveled for fund-raisers and to deliver an economic speech.

By early October, as questions about the Dallas hospital’s treatment of Mr. Duncan mounted, federal officials began reassessing their response, even as they continued to express confidence.

C.D.C. officials publicly dismissed the effectiveness of screening for Ebola at airports in the United States. But Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, found a way to make it work over the weekend of Oct. 4. Mr. Obama announced the screening protocol the following Monday.

Even after Mr. Duncan’s death on Oct. 8, officials betrayed little sense of a change in approach. Mr. Obama traveled to California for campaign fund-raising and on his return to Washington, received a briefing from his secretary of health and human services about the announcement that a nurse who treated Mr. Duncan had contracted Ebola.

The business-as-usual sentiment at the White House changed abruptly, officials said, when it got word early Wednesday that a second nurse in Dallas contracted the disease. The fact that she had traveled on a Frontier Airlines flight despite having a fever added to the concern, officials said.

“This Frontier thing took it out of the abstract thing and to this level where people could identify with and made them scared,” a senior official said. Within hours, White House aides canceled a planned trip by Mr. Obama to Connecticut and New Jersey. Hours later, Thursday’s trip to Rhode Island and New York City was also scrubbed...

What a nightmare.

More at that top link.

Obama-Democrats' Ebola Evasions Reveal Disdain for the American People

From Peggy Noonan, at WSJ, "Who Do They Think We Are?":

The administration’s handling of the Ebola crisis continues to be marked by double talk, runaround and gobbledygook. And its logic is worse than its language. In many of its actions, especially its public pronouncements, the government is functioning not as a soother of public anxiety but the cause of it.

An example this week came in the dialogue between Megyn Kelly of Fox News and Thomas Frieden , director of the Centers for Disease Control.

Their conversation focused largely on the government’s refusal to stop travel into the United States by citizens of plague nations. “Why not put a travel ban in place,” Ms. Kelly asked, while we shore up the U.S. public-health system?

Dr. Frieden replied that we now have screening at airports, and “we’ve already recommended that all nonessential travel to these countries be stopped for Americans.” He added: “We’re always looking at ways that we can better protect Americans.”

“But this is one,” Ms. Kelly responded.

Dr. Frieden implied a travel ban would be harmful: “If we do things that are going to make it harder to stop the epidemic there, it’s going to spread to other parts of—”

Ms. Kelly interjected, asking how keeping citizens from the affected regions out of America would make it harder to stop Ebola in Africa.

“Because you can’t get people in and out.”

“Why can’t we have charter flights?”

“You know, charter flights don’t do the same thing commercial airliners do.”

“What do you mean? They fly in and fly out.”

Dr. Frieden replied that limiting travel between African nations would slow relief efforts. “If we isolate these countries, what’s not going to happen is disease staying there. It’s going to spread more all over Africa and we’ll be at higher risk.”

Later in the interview, Ms. Kelly noted that we still have airplanes coming into the U.S. from Liberia, with passengers expected to self-report Ebola exposure.

Dr. Frieden responded: “Ultimately the only way—and you may not like this—but the only way we will get our risk to zero here is to stop the outbreak in Africa.”

Ms. Kelly said yes, that’s why we’re sending troops. But why can’t we do that and have a travel ban?

“If it spreads more in Africa, it’s going to be more of a risk to us here. Our only goal is protecting Americans—that’s our mission. We do that by protecting people here and by stopping threats abroad. That protects Americans.”

Dr. Frieden’s logic was a bit of a heart-stopper. In fact his responses were more non sequiturs than answers. We cannot ban people at high risk of Ebola from entering the U.S. because people in West Africa have Ebola, and we don’t want it to spread. Huh?

In testimony before Congress Thursday, Dr. Frieden was not much more straightforward. His answers often sound like filibusters: long, rolling paragraphs of benign assertion, advertising slogans—“We know how to stop Ebola,” “Our focus is protecting people”—occasionally extraneous data, and testimony to the excellence of our health-care professionals.

It is my impression that everyone who speaks for the government on this issue has been instructed to imagine his audience as anxious children. It feels like how the pediatrician talks to the child, not the parents. It’s as if they’ve been told: “Talk, talk, talk, but don’t say anything. Clarity is the enemy.”

The language of government now is word-spew...

More.

Elizabeth Marxs

Cybergirl of the Year 2014, at Playboy:



PREVIOUSLY: "Elizabeth Marxs on Twitter!"

'Fury'

I couldn't wait to see this movie. In fact, I thought it was in theaters on October 10th and ended up waiting another week to see it. It was definitely worth it.

Easily the best World War II movie since "Saving Private Ryan." And Brad Pitt delivers a scorching performance, shorn of leftist political correctness. Indeed, totalitarian progs will hate this film's realpolitik version of morality.

Kenneth Turan has a review, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Fury' treads on war movie expectations as Brad Pitt & Co. kill Nazis."

Sabato's Crystal Ball: Republicans Should Gain 5-8 Seats in the Senate

The latest from Larry's Sabato's election projection outfit, "2014: A Tale of Two Elections: New 2014 Senate and House Ratings."

Ebola Cruise Ship Denied Entry by Mexico

This is starting to look like a Hollywood production.

At the Washington Post, "Amid Ebola concerns, Mexico fails to grant access to cruise ship carrying Texas health worker." (Via Memeorandum.)

Nurse from Texas Health Presbyterian Blasts Ebola Response

Oh man, she's fired up!



Just wow.

More here, "Whistle-blower nurse: 'I feel lied to'," and "Nurse: Ebola gear left neck exposed."

No Reason to Panic About Ebola!

And certainly no reason to panic until after the midterms. The Democrats need to mitigate the political damage. That comes before public health.

Ebola Not Contagious Until After Nov. 4 Election, Says CDC http://t.co/03Q0h3jQlt #TCOT #Ebola pic.twitter.com/s6X4Bnov70

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) October 16, 2014

And see Jonathan Last, at the Weekly Standard, "Six Reasons to Panic":

Not everyone is convinced that this Ebola isn’t airborne. Last month, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy published an article arguing that the current Ebola has “unclear modes of transmission” and that “there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.”

Lovely.

More.

The Centers for Anything But Disease Control

From Michelle Malkin, at RCP:

So now the federal health bureaucrats in charge of controlling diseases and pandemics want more money to do their jobs. Hmph. Maybe if they hadn't been so busy squandering their massive government subsidies on everything but their core mission, we taxpayers might actually feel a twinge of sympathy.

At $7 billion, the Centers for Disease Control 2014 budget is nearly 200 percent bigger now than it was in 2000.

Those evil, stingy Republicans actually approved CDC funding increases in January larger than what President Obama requested.

What are we getting for this ever-increasing amount of money? Answer: A power-hungry busybody brigade of politicized blame-mongers.

Money, money, it's always the money. Yet, while Ebola and enterovirus D68 wreak havoc on our health system, the CDC has been busying itself with an ever-widening array of non-disease control campaigns, like these recent crusades:

--Mandatory motorcycle helmet laws. CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden appoints a 15-member "Community Preventive Services Task Force" to promote pet Nanny State projects. An obscure Obamacare rule -- Section 4003(b)(1) -- stealthily increased the task force's authority to study "any policies, programs, processes or activities designed to affect or otherwise affecting health at the population level." Last year, the meddling panel extended the agency's reach into transportation safety with a call to impose a federal universal motorcycle helmet law on the country. Is riding a Harley a disease? Why is this the CDC's business?

--Video games and TV violence. At Obama's behest, in the wake of high-profile school shootings, the CDC scored $10 million last year to study violent video games and media images, as well as to assess "existing strategies for preventing gun violence and identifying the most pressing research questions, with the greatest potential public health impact." Whatever that means. Why is this the CDC's business?

--Playground equipment. The CDC's "Injury Centers" (Did you know there are 13 of them?) have crafted a "national action plan" and funded countless studies to prevent boo-boos and accidents on the nation's playgrounds. Apparently, there aren't enough teachers, parents, local school districts, and county and state regulators to police the slides and seesaws. Why is this the CDC's business?

--"Social norming" in the schools. The CDC has funded studies and campaigns "promoting positive community norms" and "safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs)" in homes and schools. It's the mother of all government values clarifications programs. So bad attitudes are now a disease. Again, I ask: Why is this the CDC's business?

After every public health disaster, CDC bureaucrats play the money card while expanding their regulatory and research reach into anti-gun screeds, anti-smoking propaganda, anti-bullying lessons, gender inequity studies and unlimited behavior modification programs that treat individual vices -- personal lifestyle choices -- as germs to be eradicated.

Here's a reminder of what the CDC does with money that's supposed to go to real disease control...

Continue reading.

Ebola Outbreak: Response Ripples Across Nation

At the Wall Street Journal, "Officials Scramble to Limit Chance of Spreading Infection":

Concerns about the Dallas nurse who flew to Cleveland shortly before being diagnosed with Ebola rippled across the country Thursday, as officials tried to limit the chance of spreading infection by those who came into direct or indirect contact with her.

A handful of schools in Texas and Ohio closed their doors for disinfection. A group of Ohio nurses who flew from Dallas to Cleveland were put on leave, as was a Frontier Airlines flight crew who flew her back to Dallas. And eight people in the Cleveland and Akron area who spent significant time with the nurse, identified as Amber Joy Vinson, put themselves into voluntary quarantine.

Amid the tumult, the Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday issued new rules barring dozens of health-care workers who treated Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., from taking public transportation and visiting public places.

Judge Clay Jenkins, the county’s highest elected official, said that although the directions restricting workers’ movements are binding, he’s confident that they will voluntary comply. “These are hometown healthcare heroes who are going to honor that,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, a Yale student who had traveled to Liberia and checked into a hospital with “Ebola-like symptoms” tested negative for the virus. The student’s symptoms and subsequent hospitalization on Wednesday night set off an urgent reaction among Connecticut health officials, prompting Gov. Dannel Malloy to invoke the state’s authority to quarantine and isolate patients with the virus or suspected of having the virus.

Despite the nationwide agitation, public health officials preached a message of calm. “Just because someone may have been exposed does not mean they are infected,” Dr. Chris Braden of the CDC said at an Ohio news conference.

Ms. Vinson, who helped treat Mr. Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas before he died Oct. 8, was in the Akron area visiting family and preparing for her wedding, local health and law-enforcement officials said. On Thursday, public health officials stressed Ms. Vinson was aware of her possible exposure and kept largely close quarters with family members and friends.

“She was being very distant,” said Summit County Health Commissioner Gene Nixon, adding that she refrained from hugging or kissing anyone.

Another public health official said a relative later reported that Ms. Vinson had appeared lethargic and unwell over the weekend.

Late Thursday night, Ms. Vinson’s family released a statement through Kent State University, where she attended and where several of her relatives work.

“Amber is a respected professional and has always had a strong passion for nursing,” said Lawrence Vinson, her uncle, in the statement. “She followed all of the protocols necessary when treating a patient in Dallas, and right now, she’s trusting in her doctors and nurses as she is now the patient.”

ADDED: "U.S. Ebola Response Is Slammed by Lawmakers: Obama Considers Appointing Czar After Bipartisan Criticism Mounts."

More Americans Support Ground Troops to Fight #ISIS

Boy, does this ever put Obama in a bind.

He's said repeatedly that he won't send ground troops back to Iraq (or into Syria), and more and more he's finding himself on the wrong side of public opinion. What a loser.

At NBC News, "More Americans Back U.S. Ground Troops in ISIS Fight."

5 Takeaways From the October WSJ/NBC News Poll

From Janet Hook, at WSJ:

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that Republicans enter the final three weeks of the midterm election campaign well-positioned to make gains in Congress. At the same time, the political environment is riddled with volatile elements that could produce surprises. Here are some main takeaways of the new poll.

And got to the full survey, "Republicans Hold Advantage as Midterms Near: Poll Shows Low Interest, Disillusionment Create Room for Surprises."

Polls Show Massive Repudiation of Democratic Party on Election Day

Voters are actually highly dissatisfied with the direction of American politics, but as the party controlling the White House and the Senate, the public is on the verge of dealing a massive repudiation to the Obama-Democrats on November 4th.

Here's ABC News, "Trouble Looms for Obama, Democrats with Election Day 2014 Approaching" (via Memeorandum):

Barack Obama and his political party are heading into the midterm elections in trouble. The president’s 40 percent job approval rating in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll is the lowest of his career – and the Democratic Party’s popularity is its weakest in polling back 30 years, with more than half of Americans seeing the party unfavorably for the first time.

The Republican Party is even more unpopular. But benefitting from their supporters’ greater likelihood of voting, GOP candidates nonetheless hold a 50-43 percent lead among likely voters for U.S. House seats in the Nov. 4 election.

These and other results are informed by an array of public concerns on issues from the economy to international terrorism to the Ebola virus, crashing into a long-running crisis of confidence in the nation’s political leadership. Almost two-thirds say the country is headed seriously off on the wrong track. Even more, three-quarters, are dissatisfied with the way the political system is working.

Scorn is widely cast: Among those who are dissatisfied with the political system, two-thirds say both sides are equally to blame, with the rest dividing evenly between Obama and his party, vs. the Republicans in Congress, as the chief culprits. But as a nearly six-year incumbent president, Obama – and by extension his party – are most at risk.

Beyond his overall rating, Obama is at career lows in approval for his handling of immigration, international affairs and terrorism (long his best issue) in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Approval of his handling of the conflict with Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria has plummeted by percentage 15 points in the last two weeks, amid questions about the progress of the air campaign now under way.

Further, while Obama’s negative rating on handling the economy has eased, more Americans say they’ve gotten worse off rather than better off under his presidency; the plurality is “about the same” financially, for most not a happy outcome. Even with the recovery to date, 77 percent are worried about the economy’s future, and 57 percent say the country has been experiencing a long-term decline in living standards – all grim assessments as Election Day looms.

Such views can carry a punch. An analysis conducted for this report shows that presidential approval ratings (in data since 1946) and views that the country’s on the right track (since 1974) highly correlate with midterm gains or losses for the party in power. (The correlations are .68 and .65, respectively; 0 means no relationship and 1 is a perfect, positive fit.)

Moreover, an index of dissatisfaction, also produced for this study, finds that the public’s unease on a range of issues strongly predicts vote preferences; these wide-ranging concerns emerge as a key factor in the 2014 contest. In addition to persistent doubts about the economy, for instance, 71 percent express worry about a terrorist attack and 65 percent say they’re concerned about an Ebola epidemic – disquieting sentiments when confidence in the political system is so weak. (Details of the dissatisfaction index will be covered in a separate report tomorrow.)

History, for its part, offers the Democrats cold comfort. Obama’s approval rating matches George W. Bush’s heading into the 2006 midterms, when the Republicans lost 30 seats. The only postwar president numerically lower heading into a second midterm was Harry Truman, at 39 percent approval, in 1950; his Democrats lost 28 seats. While race-by-race assessments don’t suggest those kinds of losses this year, the comparison adds context to the GOP’s upper hand.

Such results also help explain why Obama is attending his first public campaign rally of 2014 only today, for Gov. Dan Malloy of Connecticut.

More.

Far-Left Ghoul Scott Lemieux: Killing Babies is a 'Positive Social Good'

Just wow.

Let's just kill more babies, as if we haven't killed enough already, with the left's pro-abortion genocide that's cut a murderous swath across America since the Supreme Court so egregiously ruled in 1973.

For as ghoulish at take you're likely to read, here's your go-to wannabe baby-killer Scotty Lemieux, at the regressive hate-site Leftists, Ghouls and Murder, "Abortion Rights Without Apology." (Via Memeorandum.)

Just read it at the link --- and be ready for the most shameless advocacy for the killing of society's most vulnerable, the unborn.

Leszek Kolakowski: The Man Who Killed Marxism

From Mark Michalski, at RealClearReligion, "The Man Who Killed Marxism":

In Main Currents of Marxism, Kolakowski wrote that "Marxism has been the greatest fantasy of our century." According to him, socialism signifies giving the solution which can never exist. "At present," the author pointed out, "Marxism neither interprets the world nor changes it; it is merely a repetition of slogans." And this is because the ruling elite does not represent the society's needs, but places empty ideology above anything else. Clearly the most important premise of the socialist rule is that it can be exercised by those who possess power. The system which exacts stern order and blind obedience may only triumph through violence, fear, and military coercion. At the same time this system generates only alienation, and stagnation. The sad story of our times is that the system which claims to embody the rights, privileges and welfare of the working class is the same system whose biggest enemy is its very citizens. Kolakowski jokes that socialism would be a splendid idea if only there were no people.

An astounding tome, Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders - The Golden Age - The Breakdown.

Accused College Rapists Have Rights, Too

From Judith Shulevitz, at the New Republic.

It's a great piece, so RTWT. The conclusion's killer:

What’s happening at universities represents an often necessary effort to recategorize once-acceptable behaviors as unacceptable. But the government, via Title IX, is effectively acting on the notion popularized in the 1970s and ’80s by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon that male domination is so pervasive that women need special protection from the rigors of the law. Men, as a class, have more power than women, but American law rests on the principle that individuals have rights even when accused of doing bad things. And American liberalism has long rejected the notion that those rights may be curtailed even for a noble cause. “We need to take into account our obligations to due process not because we are soft on rapists and other exploiters of women,” says Halley, but because “the danger of holding an innocent person responsible is real.”

There's your radical feminism infecting the "real world."

The Indecent Mind of Andrea Dworkin

Another one from Robert Stacy McCain!

"All that is necessary to defeat feminism is to tell the truth about feminism." http://t.co/cnskNpDDEJ @AmPowerBlog pic.twitter.com/nmBwH9SeXu

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 12, 2014

The 'Government is Not Competent to Handle' the Ebola Virus and #ISIS Threat

Oh, well, here's that notorious right-wing whack job Susan Page, of USA Today, glibly circulating those widely ridiculed conservative fever-swamp talking points. You know, the ones where the White House is completely incapable of handling the various threats to basic American safety and security.

Yes, so go ahead and completely discount Ms. Page's comments. She's simply a FUBAR RWNJ. The truth is, the Obama administration has everything under control. It's all copacetic man.

Alison Lundergan Grimes Will Not Compromise Her Constitutional Right to Deny She Voted for President Barack Obama!

Because the Founders guaranteed the right to hide behind the "secret ballot" if you're a Kentucky Senate candidate who voted for President Obola.

She's seriously in contention for the worst candidate ever.

Truly mind-boggling.

From Mary Katharine Ham, at Hot Air, "Video: Alison Lundergan Grimes sticking with this whole my-vote-is-private shtick."

From Comedy to Farce

From Victor Davis Hanson, at Pajamas Media:

It was tragically comical that the commander in chief in just a few weeks could go from referring to ISIS as “jayvee” and a manageable problem to declaring it an existential threat, in the same manner he upgraded the Free Syrian Army from amateurs and a fantasy to our ground linchpin in the new air war. All that tragic comedy was a continuance of his previous untruths, such as the assurance that existing health plans and doctors would not change under the Affordable Care Act or that there was not a smidgeon of corruption at the IRS.

But lately the Obama confusion has descended into the territory not of tragedy or even tragic comedy, but rather of outright farce...

Keep reading.

Seattle Boots Columbus Day for 'Indigenous Peoples' Day'

I wrote on this earlier, and today's the day.

At NBC News:

Highway 73 Toll Road to Be Refinanced

I hate the toll roads. I avoid them like the plague, and I'm not the only one. Screw the transportation agency. They can suck on that debt until 2200 for all I care.

At LAT, "O.C. toll road to be refinanced again; drivers may be paying until 2050."

Go Navy!

Heh, just now on Twitter:

#239NavyBday RT @AdamBaldwin: #GoNavy! "For 239 Years, the @USNavy Has Stood the Watch!" - http://t.co/Cmrt8kvS0Y

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) October 13, 2014

Penelope Cruz for Esquire Magazine November 2014

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have backed off from their attacks on Israel. That's good, especially since Ms. Penelope is one of the hottest of the hots.

See Egotastic, "Penelope Cruz Sweet Cleavage in Esquire Magazine November 2014."

Fire Rachel Maddow!

MSNBC's considering cancelling Ronan Farrow, which wouldn't be bad. But if you're going to can anyone it should be Rachel Maddow, the ultimate far-left hack whose show is a broken-record of GOP-bashing and tea party conspiracies. She's utterly ridiculous, and it shows in the ratings decline.

Here's the headline at Mediaite, "MSNBC Eyes Canceling Ronan Farrow Show Amidst Schedule Shakeup."

And see Ed Driscoll on the New York Times report on MSNBC's epic collapse, "MSNBC: ‘Dukakis After Dark’ Meets Groundhog Day."

@RogueStarGamez Biggest reason not to fear MSNBC? Nobody watches them. http://t.co/edwY7I2xDa @Int_Aristocrat @instapundit

— I Aim to Misbehave (@Aim2Misbhv) October 13, 2014

Richard Engel: #ISIS Hasn't Been Degraded at All

Of course not. Random pinpricks won't do jack.

Obama's national security policy continues to inspire no confidence whatsoever.



PREVIOUSLY: "Obama's Desultory Bombing Mission Won't Defeat #ISIS."

Fleet Week Air Show San Francisco (2014)

At Twitchy, "Amazing photos, videos of the Blue Angels in action from San Francisco’s Fleet Week."

PREVIOUSLY: "San Francisco Fleet Week."

One Killed, Two injured After Being Struck Amtrak Train at Gaviota State Beach

Just not smart.

Lots of trains rip through Santa Barbara County. And they were on the trestle with no escape.

At LAT, "Couples taking sunset picture hit by train; one dead, two injured."

Despite the Left's 'Tea Party Fear' Meme, Democrat Constituencies Most Scared of Ebola

If you look at the headlines at Memeorandum, you'd think the tea party was hunkering down in wilderness outbreak camps to guard against Ebola. Here's the headline at NYDN, for example, "Tea Party and fears of an Ebola outbreak go hand in hand."

But according to Pew Reports, it's traditional Democrat Party minority groups who're most likely to fear contracting Ebola. Here, "Blacks, Hispanics More Concerned about Exposure to Ebola."

And a summary at Big Government, "PEW: BLACKS, HISPANICS MORE WORRIED THAN WHITES ABOUT CONTRACTING EBOLA":

The poll, conducted Oct. 2-5, found that "nearly half of blacks (47%) and 39% of Hispanics say they are very or somewhat worried about being exposed to the Ebola virus," while "just 27% of whites are worried" about contracting Ebola.

In addition, "women (37%) are somewhat more concerned than men (27%) that they or someone in their family will be exposed to Ebola," and those with with lower levels of education are more worried about getting Ebola than college graduates.

Pew found that while 22% of college graduates are worried about getting Ebola, "34% of those with some college experience and 38% of those with no more than a high school diploma say they are worried."

It's not just fear of an "outbreak," as the NYDN piece suggests, but fear of personally contracting the disease that has Democrats most worried. So whenever you see depraved leftist spewing lies about tea party Ebola fear-mongering, tell them to go suck a discarded Liberian intravenous blood bag.

Republicans Seize on Terrorism as Campaign Issue, Debunking the Left's Narrative of Lies

The way the press criticizes any mention of the rash of beheadings, it serves only to infantilize the American electorate, and of course, protect the Obama White House. Censoring images of Americans being murdered by ISIS does nothing to protect the families. It does everything to protect the crumbling leftist narrative, which needs all the help it can get.

These are not "shocking" images and showing snippets of them in campaign ads is not disrespectful. The opposite Obama-Democrat meme is the big lie of the current campaign season.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Some Senate candidates seize on terrorism as campaign issue":

Far behind in the polls and in need of a bump, a Republican running for Senate in New Mexico recently turned to the image of the knife-wielding Islamic State militant who beheaded an American journalist, building a campaign advertisement that flashes on the horrific YouTube video.

The online spot, from the campaign of Allen Weh, a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam and later in Iraq, is perhaps the most brazen effort by Republicans to use the threat posed by the militants to gain traction with voters. But it is not the only one.

At a time when no single national issue is dominating midterm election campaigns, GOP candidates in several battleground states are seizing on public unease with President Obama's strategy for containing the terrorist group.

In Colorado and New Hampshire, Democratic senators are being badgered by TV ads showing gun-toting Islamic militants against a soundtrack of Obama's comments — including his remark in September that "we don't have a strategy" for the threat.

The attacks come amid voter unease with developments in the Middle East. During debates this week in North Carolina and Georgia, both key contests for control of the Senate, the U.S. response to the terrorists was the first question of the evening.

"The president has continued to fail and show a policy of peace through weakness," said Thom Tillis, the Republican speaker of the House in North Carolina who is trying to oust Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, during the debate in the military-heavy state. "This is a policy that needs to be on the ballot in November."

Also notice how the Times frames the issue as Republicans "struggling" and "grasping" for traction, when in fact public opinion polls have routinely found the public favoring more robust action to defeat the terrorists. Indeed, Obama's approval on national security has plunged to the low-30s in various surveys.

But hey, the leftist press will do anything to keep the flailing Democrat Party afloat. It's pretty pathetic.

Secret Transcripts Shed Light on J. Robert Oppenheimer's Communist Connections

At the New York Times, "Transcripts Kept Secret for 60 Years Bolster Defense of Oppenheimer’s Loyalty."

And after you finish that, see John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Spy? No. But a Communist Once? Yes."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Grim," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

My Bad! By Bad! Steve M. at No More Mister Is Not Bisexual — NTTAWWT!!

Well, I've got Steve M. trolling my comments section, telling me how "stupid" I am, for mistaking him with "Steven D" at Booman Tribune.

My bad! My bad! I wouldn't want to make stupid, dumb mistakes with the alphabet or anything, like this one, "Hey, 'No More Mister', It's 'Donald T. Sterling' Who Owns the #Clippers, LOL!"

So, to be absolutely clear (and he really wanted me to be absolutely clear, because, ahem, well tolerance), Steve M. is not bisexual, or homosexual, from what I gather --- not that there's anything wrong with that!!